So I am watching the Blues Brothers, and they are singing “Stand by Your Man”. I started thinking about what songs have the worst messages. I can think of quite a few.
“Stand by Your Man” by Tammy Wynette
“Cuz after all he’s just a man” WTF?!? Yeah, I admit we fuck up pretty bad some times, but I wouldn’t want a daughter of mine to just accept things.
“Don’t Cry Out Loud”
Just keep it inside, learn how to hide your feelings. Do I really need to comment on this?
“Waterfalls” by TLC
Don’t go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and the lakes that your used to. Sooooo the message is to not try?
What can you think of?
“Hold onto 16, as long as you can-ANH / Changeisgonnacomerealsoon make us women and men”
Hell, I couldn’t WAIT to get all grown up! Life’s far better now for me at 41 than in those toad-sucking years.
Which reminds me of Bob Seger…
“Like a ROCK!” (Can’t remember the rest of the song, since I see oiled-down Chevy pickups in my mind when I hear those lines. Generally, he’s saying God I was so buff then and I’m so fulla crap now.) Amen, brother, but don’t load that jack on my back.
Really, that’s just the chorus, and it kinda sounds bad taken out of context. . . the rest of the song isn’t about that at all. The “waterfalls”, I always thought, were growing up too fast.
Sometimes context makes one go “Huh?” Why on earth would anyone want to hear “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” at a wedding, considering the lyrics “and I’ve had so many men before”?
“Love me love me
Say that you love me
Fool me fool me
Go on and fool me
Love me love me
Pretend that you love me
I don’t care as long as you don’t go”
Or something like that.
Look, I’m one of the original LA punks (or a little young for that but my older sisters influence is strong) and I’m not one normally to shy away from harsh lyrics.
But think about this: you had a top 40 song, immensely popular, used in the MTV remake of ‘Romeo and Juliet’, being worshipped by 13 year old girls and it’s all about how the singer WANTS to be lied to. How the singers self-worth is so tied up in her boyfriend that it’s worth it to her to sacrifice her sense of self as long as he stays.
Sure, I would have liked it if the girls thought that way when I was in high school (not that they did, I got to know cold shoulders pretty well) but when that came out my kid sister was 14. And now I have a baby girl and I’m thinking we’d be doing the world a favor by burning every copy of that song, destroying the master tape, and giving every young girl a copy of ‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor.
Ooh. Does that get to me. AND THEY PLAYED THE FIRST LILITH FAIR TOUR. How damn silly.
What’s the problem with “Second Chance”? For whatever reason he slept around and he’s asking for a second chance. Seems pretty straightforward that that’s what it means. Unless you think it’s ridiculous that he ASK for a second chance, which is a different matter. (I’ll admit it; I LOVE 38 Special)
My choice for this category is Meredith Brooks’ “Bitch”:
“I’m a bitch
I’m a lover
I’m a child
I’m a mother,
I’m a sinner I’m a saint
I do not feel ashamed.
I’m your death I’m your dream, I’m nothing in between. You know you wouldn’t want it any other way.”
It sounds like the ramblings of some psycho stalker.
Oh I rather like Lovefool, and anyway I don’t think most people take the lyrics of pop songs to heart…at least, I don’t. You could also take the song as more of a commentary on the way people act in love, not as the way they should.
Whatever…
Personally I’m wondering about Metallica’s Fuel. Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire? Sounds like someone’s advocating playing with fire! What- you want to get burned?
Last summer, I worked at a movie theater. Since the company that owns the chain also has a music division, we get to hear the same songs over and over again for weeks. They’re usually crappy, so I try not to pay too much attention to them, but on one more boring than usual day, I listened to the lyrics of “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” by The Jayhawks, and they seemed really wrong.
Looks like we have another song for the Crazed Stalker Collection. That’d be a hell of an album, wouldn’t it?
At weddings!? A song about a women who’s had romantic relationships- mostly paid transactions, and now, finally, has a real, meaningful relationship with a guy, but it’s not romantic, because, well, he’s God.
Maybe we should start a thread on worst possible songs to play at a wedding.
Your wedding song idea made me think of an interview done with Sting. He says he gets pretty annoyed when people come up and tell him that they got married to “Every Breath You Take”. Christ people, it is not a love song.
There were several songs in the late 50’s/early 60’s that were just pathetic.
e.g., Bobby’s Girl:
There were a number of songs like this. I’m sure you can recall a few yourself. If I were into teliological conspiracy theories, I’d suggest that somebody was trying hard to reprogram young women not to be so uppity. This was, after all, on the heels of Rebel without a Cause, a movie that explained youth rebellion as the tragic outcome of domineering mothers. So a lot of songs arose to teach young women to be doting and subservient.
How about “I’m Saving All My Love for You”, which if I understand it correctly is a promise of fidelity rendered by the Other Woman to the man who is cheating on his wife to be with her - ??
Thanks, AHunter, for bringing that one up. That song is just vile. Why not say, “Go to hell, you loser scum. Go back to your wife, dickweed!”
Although, I have to DEFEND Bitch. It’s not about being a psycho, it’s that no woman should be labeled a “bitch” or a “sweetheart.” Or a “mother” or a “savior.” Because a woman is more than this-she can be a bitch sometimes, but still be a sweetheart. She can be all of these things-she’s more complex. I LOVE that song. It is MY song. And a line from it is included in my sig, as you can see.
Dickie Lee’s classic “Patches” has always left me scratching my head. Dickie’s dad makes him break up with Patches because she comes from the wrong side of town. Patches drowns herself and is found “floating face down in that dirty old river/that flows through the middle of old shanty town.” As the song ends, Dickie is preparing to commit suicide so he can be with Patches.
Yep! That’s certainly what I look for in a hit song! Prejudice leading to suicide…
