Perhaps it was my dirty, twisted mind, but there’s an old song that has lyrics including, “I’ve never done this before with a REAL LIVE GIRL!” The whole song is repeating the theme that he’s never done x and y before with a REAL LIVE GIRL! I kept expecting the last line to be something about why he got fired from his job as an undertaker.
It doesn’t matter what a song is about. People will read what they want into it. Just ask Tipper Whore…err…Gore.
Jon
Newman has been quoted as saying that he completely understands why short people hates his song and in a way he regrets it. But it is obvious satire in the way that a lot of Newman’s songs are satire. He says some really nasty things in some of his songs about, but not limited to; women, gays, immigrants, poor people, Jews, young people, fat people, children, old people and band members from Birmingham. But it’s all very pointed satire.
Unfortunately “Short People” has following a long line of songs that are adopted by the very people they mock, because they are too stupid to realise that they are the real targets of the song.
Lines from the Cliff Richard 60’s pop classic “Living Doll”;
Going to lock her up in a trunk,
So no big hunk,
Can steal her away from me.
In Dave Barry’s Bad Song Book, he has a great chapter called “Songs Women Really Hate” which has a lot of good un-PC examples. It turned me on to “It Must Be Him” by Vicki Carr, which makes me laugh hysterically.
Can you imagine this advise to women was a popular song in the last 50 years? I still hear it on the radio on the “standards” station I listen to sometimes.
Maybe Babs could do a cover, what do ya think?
Hey, little girl,
Comb your hair, fix your make-up.
Soon he will open the door.
Don’t think because
There’s a ring on your finger,
You needn’t try any more
For wives should always be lovers, too.
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.
I’m warning you.
Day after day,
There are girls at the office,
And men will always be men.
Don’t send him off
With your hair still in curlers.
You may not see him again.
For wives should always be lovers, too.
Run to his arms the moment he comes home to you.
He’s almost here.
Hey, little girl
Better wear something pretty,
something you’d wear to go to the city.
And dim all the lights,
Pour the wine, start the music.
Time to get ready for love.
Oh, time to get ready,
Time to get ready,
Time to get ready
For love.
I always interpreted that as more of a “you don’t need money to have a good time” sort of thing, not a “go ahead and have your way with her” type of thing.
I thought of that Maurice Chevalier song as soon as I read the thread title.
I wonder when R. Kelly will come out with his cover of the tune…
Someone mentioned Bobby’s Girl, and I thought it deserved to be quoted briefly:
"When people ask of me,
What would you like to be
[…]
I want to be Bobby’s girl
I want to be Bobby’s girl,
That’s the most important thing to me…
And if I was Bobby’s girl,
If I was Bobby’s girl,
What a faithful thankful girl I’d be."
Turning Japanese isn’t about masturbation, it’s about the emotional void the singer felt when he broke up with his girlfriend. This was revealed on a recent VH1 special, the name of which currently escapes me. It’s a great show though, they go through a lot of misunderstood lyrics and ask the artists exactly what they were really singing about.
I’m aware of that. Either way, you’d think someone would complain!
Yeah, “Run For Your Life” is pretty bad. I think Lennon said they got the “I’d rather see you dead than with another man” thing from an old Elvis song. Who knows?
“The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” by Julie Brown. It’s obviously always been rather dark humor, but in recent years it’s hit a bit too close to home for some people. Still a hilarious song, though. “Stop it, Debbie, you’re making a mess / Powder burns all over your dress!”
“Christmas at Ground Zero” by “Weird Al” Yankovic. Another example of intended dark humor (with a great video to boot), but now “Ground Zero” connotes not only nuclear catastrophe, but Sept. 11.