The Art of the Bawdy Song is the third studio album by the American early music ensemble the Baltimore Consort, in collaboration with the vocal group the Merry Companions. Released in November 1992 by Dorian Recordings, it features 33 bawdy songs, catches, rounds, ballads and madrigals from 16th, 17th and 18th century England, spanning the English Renaissance and Baroque periods.
The compositions, many of which are by Henry Purcell or his contemporaries, use off-color humour and are sexually explicit, sometimes incorporating double entendres and innuendos but on other occasions using strong language, and cover themes such as sex acts, cuckoldry and bodily functions. Some of the lyrics are scatological in tone, including Purcell's "Pox on You", which incorporates belching sound effects. Many of the rounds and catches were pub songs sung socially by men in Restoration England's many taverns.
In the United States, The Art of the Bawdy Song featured a Parental Advisory warning sticker, and was cited as the first classical music album to feature one. Dorian's marketing capitalized on the album's crossover and novelty appeal. It became the label's biggest-selling release, appearing on the Billboard Classical Crossover charts for six months and proving popular on classical radio. Music critics contrasted the vulgar or titillating content of the album with modern recording artists, with some highlighting The Art of the Bawdy Song as a departure from other recordings of the early music movement. In 1993, the Baltimore Consort performed pieces from the album live at several events, omitting some of the more explicit material.
Background and recording Based in Baltimore, Maryland, the six-member Baltimore Consort, led by Mary Anne Ballard, formed to play 16th and 17th century music from Great Britain, France and Italy. The ensemble were among the first signings to classical music label Dorian Recordings, who in 1990 issued the first two Baltimore Consort albums, On the Banks of Helicon and Watkins Ale, which contained Scottish early music and English renaissance music, respectively. As biographer Robert Cummings wrote, "[the] Consort quickly became one of the most popular American early music ensembles, as a string of successful recordings and concert tours followed." Dorian considered its signees, particularly the Baltimore Consort, unique for providing "performances that can't be found in every record-shop bin".
According to reviewer Blair Sanderson, The Art of the Bawdy Song continued the Baltimore Consort's reputation for open-minded performances of early music. Recorded in October 1990 at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, New York, the album was produced and edited by Douglas Brown, with two post-session producers including Ballard. It was recorded with the all-male vocal group the Merry Companions, who act as support on the album. The Baltimore Consort's concept for the record was to pull from the heyday of the bawdy song in the 17th century; as music critic Eric Salzman describes, these off-color songs, in the forms of catches and rounds, were popular in England from John Hilton the younger's "Catch That Catch Can" (1652) through to the 18th century, but their popularity had waned by the Victorian era. According to recorder and bass viol player with the ensemble and resident composer at Moravian College, Larry Lipkis, the tradition of ribald catches remained popular as they were easy to compose. Some raunchier pieces from the era were left unrecorded for the project as the Baltimore Consort believed them to be too profane or of no value.
Composition Selection and themes
An alternately song- and dance-oriented collection of English Renaissance music, The Art of the Bawdy Song features 33 bawdy ballads, rounds, catches and madrigals from 16th, 17th and 18th century England. Many of the songs, particularly the complex catches, are sung by the Merry Companions, whereas Custer LaRue is a vocalist on rural ballads. These ribald songs are frequently accompanied by a colourful variety of string (both plucked and bowed), wind and percussive instruments, with the Consort's musical input described as playful and "folk-tinged". As journalist David Patrick Stevens describes, the performers interpret the material with "all the sound effects you'd expect from songs meant to be performed by singers in various states of inebriation", alongside "simple accompaniments on fiddles, lutes and pennywhistles." For the purpose of variety, the album also contains some instrumental pieces.
Many of the songs, ballads and catches used are by 17th century composer Henry Purcell, but others are by his peers and anonymous composers of the era. Lipkis argues the album is not representative of Purcell's overall oeuvre, which is characterized by sacred compositions and opera, instead profiling "just another side of his musical persona." As Ballard comments, the songs "were tunes that men would sing in taverns and at meetings of all-male organizations." George Garbarino of Newsday describes the material as pub songs which "date back to a time in Restoration England when the women were 'wenches' and the men were flatulent." The journalist Dan DeLong believes the album transports listeners "back to the dark, stale-smelling taverns where the lower and middle classes gathered for a randy good time", adding that Purcell and his friends would meet in these locations to perform each other's compositions and improvise.
