Page 10 | Healthiest and Unhealthiest relationships in songs?

BernardBlacksMolluscs · 2026-09-12T08:59:10+00:00

As I was cleaning the house this morning I was musing on those songs that come on the radio that you've been singing along with for years where you suddenly actually listen to the lyrics and either think 'well you sound very sensible' or 'intervention. NOW'. Any one got any suggestions? The ones I came up with first were Healthy - Respect by Aretha Franklin. I know it's a cliche, and the guy she's singing about sounds like borderline not a keeper frankly, but I love the line 'I ain't gonna do you wrong, cause I don't want to'. She's all in, but she's still telling him how she expects to be treated Red buntingtastic - Never Gonna Give You Up - why wouldn't she get a full commitment from any other guy Rick, you gaslighting bastard? Anyone else fancy whiling away some weekend time thinking up some examples? (mumsnet's AI suggested a thread title of 'Songs that sound sensible or alarming once you really hear the lyrics' which I kind of love but decided not to go with!)

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BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:38

Justaquestionplease · 12/09/2026 13:36

A little bit more.

So creepy

When your bodies had enough of me.. I'm going to love you a little bit more.

Just gross

Yes! This is always one that makes me shudder

if her body’s had enough of you then leave her alone. This should not be complicated

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TFImBackIn · 12/09/2026 13:38

PuppyMonkey · 12/09/2026 10:17

I get a bit angry with that chap who has a wife and kid in Baltimore Jack and goes out for a ride and never came back.

i also worry that Dean Friedman and whoever is singing Lucky Stars with him aren’t going to last much longer with Lisa on the scene.

Yes me too about the man in Baltimore!

Justaquestionplease · 12/09/2026 13:36

A little bit more.

So creepy

When your bodies had enough of me.. I'm going to love you a little bit more.

Just gross

anewstartin2026 · 12/09/2026 13:36

BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:34

The whole tantric sex thing sounds like an actual nightmare

it would get in the way of mumsnetting, that’s for sure

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Perhaps one could Mumsnet whilst doing it, the whole tantric sex thing has always sounded quite slooooowwww to me.

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BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:34

hamnish · 12/09/2026 13:32

Sting does feel like very hard work, all round.

The whole tantric sex thing sounds like an actual nightmare

it would get in the way of mumsnetting, that’s for sure

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NotBadConsidering · 12/09/2026 13:33

anewstartin2026 · 12/09/2026 13:25

To those that mentioned Bruce’s I’m on Fire earlier, there’s an amazing cover version by Bat for Lashes that reverses the sexes - not sure if that makes it any better though! Gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it though.

I had a vague recollection of the accompanying video to Springsteen’s song that indicates the woman he desires is rich and “kept” by a wealthy older man who doesn’t deserve her, so I sought out the video and I think I’m right.

Either that or he loves the car, the lyrics work for both 🤔

Worth watching for peak Springsteen as a mechanic 🥵

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lrpXArn3hII&list=RDlrpXArn3hII&start_radio=1&pp=ygUcQnJ1Y2Ugc3ByaW5nc3RlZW4gaW0gb24gZmlyZaAHAQ%3D%3D&ra=m

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=RDlrpXArn3hII&pp=ygUcQnJ1Y2Ugc3ByaW5nc3RlZW4gaW0gb24gZmlyZaAHAQ%3D%3D&ra=m&start_radio=1&v=lrpXArn3hII

Lins77 · 12/09/2026 13:33

GailBlancheViola · 12/09/2026 13:29

I'll add I Can't Stand Losing You to those two particularly the following chilling lines

I guess this is our last goodbye
And you don't care, so I won't cry
But you'll be sorry when I'm dead
And all this guilt will be on your head
… I guess you'd call it suicide
But I'm too full to swallow my pride

Emotionally manipulative bastard.

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I've always heard it as that we're meant to see the narrator as a manipulative loser, though.

