# Classic Songs That Glorified Pretty Rotten Behaviour ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745 "2008-02-22T17:49:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/21 "2008-02-22T18:37:53Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] “ **Sad Eyes** ” by the Bee Gees. “My girlfriend’s coming back to town so I gotta take off. You were a good fuck. Stop crying, I told you this was temporary!” [/QUOTE] I see many lyrics sites think they recorded this, but it was actually Robert John doing his best Barry Gibb impression. Unless the Brothers Gibb did a version I’m unfamiliar with, in that case I apologize in advance. To continue the Stones theme, “Stupid Girl”. And “Treat Her Like a Lady”, which has this gem- strange as it seems/you know you can’t treat a woman mean. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/22 "2008-02-22T18:41:19Z")
No one has mentioned _Cocaine_? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/23 "2008-02-22T18:43:49Z")
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer - a cheerful little ditty about a born killer with anger issues. Franky and Johnny Tom Dooley - not glorifying, but he’s about to hang because he killed his girlfriend. Lots of old folk song have various murders and what-not. I’m afraid I’m not enough of an old folk song fan to be able to pull out titles. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/24 "2008-02-22T18:48:24Z")
“Queen of Hearts” Lying out another line Thinking bout a life of crime. If that’s what I have to do To keep me away from you. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/25 "2008-02-22T18:48:55Z")
It might be harder to come up with a list of songs that glorify good citizenship. The narrator of Fulsom Prison Blues was no peach: [QUOTE=Johnny Cash] When I was just a baby, My Mama told me, “Son, Always be a good boy Don’t ever play with guns.” But I shot a man in Reno, Just to watch him die. [/QUOTE] How about **Mack the Knife**? He’s a killer, a love-em-and-leave-em ladies’ man, and in some versions a child murderer and pimp. [QUOTE=Brecht] And the ghastly fire in Soho, Seven children at a go— In the crowd stands Mack the knife, but He’s not asked and doesn’t know. ``` And the child bride in her nightie, Whose assailant's still at large Violated in her slumbers— Mackie how much did you charge? ``` [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/26 "2008-02-22T18:49:50Z")
[QUOTE=lieu] Brief hijack… when they say: "_In Birmingham they love the governor ohh ooohh ohhh… Now we all did what we could do"_ is that a reference to the Wallace shooting or his support of segregation? [/QUOTE] This song has been debated to death by fans. According to Steven Van Zandt, the song was intended as basically a good natured rebuttal to Neil Young’s “Southern Man” which the band thought came off as too sweeping. They were trying to say that not all southerners were racist rednecks. Here’s a quote from [url=]Van Zandt himself: > [@](#): > > “We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two.” The Wallace line was intended as a rejection of Wallace not as an endorsement. the lyrics are as follows. _In Birmingham they love the governor (Boo boo boo) Now we all did what we could do…_ In other words, some of us tried to stop it. Don’t blame us (the follow up line about Watergate rhetorically asks if everyone in the North is responsible for Nixon). More from the band: > [@](#): > > In 1975, Van Zant said: “The lyrics about the governor of Alabama were misunderstood. The general public didn’t notice the words ‘Boo! Boo! Boo!’ after that particular line, and the media picked up only on the reference to the people loving the governor.” > > “The line ‘We all did what we could do’ is sort of ambiguous,” Kooper notes “‘We tried to get Wallace out of there’ is how I always thought of it.” > > Journalist John Swenson argues that the song is more complex than it is sometimes given credit for, suggesting that it only looks like an endorsement of Wallace. “Wallace and I have very little in common,” Van Zant himself said, “I don’t like what he says about colored people.” Van Zandt also followed that verse up with the ad libbed shout “Montgomery’s got the answer!” which was a refernce to MLK. A couple of more interesting notes: in spite of the perceived feud between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young, he and Steven Van Zandt were actually good friends and mutual fans. Young has professed to love “Sweet Home Alabama” and has sometimes performed it live himself. He was also a pallbearer at Van Zandt’s funeral. The calling out of Young in the song was never intended to be serious smackdown but as a good natured riposte from one friend to another. As to any implication that the band supported Nixon or approved of Watergate, Skynyrd publicly supported Jimmy Carter in '76 and performed on his behalf. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/27 "2008-02-22T18:49:53Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] There’s kind of a category of songs like “Freebird” and “Ramblin’ Man” which are about men ditching women and explaining that they can’t stay because they have to “ramble.” They don’t _want_ to – they _have_ to. It’s not her fault, there’s just no way he can stay. This bird has to be free. [/QUOTE] I would add Led Zeplins “Ramble on” and The Temptations “Papa was a Rollin’ Stone” to that list and I always thought Elton John’s “Rocket Man” was a metaphore for ditching your family. The Raveonettes “My Boyfriends Back” is basically about how her boyfreind is going to beat the crap out of everyone. And of course there is a whole category of songs about prostitutes (“Roxane” by The Police being one of the most famous.) ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/28 "2008-02-22T18:56:02Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria] Lots of old folk song have various murders and what-not. I’m afraid I’m not enough of an old folk song fan to be able to pull out titles. [/QUOTE] I don’t know how many folk songs have the theme “He threw her to the ground and ask-ed no man’s leave” after which the girl chases down and wins her “true love”. Tamlyn is a famous one of that genre, although he has sort of an excuse as he was a member of the fairy troop at that time and presumably had no soul. Not to mention the innumerable versions of “sailor goes off to sea for seven years, returns in disguise, and acts like a douchebag to his girlfriend by pretending he’s a random sailor trying to seduce her before he finally takes out the ring once she proves that she’s true”. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/29 "2008-02-22T18:58:03Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. In spite of people often using this for a wedding song, it is a stalker song. You will never get away from me; I will always be following you around, regardless of your wishes. Aw, isn’t that romantic? [/QUOTE] [mild hijack]I’ll be honest with you–I’ve heard this meme over and over again: “People think it’s romantic”, “People think it’s a love song”, etc. Does _anyone_ actually think that anymore? Is there anyone out there who doesn’t know it’s about obssession–either because they’ve listened to the song, or they’ve had someone persistently remind them–“You know, that song’s actually about STALKING”? I’ve been to plenty of weddings whose participants grew up with the Police, and I’ve never heard this played once. Ever. It’s almost become like Richard Gere’s gerbil–everyone knows someone who knows someone who doesn’t know what this song really means, but I have never once encounted firsthand anyone who actually doesn’t. Back in the 80s? Sure, perhaps. But now? Uh-uh.[/mildhijack] ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/30 "2008-02-22T19:00:30Z")
**Mama Tried** by Merle Haggard (covered by the Grateful Dead, among others): > [@](#): > > I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole. > No-one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried. > Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied. > That leaves only me to blame 'cos Mama tried. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/31 "2008-02-22T19:01:00Z")
[QUOTE=TWDuke] How about **Mack the Knife**? He’s a killer, a love-em-and-leave-em ladies’ man, and in some versions a child murderer and pimp. [/QUOTE] I came in to post the same. Even in the upbeat Darrin version, Mack’s still a murderer, thief and hangs with prostitutes. Not to bring politics into it, but a month or so ago, I heard someone from the McCain camp on the radio suggest calling McCain “Mac the Knife” for his tax-cutting efforts. I laughed and, thankfully, that idea seemed to die on the vine. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/32 "2008-02-22T19:02:03Z")
To the topic of girlfriend killing–“Used to Love Her” by Guns N Roses. Most of Dusty Springfield’s songs (“I’ll Do Anything,” “Only Want to Be With You,” “Wishin’ and Hopin’”) are about doing anything to get the guy you want. And then there’s the domestic abuse ones…“He Hit Me (and It Felt Like a Kiss)” comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/33 "2008-02-22T19:10:09Z")
