# Songs you liked better before you knew the lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [October 18, 2026, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951 "2026-10-18T19:45:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/21 "2026-10-19T00:36:00Z")
If “liked better before you knew the English translation of the lyrics” counts: _Alouette_. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/22 "2026-10-19T00:39:59Z")
Or worse. I would always hear Stills sing _“If you’re Aunt Bea…”_ This behavior won’t pass muster in Mayberry. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/23 "2026-10-19T01:22:35Z")
“Brown Sugar” - Rolling Stones White english guy being into black girls…ok maybe a little problematic… But after looking at the lyrics…it’s a song about raping enslaved women and generational fetishization…that’s much less fun. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/24 "2026-10-19T03:25:12Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > …Oh no, I know a dirty word, My impression of that song has always been that he’s making fun of teenagers, so this line makes sense to me. Truly, a lot of the lines in that song don’t make sense at all, but I think that’s intentional. I think Nirvana is making fun of teenagers who think they’ve found meaning in Nirvana songs. (Incidentally I had to think very hard to remember the lyrics because the Weird Al parody “Smells Like Nirvana” has primacy in my memory banks, apparently.) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/25 "2026-10-19T03:30:26Z")
In reality, Cobain was just trying to ape the Pixies. Black Francis, who wrote most of the Pixies’ lyrics didn’t care what the words meant, he was fixated on what words sounded cool together to him. So reading any meaning into his lyrics or into “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is purely an exercise for the listener. In my case, I like _most_ songs less after I know the lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/26 "2026-10-19T03:30:55Z")
I, too was 14 when that song came out, and I didn’t get the “It’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door” line. “It’s because he’s wasted out of his mind, that’s why!” ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/27 "2026-10-19T03:30:57Z")
I’ve always like the song “Loch Lomond” (‘You take the high road and I’ll take the low road…’) ever since ~~being forced~~ learing to square dance to it in 6th grade. '70s kids, you know what I’m talking about. It’s a pretty tune, and quite catchy. I recently learned what it’s about ( two Scottish soldiers who have been captured in England, with one of them to be released to walk back to Scotland - the high road- and the other, who is the narrator and is to be executed - the low road). I wouldn’t say I necessarily _like_ it less, but it stirs much different feelings for me now. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/28 "2026-10-19T03:31:11Z")
_Stranglehold_ by Ted Nugent is a masterpiece of an instrumental that’s ruined by having lyrics about beating women. (Also, the Nuge is a shit human being.) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/29 "2026-10-19T03:48:28Z")
> _Stranglehold_ by Ted Nugent is a masterpiece of an instrumental that’s ruined by having lyrics about beating women. Oh, jeez, really? I guess that’s my entry, then. I knew the lyrics of Aerosmith when I was rocking out to them in the 90s as a teenage girl, but as I aged and came to understand what they meant, well I really can’t listen to them anymore. They aren’t like a little misogynistic, they are like scary misognystic. Especially the album _Permanent Vacation_ which has a song about murdering a woman for being a slut (Hangman Jury) which is related in the vernacular of a southern Black man > Whacha do with a gun that’s loaded > Shot her dead and her heart exploded > Tell me baby now d-dontcha worry > Like lying to a hangman jury > > I swear I didn’t know that 45 was loaded > In fact my memory ain’t too clear > That’s not to say she didn’t get what she deserved > Least that’s the way it looked from here … and a song about using a woman with low self-esteem for sex… er actually there are a couple of those (Rag Doll, Girl Keeps Coming Apart.) > Rag Doll living in a movie > Hot tramp Daddy’s little cutie > You’re so fine they’ll never see you leaving by the back door, man > Hot time get it while it’s easy > Don’t mind come on up and see me > Rag Doll baby won’t you do me like you done before > > I’m feeling like a bad boy > Mm just a like a bad boy > I’m ripping up a Rag Doll > Like throwing away an old toy Musically it’s some of their best work. But I just can’t, man. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/30 "2026-10-19T03:57:10Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > Black Francis, who wrote most of the Pixies’ lyrics didn’t care what the words meant, he was fixated on what words sounded cool together to him. So THAT explains “Monkey Gone to Heaven”. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/31 "2026-10-19T03:57:15Z")
If it makes you feel any better, “Janie’s Got a Gun” is about a woman killing her sexually abusive father, so at least they were equal-opportunity when it comes to sexually aggravated murder. > Tell me now it’s untrue > What did her daddy do? > He jacked a little bitty baby > The man has got to be insane > > … > > She had to take him down easy and put a bullet in his brain > She said, “'Cause nobody believes me, the man was such a sleaze > He ain’t never gonna be the same” ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/32 "2026-10-19T04:00:07Z")
