Your Sex Takes Me to Paradise
I first heard this catchy song (back in 2012) & was surprised but delighted at such overtly raunchy words being given airplay
Locked Out of Heaven — Bruno Mars
One, two, one, two, three
Oh yeah yeah Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, uh! Oh yeah yeah Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, uh!
Never had much faith in love or miracles (miracles) uh! Never wanna put my heart on the line, uh! But swimming in your water is something spiritual (spiritual) uh! I’m born again every time you spend the night, uh!
’Cause your sex takes me to paradise Yeah your sex takes me to paradise And it shows, yeah, yeah, yeah ’Cause you make me feel like, I’ve been locked out of Heaven For too long, for too long Yeah you make me feel like, I’ve been locked out of Heaven For too long, for too long
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, uh! Oh yeah yeah Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, uh!
You bring me to my knees You make me testify, uh! You can make a sinner change his ways, uh! Open up your gates ’cause I can’t wait to see the light, uh! And right there is where I wanna stay, uh!
’Cause your sex takes me to paradise Yeah your sex takes me to paradise And it shows, yeah, yeah, yeah ’Cause you make me feel like, I’ve been locked out of Heaven For too long, for too long Yeah you make me feel like, I’ve been locked out of Heaven For too long, for too long
Oh oh oh oh, yeah, yeah, yeah Can I just stay here? Spend the rest of my days here? Oh oh oh oh, yeah, yeah, yeah Can’t I just stay here? Spend the rest of my days here?
’Cause you make me feel like, I’ve been locked out of Heaven For too long, for too long Yeah you make me feel like, I’ve been locked out of Heaven For too long, for too long
Yeah you make me feel like, I’ve been locked out of Heaven For too long, for too long
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, uh! Oh yeah yeah Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah, uh!
It’s been common practice for decades that lyrics pertaining to sexual activity will be coded and veiled to give an air of propriety — sex was often referred to in terms of dance. This also ensured songs were played on as many radio stations as possible. In more recent years artists have got round this by releasing the original track for their album, but making “radio edits” where they doctor the lyrics to remove or disguise explicit wording. This has been happening less as society ‘broadens its mind’ but artists continue to push the envelope. They release songs for people to stream and download which contain more adult slang than ever before.
An example of explicit lyrics which springs to mind is WAP — a collaboration between Megan the Stallion and Cardi B. (Wet Ass P*ssy)
To get back on track and discuss Bruno’s lyrics for Locked out of Heaven…
What he is describing in this song is one of my favourite parts of a relationship — the really hot sexual discovery time when you cannot keep your hands off each another! While you’re learning about each other’s bodies, what you do and don’t like, what makes each other flutter, moan or even scream, you think about the person constantly, obsessively. You remember what you got up to when you were last entwined, or what you plan to do to/with them next time you get them alone. It’s an attitude or moment I often try to capture in my short erotic stories.
As a little (taboo) twist, the entire song is peppered with religious references. So when Bruno sings:
“You bring me to my knees You make me testify, uh!”
I hope you can, like me, relate to carnal experiences which were as good — (if not with another person, perhaps you have a toy which gets you there!)
“You can make a sinner change his ways, uh! Open up your gates ’cause I can’t wait to see the light, uh!”
Bruno is using the terminology of an incandescent religious moment to demonstrate the intensity of sensations twinned with emotion, but he’s also touched on a little taboo. (Madonna often uses this sex/religion juxtaposition to great effect — Like a Prayer for example.) Such sexual abandonment might be frowned on by those religions where the indoctrination has advised that marital relationships should concentrate on procreation alone, frowning on making the beast with two backs on the kitchen floor just because you feel like it!
I particularly like the euphemism ‘Open up your gates’ — it implies so much in so few words
Good sex is heavenly. It can transport participants to another place, filling them with satisfaction and peace where everything feels right. Bruno’s song celebrates that he has found his matching puzzle piece partner - he is adamant that his previous liaisons with others have not taken him there (you send me, as Sam Cooke sang in the hit from 1957). Bruno has effectively been ‘locked out of heaven’ for the longest time.
Mr Mars sings about immersing himself in his lover (swimming in your water) — a euphemism that’s both tactile and visual. So many elements of arousal and the sex act are wet or slippery. Yet this lyric also resonates with the freeing sensation and weightlessness that swimming can bring to our bodies.
He’s so happily obsessed with his new lover, Bruno Mars wants to ‘stay’ and never leave, the paradise they are finding together is a state in which he is keen to remain. ‘Spend the rest of my days here’ and I’m sure many can relate — either to remaining in the ‘climactic moment’ or (more practically) to the feeling where we’d rather stay in bed with our lover. Our intense feelings mean we can’t bear to separate, to be apart, even to do the normal mundane things in life like going to work/ meeting up with other people.
All the grunts in this song lend it an animalistic, primal feel.
The ‘Uhs!’ are reminiscent of the sound of physical release, climactic yes, but they might relate to the exhilarating swoop in one’s stomach (as delivered by a hump back bridge or a fast ride at the fair). Perhaps they refer to the jolt of shock to the body (like a punch in the solar plexus) that Bruno feels on realising how much this physical and emotional connection has affected him.
I love how the sound effects remind me of apes beating their chest, they’re wild, celebratory and sexy. I couldn’t help wondering if the singer laughed when he was recording them — because they’ve always given me the giggles.
Words & lyrics to Locked Out of Heaven by Mars/Lawrence/Levine — Interpretation, all my own!
Locked Out of Heaven lyrics © Universal Music Corp., Bughouse, Bmg Gold Songs, Thou Art The Hunger, Roc Nation Music, Music Famamanem Lp, Mars Force Music, Music Famamanem, Northside Independent Music Publishing, Llc, Hipgnosis Songs Fund LimitedMore by Posy Churchgate Say Goodbye Like You Mean It Whip It How Did we Get so Dark?
