BACK BEAT: Take a Breather

Heavy Breathing: The Sounds of Sex is a four-disc series put together by IntimDJ Capt. Schneider from Munich, Germany of "hot and steamy songs from every genre" ("whether it's blues, techno, house, disco, soul, easy listening, downbeat, new wave, rhythm & blues, reggae, electronica, italo-house, exotica, rockabilly, funk, hip-hop, jazz, or prog-rock... because lust has no musical blinkers..."). You can listen to 30-second teasers of all 68 tunes at the Heavy Breathing website. Despite the title, not all the selections are heavy breathers. And wisely so. Many a mix can be enhanced by an orgasmic track or two, but they're better served as a side dish than a meal. With that in mind, here are some heavy breathers to be lightly sprinkled amidst your own mixes. I think you'll agree with me that, when it comes to such aural pleasures, they just don't fake em like they used to.


Little Girl (MP3)
by John & Jackie (1958)

James Austin, producer of the Rhino box set Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly, claims the idea for the compilation came to him when he discovered a 45 of John & Jackie's "Little Girl": "I could not believe what I heard, and I started thinking, these are really oddball songs. They're rockabilly but they're so hardcore. And I came up with literally hundreds of them." Austin's argument for rockabilly as pre-punk seems to make sense. Both share a rebellious youth with a tough and rumble tude releasing DIY recordings of hard-hitting minimalist music to regional scenes. But reviewer John Nova Lomax of the Houston Press disagrees: "I don't buy it, and sex is one reason I don't. Rockabilly was perhaps the most sexually charged music American white people have ever made. It was full of supple, slap-bass-driven rhythms, and while it was as manic as two high school kids having a quick one while their parents were away, it still swung, and swing is a sexual rhythm. Punk, on the other hand, has always been a singularly sexless music -- they got 'Too Drunk to Fuck' and they liked it that way. The guitars were distorted, and the rhythms were static and straight-ahead." I would argue that Lomax misses the timing of each rebellion. The fifties were famously repressed while the seventies proved too permissive, so it makes perfect sense for fifties rebels to promote sex and for seventies rebels to dismiss it. "Little Girl," however, is no mere rebellion, but a riot -- a duet between a man and a woman where his singing drives her into an orgasm every verse. I've read that rockabilly artist Gene Maltais, who wrote the song, didn't like how Aladdin Records handled it and left the label before signing a contract, so I'm guessing Jackie's ohs weren't his idea.


Untitled Track (MP3)
from Tortura: The Sounds of Pain and Pleasure (1965)

You can download this whole album at Beware of the Blog, web journal of the world's greatest free-form radio station, East Orange, New Jersey's WFMU, as part of the online collection of obscure records known as the 365 Days Project. Writes 365 contributor Sid Safari: "WhatCha waitin' for... a whippin'? Dirty boys and naughty girls here is YOUR call. Relax in the twilight of your upcoming evenings listening to the sounds of whipping, beating, screaming, moaning, crying, groaning and laughing. To be listened to by the whip-wielding dominatrix to the lonely soul awaiting the next afrodisiac. My recommendation is that next time you leave your home you should play this recording at a very loud volume for your neighbors to start a local rumour mill." Excerpts from Tortura 2: An Evening with the Marquis de Sade are also posted, but WFMU DJ Brian Turner claims that "there is not much of a difference between these two records, honest. And if you are the type of person who can discern the subtleties, I do not wish to make your acquaintance."


Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus (MP3)
by Serge Gainsbourg with Brigitte Bardot


Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus (MP3)
by Serge Gainsbourg with Jane Birkin (1969)

