# Breaking up... it's easy to do **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [April 23, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401 "2025-04-23T14:41:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/41 "2025-04-24T17:03:25Z")
My life is over. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/42 "2025-04-24T17:51:28Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > > Probably superfluous nitpick: that one was a cover. > > It was??? > > I have a collection of more than 300 cover songs, I consider myself as a cover song nerd… and you just brutally covered me with shame. Aw, don’t feel shame, feel happy that you’ve discovered one more cover song to add to your collection! We can’t all know everything. Fighting ignorance is a _good_ thing, whether you’re the fighter, or the beneficiary of the fighting. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/43 "2025-04-24T18:00:52Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Fighting ignorance is a _good_ thing, whether you’re the fighter, or the beneficiary of the fighting. Yeah, just like I learned that Patti D’Arbanville and Patti Boyd are different persons right here in this thread. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/44 "2025-04-24T18:09:04Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Yeah, just like I learned that Patti D’Arbanville and Patti Boyd are different persons right here in this thread. 😄 I’m pretty sure when the song ['Goodbye to You](https://youtu.be/_50-gOeBilc)’ first came out, sung by Patty Smyth of the band Scandal, I briefly thought “wow, Patti Smith sure went mainstream!” 🤪 ETA: Oh, duh, BTW…breakup song! (how ya like the way I deftly pulled _that_ hijack back on track 😉) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/45 "2025-04-24T19:48:21Z")
Hey, what about a song about a breakup from a band, does that also count? I’m just listening once again to Neil Young’s “Rust Never Sleeps”, and “Thrasher” comes up. Man, how I love this song, and what a scathing reckoning with CS&N it is. _They had the best selection_ _They were poisoned with protection_ _There was nothing that they needed_ _Nothing left to find_ _They were lost in rock formations_ _Or became park bench mutations_ _On the sidewalks and in the stations_ _They were waiting, waiting_ _So I got bored and left them there_ _They were just dead weight to me_ _Better down the road without that load_ ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/46 "2025-04-24T20:33:56Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mQOmDUnt8Hs/maxresdefault.jpg "Vixen - Edge Of A Broken Heart") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQOmDUnt8Hs) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/47 "2025-04-24T22:27:25Z")
This bittersweet song is a duet by Frank Blank and his soon to be ex-wife Violeta Clark. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/eb0BkiA_A3s/maxresdefault.jpg "Frank Black - Strange Goodbye") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb0BkiA_A3s) ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/48 "2025-04-25T00:28:32Z")
Loved the movie too. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Q3se3t703CM/maxresdefault.jpg "Oingo Boingo - Goodbye, Goodbye") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3se3t703CM) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/49 "2025-04-25T14:49:18Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Hey, what about a song about a breakup from a band, does that also count? I’m just listening once again to Neil Young’s “Rust Never Sleeps”, and “Thrasher” comes up. Man, how I love this song, and what a scathing reckoning with CS&N it is. Woah…‘Rust Never Sleeps’ was my favorite album at 14-15 years old and I played the heck out of it. Thrasher was one of my favorite songs on the album, and I loved the poetic, oblique lyrics, but I never really figured out any meaning or context for them. Thanks for that info! It checks out. In [a December '95 interview with Neil](https://thrasherswheat.org/tfa/mojointerview1295pt2.htm): > Thrasher was pretty much me writing about my experiences with Crosby, Stills & Nash in the mid-'70s. Now, can you tell me what that white boat coming up the river in Powderfinger was all about? What was their beef, anyway? 😄 ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/50 "2025-04-25T14:58:01Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Now, can you tell me what that white boat coming up the river I’ve had this fantasy for nearly 50 years that I will someday stumble upon a historical account that jibes with that song. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/51 "2025-04-25T15:00:09Z")
I just realized there is a breakup song that isn’t listed in his thread or the one linked above. And it is a breakup song written specifically to break up a musical team (According to Dolly, after she played it for him, Porter Wagoner said she could go if his record label could be the one that released the song). I guess Whitney’s bombastic hit cover masked the core meaning of the song too well. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/aDqqm_gTPjc/hqdefault.jpg "Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You - 1974") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDqqm_gTPjc) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/52 "2025-04-25T15:30:01Z")
