Ever notice...
Sep. 9th, 2002 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynhow very disturbing the lyrics to a lot of love songs are?
I'm not talking about "Every Breath You Take", here. Sting has said on more than one occasion that that isn't supposed to be a love song, that he was thinking about a psychologically disturbed individual when he wrote it. I'm talking about other songs, the sort that are supposed to be reassuring or assertions of deep feeling or whatever. I mean, take 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg', for example:
If I have to sleep on your doorstep all night and day
Just to keep you from walking away
Let your friends laugh, even this I can stand
'Cause I want to keep you any way I can
I dunno about you, but if I had a boyfriend I was trying to break up with and I heard him say something like that, I'd be calling for a restraining order faster than you could say 'obsessive clingy behavior with likelihood of buying a gun'. People who say things like that in the real world migrate pretty quickly to 'if I can't have you, nobody can'. Or how about 'I'll Be There', either the Jacksons or - I dunno, who was it, Mariah Carey?
And if you ever find someone new
I know she better be good to you
'Cause if she doesn't. . . I'll be there. (emphasis mine)
Sure, it makes for a nice spin on the 'Fatal Attraction' theme, but it's not something that makes me feel real comfortable about the singer's mental stability. I'd be saying something similar about the old song 'I Will Follow Him', except that I saw the movie Sister Act, and it's not nearly so peculiar when placed in the context the movie ultimately used it. Let's not even go into Peter Gabriel's Kiss That Frog. That's just this side of 'you know you want it, and you're saying no, but you really mean yes'. I mean, the only way I can even deal with that song is to picture it being addressed to a kid in a high chair who won't eat her strained peaches or something; otherwise it's just raw, skin-crawling coercion.
Anyway. Just thought I'd share my paranoid little delusions with you early in the morning. I need some more caffeine.
Today's pulp survival tip is #187. Inspect all newly-received weapons for buttons or triggers in places other than the location of the main button or trigger. Then try to arrange for someone who needs killing to be the one to test this extraneous button, because it rarely means anything good.
I'm not talking about "Every Breath You Take", here. Sting has said on more than one occasion that that isn't supposed to be a love song, that he was thinking about a psychologically disturbed individual when he wrote it. I'm talking about other songs, the sort that are supposed to be reassuring or assertions of deep feeling or whatever. I mean, take 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg', for example:
If I have to sleep on your doorstep all night and day
Just to keep you from walking away
Let your friends laugh, even this I can stand
'Cause I want to keep you any way I can
I dunno about you, but if I had a boyfriend I was trying to break up with and I heard him say something like that, I'd be calling for a restraining order faster than you could say 'obsessive clingy behavior with likelihood of buying a gun'. People who say things like that in the real world migrate pretty quickly to 'if I can't have you, nobody can'. Or how about 'I'll Be There', either the Jacksons or - I dunno, who was it, Mariah Carey?
And if you ever find someone new
I know she better be good to you
'Cause if she doesn't. . . I'll be there. (emphasis mine)
Sure, it makes for a nice spin on the 'Fatal Attraction' theme, but it's not something that makes me feel real comfortable about the singer's mental stability. I'd be saying something similar about the old song 'I Will Follow Him', except that I saw the movie Sister Act, and it's not nearly so peculiar when placed in the context the movie ultimately used it. Let's not even go into Peter Gabriel's Kiss That Frog. That's just this side of 'you know you want it, and you're saying no, but you really mean yes'. I mean, the only way I can even deal with that song is to picture it being addressed to a kid in a high chair who won't eat her strained peaches or something; otherwise it's just raw, skin-crawling coercion.
Anyway. Just thought I'd share my paranoid little delusions with you early in the morning. I need some more caffeine.
Today's pulp survival tip is #187. Inspect all newly-received weapons for buttons or triggers in places other than the location of the main button or trigger. Then try to arrange for someone who needs killing to be the one to test this extraneous button, because it rarely means anything good.
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Yup...
Date: 2002-09-09 07:32 am (UTC)Sophie Ellis Bextor's ' Take me Home' (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sophieellisbextor/takemehome.html)is a good modern example of the type and "Love Fool" by The Cardigans also scores very highly.
No-ones' going to be selling many carrots and lettuce around those neighbourhoods I think...
(http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Surf/4236/lovefool.htm) ()
no subject
Date: 2002-09-09 08:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-09-09 09:39 am (UTC)Who did that song "Walking After You"? That was in there.
Of course, I'm just delighted by "Kiss That Frog" because of the fairytale theme. Of course the original fairytale is disturbing in its own special little way, but still! It's a fairytale song!
no subject
Date: 2002-09-09 10:18 am (UTC)Spread your wings and let me come inside
and, later in the same song, the Mr. Logic Award for singing
Just let your inhibitions run wild
to which Dave replies, "Don't worry, Rod! Our inhibitions are completely out of control! Which is why we're keeping our wings tightly folded!"