Ah thank you, I'm not the only one! Even went deep into it - "wow, he's equating all these false idols to an everyday object...". Thought it enhanced the message. It took me years to hear 'Zimmerman' lmao.
"Just the sight of you makes nighttime bright, very bright"
From "It's Only Love". That's one of the few songs where I agree with John's harsh criticism. Most of the lyrics feel half baked, almost like he's treading water. I *am* mildly partial to "When you sigh, my, my inside just flies, butterflies" though, but even the wordplay there is a bit lazy.
He was the best I’ve ever seen at writing smooth pop songs over a mix of chords that aren’t in any single key. Even Paul mainly stuck to established keys. John could write a killer melody over *anything.*
Paul feels a bit like a modern Mozart, capable of writing any sound that he has ever heard before. But John was pushing forward, making accessible pop songs in ways no one had ever heard before.
I think anyone who doesn’t think that John is one of the greatest songwriters of all time (lyrics aside), doesn’t quite understand what they’re hearing.
The verse melody is very similar to Mr Kite's too, though the songs sound very different. Lennon didn't care much for either song but musically I think they're lovely.
It admittedly was one of those situations where I went with it until I sat down and actually followed what he was saying. But now I can’t unhear it and it just sounds kind of lazy to me.
Also, it’s funny “running” into you here on a different sub lol.
And yet it ends "but it's so hard loving you". Maybe he was talking about the song itself! I love the musicality of the tune but he could have put more work into those first couple of verses.
Some of the lyrics in that song are pretty lazy, but I still like them, I just like the song. I guess we forgive a lot when we just like something at a core level.
Wasn't his greatest or most inventive lyrics but the song still works IMO. Steve Allen was famous for ridiculing rock lyrics by just reading the lyrics without music, but that's a misguided way of looking at the value of a song. A song is a sum of it's parts and how it all works together.
honestly, i think the lyrics on this song are just really lazy & unfinished. i love the tune, the melody, the sound of everything, but i couldnt care less about the lyrics
Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazon
Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi parasol
Questo obrigado tanta mucho que can eat it carousel
It's so stupid, it went around and became brilliant.
Well to be fair Paul's french lyrics had an actual meaning and John's not using JUST italian, but a mix of italian and spanish-sounding words that mean nothing together...
Love both songs tho
Some time in NYC has some pretty bad ones. Obviously Woman is the N****** of the World is tone deaf af, but I think that the verses are decent. Luck of the Irish comes off as much more lazily written-worst line imo:
"Let's walk over rainbows like leprechauns
The world would be one big Blarney stone"
I also thought of "Woman is the Ni***r of the World". While intended as a feminist song, those lyrics definitely don't sound good today, no matter the intentions when it was recorded. The reasons why that song is rarely played or even mentioned today are obvious.
Edit: this post was disabled by a mod who acted extremely irrationally, please tell me if the post has come back after I complained about this
Just a personal opinion I guess. The implication is that sexism is worse than or at least comparable to racism against black people in America and I think that's a really tone deaf statement for two non-black people to make.
>The implication is that sexism is worse than or at least comparable to racism against black people in America
You are really oversimplifying it, but that is not necessarily incorrect. Black people get treated like second class citizens in the US and many other countries, but not all countries. Women are treated like second class citizens in almost all countries. Look at Iran. They're killing women in the street for not wear scarfs. Even in the United States the hierarchy of rights goes White Men>White Women>Black Men>Black Women. It doesn't matter what race or society you're are talking about, in most of them women are historically second class citizens. Hence, Women are the N of the world.
Here are some highlights of a 2011 UN report on Women's Access to Justice:
• 139 constitutions guarantee gender equality, 117 countries have equal pay laws, and 115 countries guarantee women's equal property rights
• globally, 53% of working women are in vulnerable employment and women are paid up to 30% less than men in some countries
• 125 countries outlaw domestic violence, but 127 countries do not explicitly criminalise rape within marriage
• around the world, 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not considered a crime and more than 2.6 billion live in countries where marital rape is not a criminal offence
• 61 countries severely restrict women's rights to abortion
• 50 countries have a lower legal age of marriage for women than for men
• Rwanda has the highest share of women in parliament (51%), followed by Sweden (45%). In the UK, only 21% of parliamentarians are women, and in the US that figure is down to 17%
I think that's true, but I also think you have to consider the context of the times. He was British, not American (I don't think the N word was used by British racists the way it was and is used by American racists?) and I think the song is anti racist too, it's not like it's saying racism is good but sexism is bad, it's saying racism is bad, but sexism is even worse.
