Filth Doesn't Need To Be Filthy: They Did Dirt Better, Smarter In The 30s, 40s and 50s...

The old Coasters song Poison Ivy is about a woman that carries a dose of the clap – “you’re gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion” – there are warnings the whole way through the song, most obviously “you can look but you better not touch”. But even in the song’s opening line the overtly sexual nature is pointed out. “She comes on like a rose”. There’s …