Ever wonder how the subject of songs feels about them?

[Juells]

Fairly lighthearted thread, sparked by my knee-jerk reaction when a Cat Stevens song was served up by Spotify.

www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/catstevens/wildworld.html

I must be a nasty cranky bitch, because it seems like a load of paternalistic shit to me - unfortunately wrapped in an earworm I keep humming. Would I have felt the same way when I was eighteen? I doubt it, I'd have hummed along happily and not noticed all the references to her being like a child. No wonder she left.

And what/who went off the Tallahatchie bridge?

That was Billie Jo McCallister, though, wasn't it? I'm going to have to look up the lyrics but I always thought that was about bullying. Oh it seems a LOT more sinister. (I'm guessing it was a baby or something? is that too awful of me?)
(but the style it's written in is amazing)

Yes it's the chit-chat, passing the time of day style of Billie Jo that's its real strength.

Well it all depends upon how flattering it is and whether you are obviously identified in it. So Annie's song is just beautiful.
Whether Annie still wanted to listen to it after he near choked her and sawed their bed in half in an acrimonious divorce years later is a different story.
Guy Carvey wrote about Edith Bowman iirc and other break ups.
But Toto's Rosanna was not actually about Rosanna Arquette.

On a related note, I absolutely love Helen Austin's parody of Delilah - she nails the 'stalkerish' nature of it.

(And anyone who fancies a laugh should listen to her childbirth song too)

I give you Rod Stuart’s “Tonight’s the Night”

Stay away from my window
Stay away from my back door too
Disconnect the telephone line
Relax baby and draw that blind
Kick off your shoes and sit right down
Loosen off that pretty French gown
Let me pour you a good long drink
Ooh baby don't you hesitate cause
Tonight's the night
It's gonna be alright
'Cause I love you girl
Ain't nobody gonna stop us now
Come on angel my hearts on fire
Don't deny your man's desire
You'd be a fool to stop this tide
Spread your wings and let me come inside
Tonight's the night
It's gonna be alright
'Cause I love you girl
Ain't nobody gonna stop us now
Don't say a word my virgin child
Just let your inhibitions run wild
The secret is about to unfold
Upstairs before the night's too old
Tonight's the night
It's gonna be alright
'Cause I love you woman
Ain't nobody gonna stop us now

@Doyoumind I used to love Young Girl when I was a...erm...young girl! Whenever I hear it I just try to pretend that it's about an age difference rather than a teenager!

A lot of Rod Stewart songs have a creepy vibe.

And what/who went off the Tallahatchie bridge?

I was under the impression it was a baby.

I think that about that Passenger song, 'only know I love her when I let her go'. So basically, you strung her along, wouldn't commit, and when you 'let her go' she dumped you you realised what a twat you'd been to her. I can't fathom how he could have 'loved her too much and dived too deep' whist still not realising he loved her til he let her go. It really winds me up!

God, “Tonight’s the Night” is just nauseating. It's absolutely illustrative of what the seventies were like too.

How about the name of this Cold Chisel (Australian bogan band) EP?

And what/who went off the Tallahatchie bridge?

I think that it was meant to be deliberately ambiguous. Definitely nothing nice like poohsticks. No idea about McArthur Park tho' LordProfFekko

But cake... CAKE? Who left it on the rain? Why did they leave it there? Did they go back to get it? Was it a picnic? Did the ants get it? Was it ruined? Did she ever get the recipe again?

Everything I Do...I Do It For You.

You must do something for yourself surely?? 😆

SwimmingCait thanks for the childbirth song rec - it is brilliant!

Loads of 70s songs are shady! Sign of the times though, and I loved most of them. Only later do you realise how shady they are.'Rock Your Baby by George McCrae. George Benson and his Supership. Almost all Barry White's songs. Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing and Let's Get It On. And then I give you ABBA and Does Your Mother Know.

Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' is about an underage groupie laying down on sheets of linen in the tour motel.

I think people feel a lot of crazy illogical things in romantic relationships. So the songs reflect that I guess.

Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' is about an underage groupie laying down on sheets of linen in the tour motel

Tiny Dancer is about Bernie Taupin's wife Maxine Feibelman. They married in 1971 when Maxine was19 and Bernie was 21. The song was written in 1972.

Both Taupin and Maxine toured with Elton"s bandand Maxine was indeed the "seamstress for the band" as she sewed and repaired stage outfits. She was not a groupie unless you think every woman who has a relationship with any one in the music industry is a groupie.

Hey little girl, is your daddy home?
Did he go and leave you all alone?
I got a bad desire
Oh oh oh, I'm on fire
Tell me now, baby, is he good to you?
Can do to you the things that I can't do?
I can take you higher
Oh oh oh, I'm on fire
Sometimes it's like someone took a knife, baby
Edgy and dull and cut a six-inch valley
Through the middle of my soul
At night I wake up with the sheets soakin' wet
And a freight train running through the middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire
Oh oh oh, I'm on fire

This one is very creepy.

The only redeeming factor is that it is fat positive but still highly objectifying of women's bodies.

I like big butts and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
And a round thing in your face
You get sprung, want to pull up tough
'Cause you notice that butt was stuffed
Deep in the jeans she's wearing
I'm hooked and I can't stop staring
Oh baby, I want to get wit'cha
And take your picture
My homeboys tried to warn me
But with that butt you got makes (me so horny)
Ooh, Rump-o'-smooth-skin
You say you want to get in my Benz?
Well, use me, use me
'Cause you ain't that average groupie
I've seen her dancin'
To hell with romancin'
She's sweet, wet,
Got it goin' like a turbo 'Vette
I'm tired of magazines
Sayin' flat butts are the thing
Take the average black man and ask him that
She gotta pack much back
So, fellas (yeah) Fellas (yeah)
Has your girlfriend got the butt? (hell yeah)
Tell 'em to shake it (shake it) shake it (shake it)
Shake that healthy butt
Baby got back (L.A. fits with the Oakland booty

'I am, I am, I am Superman and I know what's happening
I am, I am, I am Superman and I can do anything

You don't really love that guy you make it with now, do you?
I know you don't love that guy 'cause I can see right through you

I am, I am, I am Superman and I know what's happening
I am, I am, I am Superman and I can do anything

If you go a million miles away I'll track you down, girl
Trust me when I say I know the pathway to your heart'

REM. One of my favourites. But I try not to pay attention to the stalker lyrics!

And always thought this Beatles one was very dodgy...

'Well, you know that I’m a wicked guy
And I was born with a jealous mind
And I can’t spend my whole life
Trying to make you toe the line

You’d better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man
That’s the end, little girl'.

Good thread OP, was thinking same the other day.

The thread wasn't about dodgy lyrics but songs about a specific person.

Re The Beatles - I loathe them but a specific and misogynistic song is And Your Bird Can Sing

It sounds poetic doesn't it? It isn't. The "bird" is Marianne Faithful- Mick Jagger's "bird" at the time.

If one wanted to be charitable to Lennon (which I don't) there is a theory that he was scolding Jagger for constantly using that word to describe Faithful. I'm not convinced as Lennon perpetuates it.

Speaking about jagger, I think he had a few songs written about him.

Other songs about specific people:
Layla -
Oh Donna (not sure if that is the title)
You Oughta Know
So What

Rosanna by Toto.

A genre of music that's now being called "Yacht Rock".

The name being devised because of the perfectly crafted feel-good songs.

Maneater by Hall and Oats is a classic in this genre.

Guess how many women artists are considered to fall in the genre? None.

It's cock rock....

Though I bloody love some of the songs Africa by Toto for example