-in-
― Antifa Sandwich Artist (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 13 June 2022 19:16 (one year ago) link
Well, you have to think that Bono is a shitty lay, so that makes sense.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 13 June 2022 19:16 (one year ago) link
okay thanks for soiling my water
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 June 2022 19:19 (one year ago) link
― butt-mooning is a polysemous word, hoss! (breastcrawl), Monday, 13 June 2022 19:25 (one year ago) link
No serious dicking, for sure.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 13 June 2022 19:31 (one year ago) link
Hasn't Bono had the same girlfriend/ wife since childhood? So I can imagine his grasp on wooing, romancing, and heartbreak is tenuous.
Perhaps because of that, for Bono, romantic love is a metaphor for religion, and his "love" songs are almost always religious in character. Cf. "She moves in mysterious ways," that's a little too on the nose. Some of the same for Al Green, who has said "You Ought to Be With Me" was never about a woman.
Some have suggested that for Marvin Gaye, sexual freedom and human freedom are metaphors for one another.
― Nutellanor Roosevelt (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 14 June 2022 00:06 (one year ago) link
In actuality, romantic love is a metaphor for the Mexican Revolution. Which was itself a metaphor for pizza.
― Nutellanor Roosevelt (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 14 June 2022 00:08 (one year ago) link
She Looks Like Me,WithPlastic Jewels,On Low Rent Crown,IN TACKY VERSION OF BOB’S (“THE DRESS” ) MACKIE…SINGING”STILL HAVENT FOUND WHAT IM LOOKING FOR” FLAT🤮— Cher (@cher) June 11, 2022
― butt-mooning is a polysemous word, hoss! (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 14 June 2022 09:11 (one year ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/624-the-problem-with-ed-sheeran-and-nice-guys-like-him/
― corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 21 June 2022 09:03 (one year ago) link
Maybe the character in Don't You Want Me isn't intentionally a dick, but surely Phil Oakey knew he was writing him that way.
Definitely. I remember an interview where he mentioned how bemused he is when people tell him it's one of the great love songs: "It's about coercion."
― Vast Halo, Tuesday, 21 June 2022 16:33 (one year ago) link
"I'll Be Doggone," an amazing composition/performance/recording, is unfortunately one of these:
I'll be doggone if you ain't a pretty thingAnd I'll be doggone if you ain't warm as a breath of springAnd if we live to be a hundred years oldIf you ever let that spring turn coldThen I wouldn't be doggoneHey, I'd be long gone
And if we live to be a hundred years oldIf you ever let that spring turn coldThen I wouldn't be doggoneHey, I'd be long gone
Like, okay buddy, we're both a hundred but sure, go play the field.
Well, every woman should try to beWhatever her man wants her to beAnd I don't want muchAll I want from youIs for you to be true to me
As well, all my life, I've thought Marvin Gaye then put the cherry on top by muttering "fetch me a drink" during the fade-out. But it's actually "catch me a train," which does admittedly fit the overall conceit better.
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 3 August 2022 22:38 (one year ago) link
some low-hanging fruit here. I only just now heard this song for the first time - it was a US number one hit in 2000, and as such is covered today by Tom Breihan in his Stereogum column. someone in the comments called it “the ultimate incel power ballad”:Somewhere there's speakingIt's already coming inOh and it's rising at the back of your mindYou never could get itUnless you were fed itNow you're here and you don't know whyBut under skinned knees and the skid marksPast the places where you used to learnYou howl and listenListen and wait for theEchoes of angels who won't returnHe's everything you wantHe's everything you needHe's everything inside of youThat you wish you could beHe says all the right thingsAt exactly the right timeBut he means nothing to youAnd you don't know whyYou're waiting for someoneTo put you togetherYou're waiting for someone to push you awayThere's always another wound to discoverThere's always something more you wish he'd sayHe's everything you wantHe's everything you needHe's everything inside of youThat you wish you could beHe says all the right thingsAt exactly the right timeBut he means nothing to youAnd you don't know whyBut you'll just sit tightAnd watch it unwindIt's only what you're asking forAnd you'll be just fineWith all of your timeIt's only what you're waiting forOut of the islandInto the highwayPast the places where you might have turnedYou never did noticeBut you still hide awayThe anger of angels who won't returnHe's everything you wantHe's everything you needHe's everything inside of youThat you wish you could beHe says all the right thingsAt exactly the right timeBut he means nothing to youAnd you don't know why
― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Wednesday, 17 August 2022 18:36 (one year ago) link
nice eh? but wait, Mr Vertical Horizon felt he hadn’t been enough of a serious dick without meaning to yet, so he thought he’d spell it out some more in the final chorus:*I am* everything you want*I am* everything you need*I am* everything inside of youThat you wish you could be*I say* all the right thingsAt exactly the right timeBut *I* mean nothing to you and *I* don't know whyAnd *I* don't know whyWhy*I* don't know
― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Wednesday, 17 August 2022 18:40 (one year ago) link
excellent pick imo. also never actually noticed any of the words to the verses past the first line, and they really do compound the judging/patronizing jerk portrait. it's particularly striking since (at least based on their other two hits off that album), Mr. Vertical Horizon is otherwise an evasive and vague lyricist to the point of near-incoherence...