Whoo … I’m asking about bounders and cads and people come up with killers … And by “classic” and referencing Sinatra and Dean Martin and the age of gentlemanly behaviour, I thought I was drawing a line in the pre-rock ‘n’ roll era. So, come on people, dig deeper. The Rolling Stones? They were never admired by our grandparents for being upstanding, clean cut citizens. Oof … and serial killers? Let’s step back from that kind of stuff. Bounders and cads, people, bounders and cads! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/34 "2008-02-22T19:13:22Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] - “South of the Border” - I seduced an innocent girl in Mexico and now she thinks we’re getting married (and is perhaps pregnant) so I’m going to stay the hell away from Mexico. [/QUOTE] Call me a sentimental sap with my head stuck in the late thirties, but I always assumed the girl was getting married _to someone else_. The pregnant part I didn’t pick up on at all; pop songs didn’t mention such things then. (There were a lot of things pop songs didn’t mention then.) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/35 "2008-02-22T19:18:11Z")
Funny, but I keep thinking up more & more: From Tammy Wynette: > [@](#): > > …Because your good girls a gonna go bad. > i’m gonna be the swingingest swinger you’ve ever had, > if ya like em painted up, powderd up then you outta be glad coz your > good girls a gonna go bad… From Hot Tuna **99 Year Blues** : > [@](#): > > Well now give me my pistol man and three round balls. > I’m gonna shoot everybody that I don’t like at all… > > Gotta .38 special man and .45 frame, > You know the thing don’t miss 'cause I got dead aim… **Aint Nobody’s Business** - jazz standard, but famously done by Billie Holliday: > [@](#): > > …I would rather my gal would hit me > Than to haul right up and quit me. > It ain’t nobody’s business if I do. > > I know that she won’t call no copper > If she gets beat up by her poppa. > It ain’t nobody’s business if I do, Lord no. > Well, it ain’t nobody’s business if I do. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/36 "2008-02-22T19:25:45Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] Whoo … I’m asking about bounders and cads and people come up with killers … And by “classic” and referencing Sinatra and Dean Martin and the age of gentlemanly behaviour, I thought I was drawing a line in the pre-rock ‘n’ roll era. [/QUOTE] How about “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” which endorses drinking & driving (although that could you turn you into a killer instead of a mere bounder) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/37 "2008-02-22T19:32:20Z")
Love for Sale (not a euphemism) Makin Whoopie (stop cheating on you wife or you alimony will be high) Short People (the bridge seems to indicate that short people are, in fact, OK. They are not.) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/38 "2008-02-22T19:37:29Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] I see many lyrics sites think they recorded this, but it was actually Robert John doing his best Barry Gibb impression. Unless the Brothers Gibb did a version I’m unfamiliar with, in that case I apologize in advance. [/QUOTE] Hey, thanks! Always thought it was the Bee Gees - ignorance fought! ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/39 "2008-02-22T19:37:29Z")
[QUOTE=msmith537] I would add Led Zeplins “Ramble on” and The Temptations “Papa was a Rollin’ Stone” to that list and I always thought Elton John’s “Rocket Man” was a metaphore for ditching your family. [/QUOTE] I don’t recall Papa Was A Rolling Stone as glorifying such behavior, but rather showing the resulting pain of such irresponsibility. As for the thread, how about “I Shot The Sheriff”? “Thanks for not shooting Deputy Fife, Mr. Marley, but we’re still pretty upset about you whacking Sheriff Taylor. Yes, I understand he badmouthed your garden.” ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745/40 "2008-02-22T19:44:21Z")
[QUOTE=Purd Werfect] I don’t recall Papa Was A Rolling Stone as glorifying such behavior, but rather showing the resulting pain of such irresponsibility. As for the thread, how about “I Shot The Sheriff”? “Thanks for not shooting Deputy Fife, Mr. Marley, but we’re still pretty upset about you whacking Sheriff Taylor. Yes, I understand he badmouthed your garden.” [/QUOTE] But he swore it was in self defense. Freedom came his way one day and he started out of town. All of a sudden he saw Sheriff John Brown aiming to shot him down, so he shot, he shot him down. And now they say it is a capital offense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-songs-that-glorified-pretty-rotten-behaviour/438745.md?page=3)