Wikipedia's entry [my comments in brackets]: "'Je t'aime... moi non plus' (French for 'I love you... me neither') is the title of a French song written by Serge Gainsbourg, arranged by Arthur Greenslade and sung by Gainsbourg and his lover at the time, Jane Birkin. The song was originally written for and recorded in 1968 with Gainsbourg's then girlfriend, Brigitte Bardot. However, Bardot pleaded with Gainsbourg not to release their recording of the song: she was married at the time, to German businessman Gunther Sachs. Gainsbourg complied. Later that year, Gainsbourg met, and fell in love with, English actress Jane Birkin, on the set of their film Slogan. 'Je t'aime... moi non plus' was re-recorded with Birkin replacing Bardot, and was released early in 1969." [You can almost see this story play out in the above cover art. Bardot stands there with her arms crossed, jaw set, a cold shoulder toward Serge, whereas Birkin is, as she often was, readily disrobed.] "The lyrics are written as an imaginary dialogue between two lovers during a sexual encounter. Phrases from the song include: 'Je vais et je viens, entre tes reins' ('I come and I go, in between your loins')... The explicit eroticism of the song was declared offensive at the time of its release. The lyrics are commonly thought to refer to the taboo theme of engaging in sex without love, and were delivered in a breathy, suggestive style." [Here the entry takes a strange turn into Snobsville.] "This interpretation of the song as basic 'soft porn' is, however, a misconception. For all who've some knowledge of Gainsbourg, here we find -- as in all his work, always profoundly cerebral -- the note of desperation, of angst (all in casual disguise) which has been at the core of his best work. One key line is precisely: 'L'amour physique est sans issue' ('Physical love is a dead end'), which could only be singled out by someone speaking French -- and even then: by 'intellectuals'." [For the record, I have some knowledge of Gainsbourg and don't always find his work -- like, say, the zips and whizzes of "Comic Strip" -- profoundly cerebral. And I'm not sure how deep or desperate it is to sing that sex without love is pointless, although it's at least interesting to say so while you're banging the likes of Bardot. As for whether it's a misconception to interpret the song as soft porn, I'll just say that denouncing taboos is exactly how most exploitation films get away with showing them. Anyhow, now leaving Snobsville.] "The song culminates in simulated orgasm sounds by Birkin: mostly because of this, it was banned from radio play in Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the UK, and denounced by the Vatican in a public statement. The song was a commercial success throughout Europe. Arguably, the publicity the controversy created was partly responsible for its success. In the UK, it was originally released on the Fontana label, but, after reaching number 2 on the charts, it was withdrawn for sale by the label. Gainsbourg then arranged a deal with prominent independent label Major Minor and, upon re-release, it reached number one." [The Bardot version was released, finally, in 1984.]


Zoom Party (MP3)
by the Albert Van Dam Orchestra (1966)


Erotica (MP3)
by Rita (1969)

Nothing but rumors are really known about the vocalist on this song. The same vocal track also appears on the similar-looking but more psychedelic-sounding "Erotica" single by the band Man [here]. Man's producer John Schroeder once floated the story that the vocals were real sex sounds made by a woman they picked up at a pub down the street from the studio. When a rumor surfaced that the vocals were really by one of the secretaries at Pye Records, Schroeder didn't deny the claim but said it wouldn't be fair to name the performer. Either way, it sounds like someone had a Girls Gone Wild moment with a mic. Rita's "Erotica" was released in the U.K. by Major Minor, the same label that just had a hit that year with "Je T'aime" but not so much with this one. Man's "Erotica" can be found on Mondo Porno, volume twelve of the legendary Mood Mosaic series which sports more rare heavy breathers like the examples below.


Amame (MP3)
by Claudia Vita
available on The Mood Mosaic Vol. 3: The Sexploitation


Mondo Porno (MP3)
by The Blow Jobbers
available on The Mood Mosaic Vol. 12: Mondo Porno


Separation (MP3)
by Philippe Nicaud (1970)

Writes Waxidermy: "With an artwork by the famous painter 'Aslan', this one is my french Holy Grail. The music is as good as the cover. Philippe Nicaud is a french comedian from the sixties who acted in wack parisian plays. The music go from bossa to jerk or funk orchestra. Nicaud doesn't sing he speaks, the lyrics are not explicit but there's innuendo! I think that this lp is musically better than the better Gainsbourg LP from the 70's. All the ingredients are there: horn, strings, male and female scat over funky breakbeats. A must have for french amateurs or funky beat lovers."


