There's also a 1920s Blues recording by 'Dentist' Johnson, with Hattie McDaniel (yup, THAT Hattie McDaniel), called 'Dentist Chair Blues' which features such classic and not-so-subtle lyrics as 'dentist, fill my cavity' 'fill my cavity good, but don't make it hurt', etc. Michael Rogin uses this song as one of his epigrams to his Blackface/White Noise book (which is where I first read it, although a former colleague of mine eventually found me a copy of a scratchy 78 recording!). Kind of gives new sub-text to 'Mammy's' line about "it just ain't fittin'" Dr. Mikel J. Koven Dept of Theatre, Film and TV University of Wales, Aberystwyth (01970) 621605 [log in to unmask] http://users.aber.ac.uk/mik http://users.aber.ac.uk/mikstaff -----Original Message----- From: Film and TV Studies Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lang Thompson Sent: 03 March 2004 03:29 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: All That Jazz (Bob Fosse) >tomorrow's lecture focusses on representations of sex. This morning I was >trying to work out precisely *when* metaphor/slang became dispensable in >lyrics about sex. I'm not talking about the 'heavy breathing' stuff by Jane At least since sometime in the late 19th century (probably earlier if things like the Carmina Burana--the original Goliards not necessarily Orff--are any indication). Jelly Roll Morton's "The Murder Ballad" and others recorded in the late 30s for the Library of Congress are as completely explicit as any rap today and much more than the Kate Bush tracks (examples at http://www.doctorjazz.freeserve.co.uk/locspeech3.html). Much of this was composed decades earlier but that's hardly the only example (there are others by the Drifters, Harmonica Frank Floyd, Alberta Hunter and more) but for obvious reasons these types of songs weren't documented very well. Even if you're talking about music for a mass audience instead of the local roadhouse it's still not that clear. Songs that today might seem draped in metaphor could to contemporary audiences seem very blunt. Lang ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.ScreenSite.org