I know what you mean but I'm pretty sure the song was expressly designed to annoy hippies.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 23:58 (four years ago) link
“Now, look, I like him too...”luv that line
― stan by me (morrisp), Thursday, 4 July 2019 00:09 (four years ago) link
While we're on the subject of George sounding like a dick, what about "Everything She Wants"?
"Now you tell me that you're having a baby / I'll tell you that I'm happy if you want me to..."
― Velcromancer (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 4 July 2019 11:27 (four years ago) link
"You say it best when you say nothing at all" ?
ouch
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Thursday, 4 July 2019 11:56 (four years ago) link
Someone suggested the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon upthread, but that really overlooks the irony and the ambiguity, both of which were clearly intended.
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Thursday, 4 July 2019 18:47 (four years ago) link
i've been rocking the first Buffalo Springfield album a lot and it's great but FULL of these, e.g. "You won't accept the fact that I'm not ready for the death of our forever love"
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 20 November 2019 17:55 (four years ago) link
"get some sleep and dream of rock'n'roll"
I used to listen to AFN, and the dj that was on right before Wolf an Jack would use that line as his sign-off. Never knew that's where it came from!
― Mark G, Wednesday, 20 November 2019 20:39 (four years ago) link
Yeah, AM radio reception was always ropey
― Mark G, Wednesday, 20 November 2019 20:40 (four years ago) link
I love Emmitt Rhodes album but the sentiment on this song always makes me rmde:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEuiyOcGfz8
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 5 February 2020 18:32 (four years ago) link
It Takes Two, in which Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston go to great lengths to make single people feel really fucking miserable.
One can have a broken heart, living in miseryTwo can really ease the pain like a perfect remedy
You're single and depressed? Suck it, loser!
One can go out to a movie looking for a special treatTwo can make that single movie something really kind of sweetAnd one can take a walk in the moonlight thinking that's it's really niceBut two lovers walking hand in hand is like adding just a pinch of spice
Oh you think you're happy being on your own? Nope!
― Paperbag raita (ledge), Monday, 24 February 2020 16:25 (four years ago) link
counterpoint: no one can ever break your heart if you stay single forever, whereas someone's liable to break it again if you get back the dating game after a breakup
― nothing in the dialog (unregistered), Monday, 24 February 2020 16:52 (four years ago) link
also movies are better alone
Someone suggested the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon upthread, but that really overlooks the irony and the ambiguity, both of which were clearly intended.Bingo. By the poster's logic, you could accuse Randy Newman of being a dick in most every song.
― TO BE A JAZZ SINGER YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SCAT (Jazzbo), Monday, 24 February 2020 16:57 (four years ago) link
My Lean Baby, sung by Sinatra (lyrics by Roy Alfred) is slightly wtf.
My lean baby - tall and thinFive feet seven - of bones and skinBut when she tells me maybe she loves meI feel as mellow as a fellow can be
She's so skinny - she's so drawnWhen she stands sideways - you (would) think (that) she's goneBut when she calls me: "baby" - I feel fineTo think she's frantically, romantically mine
She's slender, but she's tenderShe makes my heart surrenderAnd every night, when I hold her tightThe feeling is nice - my arms can go around twice
My lean baby - she's so slimA broomstick's wider - but not as trimAnd when she starts to kiss me - then I knowI love her so, I'll never, ever, let her go
My lean baby - strange to seeAnd all that nothing - it belongs to meAnd though she may be scrawny - she's okBecause I wouldn't want her any other way
I chased her - and I caught herThen a diamond ring - I bought her(hey) the diamonds shine - the ring is so fineBut here is the twist - she wears it right on her wrist
My lean baby - tall and thin...(do-do-do-do-do,...)
― MaresNest, Wednesday, May 23, 2018 12:57 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink
What in the ever-loving fuckity-fuck is this?!?!
― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 19 July 2020 04:00 (three years ago) link
good lord
― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 19 July 2020 13:26 (three years ago) link
Seconding (only seconding!?) Stills' "Love the one You're With." Sounds like the hoariest of pick-up lines. "And if you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with." Barf.
Dion's "The Wanderer" is pretty dire on this front, too.
"Oh well, I'm the type of guy who will never settle downWhere pretty girls are, well you know that I'm aroundI kiss 'em and I love 'em cause to me they're all the sameI hug 'em and I squeeze 'em they don't even know my name"
Yeah, you should be so proud, Dion.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 19 July 2020 13:55 (three years ago) link
the hollies' "hey carrie anne"
You were always something special to meQuite independent, never caringYou lost your charm as you were agingWhere is your magic disappearing?
― clouds, Sunday, 19 July 2020 14:08 (three years ago) link
LOL, There's dozens of those 'ramblin' man/no woman can hold me down and didn't I tell you that once?' songs in folk and blues.
― The Fields o' Fat Henry (Tom D.), Sunday, 19 July 2020 14:09 (three years ago) link
(xp)
― The Fields o' Fat Henry (Tom D.), Sunday, 19 July 2020 14:12 (three years ago) link
xxpost My theory re: 'The Wanderer' is that the Rosie tattooed on his chest (you know, the one he loves the best) has the last name Five-Fingers.
― Why does this relates to Yoda? (Old Lunch), Sunday, 19 July 2020 14:16 (three years ago) link
(hey) the diamonds shine - the ring is so fineBut here is the twist - she wears it right on her wrist
So his 'lean baby' is an ethereal figment of his imagination?
― pomenitul, Sunday, 19 July 2020 14:21 (three years ago) link
I kiss 'em and I love 'em cause to me they're all the sameI hug 'em and I squeeze 'em they don't even know my name
When you're a celebrity they let you do it.
― Hereward the Woke (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 19 July 2020 14:30 (three years ago) link
(xp) What?
― The Fields o' Fat Henry (Tom D.), Sunday, 19 July 2020 14:35 (three years ago) link
"my lean baby" possibly based on "has anybody seen my gal? (five foot two, eyes of blue)"
― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Sunday, 19 July 2020 15:02 (three years ago) link
Her corporeal form is so slender as to be ghostly, borderline nonexistent.
― pomenitul, Sunday, 19 July 2020 15:11 (three years ago) link
My wife's so skinny her wedding ring fits on her wrist seems to be the joke there.
― The Fields o' Fat Henry (Tom D.), Sunday, 19 July 2020 16:08 (three years ago) link
I know, I'm just taking it a step further to emphasize its bizarreness.
― pomenitul, Sunday, 19 July 2020 16:09 (three years ago) link
I don't think it's that bizarre, it's just a bunch of skinny jokes corralled into a comic song.
― The Fields o' Fat Henry (Tom D.), Sunday, 19 July 2020 16:11 (three years ago) link
More revives need to start off with “What in the ever-loving fuckity-fuck is this?!?!” IMO
― sound of scampo talk to me (El Tomboto), Sunday, 19 July 2020 16:16 (three years ago) link
More Sinatra songs should have started off that way, as well.
― Why does this relates to Yoda? (Old Lunch), Sunday, 19 July 2020 16:21 (three years ago) link
Dion knows he's being a dick:
Oh, well I roam from town to townI go through life without a careAnd I'm as happy as a clownAnd with my two fists of iron but I'm going nowhere
― Kim Kimberly, Sunday, 19 July 2020 16:22 (three years ago) link
Re. “My Lean Baby”; there seems to be a point where the Singer /Protagonist Sounds Like a Dick Without Meaning To genre encroaches onto Accidental Randy Newman territory.
