Baltimore?s wonder man, John Waters, wants you to have a night of passion so badly that he?s even providing the music.
Waters compilation CD, “A Date with John Waters,” provides a soundtrack for a late-night romp and of course, the tricky morning after.
“In order to live in Baltimore you have to be able to appreciate the ridiculous ? and [Waters] does,” Atomic Records co-owner Benn Ray said. Baltimore is “a formative part of John?s aesthetic. [The city] is his muse.”
Accompanying Water?s musical love letter are liner notes by him that remind us of his twisted, sharphumor.
Waters welcomes you to a romantic escapade at his pad with sweet, lithe voices off the first album he ever shoplifted. “So stole, so pure, so good,” Waters writes.
From there, an assortment of artists quickly cover folk, rhythm and blues, bugle swing and punk rock.
“Jet Boy Jet Girl” perfectly encapsulates Water?s aesthetic, Ray said. “It has a ?70s New York punk feel and the whole message is one guy singing to another guy, ?I?m going to make you a girl.? It?s hilarious.”
Kitschy selections play with sexual orientation, double entendres and misogynistic lyrics. Swing beats retrieved from the ?30s and ?50s like “I?d Love to Take Orders from You” and “If I Knew You Were Coming I?d Bake a Cake” have the potential to lodge themselves in your head and then play on a continuous loop.
Born and bred Baltimoreans, like Waters, can?t take themselves too seriously, Ray said. “There?s always going to be someone who looks at you and says ?Come on, you?re in Baltimore.? ”
