Hit songs with controversial/upsetting subject matter

"Indiana Wants Me," R. Dean Taylor

After co-writing "Love Child," a tale of staying celebate for fear of being "punished with a baby," for the Supremes, the Canadian native cut this story song about killing a man who insults his wife, then waiting his annihilation by the cops. All narrated in the form of a letter to said wife. Featuring siren SFX that were ultimately excised from radio versions of the single.

Because drivers thought they heard the police, which they did -- on the record.

armand schaubroeck steals - ratfucker

I loved the summer when RAtfucker was never off the radio. Good times.

siren SFX

I have an old mix tape of songs recorded off the radio, no rhyme or reason to the ordering, on which the Four Seasons' "C'Mon Marianne" cuts off as "Indiana Wants Me" starts; Frankie's wails meld into those of the siren absolutely perfectly.

But I digress. Are you just looking for stuff that's out there, like "Timothy" (cannibalism), or stuff that's jaunty but subtly urrr., like "Rock Me Gently" (popping of the anal cherry)?

*awaiting

But I digress. Are you just looking for stuff that's out there, like "Timothy" (cannibalism), or stuff that's jaunty but subtly urrr., like "Rock Me Gently" (popping of the anal cherry)?

Radio hits with touchy subject matter, or lyrics you'd be surprised to hear a lot of people enjyoing or singing along to (perhaps without even knowing what they're singing about).

Buddy Holly, "That'll Be The Day" - singer threatens to kill himself if his girlfriend ever leaves him.

Bee Gee, "I've Gotta Get A Message To You" - condemned man on death row with one hour to live, also...

Tom Jones, "Green Green Grass Of Home" <<< I guess I should put SPOILER!!! with that one...

Suzi Quatro, "Can The Can" - singer advises the listener that they'd better shag their boyfriend before their mother or sister does.

Art Garfunkel, "Bright Eyes", rabbit muses on disease, death, and the afterlife.

Boomtown Rats, "I Don't Like Mondays" - was a UK #1 hit in July 1979, it's about a school shooting that took place in January of the same year.

John Lennon, "Jealous Guy" - singer tries to excuse being violent to his girlfriend because he's "just a jealous guy".

Michael Jackson, "Billie Jean" - the allegedly true back story to this song is that a fan was convinced that MJ was her son's father, and she sent Jacko a gun with instructions to kill himself.

Nena, "99 Red balloons" - some balloons are picked up on radar and mistaken for nuclear missiles, triggering World War 3.

Iron Maiden, "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter" - I heard a radio interview where Bruce Dickinson claimed that the song was about a teenage girl's first period.

The Verve, "The Drugs Don't Work" - singer will kill himself if his junkie ex dies.

Verve one is about his dad innit?

Shangri-Las to thread

i was going to say 99 red balloons :-)

Surely the ultimate example of this is Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun".

What was that Janet Jackson one where she sings a happy song about all the people she knows who have died of AIDS?

I don't know if "Sex On The Beach" counts??

It wasn't that one, no.

Suede, "Animal Nitrate" - gay sadomasochistic sex on drugs in a council house. Brett Anderson deliberately set out to write lyrics that would be "shocking".

Black Lace, "Gang Bang" - just edges out "Agadoo" as their worst song, Black Lace invite you to a gang bang.

Tom Jones, "Delilah" - man stabs his cheating girlfriend to death, then sits in her house singing this song while waiting for the police to arrive and "break down the door".

Black Lace invite you to a gang bang.

Ew!

How about "Enola Gay" by OMD to add to the nuclear holocaust songs list?

In Bernard Higgins' "Hole in the Ground" the protagonist and his friend murder a local government officer by interring him whilst still alive.

In James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" the protagonist rubs one out while staring at some woman on the bus.

In Black-Eyed Peas' "My Humps" the protagonist pisses her knickers.

(xxpost) also add "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" by Ultravox.

Bernard Cribbins - although it's nice to know the first name of the butler from Magnum...

In Crazy Frog's "Axel F" the protagonist is suffering from a metal illness.

And he's a frog.

In Soulja Boy Tell 'Em's "Crank That", he threatens to "Superman" a "ho", which refers to the practice of using your X-ray vision to look at girls' pants.

In Christina Aguilera's "Durrty" the protagonist sits down for tea without washing her hands first.

I was twenty and she was eighteen,
We were just as wild as we were green... in the ways of the world
She picked me up in that red ragtop,
We were free of the folks and hiding from the cops,
On a summer night... runnin’ all the red lights
We parked way out in a clearin’ in a grove
And the night was hot as a coal-burnin’ stove,
We were cookin’ with gas... knew it had to last

In the back of that red rag top
She said please don’t stop

Well the very first time her mother met me,
Her green-eyed girl was a mother to be... for two weeks
I was out of a job and she was in school,
Life was fast and the world was cruel
We were young and wild... we decided not to have a child
So we did what we did and we tried to forget
And we swore up and down there would be no regrets
In the morning light... but on the way home that night

On the back of that red rag top
She said please don’t stop..
Lovin’ me

We took one more trip around the sun,
It was all make-believe in the end,
No I can’t say where she is today,
I can’t remember who I was, back then

Well you do what you do and you pay for your sins,
And there’s no such thing as what might’ve been
That’s a waste of time; drive you outta your mind
I was stopped at a red light just yesterday
Beside a young girl in a cabriolet
And her eyes were green.
I was in an old scene

I was back in that red rag top
On the day she stopped
Lovin me

In "America" by Razorlight, Johnny Borrell specifically names every single victim of the World Trade Centre attack, before claiming they all deserved to die.

