PS - I love the Steve Miller Band and Abracadabra, nothing wrong with
that in that setting. Was the parent looking to find a problem? I
promise you the little All Stars were paying no attention to the lyrics
and besides, like many songs, they're really not clearly enunciated. .

I agree. However, in that setting you a wise man doesn't challenge a mom and debate with her whether it's appropriate or not. You switch to "Glory Days". Ha!

She was probably the only mom who heard the song. The rest were checking their phones to see if something important popped up.

I listen to music, but I don't "love" any particular band or singer. I'll be listening to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and switch up to Taylor Swift.

I'm 82 and yes, a bit of a prude........I found those lyrics pretty tame. If you were home alone and that song was playing, you would not be embarrassed. The embarrassment comes from hearing those lyrics while other people are hearing them too. So relax, no-one else is hearing them....I agree with Michael, everyone else is so busy on their cell phones, they are not sharing those lyrics with you. Enjoy your breakfast and tune out the music.

I don't pay attention to lyrics a whole lot. I tend to hear more pop (I guess that is how it is classified) because I have teenagers. There tend to be curse words that get bleeped. Ariana Grande's 'thank u, next' is a song I make fun of on many levels not excluding the f word which makes the song sound disingenuous.

I think these songs have always been around, writers tended to use euphemisms and innuendo instead of explicitly saying things that were considered raunchy. I'm thinking back to my childhood, but 'Afternoon Delight' apparently wasn't about ice cream.

Our store has music piped in through our speakers from Toronto. There's a few songs that just grate on my nerves. One is a guy yelling "I'M SORRY!" over and over again. I won't hear a song for hours, then that one will play and I can't focus on my work because "I'M SORRY!" is repeated over and over again for 3 minutes. Then there's this country/western female duo that I can't stand who put these weird sounds in their songs. "We stick together like glue" then some weird annoying sound. They play at least two of their songs over and over again during the day. Then during the Christmas season we *get* to listen to Christmas carols for two months. Please, if you're only in the business for an hour eating breakfast, imagine the employees stuck there for 8 hours..........

Hahah I'd forgotten about Afternoon delight!

Oh yeah, Debby, I hear you! As much as I enjoyed our vacation to Hawaii, I thought I was going to go nuts if I heard "Tiny Bubbles" one more time!

Every time I heard "Mornin' Ride", way back in what, the 80's maybe, I thought it was so suggestive to be embarrassing. I wondered if I had a dirty mind! LOL

I always liked that silly Afternoon Delight song.

Nothing embarrasses me anymore. Between the things I've seen as a nurse and listening to a disgusting rap song all the way to and from Florida with 3 teenage girls singing along and dancing in the car to it.

There was an episode of Arrested Development where Jason Bateman’s character had to do a karaoke duet with his teenaged niece. The song that came up was Afternoon Delight. It was hysterical to watch as he realized what the song really meant and was singing it with this girl!

Personally I can’t stand country music, especially the modern stuff. I always thought it was so formulaic. Then I saw this video where they show 6 country songs and how alike they are. Very interesting to see.

I am 54 years old and my preferred music is classic rock, glam rock, alternative rock. However, I really like hip hop and rap and my daughter loses it when we are in my car and a L”il John song will come on and I know the words.

In public I don’t generally notice background music unless it is blatantly loud and graphic.

My story about Abracadabra - years ago while attending a talent show at my kids’ elementary school a group of very young girls, maybe second graders, did a dance routine to Abracadabra. I never knew the lyrics until another mother whispered to me, “I wonder what Sister Mary Catherine and Father Taylor think of ‘black panties with an angel face’”. Catholic school.

I have to admit that the first time I heard that "tequila makes her clothes fall off" song, I thought it was hilarious! HAHA!

I have to admit that the first time I heard that "tequila makes her clothes fall off" song, I thought it was hilarious! HAHA!

In most cases, it's true. :)

A lot of country/western music grates on my nerves. But really, I don't want to listen to anyone else's music at 5AM.

I love country, but not today's country. It's just pop/rap country. Nothing redeeming about it at all, imo.