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BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:33

GailBlancheViola · 12/09/2026 13:29

I'll add I Can't Stand Losing You to those two particularly the following chilling lines

I guess this is our last goodbye
And you don't care, so I won't cry
But you'll be sorry when I'm dead
And all this guilt will be on your head
… I guess you'd call it suicide
But I'm too full to swallow my pride

Emotionally manipulative bastard.

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Just cos it rhymes Sting, doesn’t mean you should write it

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hamnish · 12/09/2026 13:32

Sting does feel like very hard work, all round.

GailBlancheViola · 12/09/2026 13:29

Weirdpig · 12/09/2026 10:25

Every Breath You Take and Don't Stand So Close To Me both come to mind.

I'll add I Can't Stand Losing You to those two particularly the following chilling lines

I guess this is our last goodbye
And you don't care, so I won't cry
But you'll be sorry when I'm dead
And all this guilt will be on your head
… I guess you'd call it suicide
But I'm too full to swallow my pride

Emotionally manipulative bastard.

Theonethatmakesmelaugh · 12/09/2026 13:29

BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:24

Yes, I think it’s that obliviousness that interests me. ‘But I’m a good guy, I just really love her’ kind of stuff

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Exactly. Like its totally normal and acceptable to engage in some form of abusive behaviour because you really love/fancy her.

Lins77 · 12/09/2026 13:28

There's this beauty from Glen Campbell -

It's knowing that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowing I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that are dried upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind.

AKA he'll stick around as long as you don't make any demands on him, woman!

Happysnappydays · 12/09/2026 13:25

I feel everyone needs the earworm I now have (I must have heard this a lot growing up as I remember it well!)

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/xN9xWZw8m1E?si=q-BnyAIZzyHN0N_Q

anewstartin2026 · 12/09/2026 13:25

To those that mentioned Bruce’s I’m on Fire earlier, there’s an amazing cover version by Bat for Lashes that reverses the sexes - not sure if that makes it any better though! Gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it though.

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BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:24

Theonethatmakesmelaugh · 12/09/2026 13:20

Well obviously it's a song that tells a horrific story, but somehow it's clear, to me at least, that Nick and Kylie are telling a story about other people; it's fairly obvious surely that the male character is an abusive monster and the female character is where our sympatheties lie. Indeed she sings about reclaiming her name which has been lost in her horrific murder. So although I accept that murdered women is a trope too often found in the arts, and I don't like it, there is actually a feminist reading of this song as trying to give some power back to an abused woman.

Whereas many of the songs on the unhealthy list seem wholly oblivious to the red flags contained in them.

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Yes, I think it’s that obliviousness that interests me. ‘But I’m a good guy, I just really love her’ kind of stuff

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BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:23

ArabellaScott · 12/09/2026 13:18

Ooh, you're right! I misheard!

Well, you should see Polythene Pam
She's so good-looking, but she looks like a man (Ah-ah-ah)
Well, you should see her in drag dressed in her polythene bag (Ohh-ohh)
Yes, you should see Polythene Pam (Ohh)

[Refrain]
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Get a dose of her in jackboots and kilt
She's killer-diller when she's dressed to the hilt (Ah-ah-ah)
She's the kind of a girl that makes The News of the World (Ohh-ohh)
Yes, you could say she was attractively built (Ohh)

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🎵she came in through the bathroom window

heaven knows what they were on about half the time but I do enjoy a 90 minute car journey where I can listen to that album end to end. It’s kind of all or nothing with abbey road

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Theonethatmakesmelaugh · 12/09/2026 13:23

hamnish · 12/09/2026 13:10

Is the lyric not, She’s so good looking, BUT she looks like a man, though?

‘Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman/But she was another man’ is a bit different.

If You’re Not The One by Daniel Bedingfield always struck me as the howl of an obsessive man who has been politely dumped, then impolitely dumped, then issued with a court order that he’s ignoring while standing outside his ex’s house having a breakdown.

