"Dogface, Jet Pilot of Jive, Fatman Smith, Rockin' Lucky ..."

 

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Above all other subjects there is in blues a preponderance of lyrics about sexual love, or merely sex. A complex language of metaphors, often domestic or culinary, camouflaged a multitude of sexual references. ‘I want my biscuits in the daytime and my jelly at night,' declares one singer. 'My stove's in good condition, this is the stove to brown your bread,' his woman replies. A swaggering list of the singer's physical attributes was common, with women no less than with men. 'I'm a big fat woman with meat shakin' on the bone, and every time I shake it a skinny woman leaves her home.' Sexual virtuosity is the subject of scores of blues and the singer played a game with the censor when he sang The Dirty Dozen or Shave 'Em Dry.