# Psychologically unhealthy songs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 9, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064 "2006-06-09T14:28:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/61 "2006-06-11T06:39:31Z")
Jennifer Holliday’s seminal [_And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going_](http://www.dartmouth.edu/~jcd/dreamgirls.html), from the play _Dreamgirls_, which I predict you’ll hear _ad nauseum_ in the coming months when the movie debuts. The song is bad enough within context of the play, with this lovestruck woman clinging to an emotionally abusive man who doesn’t love her back and leaves her pregnant for another women whose career he’s promoting – but this is one of those songs that _really_ becomes creepy as hell when you stop to consider the lyrics and realize that there is _absolutely no context for how long the woman and man in the song have actually known each other._ So if you hear a frustrated woman belting out the lyrics: "No! No, no, no, no, no! I’m not waking up tomorrow morning And finding that there’s nobody there! Darling, there’s no way! No, no, no, no way – I’m living without you! I’m not living without you! You see, there’s just no way! There’s no way! Tear down the mountains! Yell, scream and shout! You can say what you want, I’m not walking out! Stop all the rivers! Push, strike and kill! I’m not gonna leave you! There’s no way I will!" I can see a man screaming: “We just met last night!” ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2006, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/62 "2006-06-11T07:11:44Z")
[http://www.sickthingsuk.co.uk/lyrics/hs.php#2](http://www.sickthingsuk.co.uk/lyrics/hs.php#2) All of 'em from “Love’s A Loaded Gun” to " Dangerous Tonight". Really, REALLY disturbed! Of course, coming from Alice Cooper, what do you expect? ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/63 "2006-06-13T21:24:42Z")
**’We Could Leave Right Now’** by Oysterband is seriously spooky. I interpret it as being about a suicide pact, though it could be a serial killer approaching a prospective victim… Unlike most of their songs it’s taken at a leisurely pace: We could leave right now we could just walk away it wouldn’t cost a thing hardly anyone would see the wind would hide our tracks clouds would fill our shoes don’t be afraid don’t be afraid we could leave right now any step could be the first any word could be the last any door would do we can forget our names forget each other’s faces don’t be afraid don’t be afraid put down the music and talk your rumours and regrets fading silhouettes all you need to do is walk away… We could leave right now maybe it’s getting light out there papers in the alley just a little rain we can forget our names forget each other’s faces don’t be afraid don’t be afraid… It then goes into a screaming violin solo while the singer chants “don’t be afraid… don’t be afraid” over and over. It makes _me_ afraid, I can tell you! ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/64 "2006-06-13T21:34:42Z")
In high school, Warren Zevon’s _Excitable Boy_ was played at the prom dance because it had a danceable beat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/65 "2006-06-13T22:03:13Z")
One of the ones that always got me was a one-hit wonder by a group called _Take Back_. The song title is “Back For Good”: Whatever I said, whatever I did I didn’t mean it I just want you back for good Whenever I’m wrong just tell me the song and I’ll sing it You’ll be right and understood Yeah, dude, you don’t even know _why_ she dumped you, you’ll just apologize, say you didn’t mean it, and she’ll take you back. Uh-huh…sure. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/66 "2006-06-13T22:21:39Z")
[QUOTE=Indyellen] One of the ones that always got me was a one-hit wonder by a group called _Take Back_. The song title is “Back For Good”: Whatever I said, whatever I did I didn’t mean it I just want you back for good Whenever I’m wrong just tell me the song and I’ll sing it You’ll be right and understood Yeah, dude, you don’t even know _why_ she dumped you, you’ll just apologize, say you didn’t mean it, and she’ll take you back. Uh-huh…sure. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] The band was Take That. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/67 "2006-06-13T22:37:18Z")
[QUOTE=Harriet the Spry] Wasn’t it Guns & Roses with “I Used to Love Her, But I Had to Kill Her”? No beating around the bush with the mental health issues there. [/QUOTE] Axl Rose wrote that about his dog that he had to put to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/68 "2006-06-13T23:19:49Z")
[QUOTE=Malthus] In high school, Warren Zevon’s _Excitable Boy_ was played at the prom dance because it had a danceable beat. 😃 [/QUOTE] What school was this? Edward Gein Senior High? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/69 "2006-06-13T23:26:17Z")
[QUOTE=kiz] Don’t know about anybody else, but Matchbox 20’s “Push” squicks me: _She said I don’t know if I’ve ever been good enough I’m a little bit rusty and I think my head is caving in and I don’t know if I’ve ever been really loved by a hand that’s touched me well I feel like something’s gonna give and I’m a little bit angry well this ain’t over no not here not while I still need you around you don’t owe me We might change yeah yeah we just might feel good (chorus) I wanna push you around, well I will, well I will wanna push you down, well I will, well I will I wanna take you for granted, I wanna take you for granted I will, I will_ [/QUOTE] Very unhealthy. And one of my karaoke faves! 🙂 Considerably less unhealthy, but unhealthy in exactly the same way: “Any Man of Mine” by Shania Twain. _Any man of mine better be proud of me Even when I’m ugly he still better love me And I can be late for a date that’s fine But he better be on time_ Is this what feminism was supposed to achieve?! ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/70 "2006-06-13T23:58:38Z")
