This song was written and performed by the Rolling Stones. It was released in 1967, which was the same year that the idea of the summer of love was born. The summer of love was a social gathering and event that took place in San Francisco. Anyone who supported and practiced the hippie culture and lifestyle were welcome to join this massive gathering. This became one of the biggest motivating factors for the sexual revolution and the hippie culture. Hundreds of people gathered in San Francisco to celebrate peace and the free love movement which was all the rave in the late 60s. “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” was definitely on theme with the events and happenings of the era. As expressed in the title of the song, it talks about a man wanting to spend the night with his lover. It portrays a young guy nervously building up the courage to ask his partner to spend the night with him, which is basically referring to sex. The Stones were already big in the rock and roll scene in ‘67 and the fact that they were making a song about directly about sex was significant and this helped spark the sexual revolution even more. The song is well known for its overtly sexual message and sexually charged lyrics, this caused it from being banned on several radio stations. Some stations chose to play it but bleeped the word “night,” out of the song so as not to make it too scandalous. It was considered so racy for the time that even China ban it along with 4 other Stones’ songs all over their country. A funny thing to note about the song is that it is said to be referencing a previous hit by the Stones called, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” In the lyrics of “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” the singer talks about finally being satisfied possibly by his lover. This addresses the previous songs’ message about the singer’s struggle of not getting any satisfaction. The previous song is also rumoured to be referencing sex and the frustration of not getting any satisfaction from it .

This song was famously featured on the Ed Sullivan Show. This is the same show that censored many performances during that era. One example was, Elvis’ performance in the late 50s. They considered his dancing too sexual and they were afraid of the reaction that it will stir up with the young female audiences. In light of that, they cut out Elvis’ bottom half for his whole performance so as to make it family friendly.  Ed Sullivan originally did not want the Rolling Stones to perform the song on the show at all, but after several negotiations they have reached a compromise. They agreed to let the Stones perform on the show with the condition that they had to change the lyrics from “let’s spend the night together” to “let’s spend some time together.” They were required to omit the word night as it was considered too much for the public audience of 1967. The Stones agreed to perform but were definitely against the censorship. Every time the band would sing the chorus, Mick Jagger can be seen rolling his eyes in protest and to show the fans that they did not want the changing of the lyrics. This shows the type of tension present between the younger and older generations. This tension and disagreement of social norms and traditional values was what caused a sexual revolution to take place in the beginning and this battle can be seen for many years to come. The song was covered by David Bowie in the early 70s and he gave the song a twist of his own. In the Stones’ version they sang it as if a young teenage boy was tryingto gather up the courage to ask a girl to have sex. In Bowie’s version he does the opposite. It’s not so much asking but more so telling the other person that they are going to spend the night together. This shows the evolution and the progress that the revolution has caused in only a span of a few years. In the 70s artists finally feel a little more comfortable expressing themselves and their sexualities. More artist are choosing to embrace sex and incorporate it into their songs. This can be seen in the likes of Prince, Marvin Gaye, Donna Summer and many more. However unfortunately, even in the present day, sex and relating topics are still often considered and seen as taboo. Society as a whole has made many strides towards the evolution of this matter, but some things never really change. Although there has been a significant amount of progress with this movement, the sexual revolution is still very much alive to this day.

Nicole Torres