Modern Sex (MP3)
by the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra (1970)
available on Peter Scores: The Erotic World of the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra

The 1994 re-release of the soundtrack for the 1967 Bavarian-French sci-fi series Raumpatrouille [Space Patrol] sparked a rediscovery of prolific German TV and film composer Peter Thomas' work, which includes more breezy erotica like this as well as spy jazz, space pop, go-go beat, mod rock, symphonic orchestrations, vocalese lounge, and early electronica (for which he even invented his own twelve-oscillator synthesizer, the Thomwiephon, now enshrined next to the Theramin at the Deutsches Museum), all of which is now widely available in various compilations and packages. Peter Scores, a collection of his softcore cuts, was put together with the assistance of Thomas himself.


Hiasmina (MP3)
by Jean Seberg (1971)
available on Women in Lounge: A Female Vocal Excursion in the Dreamy Land of the Italian Movie Soundtracks

From "The FBI Kills an Actress" by Bill Van Dyk: "Jean Seberg was seventeen and wholly unprepared for Hollywood when she was chosen from among 3,000 girls to play Joan of Arc for Otto Preminger. The movie was a failure and Seberg's performance was panned, but she went on to star in Breathless, one of the most influential films of the 1960's. She became a kind of icon of the 1960's, as unlike Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, and Doris Day as Bob Dylan was unlike Dean Martin. She was the real thing, one of the first post-modern celebrities. She was her own girl. She held strong political views which led her to support the Black Panthers. The FBI took note and spied on her and decided to plant a story about her in the press. They persuaded the L.A. Times and Newsweek to publish the rumour that she was pregnant with the child of an un-named member of the Black Panther party. Seberg, devastated, took an overdose of sleeping pills and lost the baby. She showed the stillborn body to the press, to prove that it was not mixed race. Every year thereafter, on the anniversary of the baby's stillbirth, she tried to commit suicide, and finally succeeded in September, 1979, with barbiturates and alcohol." "Hiasmina" appears on composer Berto Pisano's soundtrack to Kill!, a cheap and nasty 1971 Euro thriller about secret agents, drug dealers, and porn merchants which was released in the U.S. three years later under the amusingly amplified title Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!.


Miss Fenjala (MP3)
by Claudio Szenkar
available on Popshopping 2: More Music from German Commercials 1962 - 1977

Brochure blurb: "The brand Fenjal was launched by the Swiss company Doetsch Grether in 1962 with a Creme Bath Oil. Over the last four decades Fenjal has become a full range of body care products including Shower Cremes, Body Milks, Body Lotions, Deodorants, Soaps, Foam Bath, and Creme Bath Oil. Fenjal is sold in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.." Yeah, the woman in this ad sounds like she's having a cream bath, alright.


Coming and Going (MP3)
by the Ray Brown Orchestra (1970)

From Cool Cinema Trash: "The average filmgoer might be fooled by the lush music and artistic backdrop used in the opening credits of The Adventurers (1970). But any true fan of cool cinema trash will recognize these flourishes as vain attempts at cinematic respectability. When the names of producer Joseph E. Levine and novelist Harold Robbins appear onscreen, you know you're in for a genuinely trashy experience. In the fictional South American country of Corteguay, young Dax Xenos (Loris Loddi) plays on a verdant hillside with his puppy. Their carefree frolicking is soon ended when the dog is shot dead. Now, what kind of movie kills a puppy in its opening moments? This kind. Hang on tight, because there's lots more sex, violence and melodrama to come." This album is not the lush original score, however, but Quincy Jones' funky re-arrangement of composer Antonio Carlos Jobim's soundtrack. This particular track's Vocal Inspiration (as it's called on the album credits) was supplied by actress and singer Sally Kellerman, best known for her role as Hot Lips Houlihan in Robert Altman's classic film M*A*S*H, released the same year. Bjork sampled some of the beats from this LP for her first solo release, 1993's aptly named Debut, which makes me wonder what it'd sound like if Bjork applied her own vocal gymnastics to an over-the-top heavy breather like this -- which I also mention so I can post a picture of Bjork instead of one of Sally Kellerman.