Whereas Love Song by the Cure has always felt wholesome to me, in a gloomy Goth kind of way: Whenever I’m alone with you/You make me feel like I am home again.

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Robert Smith wrote Love Song for his wife for her 30th birthday. They got together when they were teenagers and are still together.

Theonethatmakesmelaugh · 12/09/2026 13:20

NooNakedJacuzziness · 12/09/2026 12:38

Where the Wild Roses Grow is definitely one for the unhealthy list! Are there any songs where the woman kills the man??

Well obviously it's a song that tells a horrific story, but somehow it's clear, to me at least, that Nick and Kylie are telling a story about other people; it's fairly obvious surely that the male character is an abusive monster and the female character is where our sympatheties lie. Indeed she sings about reclaiming her name which has been lost in her horrific murder. So although I accept that murdered women is a trope too often found in the arts, and I don't like it, there is actually a feminist reading of this song as trying to give some power back to an abused woman.

Whereas many of the songs on the unhealthy list seem wholly oblivious to the red flags contained in them.

Happysnappydays · 12/09/2026 13:20

Carole King's You've got a Friend has lovely lyrics, and an equally warm backstory

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BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:19

CrossPurposes · 12/09/2026 13:16

The ultimate unhealthy relationship song might be "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush.

Dear god yes. I loved the book as a teenager but never thought it was romantic.

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ArabellaScott · 12/09/2026 13:18

hamnish · 12/09/2026 13:10

Is the lyric not, She’s so good looking, BUT she looks like a man, though?

‘Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman/But she was another man’ is a bit different.

If You’re Not The One by Daniel Bedingfield always struck me as the howl of an obsessive man who has been politely dumped, then impolitely dumped, then issued with a court order that he’s ignoring while standing outside his ex’s house having a breakdown.

Whereas Love Song by the Cure has always felt wholesome to me, in a gloomy Goth kind of way: Whenever I’m alone with you/You make me feel like I am home again.

Edited

Show quote history

Ooh, you're right! I misheard!

Well, you should see Polythene Pam
She's so good-looking, but she looks like a man (Ah-ah-ah)
Well, you should see her in drag dressed in her polythene bag (Ohh-ohh)
Yes, you should see Polythene Pam (Ohh)

[Refrain]
Yeah, yeah, yeah

Get a dose of her in jackboots and kilt
She's killer-diller when she's dressed to the hilt (Ah-ah-ah)
She's the kind of a girl that makes The News of the World (Ohh-ohh)
Yes, you could say she was attractively built (Ohh)

Happysnappydays · 12/09/2026 13:17

A sad one by Macy Gray:
In my last years with him, there were bruises on my face
In my dawn and new day
I finally got away
My head's all messed up and he knows just what to say
No more dawn and new days
I'm goin' back to stay

CrossPurposes · 12/09/2026 13:16

The ultimate unhealthy relationship song might be "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush.

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BernardBlacksMolluscs · 12/09/2026 13:14

HelloDenise · 12/09/2026 13:10

One I brought up in a previous thread on this was Everything Changes by Take That.

The rumours are true, there have been others, but they don't mean a thing. Then because she's considering Leaving the Bastard, he puts it on her, and tells her she's throwing their love away.

I was told to shut up and get a grip on here.

Lady, you were right

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hamnish · 12/09/2026 13:10

ArabellaScott · 12/09/2026 12:48

Well you should see Polythene Pam. She's so goodlooking that she looks like a man.

Because of course the best thing a woman can be is a man.

Is the lyric not, She’s so good looking, BUT she looks like a man, though?

‘Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman/But she was another man’ is a bit different.

If You’re Not The One by Daniel Bedingfield always struck me as the howl of an obsessive man who has been politely dumped, then impolitely dumped, then issued with a court order that he’s ignoring while standing outside his ex’s house having a breakdown.

Whereas Love Song by the Cure has always felt wholesome to me, in a gloomy Goth kind of way: Whenever I’m alone with you/You make me feel like I am home again.