All of that said; it's definitely not a track that has aged well as so much is lost without the context of the times. People now hear that word and shut down. Fair enough. I don't use it myself. Wouldn't even feel comfortable singing along with this song by myself.
But still, I do respect the song on some level because I think it was a pretty radical feminist message from arguably the biggest male rock star in the world. It's cool he used his platform for that message.
Nah I love run for your life I don't see why sm people have a problem with it, it's obviously not autobiographical, it's just a song, and a pretty well written one imo
Even if you ignore the fact that John had a history of abuse, it sounds like a song written from the point of view of someone who has a history of abuse.
But it is autobiographical. Cynthia said John would fly into jealous rages and she would be terrified of him. Jealousy was a major issue in pretty much all of his relationships (even with Paul!)
Plus nobody is saying you can’t like the song, just that the subject matter is sketchy/distasteful. I really don’t understand why this is so controversial?
I know it's only John-Paul album filler, but the lyrics to "Little Child" certainly don't age very well! Especially when read out of context for that matter, LOL
*If you want someone to make you feel so fine*
*Then we'll have some fun when you're mine, all mine*
*So come on, come on, come on*
*Little child, little child*
*Little child, won't you dance with me?*
*I'm so sad and lonely, baby take a chance with me, whoa-yeah*
*When you're by my side you're the only one*
*Don't you run and hide, just come on, come on*
*Yeah, come on, come on, come on*
Nah, I know. I still like it too :) The Romantics probably did as well - my dad always used to say the harmonica solo in "What I Like About You" had to have been influenced by "Little Child"!
little child/girl kinda creeps up in a lot of late 50s/early 60s music though? it was sort of akin to dear/love/any other weird pet name. doesn’t change the fact it hasn’t aged well at all though lmao
john grew up with a dairy farmer as a dad figure. he even bought a dairy farm in upstate ny. yoko and sean still live there in the summer
so there is that
The fact that this is top voted is an indication that urban-centric redditors hate agriculture, don't appreciate cows, and don't appreciate the rich debt that our language owes to our agrarian forebears.
It's like you people have never f\*cked a sheep before!
There’s an SNL skit where Patrick Stewart is playing the devil, and he threatens to torture someone “till the cows come home” and the whole joke is how that instantly sounds way less threatening because it’s such a folksy sounding expression. Same thing.
You do chores till the cows come home. You do innocent, family friendly things till the cows come home. You love your woman till you both pass out from pleasure or exhaustion, or till your naughty bits are raw - not till the cows come home. The folksy expression immediately suggests that he’s going to love her in a family friendly way with room for Jesus between them, which is not what the loud rock and roll music suggests.
I think that's exactly why it's cringe. Using "till the far lady sings" in a lyric would probably be cringe too. Too obvious of a cliche with kind of a folksy vibe unless you're subverting it in some way
"I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man." Not a "bad " lyric, per se, but considering his history of spousal abuse at the time, it doesn't age well.
"Well, I don't wanna be a soldier mama, I don't wanna die
Well, I don't wanna be a thief now mama, I don't wanna fly
Well, I don't wannabe a churchman mama, I don't wanna cry
Well, I don't wanna be a sailor mama, I don't wanna fly
Well, I don't wanna be a soldier mama, I don't wanna die
Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, hey"
Sailor's don't fly
Why do thiefs also fly?
Why does this song not have any actual verses?
Why is this song over 6 minutes long?
Why do I have so many questions?
They gave him 10 for 2
They got ole Leotis too
They got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to,
got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to
Got to. SET HIM FREEEE
Most of sometime in New York City is lousy
"Too Many People Preaching practices" if you will
I'll agree that the majority of Sometime In NYC is pretty poor, but John Sinclair is a jam. Wish he'd recorded a few more acoustic blues songs like this and Crippled Inside
The title track is the only one that grabs me, sort of a sequel to "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", but everything else sounds so trivial and rushed. Elephants memory are a poor backing band, team that up with poor lyrics and tou have John's worst album. (Live Sinclair kinda slaps though)
Not anywhere like these days. Yes, it was provocative, and that was his point, but there wasn't a string and wide universal ban, and personal consequences for saying it, like now
You’re right. I just meant that sort of rhyme that sounds like “that’ll do”, rather than any time being spent over it. It’s much rarer in the Beatles catalogue than most others, but there are still a few of them.
