# Songs you used to like before you started listening to the lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 17, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787 "2008-04-17T21:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/41 "2008-04-18T18:36:21Z")
Ugh. I don’t even recognize that one, **Wakinyan**. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/42 "2008-04-18T18:43:48Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] Ugh. I don’t even recognize that one, **Wakinyan**. [/QUOTE] F.I.N.E. from Pump (1989). ---
**Author:** ![ArizonaTeach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/43 "2008-04-18T18:55:13Z")
[QUOTE=Wakinyan] F.I.N.E. from Pump (1989). [/QUOTE] Fucked-up, Insecure, Neurotic, Emotional? ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/44 "2008-04-18T19:32:17Z")
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach] Fucked-up, Insecure, Neurotic, Emotional? [/QUOTE] That’s the one, yes. ---
**Author:** ![simply\_cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@simply\_cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simply_cats)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/45 "2008-04-18T19:58:01Z")
I know as a country music fan, I’m in the minority here; but I do need to chime in with one that had both my 10-year-old daughter and I giggling at how terrible it was. Bucky Covington, of American Idol “fame”, has a new song out called “I’ll Walk.” The music is enjoyable; the tone of his voice is enjoyable; the lyrics, not so much. Essentially, it is prom night (always a bad night, song-wise) and he and his girlfriend have had a fight. She tells him to pull over, she’ll walk. She’s in a black dress. She is struck by another driver and at the hospital he finds out she’s paralyzed (but don’t worry, she tells him, she’ll walk). He proposes to her (guilty conscience?). At the wedding, her father is crying as he prepares to wheel her down the aisle… but don’t worry dad! I know it will hurt (hurt a LOT), but I’ll walk. End of song! I think I would really like this song better if in the beginning, the kid drove around the block a few times to cool off, comes back to get his date, and he’s actually the one that hits and paralyzes her. It is seriously a very corny song, but adds to the whole country music stereotype nicely. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/46 "2008-04-18T20:27:58Z")
I wouldn’t say it completely changed my attitude toward the song, because I still like it, but it really did throw me for a loop when I found out that yes, Live did, indeed, say “Her placenta falls to the floor” in **Lightning Crashes.** ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/47 "2008-04-18T20:31:38Z")
Then there’s “Father Figure” which I used to think was an uber-sexy song until I read the lyrics as an adult and realized they’re very, very creepy: “Sometimes love can be mistaken for a crime.” “Put your tiny hand in mine.” :eek: It could be NAMBLA’s anthem. [http://music.yahoo.com/George-Michael/Father-Figure/lyrics/1463754#lyricstop](http://music.yahoo.com/George-Michael/Father-Figure/lyrics/1463754#lyricstop) \*\* I still like “Sonny Came Home” by Shawn Colvin but it took me awhile to realize that it was a dark song about a chick burning down her house with (I believe) her lover/family member inside: “Sunny came home with a list of names…It’s time for a few small repairs, she said…but Sunny came home with a vengeance.” [http://music.yahoo.com/Shawn-Colvin/Sunny-Came-Home/lyrics/1202725#lyricstop](http://music.yahoo.com/Shawn-Colvin/Sunny-Came-Home/lyrics/1202725#lyricstop) ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/48 "2008-04-18T22:44:24Z")
The instant I saw this thread, I _immediately_ thought of Moonlight Shadow. (Mike Oldfield, Missing Heart, anyone, doesn’t matter.) An absolutely beautiful, tuneful, melodic, harmonious folk song…about **A MURDER**. :eek: And just for the record, I have a really, really hard time enjoying Mack The Knife for the exact same reason. And no, the rationale doesn’t help. (“Y’see, Darrell, it’s the Depression, and people are poor, and they have a hard time getting by…so y’see, _that makes bloody murder cool!_ Hey, you with me, Darrell? Hello?” :rolleyes: ) Julius Henry - Nonliteralism aside, is anyone else struck by how overwhelmingly _negative_ the whole danged song is? “Stay away from me.” “Mama let me be.” “Don’t be showin’ your face no more.” “Lying eyes that hypnotize, [something] someone else’s eyes.” _Whatever_ the frag she is, there’s nothing here that’s doesn’t completely rip her to shreds! So of course, at least one Republican convention had to use this song to introduce a prominent female speaker… 😛 PunditLisa - The tone of Sunny Came Home is pretty dark for a pop hit (even an alternative pop hit), but if you listen to the entire A Few Small Repairs album, it fits in just fine. Get Out of This House, especially, isn’t the least bit subtle about its anger (as you might expect). ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/49 "2008-04-18T23:25:35Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] Oh, good one–re: “Sh-Boom” (I don’t know the other one). I was listening to a version of it the other day, and actually paying attention to the lyrics, and it sounds vaguely creepy. The whole “If you do what I want you to, baby, it would be fine…” There’s sort of a subset of “Give it up now!” songs in older music. I’m not sure if “Sh-Boom” is referring simply to the guy wanting the girl to be with him or if it’s more of a “Give up your virginity” song, but it still feels a bit odd. “Now or Never” comes off a little creepy, too, in that regard. [/QUOTE] I was surfing Sh Boom and found a site that claimed it’s a reference to the A-Bomb. “If I could take you up in paradise up above…” I couldn’t corroborate it anywhere tho, so I guess it’s just a “get those pants off” song. ---
