Tales of a Dirty Mouthed Boy

I’ve recently commented on Sassy’s blog to tell her that I love it when she talks dirty. She had a rant going on where she used the word “Fuck” several times.

It got me thinking about why my attention is always drawn toward the vulgar tongue or toward statements with colorful and rude interpretations. There was a flash in my head and then I remembered Rudy Ray Moore and the Signifying Monkey.

This was at the time when nearly every teenager knew every word of all the George Carlin and Cheech and Chong routines. Comedy recordings sold very well. I was but a teen when someone gave me an 8-track tape. They said, ”You’ve gotta listen to this…you’ll laugh you guts out…Skip ahead to this track with the monkey”

I had been familiar with vulgar conversations as any white 17 year old kid growing up in the suburbs of New York City would have been. Here I was holding a tape that would take my education in vulgarity to a whole new level. Rudy Ray’s photo was on the cover. He was surrounded by bare breasted women. I took the tape to my powder blue 1972 Grand Torino Sport with a white vinyl roof and the 8-track player.

“Way down in the jungle deep, the bad assed lion stepped on the signifying money’s feet…” Rudy Ray’s voice had all the power of a late night fire and brimstone preacher with Southern black affectations upon his gravelly voice. This was the sound that 17 year old suburban white boys were protected from hearing all their lives. It was akin to having a nickel bag, culturally forbidden, yet fun.

Rudy Ray was himself signifying his eight minute poem that is based on African folk tales, and also hinted at in the song, “Straighten up and fly right.” It is a poem of insult, innuendo, pride, lies, remorse, and most of all the filthiest language you’ve ever heard.

I was changed at that moment. I realized there were others who actually spoke the way I spoke to myself in my mind. I have no idea where that tape or that car is today, but the words are still with me. If you want to hear it, here is a link, and click on the Signifying Monkey

So if you ever go mad and lace your blog articles with colorful, vulgar, disgusting language and insults; I will be there reading with joy because someone writes the way I speak to myself inside my own head. I’ll probably leave you a comment telling you I love it when you talk dirty. And I truly do.