blog post Survey of sex terms: ‘Making love’ to music over the decades

As a child raised by a single mom in the ’80s, I spent a lot of my years travelling around in a minivan, listening to the local soft rock station. My childhood soundtrack involved far too many songs about “making love.”

Have you cringed yet?

I thought the term “make love” had jumped the shark but, turns out it’s back, in the club, the stream and happening to a vampire with a monkey on my knee.
Come with me, let us make (musical) love through the ages!

Year: 1974
Artist: Roberta Flack
Song: “Feel Like Making Love”
Love line: "Walking in the park watching lovers do their thing, that’s the time I feel like making love to you."

 
Year: 1975
Artist: Bad Company
Song: “Feel Like Making Love”
Love line: "Feel like making love, feel like making love, feel like making love, feel like making love to you."


 
Year: 1976
Artist: KISS   
Song: “Makin’ Love”
Love line: "Makin' love (makin' love), makin' love (makin' love), Makin' love (makin' love) all night long."


  
Year: 1980
Artist: Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Song: “Making Love to a Vampire with a Monkey on my Knee”
Love line: "Making love to a vampire with a monkey on my knee. The moon poured hollow down my milky leg."

 
Year: 1983
Artists: Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers
Song: “Islands in the Stream”
Love line: "We ride it together, making love with each other."


 
Year: 1983
Artist: Air Supply
Song: “Making Love Out of Nothing at All”
Love line: "Making love out of nothing at all."


 
Year: 1990
Artist: Michael Bolton
Song: “How Can We Be Lovers”
Love line: "Baby, how can we make love if we can’t make amends?"


 
Year: 1994
Artist: Boyz II Men
Song: “I’ll Make Love to You”
Love line: "I’ll make love to you, like you want me to."


 
Year: 1995
Artist: Radiohead
Song: “High and Dry”
Love line: "All your insides fall to pieces you just sit there wishing you could still make love."

 
Year: 2008
Artist: Usher  
Song: “Love In This Club”
Love line: "I wanna make love in this club, in this club, in this club, in this club."

Year: 2011
Artist: Library Voices
Song: “If Raymond Carver Were Born in the 90s”
Love line: "And I spend my nights making love to someone I can never love."

 

Related links:
CBC Music: Five love songs to inanimate objects
CBC Music: NKOTB by the numbers