Nobody Here but Us Chickens
A very racist song playing to the trope of a Black man stealing chickens from a henhouse. Often sung today without knowing the origin of it.
There have been a lot of “best of this band’s albums” polls lately, but nothing about the Kinks who have a great catalog (you can debate which periods are best, but they have good stuff). So this got me to thinking that I haven’t listened to those albums in quite some time so I started going through them, from the beginning to wherever I am now (middish70s). There are several mildly cringey songs in those albums but I don’t feel like any of them were intentional. Plus, I think that Lola is pretty much a “be what you want to be” song that had to be fairly unique in 1970. So, I give them a pass for any cringe-worthy songs that I’ve noticed so far.
There’s a version where the line “We fell in love on the night we met” is actually “We made love on the night we met.” Not a good idea, even though I’m sure there are people reading this who have done that, and especially not if at least one party is 16 years old. JMHO, of course.
ZOMG, I haven’t heard that song in, like, forever! “Auf Wiedersehen” is cringey in its own way, too.
Several years ago, I saw a TV show from the state fair, and four young men in matching bowling shirts, greased hair, and sunglasses sang that as a barbershop quartet. They won their category.
I think Bill Wyman “wins” this thread, not for lyrics, but for Mandy Smith, a girl he met when she was 13, kept secret till she was 16, and married at 18. The assumption was there was sex from the start.
Why he’s not in jail utterly baffles me.
And I didn’t realise this, but apparently his 30 year old soon later married Mandy’s mother…
Since you brought up the Kinks and potentially cringey songs, it would be interesting to hear your take on 1981’s “Art Lover.”
For me, it’s one of those songs where you can wonder about the artist’s intention, whether the artist’s comments about his intention are sincere, and whether the song actually succeeds in conveying the artist’s intention.
Has anyone mentioned David Allan Coe’s racist/sexist/nasty songs he released in the 80s? Cumstains On The Pillow, I Made Linda Lovelace Gag, N**** Fckers to name but a few.
I don’t know if this applies to whatever version of the song you’re referencing, but ‘making love’ used to have a more innocent meaning-- making out, as in first base, or just courting / wooing a person in general. It wasn’t until, I believe, the late 60s onward that its meaning changed to actually doing the deed.
It’s a welcome break from the rest of his songs being about his dick. (Surely I don’t need to quote lyrics on this one)
Sorry for the mini-tangent on Van and the word “gypsy.” I actually don’t cringe hearing him sing it – I love most of his music – but I was just pointing out that others might.
Not only played the whole song, but stood during it.
True. This was back in the 90s, so it didn’t carry such ominous overtones. But it was still such shameless jingoism it made my skin crawl.
Well, hell, now I’m curious. Not a fan of Seger at all, but I give him credit for Night Moves. He sang the shit out of that song.
I think Ray Davies had an entirely meaning about this song and it was supposed to be about single dads that get their kids one day on the weekend and take them to the park. He took out a line to make it more ambiguous and you end up with a super creepy song which makes you think of Pete Townshend “doing research”. Total cringe. Much more than the songs I was referring to from earlier in their catalog.
I get it. I just think that’s one of the few songs ever made that if you don’t like it you have to be dead inside.
Is this a segue into “I’m my Own Grandpa”?
A lot of people used to complain about Black Sabbath as though they were the devil and his imps incarnate, but as far as I’m concerned their biggest sin is rhyming “masses” with “masses” in War Pigs. Hmph.
I think that identity rhyme is fantastic.
The OED’s first citation for “making love” meaning “engaging in sexual intercourse” is from 1927. Hemingway used it in this sense in Farewell to Arms, published in 1929.
Oh, so that’s what Van and his girl were going in the green grass behind the stadium!