Comments on: Grampa Roberts Thumbs His Suspenders and Yells at the Women Folk

By: bunner

bunner — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 05:17:38 +0000

My favorite in this sub-genre is by The Pretenders. I can’t recall the title, but the song starts:

“It’s five o’clock in the morning,
and you’re just coming in.”

and the refrain goes:

“It’s a thin line, between love and hate.”

It’s not a sub genre, it’s a song. And, oddly, it’s called “It’s a Thin Line Between Love and Hate”.. And it’s a cover.

The Persuaders did it first and it was originally a cautionary tale from one man to another about his philanderer’s ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jf_E7CGf08

By: bunner

bunner — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 05:13:04 +0000

So, woman screws woman over, sell him for cooking fat, woman screws man over, point for point sarcasm-as-bag-of-flaming-dogshit-on-the-porch response required. I realise that being allowed to act like a precocious six year old might be attractive from one POV, but have you seen the mirror lately?

By: Sadly, No! » From the secret Sadly, No! Archives

Sadly, No! » From the secret Sadly, No! Archives — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:10:14 +0000

[...] is, it reads like a real The Rant/Renew America column. (Which is why most smart people assume that Carey Roberts’ columns are actually written by Pandagon’s Amanda Marcotte.) This one’s for you, Pete. Goodbye [...]

By: Bill S

Bill S — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:39:04 +0000

Thanx- if you read my comment, just before yours, you’ll see I mentioned that song. I have a recording of it by Anita O’Day.

By: Menshevik

Menshevik — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:55:44 +0000

Bill S:
Re. songs about women killing their unfaithful husbands/lovers — an old folk classic:

Frankie and Johnny were lovers, O lordy how they could love.
Swore to be true to each other, true as the stars above;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

[...]

Frankie went down to the hotel, looked in the window so high,
There was her lovin’ Johnny a-lovin’ up Alice Bly;
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

[...]

Frankie threw back her kimono; took out the old forty-four;
Roota-toot-toot, three times she shot, right through that hotel door.
She shot her man, ’cause he done her wrong.

[...]

By: Bill S

Bill S — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 13:10:55 +0000

The Google search I did didn’t turn up a country singer, unless she’s made a career change as an adult. In the ’60′s, Kathy Young was a teen who sang lead for a doo-wop group, the Innocents. She was 15 when they scored their biggest hit, “A Thousand Stars”.
Oh and after posting a comment asking if anyone could remember any songs about vengeful women killing an unfaithful husband/boyfriend, I remembered 3: “Frankie & Johnny”, “Miss Otis Regrets” and “The Cell Block Tango” from “Chicago”.

By: Helen

Helen — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:59:06 +0000

Heh. I do a google to see whether the "Kathy Young" referred to is the Happy Feminist&trade. I find he's spelled her name wrong and the top Google hits for "Kathy Young" are, in fact, for a C&W singer.

By: Bill S

Bill S — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 11:59:57 +0000

If you want an an example a truly creepy song, try “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”, in which a woman kills her sister-in-law (AND hides the body) for cheating with her brother’s best friend, whom she also kills. I’ve always found something quasi-incestuous about that.
Oh, and with all the songs written about men who kill their wives/girlfriends for cheating, I have a hard time thinking of any in which the reverse happened. The only one that springs to mind is Cher’s “Dark Lady”, in which a woman shoots her husband and his mistress. Can anybody think of any others?

By: Bill S

Bill S — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 11:51:41 +0000

The Pretenders’ version is on “Learning To Crawl”.
On, and in re the country song “Fancy”-it’s not about child prostitution: the titular character is 18 at the beginning of the story. It was written, and originaly recorded by Bobbie Gentry, whose version is a bit more subtle in tone, though her dance moves in this clip certainly aren’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ZCrMESar8

Reba McEntire’s video presents it as a little mini-drama.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMsckvSrOoQ

For what it’s worth, I don’t see the song as an endorsement of prostitution exactly. I think the point is that Fancy doesn’t apologize for her past, or let other people define her by it.

By: MzNicky

MzNicky — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:17:48 +0000

Annie Lennox did a cover of “Thin Line Between Love and Hate.” Dunno about the Pretenders though.

By: Bill S

Bill S — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:07:20 +0000

pluky, the song you’re referring to is “Thin Line Between Love and Hate”. It was originally done by an all-male R&B group, The Persuaders, back in 1971.

