Seemingly fun jovial songs with serious lyrics/subject matter

[Floogal]

Over the years there's cheery sounding songs which either have heavy lyrics or later you find out what the song is about.

1. Embarrassment by Madness is apparently about teenage pregnancy and racism. Apparently a lot of their songs have serious undertones
2. Beds are burning by Midnight oil sounds funny but it's about Aboriginal Australian rights
3. Oliver's army by Elvis Costello.
4. I might be wrong but that song moving too fast by Artful Dodger. I think it's about sexual harassment.
5. Bump and grind by R Kelly, now knowing what we know, I think is about rape from the perpetrators point of view

Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now

A very obvious one, but Tragedy (both the Bee Gees and Steps versions)

Sweat, by Inner Circle , is very catchy and upbeat, but I read somewhere it's actually about a rape.
'Girl, I wanna make you sweat, sweat til you can sweat no more. And if you cry, I'm gonna push it some more,'
I googled it, but can't see if it's true or not.
We use it in one of my zumba classes, for cooling down. It always makes me feel really uncomfortable.

Stop The Cavalry by Jonah Lewie. Sounds really jaunty but it's about the futility and misery of war as seen from the perspective of the universal soldier. With a bit of civilian carnage thrown in for good measure with the woman who "stands alone in the nuclear fallout zone" 😱

@Amdone123 it also has the lyric "looking in your big brown eye". Ie bumhole.

Actually popular Xmas song with service personnel and their families. As is lonely this Xmas by mud. As families are separated

I was coming on to say Pumped up kicks as well, but there are so many on this thread I hadn’t thought about

Definitely thought of Happy Hour and also Up the Junction by Squeeze.

Still such a great tune though

loved Usher's cover

'You're Gorgeous' by Babybird. I gather that it was meant to be about sleazy exploitative 'glamour'-type photographers - deliberately done by a male singing as the 'subject' to give a sense of 'hey, wait, what?' if you do listen to the lyrics of the verses and make you stop and take in the message.

So many people don't get past the 'you're gorgeous, I'd do anything for you' and assume it's a slushy innocent love song.

Also, 'Summer of 69' by Bryan Adams. People take it as a kind of general reminiscing song about young adults starting to make their own way in the world back in that year - but Bryan Adams was only 9 in the Summer of 1969, so a lot of the lyrics don't make sense in the context of the life of a 9yo child. Of course, '69' isn't referring to a year at all....

Well I hope he didn't try to play his six-string at the same time. Bloke will do himself a mischief.

Waterfalls by TLC, about AIDS/HIV

I was about to say "You're Gorgeous" too. They used to play it over the viewers' photos section on CBBC (or may have been Saturday morning kids' TV) at one point and I was always "WT actual F?")

Blackbird by the Beatles, about the civil rights movement

Well I hope he didn't try to play his six-string at the same time. Bloke will do himself a mischief.

I once read in a misheard lyrics thread that somebody had thought he was singing 'I got my first real sex dream' - maybe they weren't too far off the mark originally after all!

And one final one, not jovial but seen as a love song (my friend used to do wedding singing and was always asked to sing this)
Paul Weller You Do Something To Me - it’s about unattainable love!

@User3568975431146 My first thought when I read the title.

Completely different genre, but Taylor Swift's Mean as well.

mean

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'Stand By Your Man' by Tammy Wynette - many folk ignore the verses and interpret the jaunty chorus as a song about a loving couple sticking together through life's little ups and downs and petty tiffs; but it's actually about a woman who is being emotionally abused and cheated on - quite probably gaslighted too - by a really nasty man who couldn't care less about her. She's doing all of the giving whilst he does all of the taking.

'Bend It' by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - it has the vibe of a lovely social dance, maybe in a Greek marketplace, going on the musical style and instruments; but it's purely about sex. There's even the section at the end where the music gets faster and faster until an abrupt yelping 'conclusion' which is clearly meant to signify.... something more significant than just a dance track finishing.

'Ob La Di Ob La Da' by The Beatles or Marmalade - quite ahead of its time wrt role reversal and 'gender fluidity'. 'Lola' by The Kinks was also quite 'forward' for its day, but not quite as subtle.

'Jailhouse Rock' by Elvis was even more shocking for its time - another well-loved song about a 'dance' which was actually code for something much less innocent, especially as all of the 'dancers' were in a (presumably) all-male prison.

I loved Pumped Up Kicks until I properly listened to the words.

Street Life by Randy Crawford, when I was a child I had an image of someone who loved going to carnivals and parades. It’s actually about a drug addicted street prostitute.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar
Off topic, but when i was a child I thought she was singing "street lights". And thought how strange it was to sing about lamposts...

Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue"

It was in reference to Electric Avenue in Brixton. It speaks of racism, unemployment, and violence all with a great danceable beat.

In Barry McGuire's 'Eve of Destruction' - which does have quite a jolly tune although it's very obviously not a lighthearted song about buttercups and newborn lambs gamboling in spring meadows - there's a line "Hate your next door neighbour, but don't forget to say grace". I always misheard it as the even more dystopian "EAT your next door neighbour"! Made perfect sense to me, what with the polite reminder to say grace before tucking in

"Stand By Your Man' by Tammy Wynette -"

"Old Reliable" has a bouncy, whistleable tune and a similar story