Page 11 | Dodgy morals in pop songs

Gahhhhereheisagain · 2023-08-30T18:24:01+00:00

I'll start... Escape (the pina colada song) I'd be leaving that Irish bar without him. What a tit.

category12 · 31/08/2023 12:44

LetMeGoogleThat · 31/08/2023 12:41

THANKYOU!! I thought I was the only one who was like, wait what did he just say 😮

Show quote history

No, far from the only one - it's a catchy song, but troubling.

Alycidon · 31/08/2023 12:48

Riapia · 31/08/2023 07:52

Aqualung. By Jethro Tull.

Sitting on a park bench
eyeing little girls with bad intent.

🤮🤮

... Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run

Unpleasant indeed, but I think the song is intended as a portrait of the awful old tramp rather than an endorsement of his behaviour.

porridgeisbae · 31/08/2023 12:52

@CotCoteDOpale it's 'be a little bit wiser, baby, put it on, put it on.'

Which is/was quite a change from most pop songs.

Phos · 31/08/2023 13:28

@greengreengrass25

Gordon is a moron

Handsnotwands · 31/08/2023 13:31

its funny isn’t it that with songs we assume they’re autobiographical or the actual thoughts and feelings of the person singing it? Whereas we accept writers write unpleasant characters who do awful things but don’t for a minute assume that’s actually “them”

DrSbaitso · 31/08/2023 13:32

inverness123 · 31/08/2023 12:44

I’m not sure I’d say ‘Beatles songwriters’. More like John Lennon, who had some very questionable views. Did Paul McCartney wrote dodgy lyrics? The obviously bad ones are all John I think.

Show quote history

I think so. Still, the other three apparently saw nothing wrong with them and nor did the record company or, it seems, the general public.

I think he did express regret about those lyrics later when he was in his hippy phase with Yoko Ono.

Eglantiny · 31/08/2023 13:39

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but the Destiny's Child song me absolutely open-mouthed with shock when it came out.

It was released a few years after 'Independent Women' and 'Survivor' which were all about women's power, equality, and independence.

'Cater 2 U' was a complete U-turn, and I've always been very skeptical of their/Beyonce's "feminist" credentials ever since.

Destiny's Child Cater 2 U Lyrics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLerlMZUBYI

HonoriaLucastaDelagardie · 31/08/2023 13:49

its funny isn’t it that with songs we assume they’re autobiographical or the actual thoughts and feelings of the person singing it?

Shane MacGowan has said that FTONY is a story about two characters and their relationship.

It would be perfectly acceptable as a novel, but because it's a song it has to be censored and sanitised.

greengreengrass25 · 31/08/2023 13:56

Phos · 31/08/2023 13:28

@greengreengrass25

Gordon is a moron

Indeed😅

DrSbaitso · 31/08/2023 13:57

HonoriaLucastaDelagardie · 31/08/2023 13:49

its funny isn’t it that with songs we assume they’re autobiographical or the actual thoughts and feelings of the person singing it?

Shane MacGowan has said that FTONY is a story about two characters and their relationship.

It would be perfectly acceptable as a novel, but because it's a song it has to be censored and sanitised.

Somehow that feels more obviously a fictional story. Maybe because it's a duet.

The Boy Is Mine by Brandy and Monica is much more satisfying if you see the video. The lyrics don't include that ending!

beguilingeyes · 31/08/2023 14:35

"Beatles - Well she was just seventeen, if you know what I mean… What DO you mean, John and Paul? 🤔"

It's only seventeen because it rhymes and scans. Any other number wouldn't work. Try singing 'She was just twenty-five, you know what I mean' and you haven't got a song. Heard that from Mr M at a thing. Plus he was only 20 when he wrote it.

HolyHeck · 31/08/2023 14:37

FinnRustle · 30/08/2023 23:01

Wouldn't it be nice if we were older?
Then we wouldn't have to wait so long
And wouldn't it be nice to live together
In the kind of world where we belong?
You know it's gonna make it that much better
When we can say goodnight and stay together
Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up
In the morning when the day is new?
And after having spent the day together
Hold each other close the whole night through
Happy times together we've been spending
I wish that every kiss was never ending
Oh, wouldn't it be nice?
Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray
It might come true
Baby, then there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do
Oh, we could be married (oh, we could be married)
And then we'd be happy (and then we'd be happy)
Oh, wouldn't it be nice?
You know it seems the more we talk about it
It only makes it worse to live without it
But let's talk about it
Oh, wouldn't it be nice?
Goodnight, my baby
Sleep tight, my baby
Goodnight, my baby
Sleep tight, my baby

+++++++

As far as I can see, this song is LITERALLY about two teenagers who believe in sex before marriage, probably having a 'you put the phone down first' conversation in 1968 California. It's hard to imagine anything more wholesome.

