How do you interpret this Beautiful South song?

[wideopen]

I"m whiling away time on a car journey. 'You Keep it all In" by The Beautiful South came in the playlist and DH and I have been discussing the lyrics. It's obviously about emotional repression, particularly in men, but the lyrics also have a dark side. The conversation starts with the female voice accusing her male partner of not being open, it then progresses towards him possibly 'confessing' dark secrets from his past. But its not clear if he's being serious or sarcastic/jokey, or just talking about things he's witnessed or seen in the news. I haven't been able to find anything online that explains that part of the lyrics. Interested in opinions.

Summarising:

1. The female tells the male that his problem is that he keeps everything in.
2. He responds by recalling a conversation in which he wanted to kill the female, but didn't express it.
3. We get the husband preparing to fight and the frightened daughter who hears it but also keeps it in.
4. Then come the murder in '73 and robbery in '62.
5. He says that last week the female gagged and bound him to a seat.
6. These are immediately followed by the speaker's statement that these are things that have happened to him and that he has kept inside.

my favourite song of theirs is Prettiest Eyes

Sweet Jesus who has the time?!??

I’ve been to see Paul Heaton many times. Going again in November.

And yet you have time for that 🤣

I always thought it must have originated in frustration with a girlfriend accusing someone (eg Heaton) of keeping it all in … so it’s an imagined scenario of retorting that you might not actually want to know what I’m keeping in …

Honestly, I wonder how some people function in life when they don't understand that!

I met him about ten years ago at a charity event. We talked about football.

Hearing Caravan of Love in a small theatre was something I will never forget.

I think they did lose their ironic edge after Choke, and the Jackie Abbot partnership. But the first three albums are definitely dark and laced with irony

Well yeah one single sentence 😂

It's a sardonic song about women wanting men to open up and godawful violent men with emotional suppression that erupts in violence.

Much like Song For Whoever and Happy Hour it's about toxic masculinity

Well I suppose your answer is that quite a few people in the evening have time to think and chat civilly about some interesting lyrics … if you want to ask that question, I’d pop over to the autumn decorating thread. This is just some people who do have time to discuss something after work. Good job there are such people or this website wouldn’t exist!

I don't think they're dodgy. They're a reflection of dysfunctional human relationships all dressed up in pretty tunes. So many people completely missed the point. Chumbawamba were the same.

I'm sure there are others, just can't think of them off the top of my head.

Oh no thank you, I don’t have the time to get into Autumnal decorations.

Select all from lyrics dot com, copy, paste.

Quicker than typing a sentence

Makes me cry!

My 18 year old DS went to see him last year, didn’t realise he is a Wirral boy

I used to work with a Phillipa whos parents told her and she believed them that this was a lovely song about girls names and that's why she was called Phillipa.

She stopped talking to me for a while once I explained it.

Oh dear. What's that quote ... "When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind." 🙂

Though I'm amazed she reached adulthood without working it out herself.

I've always interpreted the "Song for Whoever" as a parody of other singer-songwriters on the grounds that Paul Heaton doesn't strike me as the sort of person who would have had that many girlfriends in his formative years.

The band name itself, "The Beautiful South", was also meant ironically - a sarcastic reflection of their dislike of southern England. Paul Heaton is also quoted as saying he liked the idea of making macho men say the word “beautiful.”

On Song for Whoever - when you are of an age to have a pencil case, are you really crazy in love with any one girl in your class, or do you just want to be in love?

still love a bit of beautiful south and woman in the wall and should have kept my eyes shut are 2 of my many favs

Who knew? Fascinating.

Sinister I think, but I absolutely love the beautiful south. There’s another song ‘I’ll sail this ship alone’, listen to the whole song and then take note of the very last line.

That's ironic though, i think you're missing the point.

I’m not a fan and apologies in advance to those who are, but add in their ‘cheery zany tunes’ and they are a whisker away from Chas and Dave.