Two of my favorite break up songs are sorta opposites. CeeLo Green’s Fuck You And Green Day’s much gentler Good Riddance. OMG! I tried all the tricks I know to get the videos to link and it just would not let me. I tried even just posting the links but the board hates me right now. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/53 "2025-04-25T17:31:50Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > Now, can you tell me what that white boat coming up the river > > I’ve had this fantasy for nearly 50 years that I will someday stumble upon a historical account that jibes with that song. I can’t help either, but my theory has always been that the song’s protagonist’s family lived a sort of criminal life hidden away out in the woods, maybe bootleggers, and that the white boat is the law coming for them. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/54 "2025-04-25T17:44:44Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > OMG! I tried all the tricks I know to get the videos to link and it just would not let me. I tried even just posting the links but the board hates me right now. See this thread. It’s really very easy to avoid the youtube embedding bug: > [@How to avoid the YouTube posting bug](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-avoid-the-youtube-posting-bug/1007499): > > You’re trying to post a YouTube video, but you get a popup saying “You can’t embed media items in a post.” Here’s how to avoid that. There are a couple of minor variations. I haven’t written my post yet Write your post normally but do not include the YouTube link(s). When you are satisfied with the post, hide the preview window (see the \<\< button in the lower-right). Then, insert the links in the desired locations. Note that the links should each appear on a line by themselves. Then post. … ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/55 "2025-04-25T17:46:50Z")
Oh good one! Have you seen The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas? Dolly sings it to Burt Reynolds. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/56 "2025-04-25T17:49:53Z")
Thanks but those are the tips and tricks I tried to use! Even read that very thread. It was like I did it wrong at first because I’m old and forget that here is different from other places I post and once I got the forbidden warning, nothing made it stop. Oh well, back to down doobie do down downing. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/57 "2025-04-25T18:04:18Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > > > [@solost](#): > > > > > > Now, can you tell me what that white boat coming up the river > > > > I’ve had this fantasy for nearly 50 years that I will someday stumble upon a historical account that jibes with that song. > > I can’t help either, but my theory has always been that the song’s protagonist’s family lived a sort of criminal life hidden away out in the woods, maybe bootleggers, and that the white boat is the law coming for them. My working theory has been that the protagonist’s family owned that patch of land for generations, farming, hunting, fishing and generally living off the land. Poor, but proud. Then one day a corporation comes by, wanting to buy the land to build a hunting lodge & resort or some other rich folks’ nonsense. But the land is all they have! Why, Emmy Lou’s grave is just over yonder! Can’t let them just pave over it. What are they going to do with a little bit of cash-- get a crappy apartment in the _ **city** _? So they resist the corporation’s offer until the evil corporation sends a gunboat full of hired goons up the river, and the rest is tragic rock song history. As a small positive footnote, I like to imagine the protagonist’s love (mentioned in the last line of the song) eventually becomes a lawyer, suing the corporation for tens of millions in damages (lawyers, not bullets, being a much more effective fighting tool), setting up Mama, Big John (now sobered up) and the protagonist’s brother for life. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/58 "2025-04-25T18:22:00Z")
Do you have a thread on this subject? I love finding out about songs I didn’t know were covers. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/59 "2025-04-25T18:25:29Z")
I do not, alas. And many of my collection were obtained during the wild, wild Napster days, plus an amazing (now defunct) website dedicated to cover songs. They are pretty much all illegal copies. So I am not going to share them or any more detail. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401/60 "2025-04-25T18:33:06Z")
Thank you, but I didn’t mean you had to share info like that. Do you ever post any covers (from memory) in existing threads? Just the names of the songs and artists, you don’t have to post the actual songs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-up-its-easy-to-do/1017401.md?page=4)