For lack of a better question and because I am once again out of town for the weekend, let's go with the opposite question...What is the best song that sounds like a touching love song, everything about it, the music, the vocals, the flow, but is in fact a giant fuck you?
I'll take care of winners for this and the last one when I get back to NY again tomorrow, I promise.
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Pearl Jam - Better Man
It's funny, because Ed sings this in a manner that sounds tender and loving, and people treat it as if it's some kind of loving song, like 'can't find a better man' means 'you couldn't find a better guy.'
But just look at the lyrics
'waiting, watching the clock
it's 4 o'clock, it's got to stop
tell him, take no more
she practices her speech
as he opens the door, she rolls over
pretends to sleep as he looks her over.'
Then the second verse
'talking, to herself there's no one else
who needs to know, she tells herself'
'she love him
she don't want to leave this way
she needs him
that's why she'll be back again'
This is a women who's been horrendously scarred by an abusive relationship. She's basically blaming himself for the beatings she's taken at this man's hands, but she doesn't know what she can do, because she doesn't think she can find a 'better man.' The nature of domestic violence is such that the woman often blames herself and can't bring herself to leave. This song is about that. It's a heartbreaking song, yet it may have been Pearl Jam's second biggest radio song other than Last Kiss.
Props to Cardamone, but I'm digging a little deeper into my personal library for this one . . .
I'm going with "Ruthless" by Something Corporate. It's a song that has the feel of a love song with the song tempo, not to mention that Andrew McMahon's voice is surpassed only by Chris Isaac and Elliott Smith's in making anything sound like a love song. Enough about why it sounds like a love song, here's why it isn't:
"This is the only lonely picture
waiting on my floor
littering my shore
this is the last true burning letter
given to a girl
written by a boy
living in a world created to destroy
but if i built you a city, would you let me
would you tear it down?
but there you go for the last time
i finally know now what i should have known then
that i could still be ruthless if you let me
but there you go and i'm not done
you're waving goodbye, well atleast youre having fun
the rising tide will not let you forget me
forget me"
Go fuck yourself, sweetheart.
On a side note, how does Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin not get more radio play? It's fucking criminal . . .
The Police - "Every Breath You Take"
Perhaps the song most misrepresented as a love song. It begins with that steady beat, almost like a heartbeat.
The song begins:
"Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you"
It's misinterpreted as someone "watching over" another, like a father caring for a daughter or a man protecting a woman. But the lyrics show something more sinister, someone who is more controlling and voyeuristic. It deals more with pining for lost/former love. Sting supposedly wrote this song in while his marriage to Frances Tomelty was falling apart.
As the song progresses, the tone of the verses change to one of spite:
"Every move you make
Every vow you break
Every smile you fake
Every claim you stake
I'll be watching you"
Clearly, love has been lost, in this case it seems marriage (broken vow) and "every smile you fake" sounds like someone calling "bullshit" when looking back on it all, realizing that everything may have seemed good on the surface but that clearly it was not. The song ends with Sting repeating, "I'll be watching you." Again, it's often misunderstood, but taken in context, this sounds almost haunting, as the listener is left with those four words resonating.
(Nick: Great song choice. I read somewhere that Eddie once dedicated the song, in concert, to "the bastard that married my Momma."
Ray -- how about a song that isn't necessarily misinterpreted as a love song, but a song that's just a flat out "fuck you" with no hidden meaning? Lord knows, I played plenty of those on WTBU...
Actually, Adam, I'm not sure if it's that song or Alive (I do think it was Better Man, though.)
Alive is another classic example The chorus has this kind of exuberant sounding 'oh I, I'm still alive"
Meanwhile the song is slightly changed version of Eddie Vedder's life. He thought he knew his father, and had a terrible relationship with the man. When in reality, his father was known to him as a friend of the family, who died when he was about 13.
In real life, Eddie talks about how people who knew his real father would be unable to stop staring at Ed, because he looked so strikingly similar to the man. In the song, his mother, because he looks so much like the deceased man...well...she fucks him (sometimes live, he changes the lyrics, 'oh she walked slowly/ across a young man's room/ she said I'm ready/ to fuck you')
It's part of a trilogy of songs in which this happens, then the main character goes on a killing spree (Once) and then looks back on everything from death row, and tells the mother why she's to blame (Footsteps). Such an uplifting story.
The ironic thing is that Ed has talked about how the response of the fans, the time that has passed and the chorus has made the song very therapeutic and helped him somewhat bury a troubled childhood.
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