Healthiest and Unhealthiest relationships in songs?

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.

Feist's Mushaboom is a sweet song with a great tune.

I've got a man to stick it out
And make a home from a rented house, oh
And we'll collect the moments one by one
I guess that's how the future's done, oh

And The Littlest Birds by the Be Good Tanyas.

But I love you so dearly, I love you so fearlessly
I wake you up in the morning so early, just to tell you
I've got the wandering blues, I've got the wandering blues
And I don't want to leave you, I love you through and through

But of course the best tune in the world is by Nick Cave:

I don't believe in an interventionist God
But I know, darling, that you do
But if I did, I would kneel down and ask him
Not to intervene when it came to you
Will not to touch a hair on your head
Leave you as you are
If he felt he had to direct you
Then direct you into my arms
Into my arms, oh, Lord
Into my arms, oh, Lord
Into my arms, oh, Lord
Into my arms
And I don't believe in the existence of angels
But looking at you I wonder if that's true
But if I did, I would summon them together
And ask them to watch over you
Well, to each burn a candle for you
To make bright and clear your path
And to walk, like Christ, in grace and love
And guide you into my arms
Into my arms, oh, Lord
Into my arms, oh, Lord
Into my arms, oh, Lord
Into my arms
But I believe in love
And I know that you do too
And I believe in some kind of path
That we can walk down, me and you
So keep your candles burning
Make her journey bright and pure
That she'll keep returning
Always and evermore

But you have done something really important. You've spent a few hours feeling things and reconnecting with parts of yourself that maybe don't get out as much as they should.

At least, that's my excuse for why I've done nothing yet today 😂

Thank you, these are great! Well found.

And on that note... love you to bits BernardBlacksMolluscs for the brill thread, but do you realist it's now ONE O'CLOCK 😱
and I've done nothing else this morning today, and it all your fault😁
See you later, 🐊s!

Great songs!

Bill Withers was great. Lean on Me, Grandma’s Hands, both great songs about positive relationships in their own different ways (friendship and family respectively).

In contrast, Use Me is the opposite 🤣:

is that I wanna spread the news
That if it feels this good getting used
Oh you just keep on using me until you use me up
Until you use me up

Oh yes to Lovely Day ❤

More Bill Withers, unhealthy this time but so beautiful, Ain't no Sunshine. Maybe this time he'll do what he knows he needs to do and leave her alone.

A PP mentioned Strange & Beautiful by Aqualung which I totally agree is weird and stalkery and obsessive - but I just looked it up and the background is kind of cool and very healthy! https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/feb/20/aqualung-making-strange-and-beautiful-ill-put-a-spell-on-you-volkswagen

Oh yes to 'you were always on my mind' - makes me grab for the radio controls shouting 'LTB!' fgs, 'I had vaguely good intentions and meant well sometimes while I was making you miserable, so don't leave me'.

And that awful, bouncy, Michael Buble 'just haven't met you yet'....

'Oh you know it'll all turn out
And you'll make me work so we can work to work it out'

His imaginary girlfriend doing allllll the emotional labour and taking responsibility and he's quite upfront about it being her job to make him pull his weight.... there is a very, very good reason he hasn't met a potential girlfriend yet.

Thompson Twins - sister of Mercy, and the Chicks - Goodbye Earl are the only two that come to mind, and they were both abusive men

Thanks for that, I wouldn't have thought of that and would probably have placed Dylan in the 'unhealthy' camp, god he could be cutting
You got a lot of nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that's winning

But reading those lyrics carefully - his songs often so dense, it's easy to go te-tum te-tum past interesting bits - yeah, I like this, thanks

Your Love Keeps Lifting Me - Jackie Wilson

One Day Like This - Elbow

Let's Stay Together - Al Green

Lovely Day - Bill Withers

I think we all do ❤

It's part of Feminism isn't it? We grow up with such unhealthy images and role models and they are always part of us even when we know they are bad for us. And people can make great emotional art out of bad things, and bad people can make such great emotional art.

Fuck me, there's probably an amazing post modern Feminist love-song to be written where the pain and yearning and I-know-you-are-wrong-for-me-but-you-feel-so-right-ing isn't for a man but for those old songs and being able to listen to them without seeing the drakness underneath.

Oh yeah, the first is a stalker to do list.

I dare say interpretations differ but I kinda like Dylan's All I Really Want to Do.

I ain't lookin' to compete with you
Beat or cheat or mistreat you
Simplify you, classify you
Deny, defy or crucify you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you
Frighten you or uptighten you
Drag you down or drain you down
Chain you down or bring you down
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I ain't lookin' to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Finalize you or advertise you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don't want to straight-face you
Race or chase you, track or trace you
Or disgrace you or displace you
Or define you or confine you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don't want to meet your kin
Make you spin or do you in
Or select you or dissect you
Or inspect you or reject you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don't want to fake you out
Take or shake or forsake you out
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me
See like me or be like me
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you

Here you come again by Dolly Parton. She knows he's a liar, she knows he's bad news but there she goes.

I once had a row with a bloke about who was the toxic one in Sitting Down Here.

Unhealthy but fun - Jackson. At least they both seem to agree they want out.

The famous one is JOhnny Cash and June Carter, but I like the Nancy SInatra and Lee Hazlewood version, it has more sass

I walk the line is a lovely song for fidelity.

Romeo&Juliet by Dire Straits?
I spent years trying unsuccessfully to be cool enough to hate it, with a toss of the head and an Elvis kind of sneer..
Juliet, when we made love you used to cry
didn't you get the message, dude??🙄

But then there's the heartbreaking:
You promised me everything
You promised me thick and thin,
Now you just say, "Oh Romeo, yeah
You know I used to have a scene with him"
😢💔

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.

That lyric is just the best ever.

'Stan' by Eminem was awful, but then I think it was supposed to be?

I have a list of terrible songs that make me a bad feminist.

Not sharing. 😁