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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten 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 (ten months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNf2l9SuHHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOgJniA-2PE
― slugbuggy, life has new meaning to me (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 12:22 (ten months ago) link
The male in "Let's Hear It For the Boy" seems to be a shy guy who struggles to express himself but whose feelings are strong. If anything, the singer's attitude is a little patronizing.
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 27 June 2023 14:42 (ten months ago) link
Sounds like he’s good at fucking
― Alito Bit of Soap (President Keyes), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 14:43 (ten months ago) link
Yeah, I think that's part of the implication (not sure why we're being asked to cheer that, though; seems like a private matter).
― Bittern Storm Over My Hammy (morrisp), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 14:47 (ten months ago) link
let's hear it for the dong
― sad Mings of dynasty (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 14:48 (ten months ago) link
songs where the protagonist has a serious dick
― sad Mings of dynasty (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 14:51 (ten months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJncHEZ3URs
― pomplamoose and circumstance (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 27 June 2023 15:01 (ten months ago) link
“Banks of Sweet Primroses” qualifies, at least in the versions I know, but is also totally baffling. Narrator hits on a beautiful lady who appears to be weeping, promises that he’ll fix everything if she will grant him “one small relief.” Then she reveals that the narrator, who apparently didn’t recognize her, is in fact the cause of her weeping, and plans to go off to some lonesome valley. Final verse:
So come all young men who go a-sailingPray pay attention to what I sayFor there's many a dark and a cloudy morningTurns out to be a sunshiny day
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 04:10 (ten months ago) link
I always thought "No Scrubs" was mean
― frogbs, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 04:28 (ten months ago) link
dylan's don't think twice is a piece of self-justifying, smug, passive-aggressive, deep cuntography.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 04:34 (ten months ago) link
if dylan meant to be a dick with don't think twice, it's only because he knows no other mode of being.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 04:35 (ten months ago) link
to wit:
I once loved a woman, a child, I'm toldI gave her my heart but she wanted my soul
Goodbye's too good a word, babeSo I'll just say, "Fare thee well"I ain't a-saying you treated me unkindYou could've done better but I don't mindYou just kinda wasted my precious time
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 04:37 (ten months ago) link
"Don't Think Twice It's Alright" is one where I really have a hard time sympathizing with the speaker -- he sounds like such a mean and bitter person beneath all the maudlin self-pity.― five six and (man alive), Thursday, August 27, 2015 9:10 AM (seven years ago)I think Dylan totally means to be a dick though― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, August 27, 2015 9:17 AM (seven years ago)
― five six and (man alive), Thursday, August 27, 2015 9:10 AM (seven years ago)
I think Dylan totally means to be a dick though
― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, August 27, 2015 9:17 AM (seven years ago)
― Bittern Storm Over My Hammy (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 05:14 (ten months ago) link
(It may be true that Dylan "knows no other way of being," but that fact doesn't necessarily shoehorn a "purposefully dickish" song into qualifying for this thread...?)
― Bittern Storm Over My Hammy (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 05:16 (ten months ago) link
my contention here is that dylan cannot be purposely dickish because he has no idea what being not-a-dick would mean.
― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 05:33 (ten months ago) link
I always thought "No Scrubs" was mean― frogbs, Wednesday, June 28, 2023 12:28 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― frogbs, Wednesday, June 28, 2023 12:28 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Agreed. Total classist bullshit. As a poor guy in 1999, it really stung.
― peace, man, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 12:03 (ten months ago) link