Ry Cooder did the tune of Borderline. Is it really a song by a cheater–or is it the cheated-upon trying to imagine how cheaters think? On the same album, Ry sang of a cheater who discovered the hard way why you shouldn’t cheat on girls from Texas. (This version from the Flaco Jimenez duets album.)
Loretta & Conway had the hit, but here are Tracy & Willie Nelson (no relation!) reminding us that there is nothing as cold as ashes after the fire is gone…
I didn’t realize until I could translate it later (lyrics link) that an old Colombian Vallenato song Olvidala by the group Binomio de Oro is being sung from the cheater’s point of view. It doesn’t become clear until the last verse.
I first heard it during a vacation to meet my Colombian girlfriend’s family and it was the one song that really struck me as being catchy. I would find myself singing along to the refrain. The girlfriend was not particularly amused.
This might be stretching things a bit, but “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner is sung from the perspective of a singer trying to get an audience member to ditch her date and come sleep with him.
Me and you, we could have a secret rendezvous
Before we do, you’ll have to get away from you know who*
I don’t recall any cheating involved there. Tangent: I had a roommate named Lee at the time, and at one point I do recall his girlfriend of many months shouting “Drop off the key, Lee!”
That’s the first one I thought of.
Unless it’s allowed by the agreements between the woman and husband, that would be cheating.
Why wouldn’t that count?
No kidding! What a schmuck. I never really listened to the words.
To clarify: it’s cheating only if it violates agreements. For the purposes of a song, we have to rely on typical expectations.
Oh, my only contribution: One Way Out (Sonny Boy Williamson, covered by the Allman Brothers)
I’ve always thought he was telling the girl that she was just a one-night stand, and he’s not interested in having a relationship with her. She’s a simple prop, to occupy my time.
Could be- or else he’s cruelly telling a wife/lover “I know I said I loved you, but I was really just using you all along. And now I’ve found somebody else to use.”
Oh I think there is. In “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”, the singer, Simon, is clearly being urged by some woman (“‘The problem is all inside your head,’ she said to me,”) to leave his lover. Fairly clearly he is in a relationship with the “lover” that is well-established enough that it is difficult for him to leave, yet he has had some sort of affair with the woman who is talking to him, who now wants him to leave the “lover” for her.
“Me and Mrs Jones,” though, is from the POV of me, not of Mrs Jones. Although Mrs Jones is clearly cheating on her husband, I do not think there is any suggestion in the song that me, the singer, is cheating on anyone. He is not a cheater, he is just an indispensable accessory to the cheating.
“One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)” Jerry Lee Lewis
“Backstreet Affair” Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn
“Tryin’ to Love Two” William Bell
“I Was Checkin’ Out (And She Was Checkin’ In)” Don Covay
“Who’s Making Love” Johnny Taylor
Medication by Damien Jurado
“My lover keeps it secret that we meet under covers
When asked by her man if we two are lovers
She says, “I hardly know him
Besides, he’s not my type””
