‘Songs From The Shelf’ is a recurring spread featuring music pulled directly from The Jam Jar collection (aka the vinyls crowding my apartment) and compiled into themed mixes for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.
FEATURING…
“Sexy Dancer” — Prince, Prince (1979)
Prince’s discography can be a bit intimidating for anyone who didn’t grow up listening to his music, but this self-titled release from ‘79 keeps me coming back.
The vibes are jazzy, funky, pop-y, sexy; the cover is alluring in its unique blend of emotional and physical nakedness.
My favorite track on the record, “It’s Gonna Be Lonely,” is deeply tender, whereas “Sexy Dancer” kicks off with an Earth, Wind & Fire-esque falsetto and levels out into a breathy funk-forward instrumentally-genius hedonistic heaven:
Sexy dancer, you got my body screaming
Sexy dancer, you got me just-a-creaming
“I’m The Man That Will Find You” — Caramel, Conan Mockasin (2013)
In an early episode of stoner-drama High Maintenance, a hip Brooklyn writer spends his afternoons smoking weed from a small golden bowl and wearing his wife’s clothes, all the while listening to this unbelievably sexy song by New Zealander-weirdo Conan Mockasin.
I’d be lying if the show’s aesthetic didn’t enhance the track for me (or was it the other way around?), but this song has passed the test of time.
For a decade, “I’m The Man That Will Find You” — which, due to Mockasin’s vocal inflection, sounds more like “I’m The Man That Will Fuck You” — has remained a personally favored party starter. The strange tinny guitar drops, the highly distorted vocals and airy overdubbed harmonies all make for a truly sultry sonic experience.
Be my medal and I
Will wear you all night
Wear you all night long
“Inside My Love” — Adventures In Paradise, Minnie Riperton (1975)
This whole album is horny.
Whether it’s the standout opener, “Baby, This Love I Have,” or Minnie singing “It came all over me” on “Feelin’ That The Feeling’s Good,” Adventures In Paradise is a perfect record for seducing the one you love.
But in terms of pure horniness, the song “Inside My Love” takes the Boston Cream Pie. Minnie takes one step further into the depths of eroticism here, hitting her iconic high note and getting explicit about what goes down behind closed doors:
You can see inside me
Will you come inside me?
Do you wanna ride inside, my love?
You can see inside me
Will you come inside me?
“Gigantic” — Surfer Rosa, Pixies (1988)
This Pixies song is about an older white lady making love to a younger Black man day after day in the midst of a heated affair.
According to the interweb, Kim Deal, who co-wrote the track, didn’t intend any phallic imagery with the title. Although that’s hard to believe, the suggestive lyrics portray a vivid sex-fueled rendezvous.
Also, fun fact: Before he died, Kurt Cobain actually told music mag Melody Maker that this was his all-time favorite Pixies song.
Lovely legs there are
What a big black mass,
What a hunk of loveHe’ll walk her every
day into a shady placeHe’s like the dark but I want him
“Me and Mrs. Jones” — 360 Degrees Of Billy Paul, Billy Paul (1972)
Speaking of affairs, “Me and Mrs. Jones” — R&B legend Billy Paul’s seminal hit — is gleefully straightforward in its description of a man’s involvement with a married woman.
At times, the lyrics read as a clear-cut confessional: “We meet everyday / at the same cafe / Six-thirty.” As if Paul is desperate for someone to find out. That desperation in his vocals, in the lyrics, in the orchestration’s sharp rises and falls, is what gives this track its timeless power.
But it’s much too
strong to let it go now
