Cheatin' Songs

[Sam]

Cheatin' Songs

'Girlfriend' by Michael Jackson. At least, I always assume there's something already going on. I don't think MJ is saying 'ditch him now, so you can be with me.'

'The Payback' by James Brown. That song contains the world.

[M_L_M]

Cheatin' Songs

Oran "Juice" Jones - "Walking In The Rain"

the classic cheatin' bird found out song

[G-Man]

Cheatin' Songs

DON'T TOUCH THAT COAT! Great call.

There might or might not have been some adultery committed in Jolene. The guy is saying Jolene's name in his sleep, which suggests a measure of intimacy, and Jolene is obviously reciprocating his affection.

Dolly is asking Jolene not to break up her marriage (on the grounds that Jolene is hot and can pull other guys, while the narrator is not hot and won't pull another man). What is a bit troubling is that the two women are negotiating over who gets the man. Doesn't the poor fucker have a say in the matter? Much as I have sympathy for the narrator's pain, it's also a very selfish song.

Dolly's original is great, but Mindy Smith's version is stunning, in a quiet desperate way. Certainly my favourite version (I do like Strawberry Switchblade's one as well). Where you imagine that Dolly would go hysterical and cut her hubby's clothing in half should he go with Jolene, Smith would probably go into a depression.

BTW, imp would doubtless endorse the Mindy Smith recommendation.

Mindy Smith - Jolene

[Mr Beast]

Cheatin' Songs

Solitary Man

[Wyatt Earp]

Cheatin' Songs

Have we all forgotten "I Know Him So Well"?

[MsD]

Cheatin' Songs

I don't agree with G Man's analysis of Jolene but I don't know Dolly Parton, or what was in her mind when she wrote it so I can't be sure.

But, the imploring, friendly tone, with some admiration, "I can easily understand how you could easily take my man" is not how a woman addresses another woman who has actually shagged her partner in any universe that I have inhabited. There's no anger there, just anxiety.

And it's not "selfish" to want to save a stable relationship from an infatuation that might be destructive, shortlived or one-sided, he might be just another conquest for Jolene, whereas he is the centre of prot.'s world.

Must do some work ...

[G-Man]

Cheatin' Songs

As I said, it isn't clear whether adultery has taken place.

I wonder whether the marriage is stable when Jolene can so easily steal the guy. I suppose without the man's point of view, we cannot really know.

The narrator's humility is extremely touching. That's why it's such a great song. But, yeah, I'd say it's selfish of the woman to insist that the unhappy man should remain in the marriage, and that Jolene give up a man she is in love with, just so that Dolly can be happy (if, indeed, happy she will be in what promises to be a marriage in which resentment would trump love).

Of course, it would be equally selfish for the man to dump Dolly, or for Jolene to insist that he should do so. They are probably all victims of a really horrible situation.

[MsD]

Cheatin' Songs

Nah, I'm not getting that, I don't Jolene cares about him. If she is so much more attractive than the narrator with eyes of emerald green n'all that going on, yes of course, she could entice the bloke away.

Of course she could try the trick employed by the wife in The Age of Innocence and tell Jolene that's she's up the duff.

These aren't tactics I'd employ as I think you're on a losing tip once you start to beg anyone for anything, I'd chuck him out and say "fuck off round Jolene's, I'm off to a party", but that would be a different song.

[Wyatt Earp]

Cheatin' Songs

I'm completely baffled by G-Man's reading of "Jolene", and slightly puzzled (though much less so) by MsD's.

I don't get how it can be called selfish. It's a cri de bleeding coeur, innit? It's an account of a state of desperation, and what's striking about it is its self-candour, not its "selfishness".

By the same token, it could never be about "Well, OK, sod you then". That may be the healthiest way to deal with the situation the song describes, but it's not a song about health; indeed, it's a song about heartsick-ness. And we'll need those, as long as those feelings exist (which will be as long as we exist as a species).

[MsD]

Cheatin' Songs

No, I agree, and I have experienced that feeling, it's a really shit feeling that makes you feel desperate and lonely and humiliated, and this song expresses that perfectly.

I wasn't saying I didn't get it, just that in that situation I take the bull by the horns, but I couldn't write a song that good.

