tonyballz wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 10:25 am

Tom Wanderer wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 11:47 am

tonyballz wrote: Mon May 17, 2021 6:38 pm I recently posted (on another forum) that Christine Sixteen by Kiss, a song that today is considered extremely inappropriate, was a top 40 single in 1977. It got played on AM and FM radio ... hell, it got played everywhere. And no one batted an eye. I'm not saying that was a better attitude, just something for young folks to wrap their heads around.

Ah yes, "you've been around, but you're young and clean". And that wasn't an anomaly! There's a whole genre of 70s mainstream creeper anthems. Hot Child In The City? Please Go All The Way? Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night is a nonstop barf fest from start to finish, but the line "spread your wings and let me come inside" is just so disgusting I can taste the bile every time.

I wrote a satirical piece a few years ago on why Tonight's The Night is the worst song in recorded history. The "spread your wings" line is indeed barfy but my personal favorite is "Don't say a word, my virgin child." Ewwww.

WAAAA!!! So...what do we know about this character? She's a child. And a virgin. And he's plying her with alcohol "let me pour you a good long drink". It's more like a written confession! This song is still played on the radio regularly. There are plenty of very wrong songs in this vein...but Rod just seems so proud of the whole child rape thing. Who does he think he is? Ted Nugent!?

I hear this song all the time if I tune into an oldies station. Always hated these lyrics:

Whoa, oh, oh, young girl
Get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl
You're much too young, girl

Beneath your perfume and make-up
You're just a baby in disguise
And though you know that it's wrong to be
Alone with me
That come on look is in your eyes

Whoa, oh, oh, young girl
Get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl
You're much too young, girl

So hurry home to your mama
I'm sure she wonders where you are
Get out of here before I have the time
To change my mind
'Cause I'm afraid we'll go too far

Tom Wanderer wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 10:32 am

tonyballz wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 10:25 am

Tom Wanderer wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 11:47 am

Ah yes, "you've been around, but you're young and clean". And that wasn't an anomaly! There's a whole genre of 70s mainstream creeper anthems. Hot Child In The City? Please Go All The Way? Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night is a nonstop barf fest from start to finish, but the line "spread your wings and let me come inside" is just so disgusting I can taste the bile every time.

I wrote a satirical piece a few years ago on why Tonight's The Night is the worst song in recorded history. The "spread your wings" line is indeed barfy but my personal favorite is "Don't say a word, my virgin child." Ewwww.

WAAAA!!! So...what do we know about this character? She's a child. And a virgin. And he's plying her with alcohol "let me pour you a good long drink". It's more like a written confession! This song is still played on the radio regularly. There are plenty of very wrong songs in this vein...but Rod just seems so proud of the whole child rape thing. Who does he think he is? Ted Nugent!?

OK Rod, you asked for it.

Stay away from my window
Stay away from my back door too
Disconnect the telephone line
Relax baby, and draw that blind

He's telling her not to go near the windows and doors and to close the curtains, so no one can see she's there. And the phone's unplugged too. Looks like all her means of escape are cut off. Now relax, baby.

Let me pour ya a good long drink

How about a roofie colada?

Ooh baby, don't you hesitate

"I don't think this is such a good idea, Mr. Stewart ..."
"Call me Rod, babe."

Spread your wings and let me come inside
Don't say a word, my virgin child

Lyrics that speak for themselves, really.

The secret is about to unfold
Upstairs before the night's too old

I think we all know what's about to unfold in Rod's bed. I'm not going there.

Cause I love you girl
Ain't nobody gonna stop us now

Not even your parents or the cops.

You can hear the girl cooing in French over the fade, so she doesn't speak English either.

And how supremely sleazy is that sax solo?

In the US, Tonight's The Night was #1 for eight consecutive weeks and the best selling single of 1977, as well as the 19th most popular song in the history of Billboard magazine.

Rod Stewart is the kind of music Dennis in It's Always Sunny listens to. Makes sense.

This thread has reminded me of a conversation I was having with a friend last year. A lot of Descendants songs sound like incel rantings now. Songs like Clean Sheets, Sour Grapes, Bikage, and it goes on and on...Milo is singing about these girls that he seems to have no relationship with, many (like Sour Grapes) are simply judging a girl based on looks alone "from across the room" and getting worked up to the point that he's like personally hurt by them. It's weird. Once I noticed this I can't unhear it, and this sentiment is in a lot of their songs. Descendants were never my favorite, but I enjoyed them. Now the stuff sounds really misogynistic and paranoid. Taking personal grievance at the insignificant actions of others and/or trying to "shelter" or "save" these female characters to be what the male singer wants them to be.

I know that men have been writing songs like this forever, it's nothing new. It just struck me that the feelings these songs convey are really unhealthy. There's a way to convey youthful misery and alienation and frustration in song without it always being "her fault...how could she do this to me...but I could fix her". That's not a quote from a song, but a motif that recurs often in their music.

To simplify; the narrator of many Descendants songs seems hostile toward women while also implying that they owe him something.

In terms of 70's rock, nothing has a drop on Patto's "Hold Me Back" where the object of affection is a 13 year old who the singer believes is giving him signals. Even the title implies he knows he's about a to commit a crime but she "drove a man insane."

The scummiest feeling when listening to it! What a song!

Anything by Prince Buster, probably.

Tuscaloosa Woman (So Good To Me)

I keeeeed..

Dave N. wrote: Tue May 18, 2021 2:16 pm “Come On Eileen”

Please, Dexys. Children are listening.

Isn't it from the perspective of a teenager referring to another teenager, looking at the miserable people all around them, but arrogantly claiming that they "are far too young and clever"? I wouldn't want songs about teenage lust and illusions of transcendence to become verboten. If he was singing it from the perspective of himself, an adult in a pop band, well that is a little more 'Playground Bang-A-Round'.

'Fairytale of New York' outrage is a seasonal industry for the press. Every year they get to publish that story. I wish they'd find something else. How about "'Ben' by Michael Jackson: it's about a killer rat!", with a picture of of the romantically compromised singer and a large rodent?

The odd thing about both 'Fairytale of New York' and 'Money for Nothing' is that the offending word comes from a character in the story, not the singer. And both songs were written by non-Americans who may not have appreciated the strength of the insult?