Healthiest and Unhealthiest relationships in songs?

Words by Hal David. Don't just blame Burt!

Not that it really makes the difference considering the background of the song but Carole King wrote the music for Goffin & King and it was Gerry Goffin who was the lyricist.

Peter Sarstedt “where do you go to (my lovely)”. My god that’s a creepy song: you had a terrible start in life but now you’re all fancy, I’m the only one who understands you and don’t think you can get away. Awful!

Talking of The Beatles, "Run for your life" is lyrically dubious:

You'd better run for your life if you can, little girl,
Hide your head in the sand, little girl,
Catch you with another man,
That's the end, little girl.

Let this be a sermon,
I mean everything I said,
Baby, I'm determined
And I'd rather see you dead

(Thanks, John!)

Pink Martini have a lovely pair of songs "And now I'm back" "And then you're gone" where a sleazy guy tries to sneak back and gets told where to go in true relationships board style.

Oh dear, you didn't read the room, did you Gizzasec?😟

This is typical about how songs affect us, it's irrational, isn't it: I can see all the points you made, they are all very valid and relevant....but ... that song..💔

I think it makes me emotional when I hear it because it makes me think of how I wasn't the right person for my ex-es, I didn't say or do little things I could have done so I feel regretful and retrospectively apologetic to them when I hear that song.

I have a real problem with Billy Joel’s song “I like you just the way you are”. I know it’s supposed to be sweet, but the idea if any man telling me not to change, keep my hair the same, and as for not wanting clever conversation…. Ugh shudder! Sounds like I’ll dump you if you get old.

Another vote for Elvis Costello 'I Want You', although I love it and know it is deliberately psychocreepy.

@MarieDeGournay thank you for your great analysis of 'She Loves You'. I don't think I'd ever properly understood what it's about before, although it came out when I was a baby and my very first words were a sung " Yeah Yeah Yeah"!

The masochistic relationship in The Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" makes for uneasy listening (unless your tastes happen to run in that direction, I suppose) -

Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark
Tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

Severin, Severin, speak so slightly
Severin, down on your bended knee
Taste the whip, in love not given lightly
Taste the whip, now bleed for me

And of course, we have the always-provocative "Under My Thumb" by the Rolling Stones. Is Mick Jagger really just being satirical, or is it just horribly misogynistic?

Under my thumb
Is a squirming dog who's just had her day
Under my thumb
A girl who has just changed her ways

It's down to me, yes it is
The way she does just what she's told, down to me
The change has come, she's under my thumb
Ah, ah, say, "it's alright"

Rod Stewart -
https://share.google/CQDRyxaHbBchtaX7W

I once tried to do a comedy routine based on Elvis singing Always On My Mind.

Maybe I didn't treat you
Quite as good as I should have
(oh, right?)
Maybe I didn't love you
Quite as often as I could have
(what, you withheld physical affection?)
Little things I should have said and done
I just never took the time
(what little things? Let me guess - the washing-up? Hoovering? Laundry? Cooking?)

And maybe I didn't hold you
All those lonely, lonely times
(Elvis, you're a proper cold asshole, aren't you?)
And I guess I never told you
I'm so happy that you're mine
(why the fuck not??)
If I made you feel second-best
(Mate, there's no "if" about it)
Girl, I'm sorry I was blind
(bit fuckin' late now, innit?)

You were always on my mind
You were always on my mind
(oh well THAT'S alright then! Thank fuck for that. You're an emotionally inadequate fuckwit who does sod all around the house, you let your missus go unhugged, unloved, and you couldn't even open your gob to say sorry all that time. But it's ok - because she was ON YOUR MIND.)

It went down like a cup of cold sick. People love that song. It doesn't matter all the stuff he's done/not done. It's a man saying sorry, and that's enough, apparently.

Oh wow yes! I love love love that song, and a woman singing it makes it very different,. Thanks for the reminder.
You are doing a great job this morning, BBM, you have us all humming and reminiscing and fuming and looking misty-eyed and having a great time😃

I was thinking about Meatloaf too when trying to think of positive relationships. I know this one has been released by others too (including Celine Dione) but I like the duet he did with Marion Ravn which is makes it seem to be all about a middle-aged couple agreeing to try again after a bad patch, which the solo versions don't do.

There were moments of gold
And there were flashes of light
There were things we'd never do again
But then they'd always seemed right
There were nights of endless pleasure
It was more than all your laws allow
Baby, baby, baby
When you touch me like this
And when you hold me like that
It was gone with the wind, but it's all coming back to me
When you see me like this
And when I see you like that
Then we see what we want to see, all coming back to me
The flesh and the fantasies, all coming back to me
I can barely recall, but it's all coming back to me now
If you forgive me all this
If I forgive you all that
We forgive and forget and it's all coming back to me now

... but it's not clarified in the lyrics quite how bad the bad patch was, and was he an abusive wanker, so not sure its all positive.

But it's on the same album as "What about love" which makes me feel it's the same context

We've been lost in a sea of confusion
Got caught up in a selfish illusion
But make no mistake: I will bend till I break
Don't let fate make the choice for us

What about love that lasts forever?
What about time to see it through?
If you don't give you just don't get it
What about me?
What about you?
What about love?

I can't go on another day
Comin' home and seeing you cryin'
Can't stand another night
Of telling you I'm fine when I'm dying

Forever means nothing
To live without you
Is reaching for something that never comes through
Together is heaven
Apart we're in hell
The time for forgiveness is now

Ohh, once in a lifetime you'll find
Someone to share your dreams
For a lifetime
Our love will always set us free
Forever we'll believe...

Sheena Easton - Morning Train. I love it but always thinks she needs to get a life instead of waiting around for her boyfriend to come home every day!

@IsadoraQuagmire 🤯! The trouble is, Bacharach wrote such great bastarding tunes...

Yes, great thread @BernardBlacksMolluscs !

@MarieDeGournay that's adorable... I'm straight, but Doris was really rather fetching in that film... 😍

Sad but true. Can't place some on your list, so off for a listen.