It's basically a modern re-working of To His Coy Mistress, only the latter is more coercive.

category12 · 31/08/2023 15:00

I don't see how it's coercive - there's no reason to think that the young woman isn't equally as interested in their mutual future together nor that she doesn't also want to have sex?

Alstro · 31/08/2023 15:48

about two teenagers who believe in sex before marriage,

@FinnRustle Did you mean to write ‘who don’t believe in sex before marriage’? Would make more sense. Thanks. I agree no coercion in this lyrics.

porridgeisbae · 31/08/2023 16:30

I don't think many Christian churches would approve of WAP :) (or any songs by men that are as sexual or whatever, either.)

Chypre · 31/08/2023 16:35

Morals might be questionable but at least the sentences back in the day were full and vocabulary was elaborate. Not the repetitive three syllable gibberish watered down even further with yeah's and come on's. Duh.

CurlewKate · 31/08/2023 16:38

Practically every song sung by a man in practically every genre can be summed up as "I have/will/am treated/treat/am treating you like shit, but I've written you a song, so that's OK"

Anxioys · 31/08/2023 17:25

@CurlewKate - there is one honorable exception and that is Barry White. His massive success is entirely down to his music and the lyrics which are extremely positive about women (albeit in the Walrus of Love way).

HollyGolightly4 · 31/08/2023 18:19

HolyHeck · 31/08/2023 14:37

It's basically a modern re-working of To His Coy Mistress, only the latter is more coercive.

Show quote history

Respectfully, no! Wouldn't it be nice has always seemed sweetly two sided.

THCM is a blunt instrument (and try teaching it to teenagers!!)

'then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity
And your quaint honour turn to dust
And into ashes all my lust'

Not to mention 'my vegetable love shall grow...'

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 31/08/2023 18:51

As has already been said, Dr Hook have done some quite dodgy songs - including A Little Bit More and When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman - but if you really want a song that seems to have been deliberately written to be as controversial and 'how unlike the home life of our own dear Queen', as possible, check out their song called Freakin' At The Freaker's Ball.

It was originally written by Shel Silverstein, who also wrote A Boy Named Sue. He was an... interesting... character.

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 31/08/2023 18:53

Not to mention 'my vegetable love shall grow...'

Is that where the inspiration for The Marrow Song came from as well?!

florizel13 · 31/08/2023 19:07

hermioneee · 30/08/2023 20:16

Hang on in their baby by Johnny Bristol. One that I used to sing along really loud to as a child and then last year listened to it again and I was like WTF. Not exactly questionable morals but makes me blush every time.

For example:

Let it go baby, let it go darling, oh! right there, right there
Baby don't you move it don't you dare
Go baby let it go honey oh right there baby don't you move it anywhere
Give it a stand (x3) up now fashion
Give it a jump (x3) up
Give it a jam (x3) give it a pull
Give me a love (x2) give me a little love

Stop it Johnny!!

I was just thinking of that one, I loved it as a teen in the 70s but when I heard it many years later I thought it sounded like he was trying to coerce her into sex "ohh don't fight it darling..." another dodgy 70s one is "gonna make you an offer you can't refuse" by Jimmy Helms ... Gonna make you an offer you can't refuse
Put my finger on you
'Cause I need you so
And I won't take no for an answer

tillytoodles1 · 31/08/2023 19:32

IseeNarcPeople · 30/08/2023 22:03

"Annie, I'm not your daddy"
Kid creole and the coconuts:
"See if I was in your blood you wouldn't be so ugly"
Utterly vile.

I think that's a funny line.

IseeNarcPeople · 31/08/2023 19:50

@tillytoodles1
Well whoopdefuckingdooda

greengreengrass25 · 31/08/2023 19:58

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 31/08/2023 18:51

As has already been said, Dr Hook have done some quite dodgy songs - including A Little Bit More and When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman - but if you really want a song that seems to have been deliberately written to be as controversial and 'how unlike the home life of our own dear Queen', as possible, check out their song called Freakin' At The Freaker's Ball.

It was originally written by Shel Silverstein, who also wrote A Boy Named Sue. He was an... interesting... character.

It was that dodgy eye patch