In which I overanalyze a song.

(Hey, it's Sunday! Traditionally my music-sharing day anyhow.)

Classic country seems to run in cycles much the same as the more commercial stuff does, and with two classic country stations in town these days (KBUC & KKYX, both of which have live streams; KKYX is much better) I'm hearing a lot of this song, even though it's older than I am:



Here are the lyrics, if like me you have no interest in playing videos online:

Too many times I didn't try to hold you
I never kept the promises I told you
Now it's time I give in I know
To the words that I should have said long

-CHORUS--
Lady lay down beside me
Wrap all your love around me
I need you to stay, don't turn away from me now
Lady lay down


You've been alone, I guess I've known about it
You gave me love and learned to live without it
Now that you've turned to go
Let me beg you to stay the best way I

-Repeat CHORUS 2Xs- 

(By the way: damn, songs were short back then!)

I have this habit of overanalyzing songs, and I'll admit that although I love John Conlee a lot of his hits just don't stand up to strict scrutiny: "Common Man" expects the woman to give up her life for the guy because somehow being rich is inherently wrong, the gal in "Old School" doesn't do a damn thing wrong for most of the song, etc.  Sometime I'll go on a whole rant about how women are looked down on in country music in general (exhibit A: Marty Robbins's "Devil Woman").

But for now, this song.

Read those lyrics, please, if you haven't already. What we have in this song is a woman who has admittedly been treated badly by her lover (husband, presumably) for a long time and has now had enough and is ready to leave.  What's the man's response? "Honey, let's have sex!"

Uh...Look, I know it's just a song, but at their best songs reflect our lives and offer some insight to them.  And this song was a number one hit. It's incredibly popular even now, judging by the number of covers of it on YouTube.  There are probably lots of babies that exist because of this song, and for all the hell I know, I'm one of them.

And the advice in it is just shitty. I hate this.  Men, take note: sex doesn't fix anything. It's the most fun thing in the world, yes, but if you've treated your wife poorly enough for long enough that she decides to leave and you pull this trick, the best you can hope for is to be laughed at as she walks out the door.

I could probably do a whole series on songs with poor advice, eh?