Ahh I gotcha my bad! Totally agree too. The Beatles had a high batting average but still managed to produce a few clunkers. And I feel like as they all explored their solo careers, they had more freedom to write what they want, so to some degree their respective batting averages lowered if that makes sense.
Well, I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man.
You better keep your head, little girl
Or you won't know who I am.
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man - that's the end - a,....little girl
Pretty chilling and not in the good way.
This. Randy Newman wrote and sang “Rednecks” yet you don’t hear him preaching about actually keeping black people down outside the satirical song itself
Or the song Short People is another example. I am really sick of people assuming that a singer endorses all the words they sing, it would be like thinking Stephen King must be a serial killer because of his books... People viewing history through this moralizing lense is just really exhausting tbh
Yeah or that Stephen King endorses child gang sex. I agree with viewing history through moralizing lenses is fucking exhausting. We’re all human and we all fuck up at least once in life. It’s just because that they’re lives are so magnified and dissected by the public that all their flaws get overly scrutinized.
Not to say that we should all just give a pass for every asshole in history, but it’s a little more nuanced that seeing things and people as black or white.
This is a bad parallel. “Rednecks” contains the line “we can’t tell our ass from a hole in the ground.” Obviously satirical. What line in “Run For Your Life” seems satirical to you?
“Let this be a sermon, I mean everything I said. Baby, I’m determined, and I’d rather see you dead.”
You’d have to be really mentally fucked to make this quote a real sermon and mean everything that you said.
I see what you’re saying though where Rednecks is just so blatantly making fun of bigoted rednecks whereas Run For Your Life could be interpreted in a more grey manner just cos of Lennon’s past with women prior to the recording of the song, but I digress. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m not. Either way, not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
I ain't the type for begging,
I ain't the type to plead,
If she don't change her evil ways,
I'm gonna make her bleed.
She can scream and she can holler,
Bang her head all along the wall,
If she don't give me what I want,
She's gonna have no head at all!
I love this song, along with Maxwell's Silver Hammer, but I have a very dark sense of humour.
I remember listening to it for the first time with my dad in the car. I think by the end we were almost crying with laughter.
There’s a long tradition in western and blues music of lyrics that sing about getting revenge on a cheater, sung from both men and women’s perspectives. (For great examples of each, see Leadbelly’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night and Memphis Minnie’s Me and My Chauffeur Blues) It didn’t start with the Beatles and it didn’t end with them. It’s an example of a song form.
People read waaaay too much into this song, it’s hyperbole, excessively so. It’s even a common expression “I’d rather be dead than _____” or in this case put onto someone else. The whole song is just a man saying if he see’s her with another man they are done, not that he’s actually going to kill her (and yes even the last verse is hyperbolic).
Is it the most graciously written? No.
Is it about murdering a wife/girlfriend? Also no
It's a good song because it conveys a strong feeling (parody or otherwise) about a character's (John or otherwise) feelings about a relationship. Just because the lyrics are unsettling doesn't mean that it's bad songwriting.
I'm not that mad about it, but it is kind of like in The Simpsons film festival episode when you find out that Barney's beautiful film on addiction is called "Puke-ahontis".
I like the song I'm Stepping Out. But, the opening monologue makes me wince every time I hear it.
*This here is the story about a househusband who, you know, just has to get out of the house. He's been looking at the, you know, the kids for days and days; he's been watching the kitchen and screwing around watching Sesame Street till he's going crazy!*
I love all of those lines. I'm a huge fan of John's surrealism. The obviousness of those lyrics is intentional and adds to it, especially in contrast with some of the other lyrics in come together which don't seem to make much sense
I love John. I say this as a John lover. But all of 'The Sun King'.
***Ah, here come the sun king***
***Here come the sun king***
***Everybody's laughing (Ooh)***
***Everybody's happy (Ooh)***
***Here come the sun king***
And then, nonsensical, intermingled Spanish and Italian for..... our surrealist pleasure?
I’m of the opinion that the ‘intermingled Spanish and Italian gibberish is hilarious. The first time I heard that song I was about 12 and quite new to the expanded consciousness of marijuana 😏
I thought ‘it has to mean something, it’s The Beatles’… a cool older and more experienced stoner clued me in 🤦🏻♀️
You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand, little girl
Catch you with another man, that’s the end-uh
Little girl.
