The L Word and the F Bomb
This election stands at a crossroads that is both cultural and political.
Teenage rebellion is what it is and probably always has been. I may be ancient now, but my coming of age involved sideburns, leather jackets, and switchblade knives in the world of fashion and endless conflicts with our elders in the world of art.
I found it hilarious that my elders thought “rock ‘n roll” was a “Negro” slang description for the sex act, an act the music would cause, albeit with the lights out and in the missionary position. “Race music” invaded from Mexico, pushed by monster AM transmitters far outside broadcasting regulations in the U.S. On the other end of the technology, there were tiny radio stations across the South, one horse radio for one horse towns, about which the white Baptist preachers would warn of Satan’s arrival in a minor key with a strong back beat.
When, as an adult, I studied the history of rock, I learned that the origin of the term was indeed about sex. Elvis Presley, when he covered black tunes, cleaned them up for white folks but also recorded the original versions for the vault that gets opened now and then for his eponymous channel on satellite radio. To my knowledge, Pat Boone stayed with the cover versions and if he ever sang “tutti frutti — good booty” the master remains well hidden.
I think most kids were like me. It was about the music, and if layers of meaning got peeled back and tweaked the prudes, that was a side benefit.
The wrong side of the culture wars was right about one other thing. We had and continue to have a great ride down the slippery slope. By the early seventies, it was “Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!”
Television went from depicting a married couple occupying the same bed smacking into a taboo to a recognition that gay sex exists and it’s all right to talk about it….at least after prime time. Lesbian was the L word.
The F bomb started with Richard Nixon’s White House tapes. His routine profanity was, in itself, newsworthy. These days, it’s more a firecracker than a bomb, but Joe Biden could still be oh-so-briefly embarrassed by a hot mic moment at a press conference about the Affordable Care Act, when he was caught whispering to President…
