Jennifer Holliday’s seminal And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going, 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!”
’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.
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.
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
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:
There’s also Evanessence’s Wake Me Up Inside (sorry about the spelling).
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!
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”
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.
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).
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.
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.
Oh, and thanks for mentioning Obsession. I like the song, but it’s definitely not a healthy relationship song.