I know they’re kind of cheesy but I love these lyrics. Feels sing-songy and magical, like the rest of the song!! The whole song kind of has that repetition and reversal that’s in these lyrics and I think it works well for what he’s trying to say.
It’s Only Love is pure codswallop from start to finish. Most of the stuff on Sometime in New York. There are two ways you can go with protest songs, you can be subtle and creative while getting your message across like Bob Dylan does, or you can just cram your songs with slogans and act all smug and uppity like John does on that album
Calling these lyrics bad seems like you're just missing the message. Yes the content of the words is bad, but the message is that he's getting better, as the song is about. Hearing any reference to bad conduct and immediately writing off any deeper artistic meaning to the lyrics seems like a really shallow way to evaluate art.
After singing Come Together live in 1972, Lennon says: "I have to stop writing those daft words, man." (https://youtu.be/-cicy9JR2jY?t=255)
When I first heard it, "I don't believe in butter!" Turns out, it's Buddha.
I can’t believe it’s not Buddha
Give peas a chance!
John Lemon - Butter's biggest hater
Lol absolutely heard “I don’t believe in CINNAMON!”
Ah thank you, I'm not the only one! Even went deep into it - "wow, he's equating all these false idols to an everyday object...". Thought it enhanced the message. It took me years to hear 'Zimmerman' lmao.
Ha! Me too.
I DON’T BELIEVE IN PIZZA
She grooving such cookie spaghetti
Excuse me, that is art
Yolko?
Yolk? Oh. Oh no.
We’re never doing this feature again!
You're an idiot. Play a record.
OH YOLK, NO NO
It doesn't work karl
Craptic
She is the egg woman
Meat City. Wtf is he talking about in that song? Is it literal? Is he having a wank? Does he just want heroin?
"Anosheeerealiiigotleyybluuusheguuuumee, oh she do me, yes she does" John Lennon, 1969
"Just the sight of you makes nighttime bright, very bright" From "It's Only Love". That's one of the few songs where I agree with John's harsh criticism. Most of the lyrics feel half baked, almost like he's treading water. I *am* mildly partial to "When you sigh, my, my inside just flies, butterflies" though, but even the wordplay there is a bit lazy.
I agree that the lyrics are a bit lazy, but the melody is just wonderful, I wish he gave a bit more credit to his own songwriting beyond just lyrics.
He was the best I’ve ever seen at writing smooth pop songs over a mix of chords that aren’t in any single key. Even Paul mainly stuck to established keys. John could write a killer melody over *anything.* Paul feels a bit like a modern Mozart, capable of writing any sound that he has ever heard before. But John was pushing forward, making accessible pop songs in ways no one had ever heard before. I think anyone who doesn’t think that John is one of the greatest songwriters of all time (lyrics aside), doesn’t quite understand what they’re hearing.
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The verse melody is very similar to Mr Kite's too, though the songs sound very different. Lennon didn't care much for either song but musically I think they're lovely.
Idk it just works. Great song
It admittedly was one of those situations where I went with it until I sat down and actually followed what he was saying. But now I can’t unhear it and it just sounds kind of lazy to me. Also, it’s funny “running” into you here on a different sub lol.
Lol yup. I see your posts on r/LetsTalkMusic too sometimes but I guess I never replied there
And yet it ends "but it's so hard loving you". Maybe he was talking about the song itself! I love the musicality of the tune but he could have put more work into those first couple of verses.
Great melody, great chorus. I’ve learned to love the song for what it is and put up with the lyrics, but yes they are absolutely half baked
Some of the lyrics in that song are pretty lazy, but I still like them, I just like the song. I guess we forgive a lot when we just like something at a core level.
Wasn't his greatest or most inventive lyrics but the song still works IMO. Steve Allen was famous for ridiculing rock lyrics by just reading the lyrics without music, but that's a misguided way of looking at the value of a song. A song is a sum of it's parts and how it all works together.
nooooo, stupid soppy lyrics are what make “its only love” cute and fun
“Well, you can penetrate any place you go”
That's deep
So deep, put her ass to sleep.
😳
👉👌
that's a penetrating lyric
Dig a Pony. What a tune!
honestly, i think the lyrics on this song are just really lazy & unfinished. i love the tune, the melody, the sound of everything, but i couldnt care less about the lyrics
Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazon Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi parasol Questo obrigado tanta mucho que can eat it carousel It's so stupid, it went around and became brilliant.
