5 Facts about 5 Songs about Prostitutes, Part 1 . . .
Some of these I never realised were about this.
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CALL ME
Artist:
Blondie
Year:
1980
Link:
Lyrics:
[Verse 1]
Colour me your colour, baby
Colour me your car
Colour me your colour, darling
I know who you are
Come up off your colour chart
I know where you are coming from
[Chorus]
Call me (Call me) on the line
Call me, call me any, anytime
Call me (Call me) I'll arrive
You can call me any day or night
Call me
[Verse 2]
Cover me with kisses, baby
Cover me with love
Roll me in designer sheets
I'll never get enough
Emotions come, I don't know why
Cover up love's alibi
[Chorus]
Call me (Call me) on the line
Call me, call me any, anytime
Call me (Call me) I'll arrive
When you are ready we can share the wine
Call me
[Bridge]
Oooh, he speaks the languages of love
Oooh, amore, chiamami, chiamami
Oooh, appelle-moi mon cheri, appelle-moi
Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, any way
Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, any day, any way
[Instrumental Bridge]
[Verse 3]
Take me out and show me off
And put me on the scene
Dress me in the fashions
Of the 1980's
You're a man, no in-between
You know what your words can mean
[Chorus]
Call me (Call me) on the line
Call me, call me any day or night
Call me (Call me) I'll arrive
Call me, call me into overtime
Call me
[Instrumental Bridge]
[Chorus]
Call me (Call me) my love
Call me, call me any, anytime
Call me (Call me) for a ride
Call me, call me for some overtime
Call me (Call me) my love
Call me, call me in a sweet design
Call me (Call me), call me for your lover's lover's alibi
Call me (Call me) on the line
Call me, call me any, anytime
[Breakdown]
Call me, ah-ha, call me, ah-ha-ha
Call me, ah-ha-ha, call me any day or night
Call me, ooh-ooh-ah-ha-ha, ooh-ooh-ha-ha-ha
Call me, ah-ah-ooh
Call me, my, my sleek designs
Call me for a ride, call me inside
Call me, all night, all day, ah-ha
Call me
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ah-ah-ah
[Guitar Solo]
[Outro]
Call me in my life
Call me, call me any, any time
Call me, I'll arrive
Call me, call me for some overtime
Call me in my life
Call me, call me and my sleek designs
Call me, call me for your lover's lover's alibi
Call me in my life
Call me, call me any, any time
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Call me, oh-oh, call me
Call me in my life
Call me, call me any, any time
Facts:
1.
"Call Me" is a song by the American new wave band Blondie and the theme to the 1980 film American Gigolo. Produced and composed by Italian musician Giorgio Moroder, with lyrics by Blondie singer Debbie Harry, the song appeared in the film and was released in the United States in early 1980 as a single. "Call Me" was No. 1 for six consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it became the band's biggest single and second No. 1. It also hit No. 1 in the UK.
2.
The song is about a prostitute and plays in a scene in American Gigolo where the lead character is "working."
3.
Giorgio Moroder told Billboard magazine that his difficult experience of recording this song with Blondie taught him not to work with rock bands. "There were always fights," he recalled. "I was supposed to do an album with them after that. We went to the studio, and the guitarist was fighting with the keyboard player. I called their manager and quit."
4.
Moroder's had originally wanted Stevie Nicks to provide vocals on the track but the Fleetwood Mac vocalist declined the offer.
5.
Debbie Harry performed this song with The Muppet Band in 2010 – click on the following link:
By the way, Blondie was the band’s name, not Debbie Harry’s stage name. She was born on July 1, 1945 and is now aged 76. Makes you feel old, doesn’t it.
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ISLAND GIRL
Artist:
Elton John
Year:
1975
Link:
Lyrics:
I see your teeth flash, Jamaican honey so sweet
Down where Lexington cross 47th Street
Oh she's a big girl, she's standing six-foot three
Turning tricks for the dudes in the big city
Island girl
What you wanting with the white man's world?
Island girl
Black boy want you in his island world
He want to take you from the racket boss
He want to save you, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man's world
Well she's black as coal, but she burn like a fire
And she wrap herself around you like a well-worn tire
You feel her nail scratch your back just like a rake, oh oh
He one more gone, he one more John who make the mistake
Island girl
What you wanting with the white man's world?
Island girl
Black boy want you in his island world
He want to take you from the racket boss
He want to save you, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man's world
Island girl
What you wanting with the white man's world?
Island girl
Black boy want you in his island world
He want to take you from the racket boss
He want to save you, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man's
Tell me what you wanting with the white man's
Tell me what you wanting with the white man's
Facts:
1.
"Island Girl" is a song performed by Elton John that went to number one for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and number 14 in the UK in 1975. The song was written by John and his songwriting collaborator Bernie Taupin.
2.
The song is about a Jamaican prostitute in New York City. The story is vague, but in the chorus, Elton asks, "What you wanting with the white man's world?" and tells her, "Black boy want you in his island world." Seems she is trapped there, unable to leave with the man who wants to take her home. It's a case of Elton John taking the song in a musical direction that belies the lyric delivered to him by Bernie Taupin.
3.
Elton plays lots of crowd-pleasing hits at his concerts, but this one rarely made his setlist. The last time he performed it was 1990.
4.
The single's B-side was "Sugar on the Floor", which was written by Kiki Dee, who would go on to duet with John on a number of occasions, most notably on their chart-topping 1976 single, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". She is also one of the backup singers in Island Girl.
5.
From:
“Island Girl” is a song about a sex worker, a tall Jamaican woman who works a streetcorner near Times Square. Elton’s narrator is a john who wants to rescue her from her profession and maybe take her back to her homeland. She isn’t interested. Also: Elton’s narrator is presumably black? The chorus, in any case, is this: “Island girl, what you wanting with your white man’s world? / Island girl, black boy want you in his island world.”. . . . even by the standards of its day, this is some nasty, simplistic, absurd shit. It’s bad writing, too; the “well-worn tire” bit reminds me of Steve Carrell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, claiming that a boob feels “like a bag of sand.” (Elton John did not write those lyrics. Bernie Taupin did, and Bernie Taupin has reportedly had sex with many women. How on Earth did he end up with “well-worn tire”?). . . . both the island girl and the narrator guy end up coming off as one-dimensional nobodies. The song expresses nothing. It has no compelling reason to exist.That wouldn’t matter too much if “Island Girl” had anything going on musically. It doesn’t. “Island Girl,” with its steel drums and its chunky beat, sounds a bit like a reggae song performed by someone who had never heard reggae. There’s a great story about the Talking Heads’ “The Overload”: The band wrote the song after reading an article about Joy Division. They’d never actually heard Joy Division; instead, they put the song together after imagining how Joy Division might sound. “Island Girl” is like that — it’s like Elton John tried to write a Bob Marley song after only having seen a picture of Bob Marley.“Island Girl” could probably be worse than it is. Elton John songs, even at their worst, have a certain glammy drive to them, a cheesed-out cinematic grandeur. Even with its painful yelps, its ungainly rhythms, and its distracting quasi-soca flourishes, “Island Girl” has that. But that’s not enough — especially when you’re dealing with those lyrics. So maybe it’s best to ignore “Island Girl” as a song and to simply look at it as evidence of the hot streak that Elton John was on in 1975. Even on the worst kind of autopilot, Elton John could still will a deeply underwhelming single to #1. That’s power.
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