For our latest installment of the Imaginary Genres video series, we’re taking on an especially rich topic: sexually-charged songs about cars. Please enjoy it, as this may be the last time I take one of these videos seriously and put in actual research (which reminds me, thanks to “Sex and the Automobile: From Rumble Seats to Rockin’ Vans” by David L. Lewis for the historical background).
As usual, we came up with more songs than we had a chance to discuss in the video proper, so check below the jump for extended playlists on both Spotify and TIDAL, featuring additional tracks by Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Mtume, Mystikal, and Big K.R.I.T. Drive safe!
Imaginary Genres is a video series by Dystopian Dance Party, where we coin new genres to shed light on shared traits and common themes in music, film, and other forms of media.
This month, we’re exploring the history of what we like to call “Auto-Erotica”: that is, sexually-charged songs about cars.
Sex and cars have been linked in American culture virtually since the invention of the automobile. Cars allowed early 20th century couples to expand their courtship rituals beyond the prying eyes of chaperones–and, with the later invention of enclosed models, even provided a somewhat private space for sexual activity. This connection of cars with romance was not missed by the songwriters on Tin Pan Alley, who quickly began to commemorate the new trend with mildly racy tunes like 1905’s “In My Merry Oldsmobile.”
As the auto industry continued to evolve over the first half of the century, motor vehicles themselves began to take on sexual characteristics, with powerful, phallic “muscle cars” and curvaceous headlamps evocative of breasts. By the 1965 release of “Mustang Sally” by Sir Mack Rice, the comparison of a fast car with a fast woman wasn’t all that much of a conceptual leap.
“Mustang Sally” became a hit for Wilson Pickett in 1966, spawning a whole new tradition of songs blurring the lines between women and cars. These days, Prince‘s “Little Red Corvette” is probably the most infamous example–though, as usual with the little guy, we can’t play it on YouTube without getting in trouble. So instead, let’s highlight one of the most prolific writers of sexy car songs: Marc Bolan of glam rock pioneers T. Rex. Bolan used sexualized car metaphors in a number of T. Rex songs, including their sole U.S. hit, 1971’s “Bang a Gong (Get It On).”
By the mid-’70s, Auto-Erotica was such a common strain in popular music that it was a ripe subject for parody: like “I’m in Love with My Car,” a 1975 album cut by another English glam act, Queen.
Over the following decades, cars remained a staple in the pop songwriter’s sexual metaphor toolbox. The 1980s–arguably the peak of Auto-Erotica–saw Tawny Kitaen cavorting on David Coverdale‘s Jaguar XJ, and Grace Jones inviting us to “Pull Up to the Bumper.”
But there really isn’t any other way to end this overview than with one man: Robert Sylvester Kelly, undisputed master of the extended sexual analogy. R. Kelly has at least two sexy car songs I can think of just off the top of my head, and probably a few more I’m not remembering. So here’s one of them, 1995’s “You Remind Me of Something.”
Really, there are so many examples of Auto-Erotica out there, this video could easily go on for hours–and if you visit dystopiandanceparty.com, you can hear a few more selections on our extended playlists for Spotify and TIDAL. I don’t know exactly what it is about cars that makes people want to fuck, but I do know one thing: there sure aren’t any sexy bicycle songs. For Dystopian Dance Party’s Imaginary Genres, this has been Zach Hoskins.
Credits:
Audio: “One Track Lover” by Matt Berry (from Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, 2004)
Video: Footage from Cool Hand Luke
(Stuart Rosenberg, 1967)
Video: Footage from “Night Moves” (Bob Seger, 1994)
Video: 1920s Commercial for Trojan Motor Car
Photo: Sheet Music for “In My Merry Oldsmobile,” 1905 (stolen from Wikimedia Commons)
Audio/Video: “In My Merry Oldsmobile” (Fleischer Studios, 1932; music by Billy Murray)
Video: Footage from “Sailing Along” (Plymouth Division, Chrysler Corporation, 1937)
Photo: The 1953 Lancia Aurelia PF200C Spider (stolen from Car_Revs_Daily)
Photo: The 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham (stolen from pinehurst19475‘s Flickr)
Photo: Sir Mack Rice’s “Mustang Sally” 45 (© Blue Rock Records)
Video: Footage from 1965 Ford Mustang Promo
Audio: “Mustang Sally” (Sir Mack Rice, 1965)
Video: 1966 Ford Mustang Commercial
Photo: Wilson Pickett‘s “Mustang Sally” 45 (© Atlantic Records)
Video: Farrah Fawcett Sells the Mercury Cougar, 1975
Video: Footage from “Little Red Corvette” (Prince, 1982)
Video: Footage from Born to Boogie
(Ringo Starr, 1972)
Video/Audio: T. Rex Performs “Get It On,” 1971
Video/Audio: “I’m in Love with My Car” (Queen, 1975)
Video: Footage from “Here I Go Again” (Whitesnake, 1987)
Video/Audio: “Pull Up to the Bumper” (Grace Jones, 1981)
Video/Audio: “You Remind Me of Something” (R. Kelly, 1995)