Healthiest and Unhealthiest relationships in songs?

He often never got the girl, just fantasied about her as teenage boys / young males did but didn't in any way follow up with in action: they wouldn't dare!

That was definitely the case with Common People - the girl was based on a real encounter but he's said she was not remotely offering to sleep with him 😄 the desire was all on his side!

I don't know but he somehow gets away with things others can't. Maybe because he said things others thought but didn't dare sing about, and they were always sharply observational with no embarrassment. He often never got the girl, just fantasied about her as teenage boys / young males did but didn't in any way follow up with in action: they wouldn't dare! It was all in their oversexed heads. In the song you quoted he used the euphemism "I got it on" as he spied from that wardrobe. I loved the sanitised video they used, where "David" was a poster of David Cassidy, wildly popular at the time with teenage girls.

Pencil Skirt was more brutal

I only come here cause I know it makes you sad
I only do it cause I know you know it's bad
oh don't you know
That it's ugly and it shouldn't be like that
But oh it's turning me on, oh

He has sort of apologised for that song, saying it was a "dirty little song" and moving onto more "healthy" songs, and there are plenty, especially on "More" when he talks of proper grown-up love.

Thanks for responding, I find Jarvis fascinating!

Don't forget the one where he hides in the girl's sister's wardrobe to spy on what she's getting up to with David from the garage up the road 😄

I don't know why but Jarvis being a perv was somehow okay, it felt more like he was subverting it by playing that character, or am I being too kind?

That snare drum fill doth much to excuse the appertaining rage though. How about Whole Lotta Love? “You need coolin, I’m going to send you back to schoolin”

Genius

Wow! Proof that rude lyrics aren’t new

@Lins77 @AnniesFrangipani Harvest Moon is lovely. Neil Young wrote it for his wife of 36 years. Then cheated on her with Daryl Hannah and left her heartbroken.

I haven’t read the whole thread but any early Pulp songs , from Pencil Skirt to I Spy to - well. a lot but not all

Things became a bit more balanced later

I’m a big Pulp fan btw

I despise The Coward of the County by Kenny Rodgers. His wife’s just been raped by a gang of brothers, so does he comfort her or try to help? Does he fuck. He leaves her crying and traumatised on the floor while he grabs his gun and dashes off to prove what a big man he is. Bastard.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, even though it’s nauseating is at least positive.

'I Got You Babe' Sonny and Cher, 1965.

Financially unhealthy
'They say our love won't pay the rent..'
but
Put your little hand in mine
[I think she sings that to him]
There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb
awwwww

In real life there were several hills or mountains they couldn't climb, and it all ended in an acrimonious divorce🙁

Just like no, he didn't still love her tomorrow.
And yes, he did give her up, let her down, ran around, and deserted her.
And no, she didn't still need nor feed him when he was 64..

It's only rock and roll, but we like it😁

😦 'Vagina Dentata - The Musical' 😁

'When I eat his do-nut all I got left is the hole!'
I think that was Big Mama Thornton. Not coming to your radio anytime soon.

the gambler, by Fun, the title has nothing to do with the song incidentally

Thanks so much. It's a small world. 😘

She was lovely, and sharp, and scathing, and funny, and yes, I was privileged to know her – as in, it wasn't just I would have recognised her if we came across each other in Leicester Square, she would have recognised me. (I had a friend that happened to while she was queuing for a flick, only it was Harry Harrison not AnnieMac, and he recognised her but she drew a complete blank on him and had to do that embarrassed "how ARE you?" dance until she finally clicked and was able to make sense.)

No, alas, no pics of the poster. Two house moves later and taking it off the wall was too much for it, and I hadn't thought to do anything to preserve it before that.

Wait a minute! You have MET Anne McCaffrey? OMG (etc. frothing fan girl enthusiasm...) Any pics of the poster? What was she like?

@MarieDeGournay yep, beautiful song, bit of a turn up for the books from Mick 'you could make a dead man come' Jagger

He must have nicked that from Big Mama Thornton: “I’ve got nipples on my titties as big as your thumb/a thing between my legs make a dead man come.” Good for her!

That's so kind! Loved the article.

Sadly the five words of Yiddish I learned from the Jewish family's version (Oy, Emes, Baym Breg Yam) weren't quite enough for the article's vocabulary, but hey.

#EveryDaysASchoolday

And what's more I have a link to an article about that song....

https://www.chabad.org/news/articlecdo/aid/6981789/jewish/Tom-Lehrer-Told-Me-Why-He-Wrote-Hanukkah-in-Santa-Monica-Sort-Of.htm

Well, sort of.

(And I think we may have Anne McCaffrey in common as well? She gave me a poster someone had done for The Crystal Singer but it eventually came to bits.)

Pleased you like it.

May I also recommend the Gay Men's Choir of Los Angeles version and the adorable Jewish(?) family's Yiddish version. (Try searching for Khanike in Santa Monica on Youtube for the latter.) Mumsnet doesn't seem to like links...

Lord lord, I hadn't heard that for years! One of the very few songs of his that I hear in my head with more than just a piano backing.

Thank you for sending me to the Lehrer on the server.

I think the main lyrical aim in Don’t Let The Bells End was to get the words ‘bellend’ and ‘ring piece’ into a Radio One playlisted song.

Justin Hawkins wrote some absolutely killer hooks, but then couldn’t resist a cheap double entendre. ‘Growing on Me’ - is he talking about love, or herpes? Etc etc etczzzzz

“Don’t Let the Bells End” by The Darkness. It’s got a festive vibe I guess musically but it’s all about this whiny bloke who doesn’t want Christmas to end because his partner will go back to work and not prioritise him. “You’ve got your career” “spent most of last year apart”. ICK!