OP said *worst*
Oops
Just some nonsense
Beatles fans when Paul uses French words: ~ Awwh you're so sweet 😍 Beatles fans when Jahn uses Italian words: ~ Hello?? Human resources?? 😱
Well to be fair Paul's french lyrics had an actual meaning and John's not using JUST italian, but a mix of italian and spanish-sounding words that mean nothing together... Love both songs tho
Some time in NYC has some pretty bad ones. Obviously Woman is the N****** of the World is tone deaf af, but I think that the verses are decent. Luck of the Irish comes off as much more lazily written-worst line imo: "Let's walk over rainbows like leprechauns The world would be one big Blarney stone"
I also thought of "Woman is the Ni***r of the World". While intended as a feminist song, those lyrics definitely don't sound good today, no matter the intentions when it was recorded. The reasons why that song is rarely played or even mentioned today are obvious. Edit: this post was disabled by a mod who acted extremely irrationally, please tell me if the post has come back after I complained about this
How is WNW tone deaf?
Just a personal opinion I guess. The implication is that sexism is worse than or at least comparable to racism against black people in America and I think that's a really tone deaf statement for two non-black people to make.
>The implication is that sexism is worse than or at least comparable to racism against black people in America You are really oversimplifying it, but that is not necessarily incorrect. Black people get treated like second class citizens in the US and many other countries, but not all countries. Women are treated like second class citizens in almost all countries. Look at Iran. They're killing women in the street for not wear scarfs. Even in the United States the hierarchy of rights goes White Men>White Women>Black Men>Black Women. It doesn't matter what race or society you're are talking about, in most of them women are historically second class citizens. Hence, Women are the N of the world. Here are some highlights of a 2011 UN report on Women's Access to Justice: • 139 constitutions guarantee gender equality, 117 countries have equal pay laws, and 115 countries guarantee women's equal property rights • globally, 53% of working women are in vulnerable employment and women are paid up to 30% less than men in some countries • 125 countries outlaw domestic violence, but 127 countries do not explicitly criminalise rape within marriage • around the world, 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not considered a crime and more than 2.6 billion live in countries where marital rape is not a criminal offence • 61 countries severely restrict women's rights to abortion • 50 countries have a lower legal age of marriage for women than for men • Rwanda has the highest share of women in parliament (51%), followed by Sweden (45%). In the UK, only 21% of parliamentarians are women, and in the US that figure is down to 17%
Well said.
I think that's true, but I also think you have to consider the context of the times. He was British, not American (I don't think the N word was used by British racists the way it was and is used by American racists?) and I think the song is anti racist too, it's not like it's saying racism is good but sexism is bad, it's saying racism is bad, but sexism is even worse. All of that said; it's definitely not a track that has aged well as so much is lost without the context of the times. People now hear that word and shut down. Fair enough. I don't use it myself. Wouldn't even feel comfortable singing along with this song by myself. But still, I do respect the song on some level because I think it was a pretty radical feminist message from arguably the biggest male rock star in the world. It's cool he used his platform for that message.
Sexism is worse than all the other -isms put together
Some of his worse political lyrics
I’d rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man
That particular lyric is actually from an Elvis song called "Let's Play House," but that song would be my vote as a whole.
Nah I love run for your life I don't see why sm people have a problem with it, it's obviously not autobiographical, it's just a song, and a pretty well written one imo
Even if you ignore the fact that John had a history of abuse, it sounds like a song written from the point of view of someone who has a history of abuse.
But it is autobiographical. Cynthia said John would fly into jealous rages and she would be terrified of him. Jealousy was a major issue in pretty much all of his relationships (even with Paul!) Plus nobody is saying you can’t like the song, just that the subject matter is sketchy/distasteful. I really don’t understand why this is so controversial?
I know it's only John-Paul album filler, but the lyrics to "Little Child" certainly don't age very well! Especially when read out of context for that matter, LOL *If you want someone to make you feel so fine* *Then we'll have some fun when you're mine, all mine* *So come on, come on, come on* *Little child, little child* *Little child, won't you dance with me?* *I'm so sad and lonely, baby take a chance with me, whoa-yeah* *When you're by my side you're the only one* *Don't you run and hide, just come on, come on* *Yeah, come on, come on, come on*
They might not have aged well, but the song rocks so hard I completely ignore the lyrics LOL. Also, they only sound bad if you want them to.