By: Alec

Alec — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:18:33 +0000

Man, if Grampa Roberts wouldn't think of them as a bunch of young whippersnapper homos (note: the youngest is, what, 60?), what he's doing is basically the unironic answer to Devo. Before She Aborts would have been perfect. It's the most devo thing I've ever heard, and he takes it perfectly seriously. Squander my genetic material, willya? Also, he objects in the strongest possible terms to God being in anyone's image except his. God's a white guy, dammit, with a penis and everything! I run into him all the time and trust me, I've totally checked.

By: pluky

pluky — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 19:47:26 +0000

My favorite in this sub-genre is by The Pretenders. I can’t recall the title, but the song starts:

“It’s five o’clock in the morning,
and you’re just coming in.”

and the refrain goes:

“It’s a thin line, between love and hate.”

By: WTF

WTF — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:30:01 +0000

I used to love her
but I had to kill her,
she’s burried right in my backyard.
And we’re happier this way

By: Hoosier X

Hoosier X — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:37:35 +0000

MzNicky:

So Vick would have only been suspended for four games if he raped a woman. Huh? Zesie is an idiot. I’m not even really sure what he’s saying. I think his point is it’s almost like he’s trying to minimize the dogfighting charge by saying it’s not as bad as rape and you only get suspended for four games for rape.

I wonder how many games you get suspended for raping a man?

By: Hoosier X

Hoosier X — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:28:24 +0000

These are the same people who claim the corporate media has a leftist bias (HAR HAR!) because it does not spew enough Republican party talking points.

Fixed you typo.

By: StealthBadger

StealthBadger — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 16:03:57 +0000

Seems Roberts never heard “Smack My Bitch Up,” or the Bizarro-world outrage over the musical reply, “Smack My Keith Up” (don’t remember, but I believe Chumbawumba actually made the second song above).

By: MzNicky

MzNicky — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:44:40 +0000

Hoosier X: I thought of your sports-desk jerks comment this morning when I came across this gem:

Reporter apologizes for saying Vick ‘better off raping a woman’
A newspaper reporter who said Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick would have been “better off raping a woman” than being charged with dogfighting has apologized and will no longer appear on the local sports panel TV show where he made the remark.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Paul Zeise made the comments Sunday night on the “Sports Showdown” show on KDKA-TV, a CBS affiliate. He was disagreeing with another panelist who said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should suspend Vick for the rest of the season because he was indicted on federal dogfighting charges July 17.

“It’s really a sad day in this country when somehow … Michael Vick would have been better off raping a woman if you look at the outcry of what happened,” Zeise said. “Had he done that, he probably would have been suspended for four games and he’d be back on the field.”

Zeise apologized Monday.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003619927

By: tigtog

tigtog — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:41:22 +0000

I wish I could find the post, but I think it was either Lance Mannion or Kung Fu Monkey who pointed out one teensy tiny datapoint that always seems to get overlooked when fogeys moan about sitcoms about fat jackasses as examples of misandry.

The fat jackasses are the stars of the show with all the major punchlines and the huge salary package. The smart sassy wives are straight-women with just enough punchlines that they’re not boring for the audience to watch as the fat jackass gets the laughs and gets away with whatever for the ten-gazillionth time, winning over the boss, the in-laws, the neighbours and any authority figure going.

It’s fantasy about irresponsibility and never growing up, which is why they’re so popular: not because of a conspiracy to portray men as idiots, but because it’s fun to watch grownup being big kids with crazy toys and other people picking up the mess.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:40:49 +0000

His equation of a woman’ anger at her cheating mate with a man’s anger at his aborting mate is fascinating, probably made because his argument collapses if he just mirrors the Underwood song (that is, a man crooning about how his mate is unfaithful).

The references to feminized church practice are also very entertaining — shows the bizarre perspective of the Right. These are the same people who claim the corporate media has a leftist bias (HAR HAR!) because it does not spew Republican party talking points.

What’s most interesting, and distressing, about the Right is their need to see life as conflict between groups, leading to comment like this silly “battle of the sexes” diatribe. They seem to define and validate themselves by distinguishing “their” group as being in combat with an evil/insidious/conspiring Other.

Ah well, time to slowly and painfully punch the anti-spam validation code in my blackberry ….