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 17 August 2022 19:29 (one year ago) link
Even in the 70's this was a bit of an eye-roller, this lil' tidbit from "Summer Breeze":
And I come home from a hard day's workAnd you're waiting thereNot a care in the world
― henry s, Wednesday, 17 August 2022 19:33 (one year ago) link
I always thought Lou Bega came off like sort of a dick. Does Angela know about Pamela, Monica, Rita...?
― frogbs, Wednesday, 17 August 2022 19:37 (one year ago) link
I always kinda thought Adele came off like a dick in Hello, especially this line...
Hello from the outsideAt least I can say that I've triedTo tell you I'm sorry for breaking your heartBut it don't matter, it clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore
Like leave the poor guy alone, you broke his heart and he's happy now and you're upset he isn't hurt anymore?
― Will (kruezer2), Wednesday, 17 August 2022 19:45 (one year ago) link
lol, the Vertical Horizon song basically described me in my late teens/early 20s. very much an incel anthem (I was v much an incel then myself), the whole "I am empirically the right match for you because I check off all of your imaginary boxes, ergo this proves you should be with me and are wronging me by choosing someone else!"
also, to me, "saying the right things at exactly the right time" isn't a synonym for "being a comforting person", I know it's a common turn of phrase, but to me it's always read so transactional. "I rehearsed the things that I've been told are the things i should say to you when you are upset, ergo now I should get something out of it in return, right?".
― Weltanschauung Dunston (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 17 August 2022 22:30 (one year ago) link
I thought that song was about Jesus?
― brimstead, Wednesday, 17 August 2022 23:22 (one year ago) link
Omg, the explanation from the band even worse
I was in love with this girl, and she was just a broken person. She kept turning to everyone except me for love and acceptance, and I wanted so much to help her. I wanted to be the one to give her everything she wanted, but I couldn't. She just couldn't accept it from me, and it was that pain, that led me to creating the song.
― Weltanschauung Dunston (Neanderthal), Thursday, 18 August 2022 00:07 (one year ago) link
I have no words for how repulsive that song was and remains. Truly genuinely nauseating. 🤮 to infinity He’s that guy with the poster boards in Love Actually but a little worse bc that was a character. This fool is real.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, 18 August 2022 00:28 (one year ago) link
she just couldn't accept it from me
― Weltanschauung Dunston (Neanderthal), Thursday, 18 August 2022 00:51 (one year ago) link
there is something deeply wrong with every sentence in that explanation
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, 18 August 2022 00:58 (one year ago) link
If you can't feed your baby (yeah, yeah)Then don't have a baby (yeah, yeah)And don't think maybe (yeah, yeah)If you can't feed your baby (yeah, yeah)You'll be always tryin'To stop that child from cryin'Hustlin', stealin', lyin'Now baby's slowly dyin'
― ledge, Monday, 22 May 2023 09:40 (eleven months ago) link
Pretty Woman, in which Roy Orbison claims he 'needs' a woman he's only just seen, threatens to cry if she ignores him.
― ledge, Monday, 22 May 2023 09:58 (eleven months ago) link
a classic trope, similarly employed by James Blunt in Beautiful
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 22 May 2023 10:06 (eleven months ago) link
and then there's come live with me by heaven 17, where the 37 year old singer does seem to be terminating his relationship with a 17 year old, though not without regrets, and the chorus is entirely unrepentant.
(i heard all three of these on the radio this weekend)
― ledge, Monday, 22 May 2023 10:10 (eleven months ago) link
Do They Know It's Christmas
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 22 May 2023 10:22 (eleven months ago) link
Yeah lol Ethiopia had been predominantly Christian for more than a thousand years when that song was written
― she works hard for the monkey (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 22 May 2023 12:01 (eleven months ago) link
YACHT GUY: there's a world outside your window,
― hiroyoshi tins in (Sgt. Biscuits), Monday, 22 May 2023 12:35 (eleven months ago) link
Song is obviously a metaphor for the cocaine business
― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Monday, 22 May 2023 13:52 (eleven months ago) link
"Gentle on My Mind" Glen Campbell ... actually about 20 of his 60s hits which were all about movin' on and the chicks dealing with it. "You're Young and You'll Forget" particularly sympathetic.
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 26 June 2023 08:05 (ten months ago) link
That's an old folk/country trope - the ramblin' man who can't be tied down.