**Author:** ![Lilacs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Lilacs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lilacs)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/50 "2008-04-18T23:32:03Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] RESPECT. His kisses are sweet but so it her money? _She’s paying him_? :eek: [/QUOTE] Otis Redding wrote and performed the song long before Aretha. So…I suppose either way it’s kinda skeevy. Still, I think originally it was a sugardaddy thing. Oh, and Aerosmith’s Walk this Way definitely gets my vote. ---
**Author:** ![BlackNGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BlackNGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackNGold)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/51 "2008-04-18T23:41:50Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] Lou Christie’s … “Lightnin’ Strikes”–except this one is more, “I’m gonna screw around but you have to stay a virgin till I maybe marry you.” [/QUOTE] I came in to post this one. I’m way too young to remember Lou, but I like his songs. My mom had to point out to me how skeevy this one was. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/52 "2008-04-19T00:16:46Z")
Was never really into them, but about the third time I heard the Chili Pepper’s Bloodsugaretc album and was considering getting into them, I heard the “I got stopped by a lady cop” section of Sir Psycho Sexy and thought “meh. ‘Dear Penthouse Forum. . .’” Also, Bodies by the Sex Pistols-- I listened to it again after, oh, 10th grade and having developed a political consciousness at some point and thought, “uh. . .” ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/53 "2008-04-19T07:00:25Z")
**A Horse With No Name** (This is a recent development.) ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/54 "2008-04-19T07:18:53Z")
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach] How many late 90’s-early 00’s high school graduation speeches included quotes from Green Day’s “Time of Your Life,” utterly missing the point, and utterly missing the actual name of the song: “Good Riddance.” I sat through my share of those, I can tell you. Playing it at proms is always good for a laugh, too. [/QUOTE] I’ve argued this before, but I don’t see how you can get the “real” meaning _just from the lyrics alone_. Without the title, I think the “popular” interpretation is perfectly reasonable. I don’t like the fact that, to get the “real” meaning, you need a title that doesn’t even appear in the song itself and that most sources (the radio) make no effort to mention. If there’s misinterpretation, I think it’s the radio’s (and, to a lesser extent, Green Day’s) fault, not the listeners’. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/55 "2008-04-19T08:06:18Z")
_MoonShadow_, because I heard the lyrics mean that Cat Stevens is dying from MS. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/56 "2008-04-19T13:08:43Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] **A Horse With No Name** (This is a recent development.) [/QUOTE] Yes, you should never, ever think about the lyrics on that. Causes brain damage eventually. “There were plants and birds and rocks and things” THINGS??!! You couldn’t come up with a fourth noun that names something that lives in the desert, or is in the desert? How about “sand” or “bugs” or “Gila monsters” or “snakes” or “lizards” or “yet more sand” or “buttes” or “arroyos” or “waterholes” or “even more sand”? Oh, strike “lizards”. 'Cause they later mention the “Gator lizards in the air” I don’t even wanna think about it enough to snark it. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/57 "2008-04-19T13:23:00Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Yes, you should never, ever think about the lyrics on that. Causes brain damage eventually. “There were plants and birds and rocks and things” THINGS??!! You couldn’t come up with a fourth noun that names something that lives in the desert, or is in the desert? How about “sand” or “bugs” or “Gila monsters” or “snakes” or “lizards” or “yet more sand” or “buttes” or “arroyos” or “waterholes” or “even more sand”? Oh, strike “lizards”. 'Cause they later mention the “Gator lizards in the air” I don’t even wanna think about it enough to snark it. [/QUOTE] God, was that a gi-normous hit or what? In the fine tradition of r’n’r the legend goes that the “Horse” is heroin. Alligator lizards in the air=another America song, “Ventura Highway.” ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/58 "2008-04-19T13:38:55Z")
[QUOTE=RikWriter] This isn’t a song I liked, but a song I heard a lot of females swoon over as romantic until I explained the words to them was Extreme’s “More Than Words,” which basically has the message of: have sex with me or I’ll break up with you." [/QUOTE] I think that’s a leap. Some people say they love you but don’t return your calls or show affection etc. Where do you get the breaking up part? [http://www.lyricsfreak.com/e/extreme/more+than+words\_20052203.html](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/e/extreme/more+than+words_20052203.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/59 "2008-04-19T13:40:57Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] “Gator lizards in the air” I don’t even wanna think about it enough to snark it. [/QUOTE] I know I read somewhere that this was a memory of the writer and his brother describing the shapes in the clouds. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787/60 "2008-04-19T17:33:18Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] I think that’s a leap. Some people say they love you but don’t return your calls or show affection etc. Where do you get the breaking up part? [http://www.lyricsfreak.com/e/extreme/more+than+words\_20052203.html](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/e/extreme/more+than+words_20052203.html) [/QUOTE] Right there in the chorus, dude: What would you do if my heart was torn in two More than words to show you feel That your love for me is real What would you say if I took those words away Then you couldnt make things new Just by saying I love you Not only is he threatening to break up with her if she doesn’t put out, he’s obliquely threatening that he already has another girl lined up who will. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-you-used-to-like-before-you-started-listening-to-the-lyrics/445787.md?page=4)