Healthiest and Unhealthiest relationships in songs?

[BernardBlacksMolluscs]

As I was cleaning the house this morning I was musing on those songs that come on the radio that you've been singing along with for years where you suddenly actually listen to the lyrics and either think 'well you sound very sensible' or 'intervention. NOW'. Any one got any suggestions? The ones I came up with first were

Healthy - Respect by Aretha Franklin. I know it's a cliche, and the guy she's singing about sounds like borderline not a keeper frankly, but I love the line 'I ain't gonna do you wrong, cause I don't want to'. She's all in, but she's still telling him how she expects to be treated

Red buntingtastic - Never Gonna Give You Up - why wouldn't she get a full commitment from any other guy Rick, you gaslighting bastard?

Anyone else fancy whiling away some weekend time thinking up some examples?

(mumsnet's AI suggested a thread title of 'Songs that sound sensible or alarming once you really hear the lyrics' which I kind of love but decided not to go with!)

Bit if a weird one but I love mmmbop by Hanson. Song about how fast time goes by and how it’s important to hold on to what matters most. To think that they were only kids when they wrote it always amazes me.

“You have so many relationships in this life
Only one or two will last
You go through all the pain and strife
Then you turn your back and they're gone so fast
Oh yeah
And they're gone so fast, yeah
Oh
So hold on the ones who really care
In the end they'll be the only ones there
And when you get old and start losing your hair
Can you tell me who will still care
Can you tell me who will still care?
Oh, oh care”

I’ve been listening to Jolene a lot lately and much as I love it, it’s deeply misogynistic isn’t it? There’s no criticism of the man and his penchant for Jolene, it’s all pleading with the woman not to take him!
The Rolling Songs had some horrid women-hating songs. Under My Thumb gives me the shivers.
There are a load of pretty rapey songs out there too. I can’t believe Baby It’s Cold Outside is still allowed to be played! Jeez it even alludes to him spiking her drink.
Hurt by Johnny Cash breaks my heart every time

In terms of healthy songs, Bridge Over Troubled Waters and You’ve Got a Friend come to mind, just because of their sentiment relating to being there for someone without any agenda.

Also Harvest Moon, still in love and ageing.

I bloody love the Beatles (I listened to them a lot while doing my homework), so it's nice to see them mentioned here, both for the healthy and the unhealthy lyrics.

I'm So Tired was written while the Beatles were in India after John met Yoko. She wasn't there. He missed her and couldn't sleep.

The rooftop performance of Don't Let Me Down is a raw, heartfelt plea to Yoko, which I always liked for its vulnerable honesty.
Y

The songs written by both John and Yoko (separately) about their relationship cover everything from healthy to unhealthy.

Yoko yearns for John in Your Hands.
E

Yoko Ono - Nobody Sees Me Like You Do (from Season Of Glass, so written after John Died).
O

RE Run For Your Life. It is worth noting that it was inspired by an Elvis song (and lifts the 'I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man' line completely from that song). The protagonist in Run For Your Life is specifically (self) described as wicked and jealous.

Elvis Presley - Baby, Let's Play House.

On the subject of hits/kisses: Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence.
g

^^

Probably this is unhealthy but fuck it's brilliant.

Oh yes, beautiful song.

I wonder which side the late and brilliant Victoria Woods “Ballad of Barry and Freda” sits 😆

Apologies if someone has already posted but I was thinking of the beautiful song Ewan Macoll wrote for Peggy Seeger “The first time ever I saw your face” just beautiful

ooh, Roberta Flack's version. Amazing.

Baby it’s cold outside
He’s literally coercing her to stay and have sex when she’s already told him (several times) that she wants to leave.

Under My Thumb? But surely this rendition by Wayne Gibson draws out the sensitive angle of the song?

Sting has had a bit of deserved stick upthread, but I like to think that Fields of Gold comes in the later days of a long and largely successful relationship.

Honey by Bobby Goldsboro gives me the shudders. Isolating, neglecting and mocking that poor girl until she committed suicide and then wailing about how sad he is now that she's dead.

Cross posted about Baby it’s Cold Outside.
Apologies if you already know, but Hurt is originally by Nine Inch Nails. Their version is one of my favourite songs, but very much about heroin addiction.

Off topic a bit by McCartney's Women and Wives off his relatively recent album Macca 3 sounds a lot like Hurt - except he actually wrote it.

