That's My Song: Sex (I'm a...)

That's My Song: Sex (I'm a...)

"Sex..." My name's Christopher Robin. I do a 'zine called Zen Baby which has transgender and GLBT input.

Truthfully, a lot of the either punk or the new wave I listen to was very sexually out there and I kinda learned a lot about sex through records, since my family really didn't tell me very much.

[MUSIC: Feel the fire, feel my love inside you it's so right; It's the sound and the smell of love in my mind]

So, there were a lot of bands, not even necessarily punk, but like, Berlin was one of my favorite bands. You know how when you're young, you like have a band that you like totally worship? They only made two or three albums, and very few people even remember who they are. And they were sensational at the time. Very risque and very risk-taking in their lyrics.

They sung that song, "Sex, I'm a..."

[MUSIC: I'm a man; I'm a goddess; I'm a man; Well, I'm a virgin; I'm a man; I'm a bitch; I'm a man; I'm a geisha; I'm a man; I'm a little girl; And we make love together.]

It's a really good song. It was, back then, extremely risque and banned from a lot of radio stations. Because it's just basically just a song about how you know, women can have all these different roles during sex but the guy's like "I'm a man. I'm a man. I'm a man" and she was like, "Well, I'm bi, you know, I'm a hooker, I'm your mother," and he's like "I'm a man."

And she's trying to talk about how sexuality can be so fluid, you know? And that you can be so many different things. "I'm your mother. Yes, I'm a man. I'm a one-night stand. I'm a man. I'm bi. I'm a man. I'm a slave. I'm a man. I'm a little girl. We make love together."

They were fronted by this beautiful, tiny blond and she had beautiful big curly hair and she was short, and you know, then all these guys were dressed up real sharp as they did at the time, in suits and ties.

And it was kind of a synthesizer band. But her, you know her music, her vocals she's just sky high. She had such a range that, you know, you were just carried away with her music. I just really loved her. I just thought she was like the greatest. And I didn't realize the, you know, probably sexual thing until later.

Yeah, I fell in love with women all the time, then. And I didn't understand it. I just thought it was deep friendship, you know?

[MUSIC: Drink your fill from my fountain of love; wet your lips]

Whenever I would cry over like a lover or something, I would always listen to Berlin.

[MUSIC: I'm a man; I'm a one-night stand; I'm a man; I'm a drug; I'm a man]

I was listening to the second album and I was very distraught and I was crying because I was an emotional teenager as we all are at that age and so, I wrote her a letter and I said, "You know I just want to tell ya how much your song's really helping me right now because I'm going through such and such with this person, and I'm so upset and it's just your music is helping me so much."

She wrote me back a real actual note with blue pen and a nice note on lined paper, and a picture, an autographed picture, and she wrote me a personal note and said, you know, "I'm really glad that these songs have helped you and we all go through this, and thank you for writing."

And it was so beautiful. It just made my whole life that, you know, she actually took the time because they were pretty big at the time. She was the one I really loved, I just didn't understand the feelings. You know, because really I was in love with her. Same way I was in love with my third grade school teacher who was female, and my best friend when I was 10. And ... I still listen to the records because I'm a suspended adolescent. So, it's just fine.