McGurdy, Ed – “Best of Daliance, The” – [Rhino Records Inc.]

Naysayer   2/12/2018   A Library, CD

If the word “titillating” makes you blush or gives you a chub, this album’s for you. Naughty. Bawdy. Tawdry. All these “aw” sounding words to help explain “The Best of Daliance”, taken from a series of albums put out in the 1950’s on the then new Elektra Records, based on the 18th century songs of Elizabethan writer Tom D’Urfey. Put together and sung by Ed McCurdy, a 1950’s Greenwich Village fixture and naughty sort in his own right, these songs are all suggestive larks describing couples… or trios… or groups of people enjoying themselves in the best way possible. Lots of lines about “stoking the fire”, his long pole pushing into the oven, the maidens cherry complexion loosing it’s color and on and on. Blacksmiths must have been having sex all the time. Career change at 55? Possibly. The musical interpretations are smooth, taking us back to the early 1700’s when there wasn’t much to do but constantly milk the cow. Alan Arkin plays flute!!!! and Erik Darling, later of the Weavers, plays banjo, taking the place of lute. The CD cover is pink fuzzy suede. Go figure.