The bawdy song is an integral part of folk and blues. It is necessary because it is one extreme and opposite the squeaky clean, virtuous song that helps us to locate the middle ground between them.

In 1992, Dorian Records issued a CD entitled "The Art of the Bawdy song" featuring English folksongs of the 16th and 17th centuries. The liner notes explain that sex and scatology figured strongly in these songs because sex is...well...sex. And songs about farting and defecating were common because there were no toilets back then and people threw their business out the window. Frequently a passerby would be smeared. Aristocrats were obliged to walk about with scented hankies pressed to their noses to mask the otherwise intolerable odor. It's kind of a taboo thing these days because we sort of hide it. There was no hiding it back then and so it was much more likely to being enshrined in song.

The bawdy song comes about as a way of turning misery and degradation into humor, of making one's burden's easier to bear. But it meant the conditions in which one lived must have been horrifically bad. Sometimes the upper crust were lampooned in these songs as a means empowerment--an utterly impotent and ineffectual empowerment to be sure but anything helped.

An example comes from Daniel P. Mannix's excellent book "The Hellfire Club". This was 18th century England:

"Only a few of the main thoroughfares of London were paved and then the paving usually consisted of rocks dumped over the mud and filth of the streets. The middle of a street was generally pitted by holes full of water and garbage. Cart wheels and horses' hoofs flung this mire over pedestrians, so people of any standing always traveled by enclosed sedan chair. Even the windows of the chairs had to be kept constantly closed or the muck was thrown in on the passengers. The sides of the houses were plastered with the filth. On either side of a street ran a ditch called 'the kennel' which served as gutters. As there were no water-closets or any kind of plumbing, the chamber pots and other refuse were emptied into these kennels. In the commoner districts, the pots were simply emptied out the windows with a cry of 'Stand clear!' Every pedestrian tried to keep close to the sides of the houses as some protection against the filth being thrown over him, and savage fights frequently took place over who would 'take the wall.' In some of the better areas, steppingstones were laid across the street so people could cross without wading through the morass. In most districts there were no street lamps but you could hire linkboys who ran ahead with lighted torches. These boys were frequently in the pay of thieves and after leading their employer into a trap would plunge their torches into the mud and then run, leaving the terrified traveler to be murdered, raped, or robbed."

With that, lets look at some of the songs that came out of this period:

MY LADY'S COACHMAN JOHN

My lady's coachman John, be'ng married to her Maid,
her ladyship did hear on't and to him thus she said,
"I never had a wench so handsome in my life,
prithee therefore tell me how got you such a wife."
John star'd her in the face, and Answer'd very Blunt
"e'en as my Lord got you." "How's that?" "Why by the cunt."

AS ROGER LAST NIGHT

As Roger last Night to Jenny lay close,
he pulled out his Budget [penis] and gave her a dose,
the tickling no sooner kind Jenny did find,
but with laughing she Purg'd both before and behind,
Pox take it quoth Roger, he must himself be beside
that give Pills against Wind and 'gainst Tide.

The Japanese have a word for the type of episode experienced by poor Jenny in the above song: omorashi. Perhaps the Japanese understand the experience a bit more and are less ashamed of it and less likely to make it taboo.

So we would expect that in America, the bawdy song must have abounded in the days of Jim Crow among blacks. And this is indeed the case. I searched for the filthiest blues I could find and located Lucille Bogan's "Shave 'Em Dry". This was recorded in 1935 and features Walter Roland and Ms. Bogan's piano man. These lyrics are utterly filthy and extremely graphic and if such language offends you, too bad since you've already read this far. I took the lyrics straight from the recording.

SHAVE 'EM DRY

I got nipples on my titties
Big as the end o' my thumb
I got somethin between my legs'll
Make a dead man come

Oh, daddy, baby, won't you shave 'em dry?
I want you to grind me, baby, grind me til I cry

Well, I fucked all night
And all night before, baby
And I feel just like I want to fuck some more

Oh, great god, daddy, dry me, shave me dry
And when you hear me holler, baby,
I want you to shave 'em dry

I got nipples on my titties
Big as the end o' my thumb
Daddy, you say that's the kinda woman you want
And you can make 'em come

Oh, daddy, shave me dry
And I'll give you somethin baby
Swear it'll make you cry

I'm gonna turn back my mattress
And let you oil my springs
I want you to grind me, daddy
Til the bells do ring

Oh, daddy, I want you to shave 'em dry
Oh, great god, daddy, you can shave 'em, baby,
Won't you try?

Now fuckin was the thing that will take me to heaven
I'll be fuckin in the studio til the clock strikes eleven

Oh, daddy, daddy, shave 'em dry
I'll fuck you, baby, honey, I'll make you cry

Now your nut hangs down like a damn bell clapper
And your dick stands up like a steeple
Your goddamn asshole stands open like a church door
And the crabs walks in like people

(Uncontrollable laughter)
Woo! Baby, won't you shave 'em dry?

A big sow gets fat from eatin corn
And a pig gets fat from suckin
You see this whore fat like I am
Great god, I got fat from fuckin

Woo, shave 'em dry!

My back is made of whale bone
And my cock is made of brass
And my fuckin is made for workin me two dollars
Baby go around and kiss my ass

Woo, daddy, shave 'em dry!

This song can be obtained from a CD called "Street Walkin' Blues" put out on the Jass label (J-CD-626) who market some excellent stuff.

So the next time you're felling miserable, don't mope. Get bawdy!