And I don’t think it’s even worth listing hip hop songs with “dickitude” in this thread because the whole genre, by in large, is about giving it your best dickitude. Even the women. It’s part of what I like about hip hop to be honest.
The reason it didn’t bother me that he was attracted to a young girl who was coming onto him was because he was telling her no. However, I couldn’t help seeing “This Girl is a Woman Now,” which came out the next year as a creepy sequel with plenty of dickitude:
This girl tasted love, as tender as the gentle dawn
She cried a single tear, a teardrop that was sweet and warm
Our hearts told us we were right
And on that sweet and velvet night
A child had died, a woman had been born
So apparently he did a 180 on that whole “You’re too young” thing. And the whole “losing her virginity to me made her a woman and taught her how to live” attitude? Ick.
In one of those ‘damn, I hope this is a character’ songs, I don’t think there are many bigger dicks that don’t resort to violence than “Skeleton Key” by Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s.
The whole song is about being terrible to a woman but the last lyrics especially:
I did a horrible thing to that girl
I bred my misery and drowned it in her
And she got me high
And I hardly noticed there were tears in her eyes
And I miss you less and less everyday
This stream of whisky’s helped to wash you away
And it’s clear to see
You’re nothing special
You’re a skeleton key
Cat Stevens was mentioned up thread and I’ve always thought these lyrics in Wild World have made him sound like an ass:
But if you want to leave take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there’s a lot of bad and beware
Beware
Not only does he mention thinking of her as a child, he’s “warning” her that it’s dangerous out there without him to protect her? Nice.
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” immediately coming to mind.
In case the Beatles haven’t been ragged on enough in this thread - George’s ode to Patti - “If I Needed Someone”, totally comes across as someone who’s a half-assed lech.
Ted Nugent - “Stranglehold”
FTW. Wayne County and the Electric Chairs. Definitely NSFW.
Missed edit:
Scratch Acid:
“Lay Screaming”
“Ain’t That Love”
Possibly more psychopathy than dickishness:
I think there’s a distinction between a song that self aware enough to recognize the dickitude of what is being described. e.g. Bigmouth Strikes Again, (Mozza is clearly aware the singer was being a dick, and the claims of persecution are ridiculous) versus Under My Thumb (which is celebrating being an emotionally abusive controlling dick as cool rockstar behavior)
Speaking of dickishness, I really try to refrain from the old “really? no one’s posted this yet???” post…but really - no one’s mentioned George Thorogood’s “Move It On Over” yet?
Sweet - “Fox On the Run”
I do not miss that element. If she was a jerk before, then a perfectly reasonable amount of schadenfreude would be “Humph. Now you know what it’s like to be poor - hurts, don’t it? Can I spot you a fiver, and help you find the rehab clinic?”.
Instead, we get “I am savoring every drop of your misery, especially that you have to blow crazy winos and if you were on fire, I wouldn’t piss on you to put it out.” That’s amazing dickitude for you.
I find that one charming as it strengthens their love.
Do remember dudes- that the lyrics of a song do not necessarily reflect the personal views of the singer. Phil Collins can dance. Leo Sayer is not really a hobo. The Beatles do not really live in a Yellow Submarine- in either meaning. Weird Al does not really live in a Amish Paradise, etc.
Right
Yes it would seem so.
You didn’t mention it. It is a key element of the song.
I think you are also being selective in your assumptions about the song’s imagery. Do you think the woman was actually on a steeple?
The song is about someone who looked down on and was contemptuous of those she saw as lower than her. People warned her that one day the tables might turn. She ignored them. The tables turned.
This does not mean it’s literally about a woman on a steeple or that those she was contemptuous off were literally crazy winos. And doesn’t even mention blowjobs.
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” is most probably about Dylan’s relationship with Suze Rotolo, Yes, she was very young when they first met, 17, but not a child, and don’t forget that Dylan himself was only 20 at the time. That’s why taking “child” literally in the song is a misconception.
I think he is blaming her because he is very attracted to him, whether she is coming on to him or no. It must be her fault that he is attracted, not his own, i.e., he has no self control. Total creep.
One of my older siblings had told me that “charms” was often code for “bosoms,” and that line, along with “you kept a secret of your youth” convinced young-and-naive me that the singer had thought she was of age. But what did I know? Not much back then.
I’ve always thought Puckett’s songs had a certain icky horn-dog sameness to them. Were there any that WEREN’T overwrought paeans to illicit sex?
Even within that subgenre, Alanis Morissette’s Hands Clean stands out, especially as it’s autobiographical; the chorus is sung from her point of view, but the verses are in the voice of a record producer who started having sex with her when she was fourteen and he was 29.
And they’re a primer on how to groom a victim:
Just make sure you don’t tell on me, especially to members of your family
We best keep this to ourselves and not tell any members of our inner posse
I wish I could tell the world
'Cause you’re such a pretty thing when you’re done up properly
I might want to marry you one day if you watch that weight and keep your firm body.
“Move It On Over” was written by Hank Williams, whose real-life misdeeds dwarf anything he wrote about.
Ah, TIL, thanks.
He is presumably insane given that he thinks a person can get themselves out of someone else’s thoughts which is physically impossible.
Well, either that or he’s being metaphorical. But no one would be metaphorical in a song.
Personally when I say “get out of my head” to, say, an ear worm song I am actually blaming the song for being in my head. I’m not being metaphorical. But then my sanity has always been in doubt.
While I’ve always thought the girl was a small-town wet blanket, the singer admits late in the song that while he has nothing to show for his rambling ways, he is never coming back, but plans to keep on leading her on through letters or phone calls, giving her false hope and never allowing her to move on with her life. He is a dick.
This, along with Michael Murphy’s “Wildfire,” was one of the most overplayed songs of the 1970s on “Soft Rock” radio stations of the 1980s and 90s.
I see your point. But…
Isn’t he really trying to drag her out of her provincial life. He says
“I want adventure in the great wide somewhere
I want it more than I can tell
And for once it might be grand
To have someone understand
I want so much more than they’ve got planned.”
But she wants what Gaston offers.