I’m told that Cohen wrote literally hundreds of verses to “Hallelujah”. Some of them are moving, some are dirty, some just don’t make much sense. I like the song, and I kinda like the ambiguity of the lyrics. There are lots of song here that I really liked less for listening to the words. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” That’s definitely one of them, we call it “the stalker song”. But I liked it before I listened to it. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Born in the USA. I LIKE that one: ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/33 "2026-10-19T04:01:31Z")
It doesn’t make me feel better. It makes me feel weird as hell. I know the song, I can’t listen to that song because of the subject matter and because it was my stepfather, my abuser, who got me into Aerosmith in the first place, but leaving that aside, I’m not really sure what to make of Steven Tyler putting all this money into runaway girls or whatever. I mean he sexualized his own daughter in one of his music videos. It’s weird as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/34 "2026-10-19T04:02:57Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I can’t listen to that song because of the subject matter and because it was my stepfather, my abuser, who got me into Aerosmith in the first place Oof. My apologies for digging up bad memories. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/35 "2026-10-19T04:07:19Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > So THAT explains “Monkey Gone to Heaven”. Hehe, or “Caribou” or “Vamos” or “Nimrod’s Son” or “Brick is Red” or… > [@puzzlegal](#): > > I’m told that Cohen wrote literally hundreds of verses to “Hallelujah”. Some of them are moving, some are dirty, some just don’t make much sense. I like the song, and I kinda like the ambiguity of the lyrics. Heheh, I’m not sure if your replying to me is a mistake or weirdness from the board’s software, but I was speaking of Cobain, not Cohen. But I agree, the lyrics to that one are pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/36 "2026-10-19T04:08:29Z")
Andrew Gold’s “Lonely Boy.” Banger of a tune, and then you listen to the lyrics. The whole reason he runs away from home at a young age is…his parents had another kid. This younger sister didn’t set fire to his prized baseball card. She didn’t boil his pet rabbit. She didn’t even hog the color television when it was time to watch _Gilligan’s Island._ Her sole crime was … existing. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/37 "2026-10-19T04:11:53Z")
I knew the lyrics to Gordon Lightfoot’s "I’m Not Sayin’ ", about a man who isn’t going to be able to be true or kind to a girlfriend because that’s just not the way he rolls. But it’s so overboard with how selfish is and how he’s going to make her cry, I thought it was intended to show what a jerk he is. Then a few years back I read that Lightfoot was now ashamed he’d written it, because he was serious about it at the time and hadn’t seen anything wrong with it then. Now I feel a little funny about it. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/38 "2026-10-19T04:15:46Z")
I’m okay, I mean, I’m the one who brought up Aerosmith. I guess I could sorta see him doing this runaway girls nonprofit as an act of penance. In the blink of an eye, he finally saw the light (which by the way I heard that song recently and I was like, “Oh… this is about getting clean.” Talk about missing the boat on lyrics.) So maybe that’s the turning point for him, I don’t know. Really _Pump_ is their best album and it’s less problematic, though their arguably best song on that album is about voodoo magic, so there’s that. But seriously that song rocks. I’ve always loved the lyrics to _Hallelujah._ I don’t expect lyrics to necessarily represent the view of the author (any more than I do fiction novels) so I’m not opposed to flawed narrators - I love, for example, Sublime’s _Wrong Way_ which is about a man lusting after a young girl who was forced into sex work while simultaneously trying to help her escape her predicament. It’s a poignant song. But there’s a difference between inhabiting a character and just spewing hate, or continually inhabiting characters that spew hate. I’m not sure exactly where the line is but I think Aerosmith crossed it. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/39 "2026-10-19T04:17:31Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I don’t expect lyrics to necessarily represent the view of the author (any more than I do fiction novels) so I’m not opposed to flawed narrators - I love, for example, Sublime’s _Wrong Way_ which is about a man lusting after a young girl who was forced into sex work while simultaneously trying to help her escape her predicament. It’s a poignant song. Heh. I feel the same way about _Date Rape_, as problematic as the last verse about prison rape being a well-deserved punishment is. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951/40 "2026-10-19T04:23:29Z")
Yeah, born in the USA is significantly better because of the lyrics. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-liked-better-before-you-knew-the-lyrics/1033951.md?page=3)