Orgiastic Ritual (MP3)
by the South African Combo (1972)

Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel Trecento (Rites, Black Magic and Secret Orgies in the 14th Century) is a low-budget Euro horror film that, until its recent release by Redemption on dvd as The Reincarnation of Isabel, was thought to be lost forever and now has many reviewers wondering whether it ever should have been found. Not because of the sadistic whipping, branding, blood drinking, heart eating, witch burning, or virgin burying. Not because of the rampantly bad dialogue like "I say, I think your ectoplasm's showing." Not because of the laughable continuity errors like day shots in night scenes, night shots in day scenes, or a woman in a skirt suddenly in pants then back in a skirt again. Not because of the outrageously awful musical decisions like playing Dixieland jazz during the climactic threesome. No, what seems to be the main complaint is that, despite some characters taking five minutes at a time to try to explain it, the movie just doesn't make sense. I agree, however, with the reviewer at Esotika Erotica Psychotica that it's not supposed to. Rather, like Jean Rollin's lesbian vampire films (also released on dvd by Redemption), its only aim is to sustain a certain gothic tone and feeling. I don't think there'll be any arguments over the aim and effectiveness of this song from the soundtrack, though -- another rare gem you can also find on the aforementioned Mood Mosaic series.


Jungle Fever (MP3)
by Chakachas (1972)

This Belgian band's BBC-banned top ten hit appears in P.T. Anderson's Boogie Nights and on Master Sounds 98.3, Grand Theft Auto's fictional radio station. I think big nappy fros you can hide things in are hot.


Strange Movies (MP3)
by The Troggs (1973)

I have a huge soft spot for The Troggs and dig some of their misses as much as their hits. Originally The Troglodytes, they were formed by four lads from Andover, a brick manufacturing town viewed by the rest of England as the sticks where the hicks were as thick as their bricks. A slur to be sure, but the truth is The Troggs were not the brightest bunch, bless their hearts, but so adorably entertaining because of it. Hence the Troggs Tapes -- the legendary recording of the band spatting in the studio, beginning with the failure to establish a drum beat and devolving into a moronic argument of hilariously profane proportions ("Put some fucking fairy dust over the bastard!") said to have inspired bits in the classic mockumentary Spinal Tap -- still circulates in the industry today. What makes Andover the key to understanding The Troggs, though, is that they wanted above all else to avoid shitty blue collar jobs and the kind of dead end lives they saw all around them. That's why, after they lucked out at the start with their big hit "Wild Thing," most of their subsequent effort was really just about trying not to let the ride end. As with "Wild Thing," they were at their best when at their most primal and libidinous ("Lover," "Come Now," "Gonna Make You," "I Can't Control Myself," etc.). As I say, though, I often still enjoy them at their worst, which usually occurred when they tried to stay hip to trends they didn't really understand. (My favorite example of this is "Everything's Funny," their ridiculous attempt to cater to the hippie scene with a drug song when the strongest drug any of them had ever tried was a warm pint of Guinness.) Whether this almost-glam rocker about attending a porn flick falls into the former or the latter, well, I don't know -- maybe both -- but I dig it.


Sesso Matto (MP3)
by Armando Trovaioli (1973)

From Vincenty Canby's 1976 review of the 1973 Italian comedy Sesso Matto a.k.a. How Funny Can Sex Be?: "Watching Dino Risi's 'How Funny Can Sex Be?' is to be on the point of death and to have every Italian comedy ever made pass in front of your eyes instead of your life. It's a disappointment not easily remedied. The film, which opened yesterday at the Trans-Lux East, stars Giancarlo Giannini and Laura Antonelli in eight sketches that parody Italian sexual manners in ways that run the gamut from harmless to painfully predictable to slightly nasty, as in the sketch in which he plays a young man hopelessly attracted to elderly women, the older and uglier the better.... Among the topics touched on but never successfully sent up are the impotence of a village Romeo, a pre-meditated murder effected by overindulgence in sex, and artificial insemination. Laura Antonelli, a stunning beauty and a talented comedienne, also wastes her talents, though the unadorned sight of her helps the time pass more quickly."


