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Original poster

Dodgy morals in pop songs

328 replies

Gahhhhereheisagain · 30/08/2023 19:24

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

OP posts:
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12
ScribblingPixie · 31/08/2023 20:01

Dr Hook have done some quite dodgy songs

Not forgetting Sylvia's mother. What a creepy stalker! She's finally happy after he presumably treated her like shit and is getting married to someone else, leave her alone FFS.

Phos · 31/08/2023 21:17

ScribblingPixie · 31/08/2023 20:01

Dr Hook have done some quite dodgy songs

Not forgetting Sylvia's mother. What a creepy stalker! She's finally happy after he presumably treated her like shit and is getting married to someone else, leave her alone FFS.

I always interpreted that as the MIL was an interfering old witch who'd tried and succeeded to break them up and marry off poor Sylvia to her naice friend's naice but boring son down Galveston way and Doc was just genuinely wanting to speak to her one last time.

greengreengrass25 · 31/08/2023 21:18

Yes Phos and me

orangeyeahthatsright · 31/08/2023 21:36

'977' by the Pretenders is seriously f'd up:

Every time I end up waking up
In some hotel without my
Set of keys
Coming to, remembering the way
Your turned me out when I was
On my knees
You think that was
One up for you
But I know I scored something too

When I see the way you have to struggle
Just to do a little simple thing
I feel apologetic
Just because I'm not particularly suffering
So I let you take me down
I'm like your rent-a-clown

When I saw my baby cry
I knew that he loved me
That was some great victory
He cried because of me
He hit me with his belt
But his tears were all I felt
When I saw my baby cry
I knew he loved me

When you try and cut me down And push me back If I attack your attitude I rise up to the challenge 'cause I like to taste the sugar of your violent mood Just like a stormy sea You're natural Poetry to me

I don't think it was a hit. Not surprised.

orangeyeahthatsright · 31/08/2023 21:39

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

The line 'When you're in love with a beautiful woman it's hard' always brings out my inner Finbarr Saunders (fnarr, fnarr 😄) but I'm certain that was exactly the intent...

porridgeisbae · 31/08/2023 21:54

@orangeyeahthatsright Have we had 'He Hit Me (and it felt like a kiss) ?'

Debini · 31/08/2023 21:56

Don’t know if it’s been mentioned but as a teen I didn’t realise how rude Freak Me by Another Level was.

Let me lick you up and down til you say stop,
let me play with your body baby make it really hot 😳

FictionalCharacter · 31/08/2023 22:10

murasaki · 30/08/2023 19:43

You're gorgeous is deeply dodgy. Great tune, but....

It’s supposedly about a photographer mistreating and exploiting a model. Yuck.

orangeyeahthatsright · 31/08/2023 22:34

porridgeisbae · 31/08/2023 21:54

@orangeyeahthatsright Have we had 'He Hit Me (and it felt like a kiss) ?'

I was thinking of that song as I was pasting in the Pretenders lyric! Definitely from the same stable. I once read the lyrics of He Hit Me were based on a real-life situation. Heartbreaking.

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 31/08/2023 23:07

The line 'When you're in love with a beautiful woman it's hard' always brings out my inner Finbarr Saunders (fnarr, fnarr 😄) but I'm certain that was exactly the intent...

Yes - or this bloke!

Definitely deliberate - I imagine them in the park laughing like Beavis & Butthead every day for the next week after they wrote that line.

Dodgy morals in pop songs
GenialHarryGr0ut · 31/08/2023 23:40

Itsnamechange · 31/08/2023 07:38

Special mentions to Maggie May, Girl (you'll be a woman, soon) and Stacey's Mom 😬

You might like this.

HolyHeck · 01/09/2023 17:19

@HollyGolightly4
Oh, I have taught it and I know it's a coercive metaphorical tapping of the watch - "we won't be young forever; do you want to die a virgin?"
His growing vegetable love is basically the aubergine emoji, in my view 😄

HolyHeck · 01/09/2023 17:21

I find "I feel it coming" by The Weeknd really creepy.

43ontherocksporfavor · 01/09/2023 19:30

@HolyHeck i mentioned it upthread.

