Two of the three Huggy Bear tracks which John Peel played on this edition of John Peel’s Music on BFBS. As with Moonshake, we get one of his and one of hers. “His” is obsessed with wanting sex and not getting it; “Hers” shows how to use sexuality to lure men in and then turn the tables on them in violent style.
My initial listen to T-Shirt Tucked In had me thinking that it was an attack on me, or people like me circa 1993. The refrain of Ah, you’re so good/You got your T-shirt tucked in felt like a repudiation of those of us who could not bring themselves to rebel. After all, as the song seemed to sneer, I literally wore my conformity by having my T-shirt tucked in wherever I went. I also wore white socks until about 1998. I didn’t know any better, it felt smart and it kept draughts off my chest. I mean I’d made a stand in the late 80s when I refused (outgrew) wearing a vest. What did Huggy Bear want from me, for fucks sake!? But it’s only in my dreams that they’re attacking me.
On the surface, the song appears to be potentially targeting prick-teasing women who give off sexual vibes, but who wear clothes like armour. The tucked in t-shirts helping to accentuate curves of breasts and belly while remaining firmly locked away to lustful male eyes. A more likely reading may be that it’s a caricature of invasive male thinking, whereby Chris Rowley’s narrator sees sexual invitations in the woman’s dress and behaviour. It’s a curious and queasy mix which attempts to be sexy but makes Rowley’s character seem laughably pathetic with his second hand sex talk, Groovy little t-shirt thing etc. Given the full-on nature of the female backing vocals, I suspect that this was intentional.
Listening to the sass and swing of Blow Dry, I found myself thinking that someone really ought to make a musical out of the work of Huggy Bear. Both this and Her Jazz have the feel of big company production numbers. Pairing it up with T-Shirt Tucked In is interesting in that it switches the dynamics of the former track, so we get the female perspective and a concerted attempt to drive dumb men to distraction with shiny bouffant hair and swinging hips. And whereas Rowley is made to sound desperate, Jo Johnson sounds firmly in control of the scene that she’s setting and the game she is playing. If you try to untuck her T-shirt and let down her hair, her reaction will be swift and devastating - I’ll blow you off the face of this earth/You’ll be as bloody as you were at birth. It’s those Abel Ferrara vibes again…
In true Huggy Bear style, this kind of sexual honeytrap to violence could be sprung both in the meat markets of clubs and pubs as well as in more mundane settings. Johnson intends to make sure that every head turns when she next goes to the post office.
Imagine the amount of onstage sexual tension that could be wrung out of a dance routine on either of these tracks. It’s a choreographer’s wet dream! The campaign for the work of Huggy Bear to be the next 90s jukebox musical starts here. If nothing else, it would have to be better than Viva Forever!
Videos courtesy of random content.
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