― Master of Treacle, Sunday, 19 July 2020 17:49 (three years ago) link
BMX Bandits wrote Your Class in response to Love The One You're With. Not sure off the top of my head how many answer songs there are to those by dick protagonists, but I would suspect a fair few
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 19 July 2020 18:28 (three years ago) link
From the wiki page on Tom Rapp's 1973 album, "Stardancer":
"Love/Sex" is a riposte to Stephen Stills' "Love The One You're With", containing the line "Love will get you through times of no sex / Better than sex will get you through times of no love",
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Sunday, 19 July 2020 18:30 (three years ago) link
re: "My Lean Baby" and "accidental Randy Newman," Cliff Richard's "Living Doll" may also qualify:
Got myself a cryin', talkin', sleepin', walkin', livin' dollGot to do my best to please her just 'cause she's a livin' dollGot a roamin' eye and that is why she satisfies my soulGot the one and only walkin', talkin', livin' dollTake a look at her hair, it's realIf you don't believe what I say, just feelI'm gonna lock her up in a trunk so no big hunkCan steal her away from me
― Doctor Casino, Monday, 20 July 2020 11:59 (three years ago) link
Now that is creepy!
― Sonny Shamrock (Tom D.), Monday, 20 July 2020 12:04 (three years ago) link
Turns out Mark Lindsay, of "Arizona" fame, was shaming hippie chicks as early as 1967!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgFj1ThNCfY
Now you went away, you were taking the big tripParted with appropriate sighsWell and now you come back girl and you're talking so hipGot that glassy look in your eyesOh, Mo'reen, girl you look so cleanBut I know, Mo'reen, you're not what you seem
Oh, Mo'reen, girl you look so cleanBut I know, Mo'reen, you're not what you seem
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 12 August 2020 16:04 (three years ago) link
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51agE-BHwyL.jpg
― brimstead, Sunday, 11 October 2020 21:10 (three years ago) link
look you have to assume he's talking about the sweater/scarf combo
― 1000 Scampo DJs (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 11 October 2020 21:43 (three years ago) link
Ctl-f "Waitress in the Sky"
― Brad C., Sunday, 11 October 2020 21:52 (three years ago) link
I thought he was meant to, as discussed on the other thread.
― She Thinks I Will Dare (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 11 October 2020 21:55 (three years ago) link
#MoreThanOneThread
I'm sure he knew he was coming off as a dick but I think he underestimated how seriously dickish he sounds
― Brad C., Sunday, 11 October 2020 22:02 (three years ago) link
Isn't the story that his sister was an air hostess/stewardess and the song was from the point of view of one of her antagonists?
― She Thinks I Will Dare (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 11 October 2020 22:41 (three years ago) link
I wonder what she thought about it
some of my irritation with this song stems from its misogyny and some from its being such an earworm
― Brad C., Sunday, 11 October 2020 22:55 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP0aRVlWEuo
First, she tells her fiancé that she only got the other guy's letter "yesterday"; implying she didn't have time to respond before his train arrives. But later, in the bridge, she says: Well I never answered his letter / I just couldn't tell him that way.... Sounds like she's not being entirely forthright about when the letter arrived?
Second – I get why she didn't want to tell the guy in writing that she's engaged. But couldn't she at least pick up the phone? Her plan is to be standing there when he steps off the train; show him the ring on her finger; and leave him standing in Penn Station with a duffel bag on his shoulder and his d--k hanging out?
― stuck in the version layer (morrisp), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 17:28 (three years ago) link
"Yesterday" can mean "the recent past", rather than the day before today.
― everything, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 20:03 (three years ago) link
“Yesterday, I got this letter”? I don’t think she’s speaking poetically!
― stuck in the version layer (morrisp), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 20:27 (three years ago) link
Unreliable narrator. The singer is telling the story from the psych ward, where she was committed after enduring the traumas described in previous Shangri-Las songs and suffering a nervous breakdown.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 23:43 (three years ago) link
think perhaps we need another thread along the lines of "would these lyrics stand up to scrutiny in a court of law?"
― Bastard Lakes (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 23:50 (three years ago) link