Love to Love You Baby (MP3)
by Donna Summer (1975)

The story goes that Donna Summer suggested the line "love to love you baby" to producer Georgio Moroder who turned it into a full disco song with lyrics so explicit they made Donna Summer uncomfortable. She reluctantly agreed to record a demo, but Moroder was so impressed with Summer's erotic moans and groans, he persuaded her to let him release it. A tape of the song was sent to Neil Bogart of Casablanca Records who played it at one of his parties and liked it so much, he played it over and over all night, then called Moroder and told him the song should be longer -- a lot longer. Moroder brought Summer back in and she was even more nervous this time, so the studio lights were dimmed and she layed on the floor in the dark. The final recording lasted over sixteen minutes and, according to Time Magazine, contained 23 orgasms (the BBC claimed it contained 22). Yet, in an interview with Penthouse Magazine, Summer claimed she faked all the orgasmic sounds and heavy breathing without thinking any sexual thoughts: "I know it sounds funny. During the recording of the record, I had much more romantic thoughts than the record led you to believe. You know, there are ecstatic moments in life that are physical, that are like an orgasm. For a mother, I should think, there are moments -- touching her child, realizing that this miracle is hers -- that are ecstasy." I think we both know what she means but if you hear anyone making sounds like this while touching a child, please imprison them.


Ecstasy (MP3)
by The Tee Cees
from Disco Love Bite (1978)
(vinyl rip by American Athlete)


La Via Della Prostituzione (MP3)
by Nico Fidenco (1978)
available on She Had a Taste for Music

Dusty Groove describes Nico Fidenco's scores for Joe D'Amato's Emanuelle movies as having "a sound that's different from a lot of these other Italian soundtracks, and which sounds a bit like some of the French stuff of the 70's, particularly the scoring that was being done by Serge Gainsbourg at the time. There's lots of isolated instruments, slowly gyrating basslines, choppy guitar, and cool electronic bits on keyboards..." This particular cut is from Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade, the fifth and final film of the series. From The Video Vacuum: "This time out Emanuelle takes on the white slave trade but BEFORE she does that, she masturbates while she watches her friend fuck a black mechanic, goes on an African safari, has a lesbian tryst in the shower, balls a wealthy prince, smokes a hookah in India, has a threeway, watches a nude photo shoot in New York and makes love in a darkroom. THEN she decides to do an exposé about white slavers. When she tries to escape (with the help of a friendly transvestite) she gets captured and nearly gets lobotomized by the evil doctors at 'The Clinic'. Fortunately she escapes in a laundry basket, hops aboard a ship home and balls the crew to pay for her voyage." I haven't seen the film and can't say when this song plays, so just imagine whatever bit of that you wish while you listen.


Na Na Na - Yeh Kya Karne Lage Ho (MP3)
composed by Kalyanji & Anandji, performed by Hemlata
from the soundtrack Bombay 405 Miles (1980)

From Music from the Third Floor: "All out disco from da funk brothers, one that usually commands high prices on eBay. Which mostly has to do with the hugely popular (it was once anyway) 'Na Na Na - Yeh Kya Karne Lage Ho'. Sexy spoken vocals, panting, giggling; a great Blaxploitation-like groove with horns, wah-wah guitars and moogs... this is the Hindi 'Je T'Aime' (or, Hemlata is the Hindi Donna Summer). Silly, funny and steaming all at once, the definite highlight of 'Bom-bay 405 Miles'." (Also available on The Bombay Connection Vol. 1.)


Sexy Safari (MP3)
by the Afro Rhythm Group (1985)


Leibesgeflüster (MP3)
from the Narciss Intim-Serie 45
(vinyl rip by Berlin Beatet Bestes)

A German phone sex 45 found at a flea market. Looking at the cover you can see both why the blogger who bought it and posted it did so and why others before him hadn't.


The Isle of Lesbo (MP3)
by Brenda & Vivienne
available on Mondo Erotico

Mondo Erotico is not an album, but a homemade comp by a German netizen named eftimihn. He has other mixes floating out there as well, including Mondo Erotico 2.


Theme from Claudine '69 (MP3)
by Alfredo Luna
available on Nymphomania: A Collection of Sexy European Go-Go Music from the '60s

