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!)

😦 'Vagina Dentata - The Musical' 😁

'I Got You Babe' Sonny and Cher, 1965.

Financially unhealthy
'They say our love won't pay the rent..'
but
Put your little hand in mine
[I think she sings that to him]
There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb
awwwww

In real life there were several hills or mountains they couldn't climb, and it all ended in an acrimonious divorce🙁

Just like no, he didn't still love her tomorrow.
And yes, he did give her up, let her down, ran around, and deserted her.
And no, she didn't still need nor feed him when he was 64..

It's only rock and roll, but we like it😁

I despise The Coward of the County by Kenny Rodgers. His wife’s just been raped by a gang of brothers, so does he comfort her or try to help? Does he fuck. He leaves her crying and traumatised on the floor while he grabs his gun and dashes off to prove what a big man he is. Bastard.
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, even though it’s nauseating is at least positive.

I googled ‘petrichor’, what a lovely word and one I have often wished existed when it was there all along!

And YY re coward of the county

I haven’t read the whole thread but any early Pulp songs , from Pencil Skirt to I Spy to - well. a lot but not all

Things became a bit more balanced later

I’m a big Pulp fan btw

@Lins77 @AnniesFrangipani Harvest Moon is lovely. Neil Young wrote it for his wife of 36 years. Then cheated on her with Daryl Hannah and left her heartbroken.

Wow! Proof that rude lyrics aren’t new

Genius

That snare drum fill doth much to excuse the appertaining rage though. How about Whole Lotta Love? “You need coolin, I’m going to send you back to schoolin”

Don't forget the one where he hides in the girl's sister's wardrobe to spy on what she's getting up to with David from the garage up the road 😄

I don't know why but Jarvis being a perv was somehow okay, it felt more like he was subverting it by playing that character, or am I being too kind?

I don't know but he somehow gets away with things others can't. Maybe because he said things others thought but didn't dare sing about, and they were always sharply observational with no embarrassment. He often never got the girl, just fantasied about her as teenage boys / young males did but didn't in any way follow up with in action: they wouldn't dare! It was all in their oversexed heads. In the song you quoted he used the euphemism "I got it on" as he spied from that wardrobe. I loved the sanitised video they used, where "David" was a poster of David Cassidy, wildly popular at the time with teenage girls.

Pencil Skirt was more brutal

I only come here cause I know it makes you sad
I only do it cause I know you know it's bad
oh don't you know
That it's ugly and it shouldn't be like that
But oh it's turning me on, oh

He has sort of apologised for that song, saying it was a "dirty little song" and moving onto more "healthy" songs, and there are plenty, especially on "More" when he talks of proper grown-up love.

Thanks for responding, I find Jarvis fascinating!

He often never got the girl, just fantasied about her as teenage boys / young males did but didn't in any way follow up with in action: they wouldn't dare!

That was definitely the case with Common People - the girl was based on a real encounter but he's said she was not remotely offering to sleep with him 😄 the desire was all on his side!

Yup, not a fan of this song.

Nooooo 😢 Mind you, I didn’t know he wrote it for his wife in the first place!

Kiss with a fist by Florence and The Machine is horrendous.

And it seems like quite a lot of Kate Nash’s songs are about a deeply dysfunctional relationship. I hope it wasn’t all written from life…

I love Pulp, but lots of the songs are just filthy, but somehow ok!