[MsD]

Cheatin' Songs

Jolene, Jolene,
Stupid name like windowlene
I'm telling you stop hitting on my man

[Disco Child Ballads]

Cheatin' Songs

'Standing in for Joe' - XTC. Another one from the point of view of the adulterer.

[G-Man]

Cheatin' Songs

I don't get how it can be called selfish. It's a cri de bleeding coeur, innit?

Selfishness and expressing desperate pain are not mutually exclusive, are they?

Are you baffled by all I wrote about the song, Wyatt (presuming you read it)? Because I pretty much praised the song for being "a cri de bleeding coeur". The rest is just a question of subjective interpretation based on how we imagine the situation beyond what the lyrics tell us.

Country music, eh? It's great.

[MsD]

Cheatin' Songs

According to Dolly:

Parton says that she got the story for her song from another redhead in her life at the time — a bank teller who was giving Parton's new husband a little more interest than he had coming.

"She got this terrible crush on my husband," Parton says. "And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, 'Hell, you're spending a lot of time at the bank. I don't believe we've got that kind of money.' So it's really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95520570

[E10 Rifle]

Cheatin' Songs

Yeah, what Wyatt said. It's the desperation, and candid and evident lack of self-confidence, that stands out in Jolene.

Just realised another I'd forgotten, and one of my favourite ever songs: Inside Out by Odyssey.

[adams house cat]

Cheatin' Songs

Interesting stuff here. I think the deed has been done and Dolly is hurt, heartsick and desperate.

It might be interesting to hear a man tackle this song, play around with it. Thr only guy I can think of right now might be Nick Cave.

Someone mentioned Loretta's 'You Ain't Woman Enough...' (great record). Reminds of a story that Mrs. House Cat tells from when she lived in Mississippi. She had a friend named Susan, a little creole girl, whose husband ran around a little. Seems Susan went to the latest fling's house, kicked the door in, beat the snot out of the pair of them in bed, took his clothes and ripped the cables out of his car. Then took off partying for a week. Reckoned to teach him a lesson.

Wicked temper them creole girls.

[ToastBasedKillah]

Cheatin' Songs

I agree about Creep being a fabulous song, but I still think it's blown out the water by Destiny's Child's "Say My Name". It's possibly my favourite song from the glorious few years of inventive R&B of the late 90s/early 00s and, in a similar wat to Girls Aloud's Biology, crams in about 4 different tunes, all of them great.

Also, Sufjan Steven's "The Mistress Witch From McClure" about children of an adulterous father bursting in on him and his mistress and features the lyrics...

"When my father runs undressed
He's pointing at my throat
And my brother has a fit
In the snow
And the traffic stops for miles
We take him by the elbow"

.. which I love.

[Wyatt Earp]

Cheatin' Songs

G.Man wants a hyphen wrote:

Selfishness and expressing desperate pain are not mutually exclusive, are they?

I dunno about "mutually exclusive" exactly, but I think the latter very much mitigates the former, yeah.

[MsD]

Cheatin' Songs

adams house cat wrote:

It might be interesting to hear a man tackle this song, play around with it. Thr only guy I can think of right now might be Nick Cave.

Jack Whyte sings it on one or other White Stripes live album .. maybe it's a boot.

[hobbes]

Cheatin' Songs

Please Release Me by Jim Reeves (or Englebert of course.)

[Taylor]

Cheatin' Songs

Just thought of another great one (neither soul nor country, but we're past that now, aren't we) - "Eight Pictures", by The Go-Betweens.

My favourite lines:

And so I drove the big car
And parked it way up front
And when is a door not a door?
When it's ajar

And I shot you
With my camera

[Guest]

Cheatin' Songs

A couple that come to mind from the blokes perspective
Dwight Yoakam's Buenos Noches From A Lonely Room (She Wore red Dresses) yer classic country - woman cheated on me, got me gun, shot her, she wont do that again will she?

and
The Beasts of Bourbons Hard for You in which Tex Perkins spits bile all over the lying bitch (it's not entirely clear what she did but let's just say he needs to calm down a bit)

And from the other side there's
Doris Duke's To The Other Woman (I'm The Other Woman) which is more of a resigned take on the situation ie - that's her role no point fighting it

To the other woman
I'm the other woman
And other woman is his wife

[adams house cat]

Cheatin' Songs

'Rita's Gone' - Delbert McClinton.