History HaveAGayOldTime / Music

* Gary Puckett and the Union Gap did a song back in TheSixties called "Young Girl" in which he ''is'' using it toward what may be "classily" referred to as JailBait.

** ''Series/TheMonkees'' somehow [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar got away with this]] in their ChristmasEpisode...resulting in a massive SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVMrKi_hPCQ See for yourself.]]

* The George Formby 1940s hit "Under the Blasted Oak" has the singer and his girlfriend "searching for some LSD" under the tree in question. At the time, "LSD" was British slang for "pounds, shillings and pence", i.e., UsefulNotes/OldBritishMoney.
** George Formby was well known for GettingCrapPastTheRadar, so the only way we're certain this isn't deliberate is that LSD was only discovered in 1943 and wasn't widely known until years later.

** A 1991 DirectToVideo release called ''Simply Mad About The Mouse'' featured contemporary musicians performing Disney songs, including a hip-hop version of "Three Little Pigs" performed by Music/LLCoolJ: For the most part, LL's version stuck to the original lyrics, complete with the "very gay" line.

* In Music/EricBogle's "Silly Slang Song", the singer complains about how once innocent terms like "gay", "fairy", "fruit" or "queen" changed meanings.——

* Jumpin' Gene Simmons' 1964 novelty hit "Haunted House" includes the line, "I had a hunk o' meat in my hand".

* The classic British folk song "John Peel" asks "Do ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay?"

* The classic British folk song "John Peel" asks "Do ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay?"

* Slade's 1973 single "Cum On Feel The Noize" now unintentionally includes the vulgar word "cum" (semen). At the time, the word was just "come" deliberately misspelled (several of their song names have words misspelled because it was a [[XtremeKoolLetterz cool '70s trend to do this]].

* Music/KateBush's song Cloudbusting contains the lyric "We're cloudbusting, daddy". Common slang in 2019 being the way it is, it is now rather hard for many to say that line with a straight face.

-->To think that only yesterday I was cheerful bright and gay

* Nowadays, it's hard enough during Christmas to find time to ''Deck The Hall[s]'' with boughs of holly; some of us will never manage "don we now our gay apparel."

** They dig the hole deeper after "{{Troll}} the ancient yuletide carol".

!!!Uses of "gay":

!!!Other:

* As suggested by the title, innocuous uses of the term "gay". The [[TropeNamer trope name itself]] comes from the last line of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' theme song.
** In the Civil War folk song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", there's the refrain "[[EvenTheGuysWantHim we'll all feel gay]] when Johnny comes marching home".
*** The tune of that song was originally a folk ballad called "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye." This earlier ballad contains the equally innocuous line "And me darlin', dear, ye look so queer."
** An instance that rings especially odd to modern ears occurs in a hit song of the 1930s, "Girls Were Made To Love And Kiss"; the singer, defending his womanizing ways, asks "Shall I be blamed if God has made me gay?" (Given that the word was already Jazz slang for both "swinger" and "homosexual" by that time, this may have been an intentional DoubleEntendre, an in-joke that most listeners would miss.)
** In Jerry Vale's "Pretend You Don't See Her", the singer advises himself to "smile and pretend to be gay" when the object of his unrequited affections approaches.
** The title song from Music/TomWaits' musical ''Music/TheBlackRider'' uses the original meaning of "gay", probably in order to sound old-timey.
** In the classic ballad "The Cowboy's Lament" (perhaps better known as "The Streets of Laredo") the dying cowboy sings "Once in the saddle I used to go dashing, once in the saddle I used to go gay." Perhaps that's why he got shot.
** The Platters' "The Great Pretender" is "happy and gay like a clown". This song was also covered by [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]], of all people.
** Frankie Lymon And The Teenager's "Why Do Fools Fall In Love"

** Music/AndyWilliams' "May Each Day", which was sung at the end of his shows, contained the line "May each day in the year be a good one, / May each dawn find you happy and gay" in the older sense of lively and joyous, as he was wishing the audience joyful memories for each day and moment of the year.
** "No Milk Today" by Music/HermansHermits.

** Music/DeanMartin's song "That's Amore" has the lyrics "Hearts will play, Tippy-tippy-tay, Tippy-tippy-tay/Like a gay tarantella". Creator/OrsonWelles [[DramaticReading had a field day with this]] at Martin's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlKR0i-51S4 Celebrity Roast.]]

** The old song "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aba_Daba_Honeymoon Aba Daba Honeymoon]]": ''All night long they chattered away / All day long they were happy and gay''
** "It's a Big, Wide, Wonderful World" is a lovely old song that's never heard nowadays, possibly due to its opening lines comparing being in love to being "a gay Santa Claus."

* There is a 15th century French song called "Baises moy," which means "kiss me" in Middle French. A similar Modern French expression has a much more obscene meaning.