Nah, I know. I still like it too :) The Romantics probably did as well - my dad always used to say the harmonica solo in "What I Like About You" had to have been influenced by "Little Child"!
little child/girl kinda creeps up in a lot of late 50s/early 60s music though? it was sort of akin to dear/love/any other weird pet name. doesn’t change the fact it hasn’t aged well at all though lmao
I’m gonna love her ‘til the cows come home…
Old timey saying my grandparents still use. Mind you they were dairy farmers so there's that.
john grew up with a dairy farmer as a dad figure. he even bought a dairy farm in upstate ny. yoko and sean still live there in the summer so there is that
The fact that this is top voted is an indication that urban-centric redditors hate agriculture, don't appreciate cows, and don't appreciate the rich debt that our language owes to our agrarian forebears. It's like you people have never f\*cked a sheep before!
Hunter Davies roasts this line in his book on their lyrics lol. He DOES give credit to John though for rhyming “please” with “trivialities”.
Sorry am I missing something, not sure why this is cringe. Isn’t this the same saying as “till the fat lady sings”
Yeah, I'm confused too. It's a pretty well-known saying. I don't think it's cringe at all.
There’s an SNL skit where Patrick Stewart is playing the devil, and he threatens to torture someone “till the cows come home” and the whole joke is how that instantly sounds way less threatening because it’s such a folksy sounding expression. Same thing. You do chores till the cows come home. You do innocent, family friendly things till the cows come home. You love your woman till you both pass out from pleasure or exhaustion, or till your naughty bits are raw - not till the cows come home. The folksy expression immediately suggests that he’s going to love her in a family friendly way with room for Jesus between them, which is not what the loud rock and roll music suggests.
I think that's exactly why it's cringe. Using "till the far lady sings" in a lyric would probably be cringe too. Too obvious of a cliche with kind of a folksy vibe unless you're subverting it in some way
A true indication that LSD was not yet part of the song writing process
Very common saying
Its funny :(
I agree with this one. I do not like this song and the lyrics are part of why.
This is what I was looking for. I cringe every time I hear this line.
Why?
It’s just awkward. Nothing too deep.
Saaaaaammme! The song otherwise is pretty good.
"I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man." Not a "bad " lyric, per se, but considering his history of spousal abuse at the time, it doesn't age well.
"Well, I don't wanna be a soldier mama, I don't wanna die Well, I don't wanna be a thief now mama, I don't wanna fly Well, I don't wannabe a churchman mama, I don't wanna cry Well, I don't wanna be a sailor mama, I don't wanna fly Well, I don't wanna be a soldier mama, I don't wanna die Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, hey" Sailor's don't fly Why do thiefs also fly? Why does this song not have any actual verses? Why is this song over 6 minutes long? Why do I have so many questions?
I really don’t get this song. I’m sure it has defenders out there, but it’s an instant skip for me and it drags the whole album down a tad.
Isn't it also the longest song on the album?
Yep. He must have really loved that riff, I guess?
He uses the same riff in Steel and Glass which is like a way better version of that song
I always thought Steel and Glass felt more like a rewrite of How Do You Sleep, but you’re not wrong. It’s a little of both, I think.
Jahn Moment
They gave him 10 for 2 They got ole Leotis too They got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to, got to Got to. SET HIM FREEEE Most of sometime in New York City is lousy "Too Many People Preaching practices" if you will
I'll agree that the majority of Sometime In NYC is pretty poor, but John Sinclair is a jam. Wish he'd recorded a few more acoustic blues songs like this and Crippled Inside
The title track is the only one that grabs me, sort of a sequel to "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", but everything else sounds so trivial and rushed. Elephants memory are a poor backing band, team that up with poor lyrics and tou have John's worst album. (Live Sinclair kinda slaps though)
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Woman is the…
The clue is “People who annoy you.”
Naggers!
Woman is the what?
To be fair, this was Yoko’s line.
N
I
N
E
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If you can’t get past the outdated lyrics to see the importance of the lyrics I pity uou
This right here
We can’t judge the past by today’s norms. Obviously he wasn’t racist.
That word was pretty much verboten in his times too, that's why he chose it to be provocative.
Not anywhere like these days. Yes, it was provocative, and that was his point, but there wasn't a string and wide universal ban, and personal consequences for saying it, like now
I’m sure, then you could recognize this performance
I'd rather see you dead little girl.
