# Jerkish characters (beginning with The Beatles) in songs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [August 27, 2024, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330 "2024-08-27T21:13:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2024, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/81 "2024-09-02T05:58:03Z")
Lyle Lovett’s _L.A. County._ The singer travels to L.A. County with his old friend by his side. Only the old friend is a .44 and he shoots his ex in church as she’s marrying someone else.
In one concert, Lovett took requests live. A woman asked for the song, saying they played it at their wedding. Lovett was nonplussed. “Don’t you even know what that song is about?” “We changed the lyrics a little.”
Lovett also wrote “Nobody Knows Me,” where the singer praises how much his wife loves him, then ends up cheating on her.
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### Author:  [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2024, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/82 "2024-09-06T08:30:17Z")
I’ve always heard the ending as
> So I lit a fire and spread it and torched the bitches house to to ground. Isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood?
Must be one of them “mondegreens” like Jimi’s “Scuse’ me, while kiss this guy”
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2024, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/83 "2024-09-06T15:33:19Z")
Lola? Pretending to be a woman without letting on.
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### Author:  [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/84 "2024-09-06T15:36:13Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#):
>
> That line is in a 1954 Elvis Presley song,
I learned something!
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/85 "2024-09-06T16:32:11Z")
even good ole Kenny can be a jerk
> **[kenny rogers tomb of the unknown love lyrics - Bing](https://www.bing.com/search?q=kenny%2Brogers%2Btomb%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bunknown%2Blove%2Blyrics&filters=dtbk:%22MCFvdmVydmlldyFseXJpY3MhNDA4ZjJkNTctNDlkNi1jZDIyLTQ3MmEtMjExMjllMzdkNTIy%22%2Bsid:%22408f2d57-49d6-cd22-472a-21129e37d522%22&FORM=DEPNAV)**
>
> Intelligent search from Bing makes it easier to quickly find what you’re looking for and rewards you.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/86 "2024-09-06T22:29:31Z")
I just listened to a Patreon bonus episode of the [History of Rock in 500 Songs podcast](https://500songs.com/)
about Randy Newman. The narrator in about 90% of all the songs Newman ever wrote qualify for this thread.
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### Author:  [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/87 "2024-09-07T02:17:03Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#):
>
> Paul in “Lovely Rita Maid” - clearly he’s getting out of a ticket. “May I inquire discreetly, when are you free to take some tea with me?” They go out, she pays the bill and somehow two sisters on the couch prevent him from getting laid.
_Prevent_ him from getting laid?? Hell, it’s gonna be a threesome, dude!
_“Sitting on a sofa with a sister or two”_
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2024, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/88 "2024-09-07T02:48:39Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> > [@fachverwirrt](#):
> >
> > John in “Norwegian Wood”. Yeah, ok, she led you on a little bit, but did you have to burn down the fucking house?
>
> Haven’t we had this discussion on the SDMB before? He didn’t light the house on fire, he just bummed at her house while she was at work. Lit a fire in her fireplace.
>
> I started listening to The Beatles when I was a little kid and never once did I think that the singer burned down the lady’s house. Apparently there’s many who think he burned the house down.
Same for me. I listened to that song over and over again as a teen, and never once thought he burned the house down. It never even crossed my mind as a possibility. I thought he lit a fire in the fireplace to warm up the place: i.e. the actions of a normal person, not those of a psychopath.
> [@fachverwirrt](#):
>
> Paul McCartney thinks he burned the house down: “In our world the guy had to have some sort of revenge. It could have meant I lit a fire to keep myself warm, and wasn’t the decor of her house wonderful? But it didn’t, it meant I burned the fucking place down as an act of revenge, and then we left it there and went into the instrumental.”
That is quite seriously fucked up. Maybe we should be discussing jerkish songwriters.
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### Author:  [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2024, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/89 "2024-09-07T03:28:51Z")
McCartney has always had a pathetic desire to be seen as a bad-ass, and not be seen as the nice-guy Beatle. His revisionist views of everything Beatle-ey (including who wrote what) are getting sad and tiresome.
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### Author:  [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2024, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/90 "2024-09-07T11:49:36Z")
> [@robby](#):
>
> I thought he lit a fire in the fireplace to warm up the place: i.e. the actions of a normal person, not those of a psychopath.
Except that he used the furniture for kindling.
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2024, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/91 "2024-09-07T13:08:44Z")
I thought he lit up a joint.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2024, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerkish-characters-beginning-with-the-beatles-in-songs/1006330/92 "2024-09-07T13:48:34Z")
> [@K364](#):
>
> McCartney has always had a pathetic desire to be seen as a bad-ass, and not be seen as the nice-guy Beatle. His revisionist views of everything Beatle-ey (including who wrote what) are getting sad and tiresome.
Why should Paul be the authoritative voice on “Norwegian Wood” anyway? John wrote it, and we can’t ask him anymore.
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