― Renaissance of the Celtic Trumpet (Tom D.), Monday, 26 June 2023 08:29 (ten months ago) link
yeah, but he goes pretty hard
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 26 June 2023 08:41 (ten months ago) link
Indeed, this put me in mind of Led Zep's "Ramble On", which fits the thread's premise rather well. The protagonist is making his excuses (after a "pleasant stay") and announces that he's actually on a mission to free his true love, who has been kidnapped by [checks notes] Gollum and Sauron.
On my way, I've been this way ten years to the dayI gotta ramble on, I gotta find the queen of all my dreams
So, this happened ten years ago, but he's no closer to rescuing her and has somehow found plenty of time to sit around boozing with his latest host (""Our health" we drank a thousand times"). What an asshole.
― Vast Halo, Monday, 26 June 2023 08:52 (ten months ago) link
maybe he's an elf, they live for centuries so they see time differently
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 26 June 2023 09:31 (ten months ago) link
always thought it was something about "feet dragged a thousand times," which i guess doesn't help his case either.
― got it in the blood, the kid's a pelican (Doctor Casino), Monday, 26 June 2023 14:00 (ten months ago) link
Leslie Gore, “Judy's Turn to Cry”She doesn’t sound too concerned about the poor “other guy” who got a knuckle sandwich!!(plus, this song suxx)(also, releasing an “answer song” to your own single feels thirsty AF)
― Bittern Storm Over My Hammy (morrisp), Monday, 26 June 2023 15:14 (ten months ago) link
I mean it's kind of a song cycle, if only she'd have written more songs re: Judy
― sad Mings of dynasty (Neanderthal), Monday, 26 June 2023 15:16 (ten months ago) link
(well, released, not written)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtFqzTcWTBE
― slugbuggy, life has new meaning to me (breastcrawl), Monday, 26 June 2023 15:37 (ten months ago) link
I can't believe I never cited Leslie Gore itt! Both of the Judy songs are perfect examples. The protagonist comes off as somewhat of a sociopath, but also that was just kind of a thing in a lot of songs from the girl group era.
― Fish Sticks in the Fanny Pack (Old Lunch), Monday, 26 June 2023 15:55 (ten months ago) link
was listening to let's hear it for the boy and tbh the boy does not come off as a v nice person, he don't talk sweet, he ain't got much to say, he's no romeo, he's watching every dime... if it was a friend of mine I'd be like well maybe there's even better boys out there
singer seems ok though
― corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 09:05 (nine months ago) link
! Relatedly, a friend of mine recently pointed out that in Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract," almost every attribute used to describe the dude is negative.
He's messy, he's broke, he steals the covers, he smokes, etc.
"Let's Hear it for the Boy" and "Opposites Attract" are interesting bookends, to be sure.
In 1958 Tom Lehrer had a prescient song, "She's My Girl," meant to be a kind of response to these two songs.
In the spoken intro here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfJiVwfoRkU
Lehrer notes that there was (even then) a trope of women singing about guys who they loved even though they were repulsive and unsanitary.
He thought "She's My Girl" would be a useful corrective from the other perspective.
Granted, Billy Joel was only 10 years old at the time and therefore had not yet written "She's Always a Woman."
― pomplamoose and circumstance (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 10:46 (nine months ago) link
(xpost) Very true, I always thought that her boyfriend actually doesn't sound like much of a catch. On a similar note, there's a song that was an inexplicably huge hit across Europe in 1996:
My love has got no money, he's got his strong beliefsMy love has got no power, he's got his strong beliefsFreed from desire, mind and senses purified
I always think, (a) he must be great fun at parties, and (b) he'd fit in really well on ILE.
― Vast Halo, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 11:23 (nine months ago) link
'Freed From Desire' has had a big resurgence in the last five years largely though being played at football matches - feels like the 'new' 'Seven Nation Army' in this respect.
― nashwan, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 11:37 (nine months ago) link
How did that come about? You do still hear it on the radio, but I can't see any particular connection with football.
― Vast Halo, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 11:45 (nine months ago) link
My wife, who's French, had a big "MIND BLOWN" moment hearing that on the radio recently and understanding the lyrics for the first time. Growing up, this and every other English song was of course sung along to with "nanananana" only.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 11:48 (nine months ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freed_from_Desire#Usage_in_football
― slugbuggy, life has new meaning to me (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 12:08 (nine months ago) link
re. 'Freed From Desire' being a football chant, the words can be easily changed to something football related, and then everyone can join in on the na na na bits. really started to take off when the Northern Ireland fans sang "Will Greg's on fire, your defence is terrified" during the Euro 2016 finals, other fans started copying it. I think the N Ireland fans were being a bit ironic as Will Greg didn't play much?
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 12:15 (nine months ago) link