Dido, “White Flag.” The whole song really, but especially this line that keeps running through my head: “I know you think that I shouldn’t still love you / I’ll tell you that
But if I didn’t say it / Well, I’d still have felt it / Where’s the sense in that?” What kind of rationale is that, lady? I know I should keep my mouth shut, but I’m feeling what I want to say, so what sense is there in keeping my mouth shut?
Amy Winehouse, “You Know I’m No Good.” If you cheated yourself like you knew you would, can you say you’re really cheating yourself rather than simply doing what you wanted to do in the first place?
How does that not make sense - if you believe that being true to your feelings is better than living a lie, it makes perfect sense. And it’s not “I’ll tell you that”, it’s “Or tell you that”, meaning he wants her to stop telling him she still loves him.
It doesn’t make sense only if you think that “getting along” or “just staying friends” is a worthier goal. The whole song’s just her saying that she isn’t the one who wants to end the relationship, and calling her boyfriend a quitter. Not in a stalkerish way, just in the way of all one-sided relationships. “I will always love you” and all that…
I’m not sure I should show my face in the Punk thread after this in-depth analysis of Dido lyrics But I like kitchen sink songs, damn it.
Not quite faulty logic, but when Simon and Garfunkel (and later Billy Bragg) sang “I was 21 years when I wrote this song. I’m 22 now, but I won’t be for long”, it always bothered me.
How did you write a song without singing it as you went along? How did you know, when you wrote it, that you weren’t going to sing it for at least 12 months? Why is the song about being 22, when you wrote it when you were 21?
But that contradicts everything else she’s saying about how it’s already the aftermath of a breakup where she (specifically) left too much mess and destruction for her to come back again.
Yes, the lyrics are definitely confused and paradoxical, but that doesn’t stop me from liking them. She admits that the relationship is ruined, and takes her responsibiltiy for that, (though she doesn’t specifically say that he didn’t leave mess and destruction too,) but she’s either proud or fatalistic about refusing to give up on her love.
By the bridge, she seems to have changed her mind about not speaking up: “I’ll let it pass and hold my tongue / and you will think that I’ve moved on.”
She’s not saying that the song isn’t about him, she’s saying that any normal person who acts decent would hear it and think “Wow, I wonder who she’s so pissed at?” instead of “Hey, a song about me!”
The fact that he’d think “It’s me!” drives home the fact that he’s a dick.
No immediate title/artists spring to mind because it’s not really my genre but I’ve heard several “girl power” type songs along the vein of “You’re a dirty cheater and we broke up and I’ve already forgotten you but you’re going to miss me so much”.
Honey, he’s in bed with some random floozy while you’re writing songs about him. You’ve already lost that war.
And I guess my contribution to the thread would be the Ennis Sisters, “I’d never walk away”, in the chorus:
“You didn’t love me, 'cause if you loved me,
I’d never walk away…”
Sorry, you’ve got it backwards. You already decided that he didn’t love you, and that’s why you’re leaving. You can’t use your own leaving as proof that he doesn’t love you.
But I like kitchen sink songs, damn it.