We Listen and We Don't Judge

[long post]

I’m feeling a little better about life, so I want to share the things that I enjoy, in hopes you’ll enjoy them, too. I recently finished a playlist I started shortly after Tina Turner died. The playlist is dedicated to songs about sex workers. I love good storytelling and the odes to the world’s oldest profession usually feature cinematic stories. Be warned: this post is long and this playlist is very GenX. I don’t think there’s a song from this decade on it. There are a few from the 21st century, plus the obvious selections like “Lady Marmalade” and “Roxanne.” I only included one hip hop song because uh… I wasn’t sure how much real estate I wanted to give to pimpology, frankly. 

Here’s the playlist and why I chose each song:

Private Dancer by Tina Turner
I love the bridge. “Deutsche Marks or dollars/American Express will do nicely, thank you/Let me loosen up your collar/Tell me, do you wanna see me do the shimmy again?” In the first verse, Tina sings in a flat, resigned manner to show the monotony of her situation. In the second verse, she’s contemplative at first before falling back into disassociating, but the bridge… The bridge is where we hear the dancer’s personality in the role she has to play. 

Love for Sale by Aretha Franklin
An American standard, this song has been covered more times than I care to research. The original version, from the 1930 Cole Porter musical The New Yorkers, is much slower than Aretha’s version. I prefer Aretha’s version because she’s my favorite singer and because the cheekiness makes me think the speaker is in control of her destiny. The slow version is too sad. Too often, the ballads of sex workers, as you’ll see throughout the playlist, are about the pitiful and disturbing circumstances that led them to this career. Aretha’s rendition feels like yeah, she didn’t have much choice but that’s because her sex is so fire, it’s worth the price. 

Lady Marmalade by Labelle 
This song is perfect. PERFECT. It celebrates Marmalade– her power, her beauty, her Blackness. I think of Labelle as an Amen corner, hyping Marmalade as they share the story of one of her johns. “Hey, sister! Go, sister! Soul sister!” Get it, girl! “Hey, Joe. Wanna give it a go?” She is bold, upfront, unashamed of her career or what she has to offer. And if she’s going to be fetishized, she might as well get paid for it. 

“Gitchi gitchi ya ya da da/ Gitchi gitchi ya ya here” I have some thoughts about this line but haven’t seen anyone from Labelle or the songwriters confirm the meaning. 

• One of the songwriters had visited New Orleans, and I think he heard people using the phrase “ya ya,” didn’t really know what it meant but thought it sounded good and wanted to incorporate it. I think he thought “ya ya” meant coochie.

• “Gitchi” might be an attempt at “geechee,” as in the Gullah Geechee people. Back in the day, “Geechee” was sometimes used to mean any Black person, regardless of their origins, or a fair-skinned Black person. The latter tracks because the song tells us repeatedly that Lady Marmalade was creole, a term used for a specific group of mixed race/light-skinned Black folks. Plus she has skin the “... color of cafe au lait…”

• So it could mean “Black p*ssy, daddy/ Black p*ssy here.” And “mocha chocolata ya ya” would be another expression of “Black p*ssy.” Get you some of this chocolate, daddy.

• Or maybe it’s a poetic stretch of baby talk, like “coochie coo, daddy.” 

• In New Orleans, “ya ya” basically means everyone or everything all at once. Gumbo ya ya means everyone is talking all at once and is thought to come from women in the kitchen, cooking and talking over each other. You can hear it being used in Dr. John’s ode to hoodoo “Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya.”  Have you ever heard the expression “talking all that ya ya?” 

I could explicate this song all day, but let’s count how often French or New Orleans appear in a sex work playlist. 

Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves by Cher
When I was little, I watched a rerun of the Sonny & Cher show where she performed the song, and I’ve never forgotten her outfit or hair. 

Call Me by Blondie
Another perfect song. “Color me your color, baby/ Color me your car…” WHAT. Yes. The speaker has so much confidence. She demands high class treatment in return for her availability and willingness to do or be anything. (French lyrics #2)

Bad Girls by Donna Summer
My mother used to encourage me to sing “toot toot heyyyy beep beep” around the house as a child. I had no idea what I was singing. I was 2 or 3 years old, imitating the sound of the car horn when a john tries to get a Bad Girl’s attention on the street. Anyway, pay attention to the brass horns in this song. 

Fancy by Reba McEntire
A song about a woman forced into sex work by her mother. The defiance in Fancy’s choice to lean in as she scolds people’s hypocrisy is delicious. “You know I might've been born just plain white trash/ But Fancy was my name.” (New Orleans mention #2)

He’s a Whore by Cheap Trick
I’m pretty sure I heard this song as an early teen in some 80s movie, but I can’t remember. It’s supposed to have a double meaning– sex work and selling out in the music industry. The speaker is a little mean about his sugar mama (she’s ugly with green teeth) but he still makes himself available. 

Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody by David Lee Roth
I almost didn’t include this song because of its minstrelsy connections, but no need to hide ugly roots. You shouldn’t destroy history just because it makes you uncomfortable. Anyhoo. The speaker knows who he is and accepts his fate, but he also hopes to use it all to hook a big fish. “I'm so sad and lonely/Sad and lonely/ sad and lonely/Won't some sweet mama come and take a chance with me?” 

Roxanne by The Police
Sting’s menacing, increasingly shrill desperation as the speaker tries to convince Roxanne to give up her career makes me want to fight… and groove.

Family Man by Hall & Oates
A woman solicits a man who rejects her, but I think he doth protest too much. 

Mama by Genesis
I love a belter, and Phil Collins belts. The song is about a guy who’s fallen for an older sex worker, or maybe he has a mommy fetish. Regardless, Phil uses every ounce of power he has in that Charlie Brown body of his to convey the speaker’s angst, desperation, and maybe even instability. Phil gives a really harsh laugh throughout the song, and it sounds like a threat. 

House of the Rising Sun by The Animals
I just love the southern gothic psychedelic sounds of this version. I love his inflection on “And God, I know I’m one.” And I love the shoulder shimmy the keyboardist gives during his solo, around 1:45 in this video. (New Orleans mention #3)

A Gamble Either Way by Dolly Parton
There’s no Reba without Dolly. This song is a reject from the movie Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, in which Dolly played a madame. It’s another song that starts off with some traumatic experiences before the speaker decides to take control of her life’s narrative. It’s a very sad song, honestly, but the way Dolly starts off makes me say gotdamn! “Being born was the worst and the first mistake I ever made/ The doctor didn't spank me, he just slapped me in the face.”

(Olivia) Lost and Turned Out by The Whispers
One of the smoothest songs I’ve ever heard detailing how a young woman got caught up. “Olivia the slave/ Got distracted on her way to grandmother's house/ A wolf in lamb's clothing came/ Blew her mind and changed her ways/ And now she's turned out/ Lost and turned out, lost and turned out.” 

Smooth Operator by Sade
I almost chose “Jezebel” but we have enough tales of women turning to sex work as a last resort, and I wanted something talking about a man. “Coast-to-coast, L.A. to Chicago, western male/ Across the North and South, to Key Largo, love for sale.”

Nicole by Joi
A young woman’s ambition tarnishes in this funky slow grind. “This isn't how it was supposed to be/ She shouldn't have to sell her body for money.” 

When the Sun Goes Down by Arctic Monkeys
The speaker witnesses a sex worker and her … boss in action and wonders how they arrived at this moment. It’s a little judgmental.

Carmen by Lana Del Rey
I wasn’t going to include LDR at first, (she knows what she did) but I changed my mind. This song is supposed to be about the singer’s struggle with alcohol at a young age, but it can be more than one thing. Streetwalking is mentioned twice, and there is a reference to A Streetcar Named Desire: “Baby's all dressed up with nowhere to go/ That's the little story of the girl you know/ Relyin' on the kindness of strangers/ Tyin' cherry knots, smilin', doin' party favors.” In the play, Blanche arrives at her married sister’s apartment after becoming destitute with nowhere else to go. It eventually comes out that Blanche had turned to sex work at one point in her descent. Her volatile brother-in-law sexually assaults her and later she has a mental breakdown. A doctor comes to take her away and as he walks her out, Blanche simpers.  “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” as in gifts, money, and attention from strange men, her clients. (French lyrics #3)

Int’l Players Anthem (I Choose You) by UGK with OutKast
A PERFECT SONG. The sample comes from the soundtrack for The Mack, by Willie Hutch. The film is about the rise and fall of a pimp. In the movie, the song plays over a scene of Goldie recruiting a white woman into his organization. UGK’s verses are about… uh… being the sex workers’... uh… managers. Pimp C talks about the perks of being one of his best workers: “Money on the dresser, drive a Kompressor/ Top notch hoes get the most, not the lesser.” And Bun B works on recruitment: “Baby, you been rollin' solo, time to get down with the team/ The grass is greener on that other side, if you know what I mean.” 

New Orleans Mentions: 3
French Lyrics: 3
Songs Named after the Sex Worker: 7

Bless you if you made it this far. Here’s the playlist again. Have a great week and remember: you’ll pay for what you want, one way or another.