Every Breath You Take

November 24, 2018 5:46 AM

Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson recently partnered with Bay Area musicians for a 3-day performance event that "pulled back the curtain" on iconic pop love songs to reveal the misogynistic worldview they are steeped in. Music and culture writer Emma Silvers reflects on experiencing Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy. "These are the stories replaying in women’s heads, stories of rape and harassment and lechery and violence and condescension and the understanding that our lives do not belong to us. That we are object, never subject." Comments Kendra McKinley, who worked with Icelandic musican Kjartan Sveinsson to arrange the 26 songs for the performance, "“The reality is that patriarchy is inescapable. And you can’t get out of it. It’s in the air we breathe.”
posted by drlith (61 comments total)

I confess/I looked up your work address
posted by thelonius at 5:53 AM on November 24, 2018

I like Ragnar Kjartansson. This project is similar to one he did a few years ago with The National where they played the same song ("Sorrow") nonstop for 6 hours. Granted, that song was already quite meaningful to me, but it was mesmerizing when we stumbled on the performance video in the museum in Iceland. It forced you to really reflect on what you were experiencing and reacting to. My boyfriend has teased me for a few years that I only liked it because I already liked the band, but this project seems like it would be even more powerful and hard hitting. Good on the artists for making it come to life.

I always repeat "Sorrow" a few times when it comes around on my playlists for a slice of the bigger project. Looks like I should start doing it to "love" songs too.
posted by lilac girl at 6:35 AM on November 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

At some point I just got so viscerally grossed out by the relationship messages in pretty much all pop music that I just stopped being able to listen to it without wanting to smash things. For older stuff from past decades I can be a little more forgiving (but mostly I just listen to the parts I like and try to pretend that all the gross, creepy songs don't exist) but for the stuff that plays on the radio these days I just weep for the world when I find myself inadvertently exposed to it. It's so bad. It constantly, consistently glamorizes stalking, abuse, addiction, assault, being trapped, hating your partner, hating yourself, etc. It's just a non-stop barrage of abject awfulness. It's like, no wonder people are so fucked up when this is literally the background music to our lives.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:40 AM on November 24, 2018 [17 favorites]

The Lady Parts Justice League did something similar with their Vagical Mystery Tour last summer, having local female-identified artists cover crappy sexist songs". Unfortunately my Google-fu is not turning up any videos of the musical performances, but every so often Chastity Brown pops up in my head growling "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man..."
posted by Flannery Culp at 6:43 AM on November 24, 2018 [4 favorites]

You know what's actually pretty good though a lot of the time? R&B. "You've made your choice/and now it's up to me/to bow out gracefully." That's some good modeling!
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:44 AM on November 24, 2018 [10 favorites]

You know, I'd never thought of David Cassidy's body of work as a particularly terrifying? But the last time I happened to hear "I Think I Love You" a bunch of words in the lyrics were, like, suddenly jumping out out at me--insane, screaming, dread, hide it to myself, afraid, no cure, worries me. And then finally when he gets to "if you say 'hey go away' I will, but I think better still I'd better stay around and love you" all I could think was GIRL RUN HE IS ABOUT TO CHLOROFORM AND KIDNAP YOU.

There is just so much shit like this throughout so many decades pop music.
posted by Ornate Rocksnail at 7:08 AM on November 24, 2018 [4 favorites]

She makes a very good point about "The Wanderer" and "Runaround Sue." Same artist, complete double standard.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:26 AM on November 24, 2018 [8 favorites]

"You've made your choice/and now it's up to me/to bow out gracefully."

The Spinners!
posted by pracowity at 7:28 AM on November 24, 2018 [5 favorites]

I can still remember frequently being in the car when Tom Jones' Delilah would come on the radio. We'd all sing along at the top of our lungs (much the way I did decades later to Eminem).