The lyrics, which are sometimes explicit but more often subtly provocative, include double-entendres and innuendo, and cover subjects such as explicit sex acts, bodily functions, Dionysus worship, cuckoldry, illicit sex and unrequited desire. According to Stevens, the most tasteful material depicts sexual intercourse, but as the album progresses, very strong language replaces the use of euphemisms. The album contains ditties Ballard says "I wouldn't play for my own mother." Lipkis contends that, whereas other celebrations of the Renaissance era avoid showcasing "the full side" of contemporary life, The Art of the Bawdy Song has a persistent tongue-in-cheek element, citing the fartophone (a bass recorder with no head) and the lyrical content of "My Thing Is My Own", "I Gave Her Cakes and I Gave Her Ale" and "Cold and Raw", songs described by DeLong as "the soft porn of Elizabethan England." DeLong believes the record satirizes the pretentious language on other early music recordings, while Lipkis contends that much of the music would sound liturgical without lyrics.
Songs One of the tamer songs, "The Old Fumbler" concerns premature ejaculation, whereas "My Man John Had a Thing That Was Long", described by Garbarino as "a paean to male physiognomy", graphically depicts sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. Purcell's belch-and-flatulence-based "Pox on You" is authentically performed by the Merry Companions. The score for "Pox on You" includes several belches. "We satisfied that", Lipkis said, "We put several in for him where he asked – plus a few extra." "Celia Learning on the Spinnet" and "My Lady's Coachman John" are among the more explicit songs, whereas "Tom the Taylor", another relatively clean song, was analyzed by Morning Edition commentator Miles Hoffman, who said that the title character is initially "making a cloak for a lady, and he takes his tape measure out, which is 9 inches long. And that '9 inches' is not long enough to go around her waist. And there's another line in there about 'reaching her haunches,' and the way the lyrics work is when the different voices come in, the words get juxtaposed in such a way that the meanings — ahem — change."
Release and promotion Credited to the Baltimore Consort and the Merry Companions, The Art of the Bawdy Song was released on CD by Dorian in the United States in November 1992. The release was packaged with informative sleeve notes that speculate on, as reviewer Jonathan Freeman-Attwood describes, "the response of a post-Victorian society easily embarrassed by the mention of underwear." The most explicit four-letter words on the album are censored in the lyric section of the booklet. The cover painting is Gerard van Honthorst's The Merry Fiddler (1623).
For the release of The Art of the Bawdy Song, Dorian worked with classical distributor Allegro, who Dorian co-founder Brian M. Levine felt did impressive work promoting the record. Levine said that, due to the uniqueness of it being a classical album with a Parental Advisory sticker, Dorian marketed it to "the core classical and early-music markets as well, to take advantage of its crossover and novelty appeal. Allegro gave us great placement and positioning and really squeezed every drop of marketing value out of it." As a result of the marketing, The Art of the Bawdy Song became Dorian's best-selling release ever, and spent six months on the Billboard Classical Crossover charts. Selections from the record saw repeated play on classical musical stations across the United States in the months following its release. Billboard listed it as the 11th biggest classical crossover album of 1993.
Parental Advisory sticker
The Art of the Bawdy Song carries a Parental Advisory warning sticker in the U.S., and has been credited as the first classical album to use one. The use of the sticker attracted headlines; in an article titled "Classical CD Consorts with 'Parental Advisory' sticker", The Morning Call wrote that, for "the first time in the history of recorded classical music," Purcell and his 17th century peers "have joined the ranks" of controversial artists like Madonna, Ice-T and 2 Live Crew. Although use of the sticker is not enforced by the Recording Industry Association of America, Dorian still added it as a courtesy to consumers, under the Consort's suggestion, though it prevented the CD from being sold at Walmart. The press release warned that the recording is not for "the faint of heart, prudish or under the age of 18. Those easily offended will offend."
Ballard recalled that, as the album was released at the height of obscenity controversies around Ice-T and Robert Mapplethorpe's exhibit The Perfect Moment, the ensemble felt it necessary to utilise a warning not to buy the record for children or ageing relatives. "More importantly," she said, "we didn't want a radio disc jockey to play it on the air without auditioning it. They could get their license threatened! So we had to have a nice way of warning them and since the parental advisory sticker already existed, we thought that would be really fun. Because when you sit down and compare this to some of these rock lyrics, these old songs are really tame." Lipkis believed the sticker was necessary, regardless of the lighter language of some songs, whereas Dorian publicity director Linda Feldman found it useful to remind listeners that modern lyrics deemed offensive by some parties "have a historical precedent set by people like Henry Purcell", and hoped the sticker would entice buyers who otherwise have no interest in early music releases.
Garbarino believes that the compilation would be unlikely to cause uproar, deeming it closer in spirit to Monty Python or the film Tom Jones, while Feldman described the album as offbeat and "more Monty Python than hard-core." One reviewer felt only the use of certain words required a cover warning. In 2003, Deryk Barker of the Times Colonist contended that the Baltimore Consort were still likely the only classical group to have a release that contains the sticker.
Critical reception Contemporary reviews