Happiness is Me and You - Gilbert O Sullivan - a gentle song of contented love
It’s a lovely song worth a listen (sorry I do t know how to share)

“When the evening is over
Put your head upon my shoulder
And I'll tell you something
I believe is true
Happiness is me and you
In a world so distorted
Where the worst is best reported
Love maybe something
That will see us through
Happiness is me and you
There maybe girls that I'll remember
That made me happy for a while
But none of them compare with you my love
However hard they they all may try
If the bus that we're taking
Has for ages kept us waiting
What does it matter
Even in a queue
Happiness is me and you
There may be days when you discover
I'm not the man you think I am
But through it all we will recover
Without the aid of any plan
When the weeks turn to hours
And in June it's April showers
I'll tell you something I believe is true
Happiness is me and you
Happiness is me and you
Happiness is me and you”

Healthy
Flowers in the window

The Folks Who Live on the Hill, sung by Peggy Lee. The joy of two people in a loving partnership growing old together. Kicks all those dubious predator lyrics into touch and then some!

Someday we'll build a home on a hilltop high
You and I
Shiny and new, a cottage that two can fill
And we'll be pleased to be called
"The folks who live on the hill"

Someday we may be adding a wing or two
A thing or two
We will make changes as any family will
But we will always be called
"The folks who live on the hill"

Our veranda will command a view of meadows green
The sort of view that seems to want to be seen
And when the kids grow up and leave us
We'll sit and look at the same old view
Just we two

Darby and Joan who used to be Jack and Jill
The folks who like to be called
What they have always been called
"The folks who live on the hill"

That's the song I was thinking of when I said 60s songs about young girls. I guess at least he does know he's 'out of line'.
Another one - 'you're 16, you're beautiful and your mine' 😝

All time best positive song (IMHO) is Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks. Beautiful music, gentle lovely lyrics.
My husband's favourite song - a big tick in his favour when we first knew each other!

A healthy one - Emily Sande “Mountains”.

She wrote it about her parents and I read she wanted the track to have a grand feeling while describing a very ordinary situation.

“He said I'm going to have a bed with lots of pillows
And that we're going to build a house with lots of windows
And when we have the kids we'll tell them to remind we
Of where we were now so we never get lazy
Yeah we'll climb mountains
Climb mountains together
Yeah we'll climb mountains
Climb mountains together
I'd never work these hours if I didn't love you
My hands are always red and sunshine I sleep through
If you say we're going to move somewhere with neighbors less crazy
You know I'm going to be there, 'cause I trust my baby
Yeah we'll climb mountains
Climb mountains together
Yeah we'll climb mountains
Climb mountains together
I keep my fingers crossed that we're going to be able
I touch the wood for luck, on our broken table
I know that it's our heart that's gonna save us
If we never come back how can they blame us?
Yeah we'll climb mountains
Climb mountains together
Yeah we'll climb mountains
Climb mountains together”

this is utterly gorgeous, what is it?

I love the lyrics (the good and the bad), this is like a thread of interesting poetry.

How nice to wake up to a string of posts this morning with loving, warm song lyrics

It was very different to the old cliche of a singer professing their love for someone.

It just has a friendly feel. They had a knack of making all their fans, male and female feel part of the gang.

I always thought that aspect was lovely and clever, especially as there were two singers in the band. It is very down to earth, like a conversation between two lads in the pub or at a bus stop, one has been a bit of a dick but the other cares enough about him and his girlfriend to have a word.

They also did it on "When I saw her standing there"

It's been said that the Beatles' You're Gonna Lose That Girl off the Help! album is the darker side of She Loves You.

“When I’m 64” is about lasting love, that seems quite healthy!

I like 'Just the way you look tonight' , so tender and wistful.
It takes a bit of a turn at the end, 'Never never change...' but I think the point is that the beloved will never change in the mind of the lover:

Some day, when I'm awfully low
When the world is cold
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight

You're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft
There is nothing for me, but to love you
And the way you look tonight

The lyrics were written by Dorothy Fields (1904-1974), who also wrote 'A Fine Romance/My friend, this is/a fine romance/with no kisses' sung by Fred Astaire
and Pick yourself up/dust yourself down/start all over again'
plus about 400 more songs!

She was once asked why aren't there more women writing songs -

There aren't more lady songwriters for the same reason that there aren't more lady doctors or lady accountants or lady lawyers; simply not enough women have the time for careers. The man in our society is the breadwinner; the woman has enough to do as the homemaker, wife and mother. Yes, I do think song writing is a man's game. It requires push, energy, movement, mixing; and it is a field that is and has been dominated by men.
No, I do not think men have more talent.

People ask "Are lyrics poetry?" - some of us say yes, some say no. Elizabeth Barrett Browning could write a poem 2 pages long. Could she have brought it to a music publisher?
He'd say "Put it in 32 bars and we'll take it!"
We're confined to a framework of music, and I feel that the words can be poetic, but I wouldn't say poetry in the strictest sense.
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