I saw the light on the night that I passed by her window
I saw the flickering shadow of love on her blind
She was my woman
As she deceived me I watched and went out of my mind
My my my Delilah
Why why why Delilah
I could see, that girl was no good for me
But I was lost like a slave that no man could free
At break of day when that man drove away I was waiting
I crossed the street to her house and she opened the door
She stood there laughing
I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more
My my my Delilah
Why why why Delilah
So before they come to break down the door
Forgive me Delilah I just couldn't take any more
She stood there laughing
I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more
My my my Delilah
Why why why Delilah
So before they come to break down the door
Forgive me Delilah I just couldn't take any more
Forgive me Delilah I just couldn't take any more
Songwriters: Cole Porter
posted by ezust at 7:30 AM on November 24, 2018

I always thought Every Breath You Take was intended to sound like an ultra-creepy stalker as opposed to being "romantic," but maybe I give the Police too much credit.
posted by pangolin party at 7:33 AM on November 24, 2018 [34 favorites]

Sorry, but a performance predicated on the notion that some music of the past and present contains sexist/misogynistic messaging doesn’t seem quite as revelatory to me as it does to the writer. I await her discovery of murder ballads.
posted by the sobsister at 7:34 AM on November 24, 2018 [17 favorites]

Yeah, "I Think I Love You" always creeped me out, too. I remember around this time last year #DavidCassidy was trending on Twitter. I was so relieved to find out he hadn't raped anyone, he was just dead. 2017 was a rough year.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:51 AM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

@ezust,

I think that’s a misattribution for “Delilah.” Per Wikipedia:
“The lyrics were written by Barry Mason and Sylvan Whittingham and the music by Les Reed, who also contributed the title and theme of the song. It earned Reed and Mason the 1968 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.”

Although I do like the idea of this as an envoi by Porter to his songwriting career.
posted by the sobsister at 8:04 AM on November 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Under My Thumb," though. What the fuuuuck.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:06 AM on November 24, 2018 [9 favorites]

Sting has said that ‘every breath you take’ isn’t supposed to be romantic but disturbing, so at least there’s that...
posted by lesbiassparrow at 8:10 AM on November 24, 2018 [18 favorites]

Every time I hear Alison Krauss + US's "Baby, Now That I Found You" (which I just now learned is a cover of a song sung by some dudes) I can't help imagining that I'm stuck down a well and Buffalo Bill is singing it to me.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:22 AM on November 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

My circle of musician friends now plays a minor key version of Every Breath You Take in order to play up the insanely creepy stalker focus of the song (link is to a computer-transposed version of the original Police recording, it's amazing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JyFrIH2-ns
posted by twoplussix at 8:23 AM on November 24, 2018 [5 favorites]

I like songs like Suicidal Tendebcies’ “99 to Life” and Lyle Lovett’s “L.A. County”, but there’s no denying their creepiness. Particularly in Lyle’s case, I tell myself that it’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but I’m not sure that makes it any better.
posted by wintermind at 8:26 AM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Sting has said that ‘every breath you take’ isn’t supposed to be romantic but disturbing, so at least there’s that...

It's like a romantic version of Poe's Law. The way that we portray romance is so fucked up that you can't write something intentionally fucked up without people reading it as romantic.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 8:38 AM on November 24, 2018 [40 favorites]

"Closer" is certainly disturbing, but the lyrics (you let me xxx) imply consent, and nothing about the song is implicitly gendered. Also the whole album is about an awful person who hates himself, and I don't think anyone finds the song romantic.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:43 AM on November 24, 2018 [17 favorites]

It's really kinda weird that something can be a helluva song but also make your skin crawl at the same time. Apparently music can make literally anything sound beautiful, romantic, and noble—even things that are totally abhorrent. Powerful stuff.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:54 AM on November 24, 2018 [5 favorites]

"Ruby Baby," by Dion and the Belmonts, should be on the list of famous artists record/perform a song written by a famous writer (lyrics here; TRIGGER WARNING for stalking and threats).

And I love me some Bernie Taupin (lyricist for Elton John) but the mysogyny throughout most of his writing career is so big it's got a post code.
posted by datawrangler at 8:55 AM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I just now found out that Alison Krause did a cover of the Foundation's song "Baby, Now That I Found You." It's as pretty as anything she sings.
posted by Miss Cellania at 8:59 AM on November 24, 2018

By the way, Delilah was not written by Cole Porter. That Google copy-and-paste above is incorrect.
posted by pracowity at 9:07 AM on November 24, 2018

Here's Weird Al's pop stalker parody, "Melanie", which is definitely and obviously a stalker song because Weird Al.