The three volume Nympho-mania series were mixed CDRs made in the late 1990s by Frank Conakry, a.k.a. DJ Soulpusher, a.k.a. DJ Franc O. His bio: "DJ Soulpusher first came to New York during the summer of 1996 when under the name Franc O. he established his legendary and decadent night Vampyros Lesbos featuring exotic dancers, French ’60s pop and obscure Euopean soft porn soundtracks. But under the Guiliani crackdown on nightlife it became more and more difficult to continue a night that included scantily clad go-go girls, ’70's soft porn projections, and a notoriously misbehaving clientele. So in August 2000, Franc O., along with Go Go Girl Manuela, packed their bags and moved back to old Berlin where, now as DJ Soulpusher and Boogaloo Pussycat, they together started a party called Soul Explosion which soon became Europe's biggest night for rare and hard-hitting funk 45s. This continued until 2005 when again the two felt an urge to change the scenery; they got married and moved to Conakry, the Capital of Guinea on the coast of West Africa. Here DJ Soulpusher dedicated all of his time to building up an incredible collection of rare Afrobeat and African funk records. After digging for old vinyl in various local stores, DJ Soulpusher started traveling all over West Africa. His first trips led him to Sierra Leone where he explored the cities of Freetown, Bo and Kenema. The largest finds he turned up, however, were in Benin – the only country in the world where Voodoo is officially recognized as state religion and practiced by the majority of its people. The Funk music that was recorded in Benin from the late 60’s until the late 70’s was partially influenced by the hypnotic dance music of the Voodoo ceremonies, most notably the Sato, a traditional rhythm that sounds pretty much the same as what later was called Afrobeat. Benin had a multitude of record labels and two even operated their own pressing plants, a very unique feature for such a small African country. Soulpusher’s adventures across Africa (as well as lengthy mixes featuring his most coveted finds) are documented on his highly trafficked blog Voodoo Funk." Frank returned to New York this summer.


Orgasm (MP3)
from the Butterflies soundtrack (1974)

In 1973, American sexploitation director Joseph Sarno shot a softcore Euro horror flick for producer Chris Nebe. Veil of Blood (a.k.a. Vampire Ecstasy) was made in Munich and starred up-and-coming Swedish nudie queen Marie Forsa. The film did poorly but Nebe and Sarno got along so well, they decided to team up again. They chose to base their second film on something that happened on their first. According to Michael Bowen's essay for the DVD re-release, Forsa had "stunned the cast and crew of Veil of Blood with her unquenchable sexual appetite. Those affiliated with the production testify that -- outside of director Sarno -- Forsa instigated sexual dalliances with nearly every member of the film, male and female alike." So Nebe and Sarno figured why not produce a contemporary erotic feature in which Forsa played a sexually adventerous character like herself. The result was Bibi: Confessions of a Sweet Sixteen (a.k.a. Girl Meets Girl). Thanks to the success of Deep Throat, however, American exhibitors were now more interested in graphic hardcore pornography and less so in visually restrained softcore like Sarno's. They wanted money shots; Sarno gave them emoting. Nebe and Sarno had tried to adapt by increasing the amount of sex scenes in Bibi, but it still didn't help them get bookings. They simply weren't artistically interested in hardcore, but knew they had to cater to the new tastes when they tried again the next year with Butterflies. Writes Bowen: "Nebe and Sarno knew that unless their new production came as close to hardcore explicitness as conceptually possible, its chances for survival in the dog-eat-dog world of adult film exhibition were next to nil. As a result, the filmmakers seem to have settled upon two strategies. First, they agreed -- in keeping with Sarno's longstanding directorial preference -- that all of the sex shot for the production must be real. 'That is real fucking going on in that film,' Nebe emphasizes, a fact that the Sarnos also corroborate. Marie Forsa's casting in the principal female role was certainly not unrelated to this lust for authenticity; while Forsa would not lend herself to actual hardcore footage, her prodigous sexual appetites provided her with a perfect foundation for the long hours of frantic fornicating the film would require." Their second strategy was to hire the male lead from Deep Throat, American actor Harry Reems. (Despite Reems' prodigious talents, Forsa wore the porn star out, which you can clearly see in the film's most rigorous sex scene.) But the film still couldn't quite crack open the U.S. market. At one point, a U.S. distributor added hardcore inserts to the film so he could promote it as a triple-X feature. The odd result was a picture in which Marie Forsa had real sex that was filmed like faked sex with cutaways to real penetration footage by a fake Marie Forsa. Retro-Seduction Cinema's Girl Meets Girl Collection contains DVDs of all three Sarno/Forsa films plus a CD of some songs and audio from their soundtracks, including this -- presumably real -- coital crescendo. •