Quote from: AdamLehrerImageMaker on May 15, 2026, 06:17:22 PMThe Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter"
The Stones have a bunch- "Cocksucker Blues", "Stray Cat Blues", "Midnight Rambler", "Starfucker", "Undercover of the Night", "Brown Sugar" (since "cancelled" and removed from their set lists in recent years) and no doubt a load more.
The Flying Burrito Brothers "Sin City"
The Eagles "Hotel California", "Life in the Fast Lane" etc.
Leonard Cohen "Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On"
Dr. Hook "Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball" is a classic:
https://genius.com/Dr-hook-freakin-at-the-freakers-ball-lyricsThe Prodigy "Smack My Bitch Up"- good video too!
They changed the words slightly, but Boney M. "My Friend Jack" is a cover of a '60s Mod/psych song, originally about sugar cubes laced with LSD.
The Shamen topped the UK charts with their ecstasy anthem "Ebeneezer Goode".
The Outhere Brothers had a couple of UK #1 hits, the original versions of which have explicit porno lyrics- "Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle)" and "Boom Boom Boom". They also did one called "Fuk U in the Ass", though apparently that only charted in Germany and the Netherlands!
Some say "Sexual Healing" is a song about Marvin Gaye trying to "detox" from S&M.
Loads of Prince songs- "Head", "Jack U Off", "Darling Nikki", "Sexy Motherfucker" etc.
Red Hot Chili Peppers "Sir Psycho Sexy", "Purple Stain" etc. The latter song is about fingering a girl whilst she's on her period.
Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love", "The Lemon Song" and "Stairway to Heaven" (backmasked Satanic Tool Shed remix hehe).
The Beatles' "Please Please Me" is supposedly about oral sex, "Why Don't We Do it in the Road?" is about monkeys fucking, "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is about a serial killer, then of course things like "Helter Skelter" and "Piggies" ended up linked with the Manson Family murders.
A chunk of The Doors' catalogue would qualify- "The End" especially, plus their versions of "Alabama Song" and "Back Door Man".
See also The Stranglers- "Bring on the Nubiles", "Peaches", "Nice 'n' Sleazy", "Golden Brown", "I Feel Like a Wog", "Tits", "School Mam", "La folie", "Old Codger" etc. Several of these were released as singles haha- I love The Stranglers!
Lou Reed has already been mentioned, but not in relation to his biggest hits- "Walk on the Wild Side" (which "touched on topics considered taboo at the time it was released, including transgender people, drugs, male prostitution, and oral sex") and "Perfect Day", allegedly about his heroin addiction, though he denied the claims. That said, the song gained massive exposure in the '90s via its use during the overdose scene (!) in Trainspotting, then again when it was covered by a load of pop/rock stars for charity.
The Kinks' "Lola" is another one about relations with transvestites.
Scott Walker had a penchant for singing songs about degradation, prostitution, squalor and death during his "teen pop heart-throb" phase.
Roy Harper isn't exactly a household name, though millions of people have heard his voice, as he sang lead on "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd and has worked with Kate Bush. Anyway, back in the '70s he wrote a pretty little song named "Forbidden Fruit", which is about exactly what you'd imagine- I bet he wishes he'd never released it in light of his ordeal with the police in the 2010s, though for the record he was cleared of all charges.
Jim O'Rourke, Bill Callahan/Smog and Will Oldham/Palace Brothers- again, not exactly big chart stars, but certainly popular enough back in the day with the indie press and magazines like Mojo- Whitehouse fan O'Rourke penned "Halfway to a Threeway", a blackly comedic song about wanting sex with a severely disabled woman, Callahan did things like "Dress Sexy at My Funeral", whilst the early Oldham catalogue is a goldmine of Old Testament sin and debauchery. Sample lyric:
"Unhappiness at last
Will last
And last
Till we see fit to stand before
That virgin cunt, that sainted whore
Whose piss we have slept under
Whose smell we have bore
Is her heelprint that marks our faces?"Hüsker Dü "Diane" has already been mentioned, but weirdly the band Therapy? had a minor hit with their acoustic cover version.
The UK glam rock/indie band Suede were a pretty big deal during the Britpop era, with scores of songs about bi-sexual fucking, hard drug abuse, gutter trash life, decaying glamour etc.
Similarly, Blur had big hits with songs about doing smack, wife-swapping/swinging and hedonistic 18-30 holiday sex.
Not forgetting Oasis, of course- the kings of '90s champagne swigging, cocaine snorting rock excess! "All your dreams are made when you're chained to the mirror and the razor blade"...
And it's not "decadent" per se, but Bloodrock's "D.O.A." is surely one of the darkest, grimmest songs to ever grace the pop charts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(song)Quote from: Kaaoskultti on May 17, 2026, 10:54:31 PMKill You
Back at school, a former friend of mine was perma-banned from computer club for stupidly making a "tribute" to that song in Microsoft Paint hehe. I was like "err, maybe you shouldn't...", but sure enough the teacher walked up behind him mid-creation and that was the end of that! What a moron.