I think overall this is a cool, interesting project, and deliberately changing the perspective and context so that the creep factor shines through clearly is great.

I also have more than a little eyerolling going on for Jessica Valenti, who thinks it's somehow visionary to talk about how our culture hates women but not to discuss diversity among women as though we are all experiencing this the same way. I can only imagine her trying to talk to a group of black trans women, butch lesbians with disabilities, people who are marginalized along multiple axes, and getting laughed out of the room because what she's saying is such a reflection of her privilege as a feminine white cis straight abled woman.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:08 AM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Sorry, but a performance predicated on the notion that some music of the past and present contains sexist/misogynistic messaging doesn’t seem quite as revelatory to me as it does to the writer.

I kind of feel the same way, but I've learned over the years that not everyone spends as much time thinking about music as I do (as I used to) and that some people really don't pay much attention to lyrics. Especially in pop, the overall feeling is more important than the words.

When I was 11 or 12, I read my cousin's copy of Hammer of the Gods, so even before I started listening to music in high school, I was very aware that music was made by terrible people who hated women. Even if the stories in the book were untrue or exaggerated, dudes with guitars saw it as aspirational. And it wasn't only rock bands--until he actually murdered a woman, Phil Spector's behavior was considered eccentric, but not beyond the pale for the music industry.
posted by betweenthebars at 9:12 AM on November 24, 2018 [10 favorites]

First, for me at least, this project was a brilliant idea. I wish they could do this on some kind of traveling scale. I'm pretty sure that a depressingly large number of people never even think about this.

I've always loved music, and as I've gotten older and become increasingly more (and more and more) aware of this it makes me both sad and angry. On a selfish level because I often feel like, "Damn it, look at the beautiful rhythms and melodies you've ruined with this trash/hatred." On a grander scheme I also feel like those same instances could have said something about the very issues that are so problematic/pervasive; even if it was as simple as writing a love song that wasn't possessive or objectifying or demeaning or dismissive or violent (or all of the above).

Finally, I used to think that Every Breath You Take was trying to make a statement against possessive/stalking/violent thinking and actions against women (and maybe/hopefully that's true). Honestly though, the cynical part of me thinks he wrote it because it was just another form of entertainment, but from a different slant.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 9:18 AM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

"Baby, Now That I've Found You" is a perfect example of what I mentioned above. When Alison Krauss sings it, it is just exquisitely lovely to listen to. If you don't listen closely, it's just a beautiful love song. If you pay attention to the lyrics though, it's about abuse—and the abuser is the protagonist. Yet the song remains just as beautiful.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:20 AM on November 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Closer" is certainly disturbing, but the lyrics (you let me xxx) imply consent, and nothing about the song is implicitly gendered

If you've never seen the Kirk/Spock "Closer" it really rilly works.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:48 AM on November 24, 2018 [11 favorites]

A few weeks ago I had the strange experience of flipping between all three of the bad-but-tolerable radio stations I get in my town, when all three - rock, pop, oldies - were playing songs sung by men whose message was "I have good intentions so you are obliged to forgive me for all the crap I put you through."

Not at all a love song, but the slut-shaming in "Centerfold" by the J Geils band is way up there for hit songs that are completely unlistenable.
posted by Jeanne at 9:54 AM on November 24, 2018 [9 favorites]

Sting has said that ‘every breath you take’ isn’t supposed to be romantic but disturbing, so at least there’s that...

Since I was 5 when it came out and I knew it was by "the Police" I always thought it was supposed to be about a detective on the trail of a suspect.
posted by Ralston McTodd at 10:33 AM on November 24, 2018 [46 favorites]

I recently had to take a job in a grocery store to make ends meet, and the utter awfulness of music has forced itself on my consciousness because of the damn semi-looped algorithm stream background music thing in the store. It's four decades of slut-shaming, possessiveness, stalking, absurd gender roles, and misogyny. There's even one that sounds fairly recent that is a woman singing to "my future husband" about how he'd better buy her expensive things and give her a cozy home to cook and raise children in, which she refers to as "treat[ing her] like a lady."

