You scumbag, you maggot

[MalaCloudy Black]

You cheap lousy bundle of sticks. What? Bundle of sticks.

Are there any songs you really like that have questionable lyrics by today's standards? Like Fairytale of New York. Or.. really, a lot of 90s rap songs. What songs do you like that have lyrics that make you pause and go "uh, can't say that today.."?

[Malenko]

The final verses of the Descendent's I'm not a loser are kinda unpleasant.

[Azazel]

I reached back like a pimp and I slapped the hoe.  Her old man stood up and started to shout so I threw a right cross and knocked his old ass out.

Very inappropriate, Dynamite Hack.

 

 

[Liam]

I don't want anybody else, when I think about you I touch myself.

Surely admitting that is the first step to a sexual harassment claim?

[Colly]

I always found it odd that there's uproar over faggot in Fairytale of New York, yet slut continues to get through without mention year on year and I'd argue is far worse from a UK and Ireland perspective. 

[OctoberRaven]

The local classic rock station played the uncensored version of Money For Nothing once.

I didn't even know it was censored.

Even more shocking that it was during drive time, on a really well-known station.

[VerbalPuke]

GG Allin doesn't count right? You mean actual not fucked up musicians? 

Adolescents "No Way" 

No class, no job
I'm just a victim of society a slob
No ass, no head
I gotta go home and jack off instead

No mind, no kind
My brain is jelly and my memory is blind
No way, no way
I cannot live in a world this gay 

Dead Kennedys Holiday in Cambodia tosses in an N word, but it's also not used as a direct pejorative. 

[Taxation is Theft]

ORO beat me to it. That 'm' still sounds a lot like an 'f'.

[Ruki]

A bunch of Bo Burnham songs drop the hard f-bomb. Most noticeable in this one:

 

 

[Benji]

"Self-Esteem" by The Offspring. It ends up with the titular guy sleeping with the girl, but she's really drunk and comes on to him, and the song makes it sound like she is not really at any level of reasonable self-awareness for it to be entirely consensual despite her being the one initiating it.

Also, I tend to give "Fairytale..." a pass, because it's clearly a song about two pretty shitty mutually self-destructive people.

[Skummy]

Yeah, I think contextually Fairytale is fine - but I do remember having a conversation with a friend of mine, who used to play in a band I was in that owed a lot to The Pogues, and he was a big fan and thinks it's one of the best songs ever written, but said that, as a gay man in his 40s, he did find it quite distressing quite how joyously rooms full of people would sing along with that line in particular.

Most '90s rap is pretty much it for me. It's the sort of thing I put on while I'm getting ready to go out, and some of it is pretty inexcusable.

[Hobo]

The "slut" line in Fairytale can easily be lost because Shane McGowan sings it. I never noticed it for years.

Hurricane by Bob Dylan sure drops the N word. Not really sure if it was needed. Even in context.

Couldn't get away with Randy Newman's Rednecks now for the same reason - albeit the context makes more sense here. Since its a song sung in the character of an idiot racist. 

[tristy]

14 hours ago, Azazel said:

I reached back like a pimp and I slapped the hoe.  Her old man stood up and started to shout so I threw a right cross and knocked his old ass out.

Very inappropriate, Dynamite Hack.

Surely you mean Eazy-E.

[Azazel]

1 hour ago, tristy said:

Surely you mean Eazy-E.

I expect it from Eazy-E, not from Dynamite Hack though.

[Skummy]

2 hours ago, Hobo said:

Hurricane by Bob Dylan sure drops the N word. Not really sure if it was needed. Even in context.

Couldn't get away with Randy Newman's Rednecks now for the same reason - albeit the context makes more sense here. Since its a song sung in the character of an idiot racist. 

Yeah, pretty much any "white person uses the N word" stuff always makes me uncomfortable. Patti Smith, John Lennon, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman...it's not really a word I want to hear coming from any of them.

[MalaCloudy Black]

That reminds me of Eyehategod. Take As Needed For Pain is a good album, but there's at least one song on there that's questionable for that reason. Thankfully, years back they officially retitled the song to "White Neighbor".

[Hobo]

There's also a John Cale song from his super drugged out days where he yells the N-word a lot. It's on one of his least listenable albums too.

I really like Ben Folds/Nick Hornby's album Lonely Avenue  (because apparently I only like Ben Folds when he does something with non-musicians can't seem to stand him otherwise). Belinda, the last track on that album is such a lovely song about a one-hit-wonder whose only hit is about a woman he ended up leaving and every time he sings the song he regrets leaving her. But he can't stop singing the song because his audience wants to hear it.

The end of the song Ben Folds does this whole thing and I forget the exact wording of what he says but he drops in the word "bitch" and I always felt like that whole end section really undercut the entire song.

There are a lot of love songs that really come off as kinda, sketchy and creepy.

[GoGo Yubari]

1 hour ago, Hobo said:

The end of the song Ben Folds does this whole thing and I forget the exact wording of what he says but he drops in the word "bitch" and I always felt like that whole end section really undercut the entire song.

"I'm a mellow white guy, but I say the word 'bitch!' Isn't that novel?" has been one of Ben Folds' worst qualities pretty much forever.

[Bobfoc]

If her daddy's rich, take her out for a meal

If her daddy's poor, just do what you feel

[GoGo Yubari]

The subcategory of Beatles songs that are basically "John Lennon was shitty to women, here's a song about it!" would get massacred now, particularly "Run For Your Life."