Does anyone have any old song lyrics or poems from early 1900's or 1800's, with adult themes? I'm looking for material that was popular in the general public through Vaudeville & Burlesque. Thanks

What an intreguing question. May I ask why you are looking for this? A school project, perhaps? I did a little research (very little) and didn't really come up with any songs or poems-but then again, I didn't look too deeply. I did however, realized that the books of that time period had a lot of adult themes to them. (Lady Chatterly's Lover-which was banned for a while,  comes to mind but this may be a bit later than the period you want).




Cat

Does anyone have any old song lyrics or poems from early 1900's or 1800's, with adult themes? I'm looking for material that was popular in the general public through Vaudeville & Burlesque. Thanks



Robert Burns and Lord Byron were considered adult, but of course what was thought of as adult then
may seem a bit tame now

Don't really have a goal in mind, what I'm going to do with any info, at this time. I had an uncle that used to sing some pieces he remembered, from going to shows. Most would prob. be mainstream now, most were pretty humorous. One was about hugging a fat woman and chalking her to measure the distance around." As I  was hugging and chalking and hugging and chalking I met a guy coming round the other side and he was hugging and chalking, too." This is the kind of thing I was hoping to find. I was told there may even be wax recordings that were made of some acts, but so far I've never heard any. Thanks for any input, as I really don't know how to pursue this.W

Don't really have a goal in mind, what I'm going to do with any info, at this time. I had an uncle that used to sing some pieces he remembered, from going to shows. Most would prob. be mainstream now, most were pretty humorous. One was about hugging a fat woman and chalking her to measure the distance around." As I  was hugging and chalking and hugging and chalking I met a guy coming round the other side and he was hugging and chalking, too." This is the kind of thing I was hoping to find. I was told there may even be wax recordings that were made of some acts, but so far I've never heard any. Thanks for any input, as I really don't know how to pursue this.W


Sounds like something out of Vaudeville.  That would be the place to look

Don't really have a goal in mind, what I'm going to do with any info, at this time. I had an uncle that used to sing some pieces he remembered, from going to shows. Most would prob. be mainstream now, most were pretty humorous. One was about hugging a fat woman and chalking her to measure the distance around." As I  was hugging and chalking and hugging and chalking I met a guy coming round the other side and he was hugging and chalking, too." This is the kind of thing I was hoping to find. I was told there may even be wax recordings that were made of some acts, but so far I've never heard any. Thanks for any input, as I really don't know how to pursue this.W



That's sounds so familar. I think I have heard that song before.


Oh, I thought of another song but it was popular in WWII so again, I don't know if this is a later period than what you want. It is called "Roll me over in the clover." You can google it. I don't want to put the words up because we do have a bunch of kids on this board.




Cat

Thanks for the input, I'll keep hunting, and checking back. I'm sure someone somewhere can point me in the right direction. W

Check out some of the material by Sophie Tucker ... she could get a little risque!!

Check out some of the material by Sophie Tucker ... she could get a little risque!!



So was Mae West.




Cat

If you are still searching...Dr. Demento may have a huge collection!
Not for sale of course, I remember old Benny Bell(Shaving Cream) song and he did a song called 'My Fanny'-  Everybody wants to touch my Fanny, Everybody wants to hold my Fanny, Everybody wants to kiss my Fanny..but she belongs to me! ;D

Thanks, I didn't even think of him. I know some of the songs I'm looking for were around for a long time. It might be easier to find remakes instead of originals. I did find one on a Groucho Marx site, Lydia the Tattooed Lady. W

As Saver stated, Dr. Demento has a great selection. Here is a link to his playlists  http://mypage.iu.edu/~jbmorris/playlists.html  You can use this or if you are stuck, you may want to contact him/his show with questions. I did that one time looking for a specific song. I did recieve an answer back. That are great people there. I do remember hearing a show of his (I'm not too sure when-I think early 90s) where he played a lot of songs that came out around the turn of the century.


BTW, I do love the song Lydia the Tattooed Lady-we have a couple of people in my family by that name and whenever I hear the name, that song goes through my head.  ;)




Cat

Thanks guys I just came off the Dr's. site and the playlists. I left a couple of E-mails to see if they might have any ideas. I did print out Jud Strunk's The Biggest Parakeets In Town from there. It's a lot newer (1975) then what I'm hunting, but I was just thinking about it a couple days ago, and didn't remember it all. W

Please keep us inform on how the search is going. I, for one, am VERY interested. BTW, why don't you join the board.  ;)





Cat

Hi, again. I'm still hunting. Got several Benny Bell downloads today from RFL.org. So far it seems the only way I'm finding anything is by knowing the author or artist. Even NYC library music division didn't get me too far. Anyone that can think of any names, please post them and I'll try and run them down. Thanks. W

I got a gal who's mighty sweet
Big blue eyes and tiny feet
Her name is Rosabelle Magee
And she tips the scales at three-oh-three

Oh, gee, but ain't it grand to have a gal so big and fat
That when you go to hug her, you don't know where you're at
You have to take a piece of chalk in your hand
And hug a ways and chalk a mark to see where you began

One day I was a-huggin' and a-chalkin' and a-chalkin' and a-huggin' away
When I met another fella with some chalk in his hand
A-comin' around the other way over the mountain
A-comin' around the other way

Hoagy Carmichael

Does anyone have any old song lyrics or poems from early 1900's or 1800's, with adult themes? I'm looking for material that was popular in the general public through Vaudeville & Burlesque. Thanks


The Jack Horntip Archive has lots of bawdy tunes, but more importantly, it's got documentation on the history of most of the songs.  Mostly WW2-era and early blues, but there's some lovely stuff from the 1920s in there.  Some of the songs themselves date back to the 17th century.

One of the joys of the site is clicking on something and recognizing the bowdlerized version of it your parents taught you as a child. I knew that one's ears, for example, were not the original body parts that hung low, wobbled to or fro, or were the subject of macrame projects.  What I didn't know was that there were three other verses and a chorus, none of which ever made it to my playgrounds.

Speaking of old adult entertainment, How do you think comedian/actress Mae West would've survived in 2020? I was just taking a glimpse of her vintage films from back in the days yesterday and I was wondering how she as a risque adult entertainer would survive in this generation? Maybe we can think of others from back then that might or might have not survived in today's era compared to back then.

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2019/07/belle_nineties_1934_botnt-fsct005-h_2019.jpg

Speaking of old adult entertainment, How do you think comedian/actress Mae West would've survived in 2020? I was just taking a glimpse of her vintage films from back in the days yesterday and I was wondering how she as a risque adult entertainer would survive in this generation? Maybe we can think of others from back then that might or might have not survived in today's era compared to back then.

https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/landscape_928x523/2019/07/belle_nineties_1934_botnt-fsct005-h_2019.jpg
...and she once quipped  "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."

...and she once quipped  "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."


So maybe I can ask you, how would she fit in 2020? Maybe we can think of others?

So maybe I can ask you, how would she fit in 2020? Maybe we can think of others?
Innuendo never ages!