Professor Mikey here with an innocent but slightly dirty episode of Old School.
I understand YouTubers expect music instantly. If you are new to Old School, realize we are able to play songs of vintage cool in their entirety because Professor Mikey checked the educational box. SO I tell quick but educational stories. Today, the subject is a bit off color, and it has nothing to do with techni-covered vinyl.
The Fifties were more than I Love Lucy, Ivory Snow, and the New York Yankees. They were Davy Crockett, ‘55 Chevies, and Howard Johnson’s.
As popular culture bounced in atom age patterns, a postwar world absorbed itself in peace and creativity. A global Greatest Generation had sacrificed too much in history’s worst war. But to the victors belonged the spoils: affordable housing, color television, and rock and roll.
Until he went to the Army in 1958, Elvis ruled the decade, which angered certain people. This “white man who could sing like a black man” was not a winning formula to many, so they tried to take down Presley in any way they could. One way was to go after the music itself, and all that it represented.
To many, this was brain rotting filth. Something to be hauled out in the trash alongside bikini bathing suits and gruesome and violent comic books. This music had a beat that was suggestive and sexual, wild and rowdy. In one famous media move, the performance of the top cat from Tupelo could only be seen from the waist up. Those wiggling hips violated community standards.
Bawdy songs were as old as pianos. They offered adult humor with sophomoric punchlines.
Censors blocked what they could, but an occasional song containing blue material could liven up a club performance, or become the instant hit of a record party.
Wink wink nudge nudge didn’t apply to everything, but when radio stations banned certain releases from their Top 40 lists the station itself became more famous for what it didn’t play than for what made it to the airwaves.
On this show we will delve into some of those questionable songs with naughty lyrics and bad intent. Rock and roll was being born, and it would be an inaccurate deception to pretend there wasn’t a lot of sex going on between the sheets of music.
As time passed, our popular music became more civilized. Bad language was welcomed into the art form, and the only questions about content was how much it might sell. What we are going to hear are some downright silly examples of the tunes that could get you banned in Boston or f****d in Florida.
Fair warning. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, coming right up. This is Professor Mikey’s Old School, Episode 54 RAUNCH AND ROLL: 50s Naughty Bop.
One Night of Sin ELVIS PRESLEY
Let Me Bang Your Box THE TOPPERS
60 Minute Man THE DOMINOES
Take Out Your False Teeth Daddy MARGIE DAY
A Rocket in My Pocket JIMMY LLOYD
Get Hot or Go Home JOHN KIRBY
Bang Bang JANIS MARTIN
The Girl Can’t Help It LITTLE RICHARD
Jail Bait ANDRE WILLIAMS
It’s Ain’t the Meat, It’s the Motion THE SWALLOWS
Short Shorts THE ROYAL TEENS
Ain’t I’m a Dog? RONNIE SELF
Hot Dog CORKY JONES (BUCK OWENS)
Keep On Churning WYNONIE HARRIS
My Man Stands Out JULIA LEE AND HER BOYFRIENDS
Big 10-Inch BULLMOOSE
Great Balls of Fire JERRY LEE LEWIS
As the years went rocking by, songs with secret sex references faded from earshot. The architects of rock and roll influenced the next wave, paving the way for the Beatles to launch their career with “Please, Please Me” and the Stones to sweeten the charts with Brown Sugar. In our progressive times, explicit language is up to the artist, as well as the retailer and the FCC.
Professor Mikey’s Old School is produced for educational purposes, and expects this episode to be available in public libraries for years to come.
Any music you may have heard in this session resides within the public domain or is used within the guidelines of fair use provided for in Section 107 of the copyright act of 1976. Podcast carriers compensate artists directly, but if you the artist feel your work has been improperly used or misrepresented, please contact our producers at professormikey.substack.com.
You can hear Professor Mikey’s Old School wherever you get your podcasts, and many episodes are archived on YouTube where a subscription would always be appreciated. This has been Episode 54 of Old School, “Raunch and Roll: 50s Naughty Bop.” and we leave you with the late Jerry Lee Lewis, and a famous song all about personal confidence.
Professor Mikey, we’ll catch you next time.
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