ThatsALampost · 01/09/2023 22:42

“I feel it coming” is wayyyy beyond tame compared to the huge majority of his songs, but he does play characters mind you 🤣

Isittimeformynapyet · 01/09/2023 23:01

LightSpeeds · 30/08/2023 20:31

I've recently started to notice that loads of songs sung by males are about sex. It's awful!!!

Awwww. Bless you 🤗

Isittimeformynapyet · 01/09/2023 23:12

NetballHoop · 30/08/2023 20:35

Well this is lovely from the Stranglers

Strolling along, minding my own business
Well, there goes a girl and a half
She's got me going up and down
She's got me going up and down
Walking on the beaches lookin' at the peaches
Well, I got the notion, girl
That you got some sun-tan lotion in that bottle of yours
Spread it all over my peelin' skin, baby
That feels real good
All this skirt, lappin' up the sun, lap me up
Why don't you come on and lap me up?
Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches
Well, there goes another one just lying down on the sand dunes
I'd better go take a swim and see if I can cool down a little bit
'Cause you and me, woman
We got a lotta things on our minds, you know what I mean
Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches
Will you just take a look over there
(Where?) There
Is she tryin' to get outta that cli-tar-es?
Liberation for women, that's what I'm preaching
Preacher man
Walking on the beaches looking at the peaches
Oh shit, there goes the charabanc!
Looks like I'm gonna be stuck here the whole summer
Well, what a bummer
I can think of a lot worse places to be
Like down in the streets or down in the sewer
Or even on the end of a skewer
Down on the beaches, just look at all the peaches
Down on the beaches, just look at all the brown bodies
Down on the beaches, just look at all the sunglasses
Down on the beaches, just look at all the peaches
Down on the beaches, just look at all the peaches
Down on the beaches, just look at all the peaches
Down on the beaches

And I thought the lyrics were so subtle!

D'ya suppose the Dead Kennedys Moral Majority line "ram it up your cunt Anita" is also surreptitiously off?

ToWhitToWhoo · 01/09/2023 23:17

HectorSalamanca · 30/08/2023 19:57

What do ya wanna make those eyes at me for
If they don't mean what they say
They make me sad
They make me mad
They make me want a lot of things that I've never had

You're fooling around with me know
You lead me on and then you run away
Well that's alright, I'll get you alone tonight
And baby you'll find, you're messing with dynamite

Urgh, so rapey

YES; that is the one that most gives me the creeps!

Also the one by the Crystals that seems to glorify domestic violence: 'He hit me and it felt like a kiss'; but that is rarely played nowadays.

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 01/09/2023 23:45

I've never been comfortable with Stooshi's Black Heart - info from the band says it's about him cheating - but the lyrics seem to suggest more than that .

Daddy I've fallen for a monster
Somehow he's scaring me to death
He's big and bad
I love him like mad
Momma, he's the best I ever had
Daddy I've fallen for a monster
He got a black heart

porridgeisbae · 01/09/2023 23:50

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea It's definitely about abuse/control. I think they mentioned it in The Freedom Programme as an example of the culture normalising abuse.

It's a great song though.

Anonnyno · 02/09/2023 00:47

”Birthday” by Ann-Marie:

Anonnyno · 02/09/2023 00:52

“Birthday” by Anne Marie

Goddamn it’s my birthday
Everybody love me
Look at me, gimme money

Just makes me think “spoiled brat”.

orangeyeahthatsright · 02/09/2023 01:20

Also the one by the Crystals that seems to glorify domestic violence: 'He hit me and it felt like a kiss'; but that is rarely played nowadays.

A favourite of Amy Winehouse's, apparently...

orangeyeahthatsright · 02/09/2023 01:25

HolyHeck · 01/09/2023 17:21

I find "I feel it coming" by The Weeknd really creepy.

Not half as creepy as 'Take My Breath'...

IceBlock · 02/09/2023 02:06

FatherJackHackettsUnderpantsHamper · 31/08/2023 12:40

Most disgusting song is 'dontcha think your girlfriend is HOT like me'
Hate this for girls being vicious and demanding other girls about being able to nick their boyfriends

That reminds me of Take Good Care Of My Baby by Bobby Vee. You'd think he'd just reluctantly sold his beloved car, not split up with his girlfriend.

Not RTFT yet, but I always assumed Bobby Vee was from a father's POV.

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