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

I ruined Norwegian Wood for my husband when I told him it was about a bloke getting revenge on a girl for 'leading him on' by setting fire to her stuff... He thought it was just an observational song about a one night stand in a room full of cheap pine furniture. I shit you not

@Rodion I was going to mention the same song! Because it's so upbeat it fooled me until my husband told me to listen to it properly 😔

I disagree that Sweat is about rape, it's about sex. Probably pretty rough sex but not rape.

Nina 99 red balloons - about nuclear annihilation

Jolene by Dolly Parton is sad too

New sensation by inxs is about watching someone you love dying.

A Thousand Trees by Stereophonics. Really catchy tune, quite upbeat, but the lyrics are about a sports coach whose life and career are ruined by rumours that spread after a schoolgirl tells her parents of his inappropriate behaviour.

I loved this song as a teenager and its message is supposed to be about how malicious rumours destroy lives. Now, every time I hear it I feel for the poor schoolgirl who they're vilifying for "spreading rumours" when it's much more likely the guy was just actually guilty in the first place 😟

well starting them off young - I always used to think lullabies like Rock-a-bye-baby were pretty weird, lovely soothing calm tune about a baby crashing to the ground! Others have similar contradictory words/tune.

Only Sixteen - Craig Douglas.
Young Girl - Gary Puckett and the Union Gap

Oldies, but not goodies …….

I just found out Mmmmbop by Hanson is an existential deep one not just childish gobbledegook sung to a catchy pop tune.

What's your name by lynyrd skynyrd

run for your life by the beatles

Crash Test Dummies - Afternoons and coffeespoons

You will never hear a more jolly ditty about lung cancer.

Rockabye, by Clean Bandit: the music video shows a single mother being a stripper but the lyrics say "I'm gonna do what I've got to do" and there's something about working the night by the water so I'm thinking more about prostitution, really.

Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll ah yes "Stand by your man"...definitely more to it than first meets the eye. I do love to sing the line "after all he's just a man" to my husband to wind him up

Only Sixteen - Craig Douglas.
Young Girl - Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
Oldies, but not goodies …….

See also Neil Sedaka's 'Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen' and 'You're Sixteen, You're Beautiful and You're Mine', recorded by various artists. It's patently obvious that a 16/17yo lad wouldn't be obsessing and jubilating about the fact that the girl is the same age as him - it's clearly sung from the pov of a significantly older man with certain 'intentions'.

There are also potentially similar dynamics in 'Diana' by Paul Anka, albeit with the sexes reversed and still sung from the (possibly being groomed) man/boy's pov.

"When you're in love with a beautiful woman.... it's hard".
As Alan Partridge would say, "They do it on purpose, Lynn!"

'The Blower's Daughter' by Damien Rice - a lot of people only hear the 'I can't take my eyes off you' hook and think of it as a sweet mutual love song without properly listening to the verses. He sounds like a stalker and she finds him repulsive.

There seems to be a very common theme throughout popular music where you can bury a whole lot of unpleasantness and uncomfortable themes largely unnoticed in the verses, just as long as you have a catchy, jolly little chorus that sounds all lovely and fluffy.

I do love to sing the line "after all he's just a man" to my husband to wind him up

Mind, even that isn't quite the insult that it sounds like - it's basically an adult version of 'boys will be boys' and effectively absolving him of all blame or responsibility for deliberate appalling behaviour (in general: not talking about your DH specifically!).

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I have to disagree with that.

For the Craig Douglas one, there is a line 'She was too young to fall in love and I was too young to know'. Clearly teens around the same age and all about first love.

For the Union Gap song, to me, it is a clear acknowledgement that, although he seems to love the girl, he knows the age gap is too much and that pursuing it will lead to heartache. From memory, the song doesn't mention age. Bit like me, in my 50s, lusting after one of the student nurses. Yeah, might happen but I could never keep up with a 21 year old and I know it. The song is a very similar theme to Abba and 'Does your mother know' but I have never heard of anyone questioning the motives of Benny and Bjorn.

What do you think of 'Little Children' by Billy J. Kramer? A male of undetermined age offering money and sweet to said little children and asking them to keep a secret.

Some people might say that seeing things in songs the way you describe is just a mirror of your own mind.

@IanOsenfrote

The first two songs were suggested by a PP and I was just quoting them - but I do agree that they clearly point out the inappropriateness at that age, rather than making it sound like it's a positive thing.

As for Billy J Kramer, I never got any creepy vibes there. Others may interpret it differently, but I always understood it to be that both of them were a similar young-ish age and being bothered by her considerably younger siblings. Not that they were getting up to anything wrong at all, just wanted some privacy; but little kids often like to 'tell on' older people doing perfectly normal 'older person' stuff - e.g. "I saw you two kissing!!" - like they've uncovered the crime of the century!

....with Billy J Kramer, if he had been a considerably older man, he would most likely have had his own house where he could (and probably would) have met with the younger woman/girl - or, at a push, could have afforded a hotel room.

The fact that they had to meet in her house, with the kids around to bother them (maybe his parents were over-protective or he had even more annoying younger siblings?!) suggests to me that they were both probably mid-older teens and shy about their young first love.

Pretty much all of Lily Allen's songs have really upbeat tunes, but the words and stories she tells through her songs are quite dark.

Also 'Skinny Jeans' by Eliza Doolittle. I don't know if the casual listener would appreciate just how mucky it is all the way through, but if you watch the official video, it's blatant filth!

White Lines by Melle Mel
Golden Brown by the Stranglers

Both are about drug taking.

“Brown sugar” by the Rolling Stones, was about white owners raping African slaves in New Orleans. They tend not to perform it these days, and I think some of the worst bits of the lyric have been altered.