* The band Saigon Kick had planned to title one of their albums Fields Of Rape (rape being a kind of flower). Their record company wouldn't allow it, so they titled the album Water instead.
* In the TheVillainSucksSong of ''WesternAnimation/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas'' (as sung by the fantastic late Creator/ThurlRavenscroft), one of the lines in the song's last verse reads as follows:
--> ''You're a crooked jerky jockey, and you drive a crooked horse''
** [[BlatantLies Clearly]], he's talking about dried beef.

* "Flowers On The Wall" (1966) by the Statler Brothers featured [[SanitySlippageSong bleak undercurrent]] as well as lyrics that demanded revision in subsequent cover versions.
--> ''Last night I dressed in tails, pretended I was on the town''
--> ''As long as I can dream it's hard to slow this swinger down''
* In "The Pub With No Beer" by Slim Dusty, "The cook's acting queer".
* Due to perceived UnfortunateImplications, Debussy's ''Children's Corner No. 6'' is often referred to as "The Cakewalk" instead of its proper title, "The Golliwoggs' Cakewalk". Either that, or the second word is misspelled "golliwogs'" without the double final G. This is an example of this trope because Florence Kate Upton's Golliwogg, which Debussy was specifically referencing, was a heroic figure, the Literature/HarryPotter of his day; it wasn't until Creator/EnidBlyton got hold of the character type that it became the racist stereotype it is today (and acquired the present spelling).
** Similarly, Creedence Clearwater Revival used to call themselves the Golliwogs before they became famous, they just thought it sounded British without knowing it was an offensive term for Black people.

* Jumpin' Gene Simmons' 1964 novelty hit "Haunted House" includes the line, "I had a hunk o' meat in my hand".
* The George Formby 1940s hit "Under the Blasted Oak" has the singer and his girlfriend "searching for some LSD" under the tree in question. At the time, "LSD" was British slang for "pounds, shillings and pence", i.e., UsefulNotes/OldBritishMoney.
** George Formby was well known for GettingCrapPastTheRadar, so the only way we're certain this isn't deliberate is that LSD was only discovered in 1943 and wasn't widely known until years later.
** The 1931 British novelty song "Ali Baba's Camel" says that the title character was "out for what we all want: lots of LSD!" When the Bonzo Dog Band covered it in 1969, they left the line in, obviously knowing the audience would find the newer double meaning amusing. And to tie it in even more with the trope name, the song was written [[UnfortunateName by Noel Gay.]]
** This was probably 100% deliberate considering it was recorded in 1971, but the song "Lake Shore Drive" by Alliotta Haynes Jeremiah has the line "Just zippin' on by on LSD," meaning, yup, Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Many older Chicagoans still use the initialism to refer to the road.

* "Under the Boardwalk", written in the 60s, has the singer saying that he and his baby will be "making love under the boardwalk". Presumably this means the sweet-talking kind and not the kind that would lead to getting sand in uncomfortable places. It could also be an intentional example as it was changed to "we'll be fallin' in love" in radio edits.
* For once not sexual, but plain weird: There's a German children's song about two StarCrossedLovers. The song ends with them running away, and the next sentence is "and the house ran after them". In old(er) German, this meant "all the people who were living in the house", or possibly "the family", but to today's kids, this has to create the strange mental picture of a running house. (And in fact, this was used in one kindergarten play.)

* Nowadays, [[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach's]] ''Air on the G String'' conjures up some interesting images for some.

* The song "To Know Him/Her Is To Love Him/Her" by Music/PhilSpector includes the casual line "I'll make love to her/him", then obviously having the older meaning.

* Music/{{GWAR}} does this in ''The Horror of [[EldritchAbomination Yig]]''. Odd considering that this isn't an old song, and the slang term existed when it came out. Given the subject matter, maybe they were trying to emulate Creator/HPLovecraft, who used "queer" to mean "strange" often in his works:
---> "Yig now is coming! Yig now is here!"
---> "Yig now he makes things impossibly ''queer...''"
* The classic standard "Am I Blue?" includes the line, ''Was I gay, until today...''
* Music/JohnnyCash's ''Jackson'', about a bickering couple who want to break up and intend to go to the town of Jackson to celebrate their new-found unattachment, contains a verse where Cash promises to "snowball Jackson". Presumably he means that he intends to roll right over it, like a snowball rolling down a hill gathering snow and speed as it goes, rather than the modern, {{squick}}y sexual connotation. "Snowball" could also mean to con everybody, play them for suckers, like a snow job.
* Clive Richarson's composition [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHoKfVHsC8 "Gay Activity"]]. Used, among other things, in ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow''.
* Music/KateBush's song Cloudbusting contains the lyric "We're cloudbusting, daddy". Common slang in 2019 being the way it is, it is now rather hard for many to say that line with a straight face.

** It even went on to sing about "The young folks roll on the little cabin floor".
** The lyric has since been changed from "darkies" to "people", but gay is still official, as is the line about the young folks rolling.

* People are still doing [[http://my-retrospace.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-i-care-about-some-velvet-morning.html analyses]] of Lee Hazlewood's "Some Velvet Morning", heavy on the implications of "straight" and "gate".
* "Kentucky Gambler" by Music/MerleHaggard (written by Music/DollyParton): "Into the gay casino in Nevada's town of Reno."

