When I was in college I was in marching band and each instrument section bonded as a family as we not only spent a lot of time working together but we also had a down time during the seasons where we would get to know each other. One game we used to play was “Never, Never Have I Ever.” We would sit in a circle and everyone would open up their hand using his or her five fingers as counters. People would take a turn around the circle. When it was your turn, you would think of something that you had never done and say it: “never, never have I ever went skinning-dipping.” Then all the people in the circle who had done it would put down a finger. The goal was either to be the first one with all their fingers down or the last, depending on how you viewed the game. The way we played it was that if you got all of your fingers down, you had to explain the stories behind the activities that got your fingers down. Depending on the people you played the game with, the statements could be as innocent as “not eaten lobster” or descriptions of sexual and/or drug-related activities. With people of the appropriate age, this also works as a great drinking game. Here’s a demo of how this game is played.
Whenever we would play this game, there would always be that one person that we would never imagine as having done anything bad, naughty, or inappropriate. This was that person who always seemed together, never made off-color or sexual jokes and was a quiet but effective member of the section. We’d sit down and play this game and someone would say they have never something outrageous that no one else even thought of doing and then this quiet person would slowly put down their finger trying not to make a big deal out of it and shock us all.
“Son of a Preacher Man” is that finger going down. This song revealed the naughty, sexual and soulful side of the British pop queen, Dusty Springfield. After four albums, she wanted to make a change. Springfield had recorded lush orchestrated pop songs like "I Only Want To Be With You."
While other singers skirts seemed to crawl further north of the knee, Springfield maintained a Donna Reed like image, singing songs of love and female devotion. There no nothing hint of sexuality behind the idealized version of teenage love that permitted 1960s popular music.
I’m not saying that Dusty’s earlier albums are bad, no, they are fantastic. They featured great melodies within well-crafted songs. Dusty’s voice uniquely combines her clear energetic tone with a slight depth and belt that gave it richness. You can hear slight soul tendencies, as she plays around behind the beat and when she opens up her sound, you realize that this British girl had a little gospel in her.
Springfield admired American soul singers like Aretha Franklin and Wilson Picket and she took chance deciding to record a southern soul album. Rarely do artist cross genres in this way, so Dusty hired Jerry Wexler, who had produced the soul music she had loved and agreed to record in Memphis.
Wexler chose eighty gospel and soul songs and Dusty rejected every single one. A couple months later, she came around and chose fifteen. When they went to the studio, it was completely different from what Dusty was used to. She usually recorded in big professional studios with full orchestras, what she found in Memphis was a stripped down, bare-bones studio with a small house band. She felt so intimidated by the idea of even singing in the same studio as her soul heroes Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin that she refused to sing during the sessions in Memphis.
They moved the recording sessions back to Manhattan after recording most of the instrumental tracks. Springfield insisted that they turn up the backing tracks that she listened to when she recorded to a ridiculously loud volume while she recorded and out of her insecurities came some of the most remarkable recordings in pop music.
I enjoy when art works on different levels. Not only is “Son of a Preacher Man” a revealing look at a Dusty’s sexual side but the song itself is about a the son of a preacher man, who people expect to be moral and upright pushing the boundaries of sexuality with the narrator of the song. No worries, he isn’t doing anything that she is not yearning for which becomes clear when she sings “being good isn’t always easy” and you can hear a devilish smile in her voice.
The background instruments almost seem like they in the foreground. Many times the way that singers make themselves be heard over instruments is by singing out with a full tone but what Dusty does instead is sing with almost a whisper to her voice which draws us in like she’s sharing a dirty little secret. When the verse builds to “my surprise” she opens up and floats over the notes like a person softly sighing maintaining her soft focus and ease when the notes get higher.
If you think sexuality in music is a creation of artist from the 1990s, then listen carefully to the bridge of “Son of a Preacher Man.” Many artists have described sex in their songs using explicit lyrics and artists continue to feature moans meant to emulate sounds that people make sex. However, back in 1968 Dusty Springfield showed us how an orgasm felt in the bridge of “Son of a Preacher Man.”
She starts with “How well I remember” and the pace of the lyrics begin to build. Dusty in accompanied by louder and more aggressive backgrounds, which push her slowly with a sense of strength. When Dusty gets “Taking time to make time, telling me that he’s all mine,” she doesn’t so much sing the words “time” and “mine” but moans them sensuously. She climaxes in ecstasy when she opens up and sings, “looking to see how much we’ve grown.” The feeling of relief and joy at the last verse is like that feeling when you can’t help but smile when you are overcome with warmth throughout your entire body having just experienced something truly amazing.
This song celebrates what is real and great about sexuality. It’s a little naughty, abut it’s not profane, it doesn’t objectify or trivialize the action, instead it celebrates the truly beautiful feelings that only sex can bring people.
Never, ever have I ever felt the sexual awakening of girl in a song.
Y’all can now put one finger down.
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