I was a teenager when this came out in 1974 and I remember being seduced by its jazzy rhythms and dreamy lyrics from the start. 'Seduced' is an appropriate word, because a look at the lyrics now confirms that it is about a woman seducing her man.
‘Let’s slip off to a sand dune, real soon,
and kick up a little dust’
The combination of its laid back rhythm and floaty, jazzy chords somehow conveys a dreamy (I wanted to say ‘steamy’ here but as deserts are lacking in moisture I’ll have to settle for...) hot atmosphere in which the love scene takes place.
The lyrics feature playful mid-sentence rhymes (‘sand dune, real soon’; ‘I’ll be your belly dancer, prancer’) and a poetic turn of phrase. There are even corny puns thrown in for good measure:
‘Cactus is our friend, he’ll point out the way’
and at times they get quite surprisingly explicit:
‘You won’t need a camel honey, when I take you for a ride.’
(How did they get away with that in a top ten hit back in 1974?)
Watching Maria Muldaur (full name Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato) seductively shaking her bare midriff as she bounces and slaps her tambourine against her hip, I find she and her fantastic song can still cast their hypnotic spell over me.
Desert Island Discs
1 - Midnight At The Oasis
'Heaven’s Holding
a Half Moon’
2 - Drive-In Saturday
‘Jung the Foreman
Prayed at Work...’
3 - Virginia Plain
Make Me a Deal,
and Make it Straight!’
4 - Au Fond du Temple Saint
‘At the Back of
the Holy Temple’
5 - Kid
‘Angry Tears Are Too Dear,
You Won’t Let Them Go’
6 - Burning Down The House
‘Watch Out! You Might
Get What You’re After'
7 - Riders on the Storm
‘There’s a Killer on the Road’
8 - Across the Universe
'Words are Flowing Out
Like Endless Rain
into a Paper Cup'