Listening to the spanking new remaster of Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken, I was struck by Walkin’ All Night, in which the protagonist mistakes a business arrangement for a potential romance. There must have been something in the water in 1973. Steely Dan use the same premise in Pearl Of The Quarter. It’s the closest they ever came to writing a love song. Elton John, however, is brutally clear eyed about his Sweet Painted Lady. On the other hand, the Southern Belle in Dixie Chicken seems happy to share her favours without a financial transaction, as long as she is paid in kind.
Somehow, I can’t imagine these kind of songs being written today, except from a totally different perspective, maybe by the likes of Lana Del Ray.
Any other examples of songs they don’t write like they used to?
I’m not sure, post 9/11, that the Talking Heads would be able to get away with a song like “Listening Wind” about blowing up Americans: “Mojique sees his village from a nearby hill / Mojique thinks of days before Americans came / He sees the foreigners in growing numbers / He sees the foreigners in fancy houses / He thinks of days that he can still remember…now.” Etc.
And the Edgar Broughton Band would definitely not get away these days with “Psychopath”. Mind you, they shouldn’t have got away with it back in the early 1970s.
There’s simply too much hair there. Bloke on the left has more on his arms than I have on my head.
I don’t think that today you would need to disguise a song about heroin addiction as subtly as Billy Paul did in Me And Mrs Jones.
Well I never! “She’s got her own obligation” was my favourite line, obligation being such an usual word in a popular song. What’s that about, then? She’s got to go and hold someone else’s hand and listen to their favourite tune?
To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a song about an illicit affair is just a song about an illicit affair. This song was written by Gamble and Huff, and to quote Gamble:
“This guy used to come into the bar every day – little guy that looked like a judge. We’re songwriters, so we’re always thinking about a song. The next day he came in again, and every day after he’d come in, this girl would come in 10-15 minutes after he’d get there, and they’d sit in the same booth, then go to the jukebox and play the same songs. We said, ‘That’s me and Mrs. Jones.’ Then, when they’d get ready to leave, he would go his way and she would go hers. It could have been his daughter, his niece, anybody, but we created a story that there was some kind of romantic connection between these people, so we went upstairs to our office and wrote the song.”
.. and Holly Johnson said anyone who thinks Relax is about sex must have a dirty mind.
You couldn’t get away with this these days. Not enough seat belts.
I knew he wuz a wrong’un the moment i saw that picture
Mike, careful now, I understood this joke.
Ah well, you can’t lose ’em all…
Goodness. I can’t sleep, my mind is abuzz. Are social services involved?
Hey Joe, Run For Your Life, A Legal Matter.
Unlikely to see new songs like these ones.
Lennon ‘borrowed’ the lines
from Baby Let’s Play House by Arthur Gunter also recorded by Elvis.
It was one of the songs he played on the day he met McCartney.
.
And then of course there’s Roxanne, Poison Ivy ..
Velvets – There She Goes Again “You better hit her”
I Saw Her Standing There – Beetles.
“She was just seventeen, if you know what I mean …”
John Lennon was about 22 and Macca was 20 when they wrote that. Age of consent 16. Perfectly reasonable for young men their age to fancy a 17 year old.
I thought this thread was about songs you couldn’t write today? As in, today? And anyway, I think we know what they mean when they sing “if you know what I mean”. Know what I mean?
Quite right.
Ringo was still singing “You’re sixteen, you’re beautiful and you’re mine” when he was 79, but maybe he thinks he could be too old to do that now at 82, as it appears to have been dropped on his latest tour.
..and Mick Jagger is still banging on about being born in a crossfire hurricane, but – guess what? – he wasn’t and nobody listening believes he was. You could take everything literally, but then where would you be?
Well, that’s different. He did increase the age of the groupie in Stray Cat Blues
I can’t believe etc…
A large amount of Greg Dulli’s oeuvre could be described as sleazy. Drugs, unfortunate sex, drugs and unfortunate sex. And abuse. I love ’em.
This one can be placed in the same category as John Lennon’s ‘hilarious’ stage antics of the mid 60s.
The record company in Britain must have thought the same as it only appeared as a demo 45. I can’t think of another 45 where that was the case. Perhaps they got cold feet after it had been played a couple of times on the radio.
Gary Puckett and Union Gap – Young Girl …
Gilbert O’Sullivan has stated that he wouldn’t be able to write a song like Clair nowadays.
Nor “A Woman’s Place”.
But how about the reverse? Songs that you couldn’t have produced at an earlier stage. Isn’t that what has been going on throughout the history of rock’n roll?
I wonder if a young Randy Newman took songs like Rednecks, or Sail Away to his record company today he’d be allowed to record them.
Actaully that question applies to most of his songs….
I’ve thought about this. He certainly doesn’t shy from controversy today, even though he made most of his money from soundtracking cartoons.
However, turn the clock back and reset to today. A young, unknown who can’t sing turns up with those songs and I think they turn him away. After all, he isn’t Randy Newman yet.
Wot? This far down and no DONOVAN?
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=RDbb3WpOJvsug&playnext=1
Do I have to do everything around here?
I Love Little Girls by Oingo Boingo
Even back in the day this was eyebrow raising. I’m sure Danny Elfman had his reasons
There is no way I am clicking play on that clip. Thanks anyway.
My Ding-A-Ling
They banned Relax (in the end) but not that one. Go figure.
The Laughing Gnome has a casual cigarette smoking, a Rolf Harris reference and a joke about the BBC’s Home Service. The past really is another country.
The cigarette quote also references another not too casual smoking song.
“Have You Got a Loight Boy” by the Singing Postman.
Although not banned, I don’t think a song on the joys of smoking would be acceptable today.
See also “They’re Coming to Take me Away”.
The reference to that song was Rolf Harris. I didn’t know the Singing Postman did it too.
Robbie Williams sang “my breath smells of a thousand fags”.
When it was released in America, it was suggested he may want to change that line