**T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do** _I’d rather my man would hit me Than for him to jump up and quit me 'T ain’t nobody’s bizness if I do I swear I won’t call no coppa if I’m beat up by my poppa 'T ain’t nobody’s bizness if I do_ ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/71 "2006-06-14T09:37:35Z")
Anyone for Blue Oyster Kult’s _Don’t Fear the Reaper_? As I read it, it’s basically about someone encouraging a girl to commit suicide as part of a lover’s pact: > [@](#): > > Come on baby, > Don’t Fear the Reaper. > > The curtains blew and then he [Death, I assume] appeared > And she ran to him > And they started to fly. There’s also Evanessence’s _Wake Me Up Inside_ (sorry about the spelling). > [@](#): > > Wake Me Up Inside > Save me from the nothing I’ve become. > Bring me to life I started a thread about it when it came out, and I was told it was a Christian song, but, having heard it many times since, I don’t buy it. The idea of being solely dependent on one person to keep oneself from being nothing bothers the daylights out of me! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/72 "2006-06-14T11:02:23Z")
Pity y’all don’t speak Spanish. Dedicated to those who do, just look up any classic boleros or copla. Sex, lies and abandonment all over the place. Once I was old enough to understand the things María Dolores Pradera and Doña Concha Piquer sung about, I got me to wondering how could my mega-strict father like them so much. My guess is he never listened to the lyrics. A line that can be translated without explanations: “tell me that you love me, even if you don’t feel it, even if it’s a lie, just tell me you do” ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/73 "2006-06-14T11:48:10Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] I always though that the “simple prop” was the writing of the song. So I thought it was a love song. [/QUOTE] I’ve never really paid much attention to that song, but I have to agree with **Angel of the Lord**. The “simple prop, to occupy my time” is his lover! It’s either a parody of a love song, or a song from a guy who belongs to the James Bond School of Relationships. As for Guns ‘N’ Roses “Used to Love Her,” that song was written as a joke. Like **Dooku** said, Axl had his dog put down, and later he decided to write a song that talked about the dog as though she was a person. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/74 "2006-06-14T12:30:16Z")
_The Banks of the Ohio_, of course. “I asked my love to take a walk… And only say that you’ll be mine… I held a knife against his breast… He cried ‘My love, don’t you murder me’.” Ah, those old-fashioned love songs. A proposal’s so much more to the point when a refusal entails being stabbed through the heart (followed by a spot of remorse). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/75 "2006-06-14T12:54:11Z")
[QUOTE=Malienation] Ever heard, _Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean_ (Unsure of Artist)? Yikes! [/QUOTE] That’s a _great_ song! The woman who sang that one (Ruth Brown) might have had Bo Diddley in mind: \*Around the town I use a rattlesnake whip Take it easy baby, don’t you give me no lip Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? I got a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Just 22 and I don’t mind dyin’ Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love?\* A thread about psychologically unhealthy songs also should not fail to mention the legenday [Hungarian Suicide Song](http://www.phespirit.info/gloomysunday/%5B/url). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/76 "2006-06-14T12:56:02Z")
[Fixed link](http://www.phespirit.info/gloomysunday/) so you can be properly depressed. ---
**Author:** ![Tio\_Gringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Tio\_Gringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tio_Gringo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/77 "2006-06-14T13:55:26Z")
A few I haven’t seen mentioned yet: **Poison** , by Alice Cooper: _I want to hurt you just to hear you sceaming my name._ **Obsession** , by Animotion: \*I will collect you, and capture you… You are an obsession, you’re my obsession. Who do you want me to be, to make you sleep with me?\* and **Possum Kingdom** , by The Toadies: _I’m not gonna lie, I’ll not be a gentleman. Behind the boathouse, I’ll show you my dark secret._ later, a repeating chorus/chant of: _Do you want to die?_ Real healthy stuff…but in spite of the lyrics, I do like these songs. Now…who wants to go on a date with me? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/78 "2006-06-14T14:08:36Z")
Come to think of it, **Evil Ash** ’s post has brought up a classic: the Rolling Stones _Under My Thumb_. One of my rules to live by is if you’re ever on a first date with a guy and he requests that song, run far, run fast, and don’t look back! 😉 Oh, and thanks for mentioning _Obsession_. I like the song, but it’s definitely not a healthy relationship song. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/79 "2006-06-14T14:19:03Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] What school was this? Edward Gein Senior High? [/QUOTE] 😃 Fact is, no-one noticed the massive inappropriateness of this. No-one actually listens to song lyrics at dances, apparently. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064/80 "2006-06-14T16:00:51Z")
[QUOTE=EvilAsh] **Possum Kingdom** , by The Toadies: _I’m not gonna lie, I’ll not be a gentleman. Behind the boathouse, I’ll show you my dark secret._ [/QUOTE] The song was inspired by the stories of a young woman’s body found on the banks of the lake at Possum Kingdom State Park in Texas, not far from The Toadies home town of Fort Worth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/psychologically-unhealthy-songs/360064.md?page=5)