And then there are some true oddities: Roy Brown's "Butcher Pete," which has to be the first song to lyrically meld cannibalism and cunnilingus (a two-part single, this collection only contains the first side of the story: for optimal impact, check out Rhino's Roy Brown anthology Good Rockin' Tonight, which contains all the highlights of this seminal New Orleans belter's career); Eddie Davis' "Mountain Oysters," which is exactly about what you think it's about and "Laundromat Blues," which shows that you can pull a good innuendo out of even the most mundane setting. Listening to Wynonie Harris tell his lover to "keep on churnin' 'til the butter comes," you can't help grinning at the way singer and band make this fairly crass metaphor ("Look out, heifer! Here comes your bull!") so happily rollicking.

Some of the disc's other highlights come from woman vocalists: Dinah Washington gets two tracks - her ode to a dentist, "Long John Blues," is a masterwork of sultry songwork; Kansas City jazz pianist Julia Lee isn't repped by her bigger hit smut tunes ("Snatch It And Grab It" or "King-Size Papa") but a lesser-known-but-still-potent track entitled "My Man Stands Out;" while the relatively unknown Myra Johnson gets to shout-and-boast about an anthropomorphic dick in Lucky Millander's "Silent George." Mainstream radio avoided most of this stuff like it was venereal disease, but you just know it was a hit in juke joints across the country.

Risque Rhythm was a, err, seminal collection for me, as my purchasing it back in the early 90's spurred me to more fully investigate early rhythm-and-blues. Prior to this release, I always assumed that the fifties era revulsion to that dirty rock 'n' roll music was just so much hot air. Listening to this stuff - which I bet was being quoted in pulpits more than it was actually being broadcast on the airwaves - you can hear what so fired the blue-noses. "It ain't the meat, it's the motion," but definitely. . .