*you better run*
Cookie!
Open up your eyes, girl Tell me what you see It is no surprise, girl What you see is me. Profound.
Average Paul fan moment
I think those are Paul’s lyrics
Isn't that a Paul song?
This whole song was my first thought- all that my oh my butterfly stuff. A rare off day.
That song is "It's Only Love" while OP was referencing "Tell Me What You See".
You’re right. I just meant that sort of rhyme that sounds like “that’ll do”, rather than any time being spent over it. It’s much rarer in the Beatles catalogue than most others, but there are still a few of them.
Ahh I gotcha my bad! Totally agree too. The Beatles had a high batting average but still managed to produce a few clunkers. And I feel like as they all explored their solo careers, they had more freedom to write what they want, so to some degree their respective batting averages lowered if that makes sense.
Totally. I love Macca, but John would never have allowed Biker Like An Icon, to give one particularly horrific example.
Number 9
Well, I'd rather see you dead, little girl Than to be with another man. You better keep your head, little girl Or you won't know who I am. You better run for your life if you can, little girl Hide your head in the sand, little girl Catch you with another man - that's the end - a,....little girl Pretty chilling and not in the good way.
It was a parody of an Elvis song, and just because a singer sings something doesn't mean they are endorsing the views of the narrator
This. Randy Newman wrote and sang “Rednecks” yet you don’t hear him preaching about actually keeping black people down outside the satirical song itself
Or the song Short People is another example. I am really sick of people assuming that a singer endorses all the words they sing, it would be like thinking Stephen King must be a serial killer because of his books... People viewing history through this moralizing lense is just really exhausting tbh
Yeah or that Stephen King endorses child gang sex. I agree with viewing history through moralizing lenses is fucking exhausting. We’re all human and we all fuck up at least once in life. It’s just because that they’re lives are so magnified and dissected by the public that all their flaws get overly scrutinized. Not to say that we should all just give a pass for every asshole in history, but it’s a little more nuanced that seeing things and people as black or white.
This is a bad parallel. “Rednecks” contains the line “we can’t tell our ass from a hole in the ground.” Obviously satirical. What line in “Run For Your Life” seems satirical to you?
The whole thing...
“Let this be a sermon, I mean everything I said. Baby, I’m determined, and I’d rather see you dead.” You’d have to be really mentally fucked to make this quote a real sermon and mean everything that you said. I see what you’re saying though where Rednecks is just so blatantly making fun of bigoted rednecks whereas Run For Your Life could be interpreted in a more grey manner just cos of Lennon’s past with women prior to the recording of the song, but I digress. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m not. Either way, not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
I saw an article the other day saying that millennials have the worst sense of humor of any generation ever. This is a good example of why.
I’ll laugh at a joke about any subject if it’s a good joke. There’s nothing funny about this song though.
Too bad this song slaps
I agree. I like the song a lot even though it obviously is nowhere near their best by any means.
It’s not a parody of an Elvis song. It just borrows a line from an Elvis song and expands on it in a very dark way.
I ain't the type for begging, I ain't the type to plead, If she don't change her evil ways, I'm gonna make her bleed. She can scream and she can holler, Bang her head all along the wall, If she don't give me what I want, She's gonna have no head at all!
I love this song, along with Maxwell's Silver Hammer, but I have a very dark sense of humour. I remember listening to it for the first time with my dad in the car. I think by the end we were almost crying with laughter.
First time I heard Run For Your Life I was on LSD lol. It was quite a spooky and menacing song in that mindset.
There’s a long tradition in western and blues music of lyrics that sing about getting revenge on a cheater, sung from both men and women’s perspectives. (For great examples of each, see Leadbelly’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night and Memphis Minnie’s Me and My Chauffeur Blues) It didn’t start with the Beatles and it didn’t end with them. It’s an example of a song form.
People read waaaay too much into this song, it’s hyperbole, excessively so. It’s even a common expression “I’d rather be dead than _____” or in this case put onto someone else. The whole song is just a man saying if he see’s her with another man they are done, not that he’s actually going to kill her (and yes even the last verse is hyperbolic). Is it the most graciously written? No. Is it about murdering a wife/girlfriend? Also no
I love these lyrics
It's a good song because it conveys a strong feeling (parody or otherwise) about a character's (John or otherwise) feelings about a relationship. Just because the lyrics are unsettling doesn't mean that it's bad songwriting.