I listen to KXA Classic Country from Washington, 95.9 The Legend from Milwaulkee and 93.5 Duke FM from Green Bay Wisconsin, compliments of Alexa. They play the country I like-----Alan Jackson, Dwight Yoakum, Martina McBride etc etc.

I don't think you are a 'prude' at all, but I have to ask, have you ever actually listened to the words of "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off"? It's actually pretty funny, nothing 'raunchy' about it. And it's also a very happy, 'bouncy' tune. Nor do I think it's because you are 'old', you're not. I'm 80, and I don't mind the bit of 'spice' in many country-western songs. But I do mind the foul language and references to violence in some other music genres.

I can't speak to most of the other songs mentioned here, because I'm not familiar with them. But I do know that a lot of what we hear in music is what we expect to hear. I Googled a few of the lyrics mentioned here, and I think some of them can be taken in more than one way. And as someone up thread wrote, be glad it's not rap!

Perhaps you could learn to listen to the tune itself, and mentally turn off the lyrics. I'm surprised you even notice the lyrics that much if you are chatting with other customers and staff.

Rusty

What about the early 70's song, Please go all the way by the Raspberries!

I like some country western, love 'Heaven's Just a Sin Away', they used to play that at Gilley's.

"Personally I can’t stand country music, especially the modern stuff. I always thought it was so formulaic. Then I saw this video where they show 6 country songs and how alike they are."

Perhaps you have a point, David Allan Coe certainly thinks there is a formula:

"Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song
And he told me it was the perfect country & western song
I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the perfect country & western song
Because he hadn't said anything at all about mama
Or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting' drunk
Well, he sat down and wrote another verse to the song and he sent it to me
And after reading it I realized that my friend had written the perfect country & western song
And I felt obliged to include it on this album
The last verse goes like this here

Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got run over by a damned old train

And I'll hang around as long as you will let me
And I never minded standing' in the rain, no
But you don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even called me
Well, I wonder why you don't call me
Why don't you ever call me by my name"

I love David Allan Coe, and I definitely know that song. I thought hubby was going to pee his pants the first time he heard it on the radio. I love his Mona Lisa Lost her Smile.

OP, you can find MUCH MUCH worse on the radio. Country music is probably the least offensive other than Christian or gospel.

I’m 70 and am not at all offended by lyrics alluding to sex. I remember thinking it was hilarious that the FBI paid so much attention to “Louie Louie.” I used to like pretty much all rap songs until I really listened to them and heard references to violence and misogyny. Now that bothers me. I wonder how millennials’ children will rebel; maybe it’ll be classical music!

Louie, Louie?? What was the hidden meaning in that one?

Hahaha, I just googled it. Too funny. The whole song is so indecipherable they were sure there was something up.

There were songs that never got played on mainstream radio, such as "Lola" by the Kinks and "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed, back then pretty edgy but considerably mild compared to what's standard in today's media.

Ritaweed, I listened to both of those on the radio many times and especially like “Take a Walk on the Wild Side”. The one that makes me change the station is “Joker”. I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree. Honestly???

Wantoretire, in my area those songs never showed up on mainstream radio until after they had been released quite a few years.

Maybe because NYC stations reached upstate many years ago. Joker is still played on a local oldies radio station in my car. Waste of air time LOL.

LOL...Lucille...about David Allan Coe.....my Mom hated Country Music..we just

didn't listen to it...different part of the Country, I guess. She used to say, "that

Mama's sick, Daddy's dying, Grandpa's cheating, and Grandma's lying" music.

I used David Allan Coe's song above as a funny example of the 'country' formula. But I can't list him as a fave singer because some of his lyrics in other songs are impermissibly offensive to me.

I do have country western fave songs from a wide array of singers, mostly older songs. but I also have faves in rock, blues, etc.

I have a harder time listening to lyrics in present day than I heard so many years ago. Knowing Michael Jackson was a pedophile totally changes PYT or Neil Diamond (my favorite! for real) Girl You'll be a Woman Soon. As for instances. Ew. I hear it very differently now.

If you listen to country music as far back as the 40s or 50s they talk about drinking and cheating. It's just getting a little raunchier of late, but at the same time there are some good clean songs too.

I heard one recently I thought might come up on this thread. I pray for you. It hurt my heart to hear that one. Not raunchy, but wow, completely mean.

