My Maria Muldaur Teen Age Crush

Midnight at the Oasis

Back in the 1970s I was quite taken by singer song writer and hippie chick Maria Muldaur. Although I had never seen a photograph of her, didn't really know her name, or even the name of her hit song until years later my teen age imagination and post pubescent sex drive knew that she just had to be "totally hot" based solely upon the way she sang the seductive lyrics of Midnight at the Oasis.


Photo by David Harter - An In Concert Maria Muldaur (1974)

I have a clear recollection of listening to Midnight at the Oasis as a teenage boy while sitting atop the roof of my childhood home. The sun had just set, and there I was listening to her incredible voice. Although I heard the song many times over the years it was that memory that comes to mind first whenever I hear her song. Funny how memory works. I even have the little transistor radio I listened to the song on - and it still works - someone find me a 9 Volt battery.


Rudolf Valentino - Let's Play Son of Sheik

The lyrics of Midnight at the Oasis speak of an offer of a hot romantic interlude in which the woman willingly submits to her man's desires, telling him he needs no harem, because she'll be right by his side. The submission, like the song itself, is cast in a romantic and playful way.

I'll be your belly dancer, and you can be my sheik most certainly brings to mind scenes of the silent picture era's Son of Sheik, or perhaps from the Baby Boomer television series I Dream of Jeanie.


Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman in I Dream of Jeanie

In any case Maria Muldaur's unique meandering style led more than one teen age boy to wonder what it would be like to have Cactus as their friend.


Maria Muldaur - One Hour Mama

I found a video of Maria Muldaur on Youtube made recently. Maria has aged, and put on some pounds like most Baby Boomers, but she's still singing in a unique style that somewhat reminds me of Billie Holiday. While Ms. Muldaur is no longer the hippie chick, but instead an elder jazz songstress - I still find her intriguing.