On the other hand, there's nearly an even mix of those and some decent sex-positive or at least choice/consent-focused songs, even if the changeover could give you ideological whiplash. (Flip side, there are also several songs that seem okay-ish because a woman is singing them but would be fucking terrifying if it was a male singer.)
posted by Scattercat at 11:03 AM on November 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

I always loved the seventh key this is in, and it was one of my favorite Beatles songs, until much later in life, when I evaluated the lyrics. Then there was the concept "Sea of Holes" which was in Yellow Submarine, I think, and I realized that was also about women, "Now we know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall," though the cartoon was not that, the concept had to have come from the concert experience. This song, lovely and plaintive as it is, is like taking out a love insurance policy. I still love the Beatles, and watching them grow up, was great, and the evolution of their music, was also great.


"If I Fell"

If I fell in love with you
Would you promise to be true
And help me understand
Cause I've been in love before
And I found that love was more
Than just holding hands

If I give my heart to you
I must be sure
From the very start
That you would love me more than her

If I trust in you oh please
Don't run and hide
If I love you too oh please
Don't hurt my pride like her
Cause I couldn't stand the pain
And I would be sad if our new love was in vain

So I hope you see that I
Would love to love you
And that she will cry
When she learns we are two
Cause I couldn't stand the pain
And I would be sad if our new love was in vain

So I hope you see that I
Would love to love you
And that she will cry
When she learns we are two
If I fell in love with you
posted by Oyéah at 11:30 AM on November 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

I remember an interview with Sting where he said that he heard that a couple used "Every Breath You Take" as their wedding song and was gobsmacked.
posted by praemunire at 11:45 AM on November 24, 2018 [12 favorites]

Now we know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall

So I guess I'm incredibly naïve. I regard the Beatles less and less as I get older--mainly because of the misogyny in most of their catalog--but had never made this connection. Fuck their bullshit.
posted by maxwelton at 11:57 AM on November 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

Damn...Under my Thumb has always bothered me because it's one of the few Stones songs I really like musically. That marimba is fucking tight. But the lyrics are the epitome of everything I find toxic about the band and that vein of rock and roll.

Funny that this artist worked with the National, because I think they're one of the most successful bands at singing about people with absolutely awful sexual mores in a way that is both sexy and sad, both glamorized and pathetic. A lot of it comes down to well-placed humor.
posted by es_de_bah at 12:29 PM on November 24, 2018

Yeah, "Every Breath You Take" is absolutely not a love song. I'm amazed anyone sees it that way. Even the video is meant to be creepy as hell. A punk-influenced new wave band called "The Police", later produced by I.R.S. Records, they were incredibly subversive.

That said, the rest of the article is quite good. There are so many songs that are fun to sing along to, until you actually think about the lyrics. I would hope there are fewer of them being produced today.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 1:14 PM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

So I guess I'm incredibly naïve. I regard the Beatles less and less as I get older--mainly because of the misogyny in most of their catalog--but had never made this connection. Fuck their bullshit.

If authorial intent matters there's no particular reason to think this was it. "Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" was taken from an an actual news clipping that struck Lennon's fancy. And "filling a thing with holes" is exactly the kind of psychedelic absurdism he was into then, and the same goes for bizarre invocations of national monuments.
posted by atoxyl at 1:18 PM on November 24, 2018 [22 favorites]

I think Sting wrote EBYT during divorce.
posted by thelonius at 2:16 PM on November 24, 2018

I am suddenly very, very glad that my 20s were during the era of Lilith Fair.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:22 PM on November 24, 2018 [8 favorites]

Hurray for the Riff Raff has a really good take on murder ballads (Youtube).
posted by CMcG at 3:34 PM on November 24, 2018 [6 favorites]

Different medium, but related: Romantic-Comedy Behavior Gets Real-Life Man Arrested
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:05 PM on November 24, 2018 [3 favorites]

I remember an interview with Sting where he said that he heard that a couple used "Every Breath You Take" as their wedding song and was gobsmacked.

