When We Make Love: The Soundtracks To Our Sex

Iggy Pop: The Godfather of Abstinence

I have to confess, after reading Gawker’s post “On Choosing Sex Music,” I was reminded of a regular column that was under consideration at one point here on Glam-Racket.

The article considers the critical admiration of Rhye, a band that I am not familiar with but would wholeheartedly consider as the common thread among these critics is that this is great lovemakin’ music.

A quick side note, the article identifies a dozen songs that you’re not supposed to play during sex, of which I’m guilty of at least one Marvin Gaye song.

Do Not Play These Songs During Sex:
Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up"
George Michael's "I Want Your Sex"
Berlin's "Sex (I'm A...)"
Salt-N-Pepa's "Let's Talk About Sex"
Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy"
Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing"
Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love To You"
Prince's "Do Me, Baby"
Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On"
Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love"
Nine Inch Nails' "Closer"
N.W.A.'s "Fuck the Police"

The column that I was considering was an actual review of an album that was played during lovemaking. I even went as far as to ask my wife if something like that would make her feel uncomfortable, but almost immediately, I was given the green light.

Yet something stopped me from actually following through, namely because the idea was really stupid and I can’t imagine anyone giving a shit about the music that my wife and I listen to while we get behind closed doors.

The entire premise changed too many times to come to fruition, anyway. One draft would focus more on the wife’s perception of the music (which sometimes was non-existent) while another would end up as nothing more than a regular review of the record.

The most disturbing drafts matched the music with the actual act itself, and the results were just as creepy as you can imagine. Then there was the review of the spontaneous playlist that I prepared immediately before, but any such review would have to begin with the admission that the playlist began with the god-awful Berlin song “When We Make Love” off 1984’s Love Life.

Since we’re being honest, here are some notes from the lost drafts of this canceled column.

Channel Orange was considered “weird” by the Mrs. And obviously, that’s not a good thing.

Richard Hawley was too distracting.

Avalon is only the tip of the iceberg. For Your Pleasure is a close second and Flesh + Blood sometimes ranks as good as the last Roxy Music effort.

You can never go wrong with Pantha Du Prince, King Tubby, or any mix by Pete Tong.

Teddy Pendergrass should not be used unless you intend on working through at least one compilation side. There should never be any leftovers with Teddy.

Same thing goes for Barry White.

Marvin Gaye only in moderation.

Prince beyond 1999 is not recommended and the first two are essential.

I once had to turn off an Earth Wind & Fire record. It wasn’t working for me.

As exciting as learning more about the sex life of my wife and I must seem, the reality is that we’re usually to lazy to think beyond the 80’s Channel in our DirecTV music line-up. We’ve got that shit hot keyed, yo, and we play Russian Roulette with certain songs. If Kenny Loggins’ “I’m Free” comes on during the sweet love down by the fire, it means that we contract Chlamydia.

More than anything, the reason why I could not get behind the idea of a regular column like that is because it’s really none of your business. It’s fun to talk about once in a while and it’s a topic that I’m obviously not afraid of, but to bullet point the periods of our sexual activity is something I don’t want to have a digital record of.

I want to have an emotional record of those events, and as this blog attempts to remind everyone: the records themselves are the perfect compliment to any emotional event that life provides.

25 Years After The Death Of Marvin Gaye

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s murder. His Dad shot him. Remember? I remember there was a big deal when "Sexual Healing" was released. The Big Chill was still vivid in my mind…not an easy thing to remove as Baby Boomers like my parents played the piss out of that soundtrack…and Marvin Gaye was firmly attached to that record. Not in a good way, either.
Admittedly, “Sexual Healing” was pretty badassed, but I never fully appreciated Marvin until I began college and got to listen to a few of his records at the public radio station. I had a lot of time on my hands while running satellite programming on the weekends. A lot of it was spent listening to all those records I should have known about, through the cue speaker in the studio consol.
Suddenly, I understood how fucking up that shooting April 1st, 1984 was.
Years later, I’m looking for spare reel-to-reel tape for a stupid guitar overdub. I find an old reel at the radio station I’m working at and hope there’s enough oxide on it to capture anything. There is, but there’s an anomaly when I begin to play back the tape. On it, I hear the original radio report from 4/1/84-maybe the following day-announcing the death of Marvin Gaye. It goes into detail about the shooting, identifying the father as the man who pulled the trigger, and it leaves a very ominous tone when the report ends. It serves no place in what I’ve just recorded, but I leave the report on the reel anyway. On the final edit of the song, it begins with the report of Gaye’s death, immediately goes into guitar feedback, a steady bass drum beat, and then it’s followed by my stupid little song.
It was about cocaine.
Gaye did a bunch of cocaine in his lifetime.
Shit.
I may have been on to something after all.
Anyways. What’s Goin’ On? is the shit. Let’s Get It On is the shit. Go buy them. I remember once trying to impress this guy I worked with-a fairly substantial black man with a nice music background-by bragging that I had made love to my girlfriend while listening to What’s Goin’ On?
“You couldn’t find anything better?” he said.
“It’s Marvin!” I emphatically replied.
“I know” he said, “but when I think about making love to a woman, an album about saving the planet ain’t the first thing that comes to mind!”