Outhere Brothers, "I Want To Fuck You In The Ass" - self-explainitorially disturbing. Executive summary: Outhere Brothers want to fuck you in the ass.

Skee Lo's "I Wish" is actually about schlong extensions.

In Travis' "Driftwood" the Hoxton-finned shortarse protagonist beats a guy to death in the pub with a length of 2x4 after he claimed that Teenage Fanclub "weren't that good".

I'm calling that one out, it would mean Travis had been in some small way even vaguely interesting at any point in their career.

Chuck Berry, "My Ding-a-ling" - CB singing about his cock.

Bobby Darin, "Mack The Knife" - song glamourising the carrying and use of knives.

Khia: "My Neck, My Back" - an instructional song on how to perform oral sex and other tongue-related pleasures on a woman.

Eamon, "Fuck It" - disturbing that such a whining little shite can even have a girlfriend to get dumped by in the first place.

Babybird: "You're Gorgeous"

Ofetn taken at face value as a lovesong is actually about an amateur porn shoot on a car bonnet. I think.

Sinatra's "In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning" is a song about bedwetting.

He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss) by The Crystals

The Boiler by Rhoda & The Special AKA.

luka by suzanne vega

lyrics you'd be surprised to hear a lot of people enjyoing or singing along to (perhaps without even knowing what they're singing about).

Rolling Stones, "Honky Tonk Women", and Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side" - both are songs about transvestites. WOTWS wasn't even bleeped in the UK, because the censors didn't understand what "giving head" actually meant.

Probably a bit unneccessary to even bring Steely Dan into the mix, but it still throws me off when I'm walking around the grocery store and a song about seducing teenage girls with coke comes over the loudspeakers.

maybe the fact they play steely dan in the supermarkets is one of the few mitigating factors of living in the states these days ;-)

janie's got a gun

that ben folds five song about abortion

also, Loretta Lynn to thread

Til Tuesday .: Voices Carry

Mika's "Happy Ending" is about bumming kittens.

Making his hobby his work then.

"Take it Easy" (Eagles) is sung from the perspective of a hitchhiking rapist.

Weezer - "Hash Pipe"

"Smack My Bitch Up"

Iron Maiden, "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter" - I heard a radio interview where Bruce Dickinson claimed that the song was about a teenage girl's first period.

Then wouldn't this be the opposite case, where the subject matter is less upsetting than the song implies?

"Strange Fruit" - Billie Holiday - I don't know if this was technically a "hit," but it is obviously very well known.

"I'm on Fire" - Springsteen - Bruce claimed this was about a man grappling with personal demons or something, but all the "hey little girl...i got a bad desire" is creeeepy. Sometimes the man really is just too good at allowing you to sympathize with and/or see through the eyes of sociopaths, serial killers and the like ("State Trooper," I'm looking at you).

"The Living Years" - Mike and the Mechanics - Laugh if you want, but for a calculated adult-contemporary superhit, this song is bleak as fuck.

hwy nineteen

Which part of this song is about rubbing one out while staring at some woman on the bus? Am I missing something? Is there an x-rated version as well?

My life is brilliant.

My life is brilliant
My love is pure.
I saw an angel.
Of that I'm sure.
She smiled at me on the subway.
She was with another man.
But I won't lose no sleep on that,
'Cause I've got a plan.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

Yes, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don't think that I'll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last 'till the end.

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don't know what to do,
'Cause I'll never be with you.

La la la la la la la la la

You're beautiful. You're beautiful.
You're beautiful, it's true.
There must be an angel with a smile on her face,
When she thought up that I should be with you.
But it's time to face the truth,
I will never be with you.

In Travis' "Driftwood" the Hoxton-finned shortarse protagonist beats a guy to death in the pub with a length of 2x4 after he claimed that Teenage Fanclub "weren't that good".

-- Noodle Vague, Wednesday, June 25, 2008 12:36 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

ahahahaha

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PowerSource was an American contemporary Christian musical group from Bedford, Texas. The group was associated with a music ministry known as Gospel Workshop for Children, and is best known for the song "Dear Mr. Jesus" (written by Richard Klender), which crossed over to pop radio and reached the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1987.