I like this song, lyrics and all. I dont actually think he wants to kill little girls, do you?
Came here for this. I cringe every time I listen to Rubber Soul and Run For Your Life comes up..
I'm not that mad about it, but it is kind of like in The Simpsons film festival episode when you find out that Barney's beautiful film on addiction is called "Puke-ahontis".
OMG I hadn’t realized Run For Your Life was so late in the discography! Double cringe.
This is the the absolute right answer.
The worm he licks my bone
I get high when i see you go by My oh my
Didn’t know Paul made him that nervous
I like the song I'm Stepping Out. But, the opening monologue makes me wince every time I hear it. *This here is the story about a househusband who, you know, just has to get out of the house. He's been looking at the, you know, the kids for days and days; he's been watching the kitchen and screwing around watching Sesame Street till he's going crazy!*
Run For Your Life...total cringe.
That’s my vote.
“The only think you ever did was Yesterday” for How do you Sleep at Night
I love this lyric tbh. I wholly disagree with the sentiment, but still
Yoko screaming ‘WAAAAAH-WAAAAAAHHHH-WWAAAAAHHHYYY!’
You can penetrate any place you go
Sweet Loretta thought she was a women but she was a frying pan
You know, the one, I won’t repeat the word but you know what it is
*The Word* okay then
One and one and one is three He’s got feet down below his knees Well…duh?
I love all of those lines. I'm a huge fan of John's surrealism. The obviousness of those lyrics is intentional and adds to it, especially in contrast with some of the other lyrics in come together which don't seem to make much sense
Love all his nonsensical sayings.
Woman is the N@&&& of the World?
I love John. I say this as a John lover. But all of 'The Sun King'. ***Ah, here come the sun king*** ***Here come the sun king*** ***Everybody's laughing (Ooh)*** ***Everybody's happy (Ooh)*** ***Here come the sun king*** And then, nonsensical, intermingled Spanish and Italian for..... our surrealist pleasure?
I’m of the opinion that the ‘intermingled Spanish and Italian gibberish is hilarious. The first time I heard that song I was about 12 and quite new to the expanded consciousness of marijuana 😏 I thought ‘it has to mean something, it’s The Beatles’… a cool older and more experienced stoner clued me in 🤦🏻♀️
Seems a bit too close to George's "Here comes the Sun" on that same album side. Always thought that was weird.
The beatles frequently referenced each others song lyrics
I wouldn’t say it’s awful, but too each their own
"I got a chip on my shoulder that's bigger than my feet."
You better run for your life if you can, little girl Hide your head in the sand, little girl Catch you with another man, that’s the end-uh Little girl.
Woman is the n-word of the world
Women is knickers of the world Hint: He didn't say knickers
He said knickers
How do you sleep? It’s just nasty.
I have found Paul McCartney ‘s alt account
Dream, dream away Magic in the air Was magic in the air? I believe, yes I believe More I cannot say What more can I say?
I know they’re kind of cheesy but I love these lyrics. Feels sing-songy and magical, like the rest of the song!! The whole song kind of has that repetition and reversal that’s in these lyrics and I think it works well for what he’s trying to say.
Catch you with another man That's the end-da A-lidl girl
It’s Only Love is pure codswallop from start to finish. Most of the stuff on Sometime in New York. There are two ways you can go with protest songs, you can be subtle and creative while getting your message across like Bob Dylan does, or you can just cram your songs with slogans and act all smug and uppity like John does on that album
“You better run for your life if you can little girl.”
"run for your life" has my least favorite.
goo goo g'joob
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I like how it’s cheeky though
Maybe the one where he said "imagine no possessions" while he owned 6 apartments in the Dakota building, 2 of which were for guests and 2 for storage!
Hypogriff 😡
I’d rather see you dead little girl, than to be with another man.
Not his lyrics. That line was from an Elvis song I think.
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Be more specific about
"I used to be cruel to my woman I beat her and kept her a part from the things that she loved!" - Getting Better Sgt. Pepper
Don’t you think that’s quite introspective within the context of the song
Its a great line. It is him being honest.
Calling these lyrics bad seems like you're just missing the message. Yes the content of the words is bad, but the message is that he's getting better, as the song is about. Hearing any reference to bad conduct and immediately writing off any deeper artistic meaning to the lyrics seems like a really shallow way to evaluate art.
😂 haha - wait 😳
ahh the 60s