This one is such bad taste its funny,
Teen Angel - Mark Dinning
“He never hit the brakes and he was shifting gears.”
As for glorification of murder, “Hey Joe” (#6 for Jimi Hendrix) has probably been recorded by more people than any other such song. Joe is going out to shoot his old lady and the main singer/narrator doesn’t seem to have any problem with it.
Interesting to see all the commentary about “Rum and Coca-Cola”. Those interested in the legal battle over plagiarism of the song should read the relevant portion of Louis Nizer’s “My Life In Court” in which he ties a defense expert into knots and provides interesting sidelights on calypso.
I fondly remember a radio show I co-hosted in college called the “Bad Taste Special” in which we aired every recording we could think of that would offend people (I handled the rock/pop playlist; my cohort did jazz and blues). One memorable song from the show was Senator Bobby’s “Wild Thing”, a rendition by an R.F.K. impersonator. Not all that offensive in itself, but not in the best of taste to play it after he’d been assassinated.
I remember that one–singer wasn’t allowed to sing, but was constantly being coached on tone & volume to maximize his appeal. Visionary work, really.
Around the same time, 1970 - The Jaggerz had ‘The Rapper’ warning a girl about a seemingly nice guy who just wants a ‘companion, a girl he can talk to’. Don’t be alone with him! We all called that song ‘The Raper’.
With Van Halen’s “Jump,” which charted #1, David Lee Roth says his lyrics were inspired by news footage of a guy on top of a roof threatening suicide. “Might as well jump!”
So congrats. You have managed to show that this song, with totally different lyrics before it became a hit, had lyrics that were solidly suggestive. I concur, those lyrics are pretty obvious. How does that make the* hit *version, with different lyrics, sung by a different group- a song with bad taste?
“…and watch the pronunciation of the word “heart””
“Oh wild thing, you make my, ah, haht sing.”
“that’s perfect, Senator.”
It’s been long enough, it’s not in bad taste anymore. And it’s ok to watch The Manchurian Candidate, too.
Yep, and that was used for a ad campaign also.
Maybe I’m still naive, but I took the line “two girls for every boy” to mean that it would be a fun place to hang out because as a boy/young man, you would have an excellent chance of picking up a date because of the availability…not that there were threesomes happening everywhere.
The people who wrote the hit version, and the people who sang it, all acknowledge that the song was about prostitution. Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter to me any more.
Exactly.
On some TV crime show, a guy was describing the appeal of a certain gay bar: It had two guys for every guy.
Maybe I should write a remake / parody about this place where the implications of that ratio is as tasteless as it sounds to some.
Wow, you and I have very different interpretations of that song. I don’t think he’s giving a sex ultimatum, and I don’t think it’s in poor taste at all. But I do agree it might be in poor taste to play at a wedding, since the guy is clearly dissatisfied with his relationship.
There’s no other reasonable interpretation of this.
My interpretation exactly.
That was Lenny Briscoe on* Law & Order*: " Two boys for every… boy."
I recently picked up a “ZZ Top Greatest Hits” album. They kind of peaked in the 1970s and I was reminded why they never appeared on the Mike Douglas Show:
LaGrange (a legendary Texas brothel)
Pearl Necklace (Porn term that goes way back, apparently)
Tube Steak Boogie ("Nuff said)
Tush (Ditto)
And many more!
“We’re a American Band” by Grand Funk Railroad. “Sweet sweet Connie performed her act/Before the whole show and tht’s a natural fact.” The video is a total sausage fest, four dudes hanging around without their shirts, a lot. They sing about banging every groupie on the road, but no girls are in view.
Nope, neither. No demand for sex, no statement of dissatisfaction. It’s a statement that people need to demonstrate love by doing more than just saying the words.
The song is a ballad in which the singer wants his lover to do more to prove her love other than saying the phrase “I love you.” Bettencourt described it as a warning that the phrase was becoming meaningless: “People use it so easily and so lightly that they think you can say that and fix everything, or you can say that and everything’s OK. Sometimes you have to do more and you have to show it—there’s other ways to say ‘I love you.’”[cite]
It sounds like him, but I wasn’t sure.
What about the Rolling Stones’ “Stray Cat Blues?”
“I can see that you’re fifteen years old/
No I don’t want your I.D.”
Then it has an invitation for a menage a trois at the end.
Best jailbait song ever.