Considering how many folks unknowingly dedicate REM's "The One I Love" to "simple prop(s) that occupy (their) time" (and, if we go by the lyrics, have since been replaced by other "props") on Valentine's Day and other such occasions, I can't say I'm surprised.
posted by gtrwolf at 6:52 PM on November 24, 2018 [4 favorites]

"Under My Thumb," though. What the fuuuuck.

around 7 years ago there was an Extremely Bad fpp involving that song and a 1,000 comment meta in response that also featured a high level of terribility.
posted by poffin boffin at 6:59 PM on November 24, 2018

You mean this one from 2014?
posted by Chrysostom at 8:38 PM on November 24, 2018

I tend to prefer murder ballads because at least they're not covert about it. Murder ballads are honest about being fucked up pieces of shit. Love songs, though? "Oh, but it's romantic! The desire to possess/objectify/kill/lash out just means he loves her!"

Being aroace in this culture is fucking weird, let me tell you. It's a creepy, creepy world. Sometimes I think about how much people hear I want to fuck her as a direct synonym for/and/to I have the right to rape, abuse and kill her over and over again in music and I just want to lie down forever.
posted by E. Whitehall at 9:21 PM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

When I was a little child, 5 or 6 years old, my father recorded my sister and I (she's about 3 and half years older than me) singing On the Banks of the Ohio. It's a murder ballad. You haven't lived until you find a tape of your child self singing about a man who threatens a woman with a knife and then drowns her when she refuses to marry him.

I asked my love to take a walk
Just a walk a little way
And as we walk, oh, may we talk
All about our wedding day

Only say that you’ll be mine
In our home we’ll happy be
Down beside where the waters flow
On the banks of the Ohio

I held a knife against her breast
As into my arms she pressed
She said Willie, don’t you murder me
I’m unprepared for eternity

I took her by her lily white hand
And dragged her down that bank of sand
There I throwed her in to drown
I watched her as she floated down

Was walking home tween twelve and one
Thinkin’ of what I had done
I killed a girl, my love you see
Because she would not marry me

The very next morn about half past four
The Sheriff came knocked at my door
He said now young man come now and go
Down to the Banks of the Ohio
posted by Belle O'Cosity at 12:03 AM on November 25, 2018 [5 favorites]

I kinda want to see that MeTa now, poffin boffin. I believe you when you say it was bad times, but… I feel drawn to behold the misery.

I found myself thinking about "Baby, Now That I've Found You" while I was out hiking yesterday and I think I'd walk back my interpretation of it a little. I don't actually really see it as being literally about an abuser preventing their abused partner from leaving. When I mulled it over I realized that I have a pre-existing conception of this song from hearing it during my childhood, and I think I agree with Kid Me on this one. It's about the "denial" stage of grief.

We've all had something bad happen to us, perhaps even the experience of being dumped, where at first we just could not accept that it was actually happening, and where we were forced to navigate a storm of confusion and pain as we came to grips with reality. This song, to me, is about someone's experience of that storm. When I hear this song, I don't hear it being sung to the singer's ex, I hear it being sung inside the singer's head, or to an empty room—because their ex-lover is already gone. The implication in my mind is that they will move past this stage and eventually come out the other side at acceptance, but that for the moment encapsulated by the song, they are struggling to accept that their life has suddenly changed for the worse and that there's nothing they can do. They are bereft.

Many of us have had that feeling—that because we want something so desperately, there surely must be something we can do to make it happen, to make the bad thing not have happened. There will be other, more rational moments later, but for the present there is nothing but all-consuming grief and denial. That's what I think "Baby, Now That I've Found You" is about. Others are free to interpret it differently, of course.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:32 AM on November 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

And yeah, murder ballads are different. They're not trying to make murder sound romantic and noble, they fully acknowledge that it's evil and wrong. They're about exploring the darkest depths of the human condition—about people who do bad things for bad reasons. They're often sung from the murderer's perspective, but they don't typically try to rationalize the murderer's actions or frame them as praiseworthy. Frequently the murderer ends up dead or in jail by the end of the song, as is their due.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:38 AM on November 25, 2018 [5 favorites]

I think Sting wrote EBYT during divorce.

I think 2 other members of The Police might disagree with you.
posted by dobbs at 8:41 AM on November 25, 2018

The Beatles showed a little self awareness about male sexual violence when they sang 'A Penis is a Warm Gun', later covered by Tori Amos on Strange Little Girls. That album came out when I was in high school and just discovering feminism (I'm a cishet white man), and changed the way I listened to pop music. I like Amos's active approach to reclaiming these songs vs just pointing out the misogyny.

