So people don't listen to the lyrics of "The One I Love" at all, huh

It has like, five lyrics it's not hard to figure out it's not a wedding song.

Comments

  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Yeah, it's bizarre how people can manage to miss the point so thoroughly. Never has there been a more concise, straightforward song about emotional abuse, and yet—
  • Munch munch, chomp chomp...
    Drat, now I want to listen to it again.
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    I'm pretty sure you could make a song or show or book called "this is abuse and not a relationship model" and people would still without irony compare themselves to the couple
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    I mean like

    I can understand why people don't know that Walk The Dinosaur is about nuclear armageddon or that Aqualung is about a slowly dying pedophilic bum, but The One I Love does not have a whole lot of lines, and the lines it has are not obtuse. 
  • It's also not a terribly happy sounding song?

    Like I never paid attention to the lyrics too much but my takeaway certainly wasn't "this is a song about a healthy loving relationship."

    Reminds me of all those Actually These Happy Sounding Songs Are About Sad Things articles. I mean, you get songs like Hey Ya whose meaning gets lost in early 2000s cultural soup, but who the fuck listens to Pumped Up Kicks and thinks "this is a happy sounding song about happy things?"
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    I mean, it's catchy and in a major key with mellow, vaguely retro production, so I guess that makes it happier than most modern hits? It's not particularly up-tempo but it's not exactly dour either.

    I actually rather like "Pumped Up Kicks", for the record, for all of those reasons.
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    I think this is a victim of "only paid attention to the first line" syndrome.

    "This one goes out to the one I love..." must be a super-romantic love song!
  • I mean, it's catchy and in a major key with mellow, vaguely retro production, so I guess that makes it happier than most modern hits? It's not particularly up-tempo but it's not exactly dour either.

    I actually rather like "Pumped Up Kicks", for the record, for all of those reasons.

    Theory: Mellow songs are more effective when they're about dark or heavy subjects.
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”

    I think this is a victim of "only paid attention to the first line" syndrome.

    "This one goes out to the one I love..." must be a super-romantic love song!

    Or the first two. "It's a Romeo and Juliet situation, clearly!"
    Hexartes said:

    I mean, it's catchy and in a major key with mellow, vaguely retro production, so I guess that makes it happier than most modern hits? It's not particularly up-tempo but it's not exactly dour either.

    I actually rather like "Pumped Up Kicks", for the record, for all of those reasons.

    Theory: Mellow songs are more effective when they're about dark or heavy subjects.


    Case in point.
  • kill living beings
    yeah pick a better wedding song like "Every Breath You Take"
  • my wedding song will of course be Front 242's Until Death (Us Do Part)
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    I mean...



    (I had to.)
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    if I got married I'd probably choose something like "Interstellar Overdrive"
  • edited 2017-05-13 22:42:44
    We can do anything if we do it together.
    Edlyn and I are going to elope, but if we weren't, I'd be tempted to select "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space".
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    I mean, you can elope and get married somewhere else.
  • We can do anything if we do it together.
    Hm!

    I'll have to talk to Edlyn about that. :v
  • There are actually good prices available at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, with the same level if mystique
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    Calica said:

    I'm pretty sure you could make a song or show or book called "this is abuse and not a relationship model" and people would still without irony compare themselves to the couple

    i mean, people do it, as mentioned, with romeo and juliet
  • Hexartes said:

    I mean, it's catchy and in a major key with mellow, vaguely retro production, so I guess that makes it happier than most modern hits? It's not particularly up-tempo but it's not exactly dour either.

    I actually rather like "Pumped Up Kicks", for the record, for all of those reasons.

    Theory: Mellow songs are more effective when they're about dark or heavy subjects.
    I listened to After Laughter last night and wanted to cut myself by the end of it so you may be on to something here.
  • Wha....what do you mean by that, please elaborate
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    Hexartes said:

    It's also not a terribly happy sounding song?

    Like I never paid attention to the lyrics too much but my takeaway certainly wasn't "this is a song about a healthy loving relationship."

    Reminds me of all those Actually These Happy Sounding Songs Are About Sad Things articles. I mean, you get songs like Hey Ya whose meaning gets lost in early 2000s cultural soup, but who the fuck listens to Pumped Up Kicks and thinks "this is a happy sounding song about happy things?"

    My mom thought it was about cool new shoes, and posted it on facebook to celebrate the beginning of the school year one year, back when she was a teacher's aid.

    Thankfully someone explained it to her
  • kill living beings
    pumped up kicks sounds upbeat, so i guess if you don't pay attention to "outrun my gun"
  • This discussion reminded me about that one really pleasant country song about cheating on your wife. Shit, I forgot the title.
  • Yeah, it's bizarre how people can manage to miss the point so thoroughly. Never has there been a more concise, straightforward song about emotional abuse, and yet—

    see, this interpretation never quite seemed right to me
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Tamlin said:

    Yeah, it's bizarre how people can manage to miss the point so thoroughly. Never has there been a more concise, straightforward song about emotional abuse, and yet—

    see, this interpretation never quite seemed right to me
    I mean, Michael Stipe has been very forward about what kind of person he was describing in the lyrics and how he felt deeply disturbed by the idea that that kind of person might identify with it in a positive way.
  • ah

    to me it seemed kinda

    y'know, when you just

    run out of emotions

    and doing people things, even with people you ostensibly care deeply about, is just automatic maintenance
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    That interpretation works up until the line switch in the final verse: "Another prop has occupied my time."
  • ...I never noticed that?

    wow, I've been listening to that song for... almost literally my entire life
  • never let it be said that I am detail-oriented
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