The lyrics of "Dear Mr. Jesus" deal with child abuse and are sung from the perspective of a girl writing a letter to Jesus, expressing her concerns after seeing a news report about a "little girl beaten black and blue" by her parents. At the end of the song, the narrator concludes her letter saying, "Please don't tell my daddy, but my mommy hits me too.">
PowerSource was an American contemporary Christian musical group from Bedford, Texas. The group was associated with a music ministry known as Gospel Workshop for Children, and is best known for the song "Dear Mr. Jesus" (written by Richard Klender), which crossed over to pop radio and reached the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1987.

The lyrics of "Dear Mr. Jesus" deal with child abuse and are sung from the perspective of a girl writing a letter to Jesus, expressing her concerns after seeing a news report about a "little girl beaten black and blue" by her parents. At the end of the song, the narrator concludes her letter saying, "Please don't tell my daddy, but my mommy hits me too."</a>

And what a horrendous pile of shit it was, too! No one wants to say a song about how child abuse is terrible is a horrendous pile of shit for fear of being made out to be pro child abuse. Oddly enough, The Ramones "Beat on the Brat" (not a hit, pro child abuse) is a GREAT song.

All those death songs were rather controversial around the late 50s/early 60s. Today they are mainly just seen as tasteless, while BBC - on the other hand - is laughed at for their reluctance to play them.

What songs were they reluctant to play?

"Tangled Up in Blue" was famously about autoasphyxiation

kenny rogers, "ruby"
dude comes back from war with his parts blown off, can't please his woman, she takes her love to town despite his pleas not to do so.

Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" is about an fire that was thought to have been lit on the Titanic shortly before sinking.

What songs were they reluctant to play?

Some examples are "Leader Of The Pack", "Tell Laura I Love Her", "Ebony Eyes" and "Teen Angel".

(Although they may have lifted the ban before "Leader Of The Pack")

W*A*S*P's "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)" is about Blackie Lawless' penchant for indiscriminately spreading his sperm around several square kilometres of the Sargasso Sea every June.

"Come on Eileen" was actually about... never mind.

"You Came" by Kim Wilde was apparently about a newly born kid. Or at least that's what she claimed....

Chris DeBurgh's "Lady in Red" is about a priest in the mid to late stages of alzheimer's disease who saves a bloodied woman from a gang rape on the streets of Rio only to re-rape her hours later with a cruxifix encrusted with pigshit during "one of his funny spells".

you're just trying to make Gale Deslongchamps cry...

"You Came" by Kim Wilde was apparently about a newly born kid. Or at least that's what she claimed....

-- Geir Hongro, Friday, June 27, 2008 4:19 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I like Gangsta Andy Partridge's claim that 'Pink Thing' is about a newborn, too.

Buju Banton's "Boom Bye Bye" was a graphic account of the IRA's bomb attacks on Warrington in 1993.

On one of those Christians against rock and roll tv shows (I think it was called Hell's Bells), the guy railed against "The Lady In Red" as a song about devil worship. So this new information is helpful!

phil collins, "in the air tonight"

after witnessing a murder, phil befriended the murderer in a ploy to lure him to his next concert. he worked with local police and composed the song "in the air tonight" to play at the concert. police, cleverly disguised as phil collins fans, roamed the crowd at the packed show, waiting for phil to out the murderer. phil scanned the crowd during his set, looking for the murderer. would he even show up, he wondered? then he saw him. it was time. phil led the band in a moving version of "in the air tonight" and during the climax of the song he looked straight into the eyes of the murderer, who had moved to the front of the stage. the cops pounced!

Down In The Tube Station At Midnight by The Jam - What Does It Mean?

... pick the bones outta that one

When The Tams made "There’s Nothing Quite Like Shagging’" in 1987, they probably didn't neccessarily refer to the same thing the BBC thought of when they banned the song...

Noodle Vague: WIN

I wish I could play this game

List songs about jailbait/underage lust/etc!

"Timothy"
Young Girl" but that one's probably in the thread linked just above.

WOTWS wasn't even bleeped in the UK, because the censors didn't understand what "giving head" actually meant.

I'm still surprised this gets played on US radio stations

iirc alanis's 'go down on you in a theatre' went uncensored in the uk.

"Everyone's Gone To The Movies" by Steely Dan is pretty disturbing even though it would be stretching it a bit to call it a hit song.

You also have this thing with lyrics that are being misread by the wrong people. Like Ronald Reagan praising Bruce Springsteen (who has always voted for the Democrats ;) ) for the lyrics of "Born In The USA" not knowing the lyrics were actually a harsh critique of the Vietnam war.

You also have those songs that have been misread and abused by neo nazis and racists throughout history, from "Killing An Arab" to Clawfinger's "Nigger".

The Kinks - Lola (tranny lovin)
Stones - Brown Sugar (slavery)

does that new Apocalyptica song that my local altrock station plays all the time count? Because there's a part of me that finds that song terrifying.

The whole Gary Puckett catalog is about fucking underage girls.

On the 2001 remaster of Thriller, Quincy Jones recalls that the woman in question was convinced that MJ was the father of "one of her twins."

The whole Gary Puckett catalog is about fucking underage girls.

YSI?