Interestingly, it was her last album for Atlantic Records, who she felt wasn't treating her fairly. According to Wikipedia she saw the album as a way to end her contract with Atlantic without giving them original songs.

This is relevant because Atlantic Records was part of the music/entertainment industry conglomerate that, in 1994, founded RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and tapped Amos as a spokesperson. In addition to its incredibly important work running support networks for victims, RAINN acts as a powerful PR/lobbying firm. In 2014, they submitted a report to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault:

In the last few years, there has been an unfortunate trend towards blaming “rape culture” for the extensive problem of sexual violence on campuses. While it is helpful to point out the systemic barriers to addressing the problem, it is important to not lose sight of a simple fact: Rape is caused not by cultural factors but by the conscious decisions, of a small percentage of the community, to commit a violent crime.

That sentiment (brought to my attention by someone who used it as an appeal to authority during a discussion of whether rape culture exists) is hard to reconcile with RAINN's vital hotlines and other resources, which have helped too many of my friends through incredibly tough times in their lives. Yet pushback on rape culture is pervasive throughout RAINN's communication strategy (mostly through omission). In my opinion this stance is best understood in the context of an organization created to shape public discourse surrounding rape/sexual violence into forms more comfortable and useful for the (white supremacist) capitalist patriarchy. It's no surprise that the entertainment industry (RAINN is now supported by film and tv as well as music studios) feels that this kind of propaganda/lobbying effort is necessary and no surprise that the messages flooding our airwaves and filling our screens are so virulently misogynistic. There is no mention of consent in the cliché 'sex sells'.

Intersectionally relevant: turn off the radio
posted by soy bean at 8:44 AM on November 25, 2018 [3 favorites]

i found it. hoo boy.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:17 AM on November 25, 2018

For years I rarely listened to music after I became disabled and had to stop working, but lately I have decided to listen to pop music and use a treadmill for my health's sake. Listening to the music closely to get through the work-out I see the misogyny, creepiness, and their horrible relationship dynamics. They are often so horrible that I have to make the songs about something else entirely. Most of the changes are to make them stories about pets other animals just to be able to sing them or think of them. Luckily many of the lyrics are unclear so it makes it easier to change their meanings, but this is why I do not want anyone to tell me "the real meanings" and of the author's intent and/or behavior. Just like how the guy in Antarctic got miffed and stabbed his college for revealing the endings to all of the novels he brought along (to get through his time in a relatively barren environment), I'd feel just as miffed if anyone tried to tell me the "real meaning" and context of the songs I use to get through my workouts. I will never tell anyone what songs I use, just in case someone wants to be a pest.
posted by RuvaBlue at 4:51 PM on November 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

dobbs: "I think 2 other members of The Police might disagree with you."

EBYT is credited only to Sting.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:28 PM on November 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

>"pulled back the curtain"

For most of the examples given above, I thought the issue was apparent during my first listen.
posted by Homer42 at 8:33 PM on November 25, 2018

I'm listening to Summer Wine and I can't tell if it's a song about the narrator being raped by intoxication, or if the narrator is attempting to blame the girl for "seducing" him given that she only gets to say the same lines over and over.
posted by divabat at 9:27 PM on November 25, 2018

The first song the article quoted (A Guy Is A Guy) is a cute romantic reworking of an 18th century song that is much more frank in its description of harassment, rape, and eventual desertion.
posted by pernoctalian at 10:06 PM on November 25, 2018

EBYT is credited only to Sting.

Right, but this is arguably unjust, since Summers' guitar part is a lot of what made the song so memorable. He is kind of bitter about that, in fact - some years ago, when P Diddy sampled the part, all the royalties went to Sting.
posted by thelonius at 12:29 AM on November 26, 2018

"The Beatles showed a little self awareness about male sexual violence when they sang 'A Penis is a Warm Gun', later covered by Tori Amos on Strange Little Girls. "

WHAT. Do you mean "Happiness is a Warm Gun?" I am goggled.
posted by corvikate at 8:53 AM on November 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Today I learned that not everybody listens to / hears lyrics. I am amazed.
posted by Ilira at 3:01 AM on November 29, 2018

I'm one of those people, AMA.
posted by Chrysostom at 1:43 PM on November 29, 2018 [1 favorite]