* An indirect example could be the classic jazz/folk tune "I'm Just Wild About Harry" (a Broadway tune that was memorably covered by the groundbreaking but largely forgotten jazz musician [[Film/TheJazzSinger Al Jolson]]). At the time, the song was just seen as a comically-exaggerated but sentimental gesture of friendship. Today, the following lyrics would suggest something a little more... sensual (at least when sung by a male, though Creator/JudyGarland recorded her own version):
-->The heavenly blisses of his kisses fill me with ecstasy.
-->He's sweet just like chocolate candy and just like honey from the bee.''
* The SurfRock band TheTrashmen had a song about how awesome their car was called "My Woodie".
--> She's big, big. She's bad, bad. My woodie!
** Though the context has a little less AccidentalInnuendo to it, in Music/TheBeachBoys' "Surfer Girl", Music/BrianWilson promises the subject of the song that "in my Woody I would take you everywhere I go".

* "Jappy Jap" is a song done in 2002 and sung by ''People Under the Stairs'', a hip hop group from Los Angeles, California formed in 1997 by Thes One and Double K.

* And then there's [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mculc5Efql1rd5rz4o1_500.jpg this]] album cover.
* The modern definition of "making love" was in use when Billy Joel's "Piano Man", but the song contains an straight example of the original meaning: "There's an old man sitting next to me / Making love to his tonic and gin."
** There's also "the businessmen slowly get stoned," which is being used to mean "drunk" rather than under the influence of other drugs.

* The children's song, ''Kookaburra.'' "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree/Merry, merry king of the bush is he/Laugh, kookaburra; laugh, kookaburra/Gay your life must be."

** The English version of the Catalan "Fum Fum Fum" has the line "Comes a most important day, let us be gay, let us be gay" (referring to Christmas).

* The Scottish song ''Mairi's Wedding'' starts with the words "Step we gaily, on we go".
* "Any Other Way", a soul song first released in 1962 by William Bell, included the lines "tell her that I'm happy / tell her that I'm gay": The song was meant to be a BreakupSong where a man is in denial about how much he misses his ex-girlfriend, so "gay" and "happy" were being used as synonyms. When Jackie Shane released a version of the song that same year, her version was perceived as intentionally playing up a double meaning: Her stage look at the time was very androgynous, and it was later revealed that she's transgender and has always identified as a woman. In contrast, a 1965 cover by Chuck Jackson amended the lyric to "...tell her that I'm free".

* The Christmas song “Hardrock,Coco and Joe”:
—> “Listen my children and you shall hear\\

** Andy Williams' "May Each Day", which was sung at the end of his shows, contained the line "May each day in the year be a good one, / May each dawn find you happy and gay" in the older sense of lively and joyous, as he was wishing the audience joyful memories for each day and moment of the year.

** Andy Williams' "It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year" extols "gay happy meetings when friends come to call." Many cover versions change "gay" to "great".

** The 1931 British novelty song "Ali Baba's Camel" says that the title character was "out for what we all want: lots of LSD!" When the Bonzo Dog Band covered it in 1969, they left the line in, obviously knowing the audience would find the newer double meaning amusing. And to tie it in even more with the trope name, the song was written by Noel Gay.

-->Number one was very gay
-->And he built his house of hay
-->With a hey hey toot
-->He blew on his flute
-->And he played around all day.

* The Christmas song “Hardrock,Coco and Joe”
—-> “Listen my children and you shall hear
—-> A story fantastic, a story so queer”

** The tune we know today as "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was originally a folk ballad called "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye." This earlier ballad contains the equally innocuous line "And me darlin', dear, ye look so queer."

** In the Civil War folk song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", there's the refrain "and [[EvenTheGuysWantHim we'll all feel gay]] when Johnny comes marching home".

** In the Civil War folk song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", there's the refrain "[[EvenTheGuysWantHim and we'll all feel gay]] when Johnny comes marching home".

* As suggested by the title, innocuous uses of the term "gay", as in "[[EvenTheGuysWantHim We'll all feel gay]] when Johnny comes marching home". The [[TropeNamer trope name itself]] comes from the last line of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' theme song.

* "Let me tell you 'bout a place, Somewhere up-a New York way, Where the people are ''so gay''..." Somehow, we doubt Sam Cooke was referring to Greenwich Village or Fire Island with that line from "Twistin' the Night Away."

* Music/KateBush's song Cloudbusting contains the lyric "We're cloudbusting, daddy". Common slang in 2019 being the way it is, [[BDSM it is now rather hard for many to say that line with a straight face]].

** ''Series/TheMonkees'' somehow [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar got away with this]] in their ChristmasEpisode...resulting in a massive CrowningMomentOfFunny. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVMrKi_hPCQ See for yourself.]]

* In Music/EricBogle's "Silly Slang Song", the singer complains about how once innocent terms like "gay", "fairy", "fruit" or "queen" changed meanings.
* The Christmas song “Hardrock,Coco and Joe”
—-> “Listen my children and you shall hear
—-> A story fantastic, a story so queer”
----