There was no question what MeatLoaf was singing about....

Paradise by the Dashboard Light -

still one of my favorite to watch people at karaoke. Not that I see karaoke very often.

How about Please, Go All the Way by the Raspberries in the 70's?

NOW I get it, Jasdip and lonestar123! All this time I thought they were singing "Pleeeasee, goooo-oooooh awaaaaay...."

When you mishear a lyric it's called a mondegreen, the most famous of which is probably from Purple Haze: "Excuse me while I kiss the sky/kiss this guy". There are lots of examples, some very funny, if you google the word.

Paradise by the Dashboard Lights - great song and great lyrics. There are some YouTube videos of life performances, always with an attractive female singer. Meatloaf was a melodramatic ham anyway, part of his act, but very entertaining to see as well as to listen to. My favorite segment, music and lyrics:

F--Before we go any further
Do you love me?
Will you love me forever?

M--Let me sleep on it
F--Will you love me forever?

M--Let me sleep on it
F--Will you love me forever?

M--I couldn't take it any longer Lord I was crazed
And when the feeling came upon me like a tidal wave
I started swearing to my god and on my mother's grave
That I would love you to the end of time
I swore, that I would love you to the end of time

..............

So now I'm praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
'Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don't think that I can really survive
I'll never break my promise or forget my vow
But god only knows what I can do right now
I'm praying for the end of time
It's all that I can do (oh oh oh)
Praying for the end of time, so I can end my life with you

A mondegreen I like is Creedence Clearwater's Bad Moon Rising - There's a bathroom on the right, instead of There's a bad moon on the rise. John Fogarty (the composer and band leader, now a solo act) likes that too, and he sings "bathroom" for the last verse.

Yes, that's a classic. As is "wrapped up like a douche" instead of "revved up like a deuce" from Manfred Mann's Blinded by the Light.

It's an odd lyric. People who think that song lyrics must always be expressions of deep personal feelings get jolted to learn that more often than not, they're simply words that fit sound or size wise. "Cut loose like a deuce" is clearly not one of Springsteen's most profound or deeply insightful sentiments.

Bookwoman, I googled as suggested and yes there are lots of funny ones out there!

Vicsgirl, hope you're feeling better about song lyrics.

"ritaweeda

There were songs that never got played on mainstream radio, such as "Lola" by the Kinks and "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed"

Oh my - Lola was played ALL over the radio...as was Take a Walk...love both of them.

Guess it depends on where you lived at the time.

LOL - OK, here's mine - when I was a kid the song "It's My Party" sung by Leslie Gore was on the radio. I always thought that she was saying "It's my body and I'll cry if I want to". And I too thought it was "wrapped up like a douche" - had no clue why that could be.

I thought douche was a reference to a douchebag which in some circles meant the exit on the backside of the body or a snitch.

Through young-adulthood, I was in a major city and there was certainly no phony broadcast censorship going on. If anything, there was more FCC rule breaking than not.

Lonestart123, I honestly didn't see you post the song that I did! I didn't mean to repeat you, I didn't see it.

Speaking of messed up lyrics, I could never figure out what England
Dan and John Ford Coley were trying to say. "I'd really love to see you tonite"

I'm not talking about moving in.. That was always a mumble to me, I could never figure it out.

When I first heard that song, still one of my favorites, it had been played by William B. Williams, the consummate DJ in NY City. When it was over, he said “I’m not talking about moving in” like a sigh. What a guy he was.

I always thought when they were singing "smoke on the water" it was "slow comin' water" meaning the water wasn't coming fast enough to put the fire out.

I also thought Simon and Garfunkle were singing "by the light" instead of just "lie la lie" in The Boxer.

When I showed up at Farm Camp to pick up the boys, they were involved in a line dance with 40 other kids 6-10, singing and dancing, Old Town Road.

Remember all the hub-bub about 'Baby It's Cold Outside' this winter?? Way overblown and a few over-active imaginations, but radio stations refused to play it anyway.

I prefer the She & Him

version. *wink

I don't know Michael, to me it's making me think of Kathy Bates' Misery! LOL

Vicsgirl—that’s a nice morning routine. I wonder if they would consider turning the music down a little.