“One of the sexiest songs”: The anthem John Waters considered perfect
If you ever hear film director John Waters attest to something being sexy, you might want to hold on for a second before you go looking for some quick titillation. Ask yourself – what is it that you find sexy – and then bear that in mind compared to Waters’ often grotesque and subversive themes within his films. If you’re undeterred by literal shit-eating and zoophilia, for example, then maybe go ahead and listen without restraint, but if you’re feeling even the slightest bit of unease, then approach with caution.
Waters’ films are praised and reviled in equal measure, they’re hilarious yet heinous, and unarguably, they’re one-of-a-kind. Very few other directors have shared the same vision for making transgressive cinema, and despite causing moral panic with several of his early works and petitions forming for his films to be banned (which some were), he’d go on to achieve cult status and eventually mainstream success with his musical, Hairspray.
Granted, Hairspray is a much more conventional film than his early work, but you only need to take one look at Pink Flamingos, establish that the entire premise of the film revolves around filthiness, and decide from there that you can’t trust Waters’ opinion on what constitutes as sexy by his standards. The rest of his ‘Trash Trilogy’, with Female Trouble and Desperate Living, is equally as depraved with its depictions of taboo subjects, but this was always Waters’ style.
As for his music taste, it’s actually relatively tame for someone with such a penchant for shock value. Yes, he’s a big fan of the snottiness and brash nature of punk rock, putting on an annual festival called Burger Boogaloo in celebration of the genre, but he’s also a fan of Little Richard, going as far as copying his famous pencil moustache and presenting himself equally as flamboyantly.
When he was asked to pick his favourite songs of all time as part of KCRW’s Guest DJ Project, he named five songs which covered soul, rock and roll, unusual singing voices and sexual awakenings for Waters. Despite saying that he was sexually attracted to the croaky voice of Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry, it was another rare gem that he thought was perhaps the sexiest song of all time.
His third selection was the track, ‘I’m Blue’ by the Ikettes. “I mean I love Ike & Tina Turner,” Waters explained, “but The Ikettes were their backup group and I think this was maybe their only one. But it was a great song. I used it in my original Hairspray movie, it’s a song you did the Dirty Boogie to, it’s the song that all the white kids listened to on Black radio.”
But why did he think it was a sexy song? “It was kind of the first dirty dancing song, and I remember everyone screaming ‘gong gu-gu-gong gong’, which are really peculiar lyrics when you think about it. And now there are so many different versions of this song. When I hosted that punk rock festival, this Asian women group [The 5.6.7.8’s], the one that was in Quentin Tarantino’s movie [Kill Bill Vol.1], they sang it. It’s a perfect song for everybody. It’s one of the sexiest songs to dirty dance to, ever.”
It’s got the same 12-bar blues riff that many songs of the era had about it, but there is also a certain swagger about it that gives off an air of sexiness. In all fairness to John Waters, he could have picked something repulsive, but his selection in this instance is far from a strange choice and fits the bill wonderfully.
