U2 - A Sort of Homecoming
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 21 July 2014 23:51 (ten years ago) link
Leonard Cohen - "Suzanne"
― Soggy Spongy Moist & Messy (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 00:24 (ten years ago) link
Chorus of "How Soon Is Now?"
― goodoldneon, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 00:28 (ten years ago) link
Black Sabbath-Sweet Leaf, After Forever, lord of this world
That's about half of Master of Reality.
― Prince Kajuku (Bill Magill), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 00:28 (ten years ago) link
Roxy Music, Casanova
― Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 00:29 (ten years ago) link
Sweet Leaf and After Forever are both written in the first-person.
― ablaeser, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 00:31 (ten years ago) link
Aztec Two-Step - "Cockroach Cacophony"
― austinato (Austin), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 01:27 (ten years ago) link
The Who, "Another Tricky Day"
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 01:32 (ten years ago) link
Elvis Costello - Busy Bodies
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 01:35 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1QRTHHlJ-I
― dlp9001, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 01:36 (ten years ago) link
It seems a lot of people in this thread don't understand what second-person narrative is.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 13:37 (ten years ago) link
Well, do explain.
― austinato (Austin), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 13:49 (ten years ago) link
A song whose chorus includes the line "You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine" is pretty obv in the first person.
― brimming with misplaced confidence (Phil D.), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 13:57 (ten years ago) link
lots of Hüsker Dü.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 13:59 (ten years ago) link
― emil.y, Tuesday, July 22, 2014 9:37 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Look out, we got an English major here.
― Prince Kajuku (Bill Magill), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:01 (ten years ago) link
If you mean "You shut your mouth/How can you say/I go about things the wrong way?/I am human and I need to be loved/Just like everybody else does", this is really obviously from the first person.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:04 (ten years ago) link
"in the first person"
That's right, you have to have majored in English to understand the difference between first and second person pronouns, which I learned in the second grade.
Next up, a list of PhD theses which cover the difference between possessives and plurals.
― brimming with misplaced confidence (Phil D.), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:05 (ten years ago) link
Look out we got an English PhD here.
― Prince Kajuku (Bill Magill), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:08 (ten years ago) link
does the Ph stand for Phil?
― nxd, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:12 (ten years ago) link
Working Class Hero
― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:12 (ten years ago) link
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
― ablaeser, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:53 (ten years ago) link
feel like this is so much more common in pop music than in any other form of writing
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:54 (ten years ago) link
DENIED
― goth colouring book (anagram), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:58 (ten years ago) link
do songs written in the imperative count as 2nd person?
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 14:59 (ten years ago) link
is this thread satire?
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:04 (ten years ago) link
Is this satire a thread?
― austinato (Austin), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:07 (ten years ago) link
you enter a smoke filled roomyou see a clown in the corneryou are so vain at this momentthat you probably think the song playing on the wurlitzer is about you
- Carly Simon
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:14 (ten years ago) link
you are having a happy birthdayyou are having a happy birthdayyou are having a happy birthday, dear protagonistyou are having a happy birthday
- the Hill sisters
― chikungunya manatee (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:22 (ten years ago) link
You are, you said
- Neil Diamond
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:26 (ten years ago) link
"Arthur's Theme," Christopher Cross
― Josefa, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:31 (ten years ago) link
"Word Crimes" Weird Al
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:33 (ten years ago) link
beatles 'for no one'
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:34 (ten years ago) link
Gold Panda - "You"
― nxd, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 15:38 (ten years ago) link
Perry Como - All At Once You Love Her
― a curious shade of pale (onimo), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:07 (ten years ago) link
"For No One" is a good one!
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:26 (ten years ago) link
yeah i'm trying to think of songs that actually narrate in the 2nd person rather than just yell at or command the 'you' which is more common i think
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:31 (ten years ago) link
questioning the 'you' is more common too e.g. 'like a rolling stone'
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:33 (ten years ago) link
Melle Mel's "child is born with no state of mind" verse in "The Message".
― Three Word Username, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:34 (ten years ago) link
Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger, Time of the Preacher
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 16:36 (ten years ago) link
Seger's "Still The Same" is there for the first 90% of the song, then the I shows up.
― the one where, as balls alludes (Eazy), Tuesday, 22 July 2014 17:26 (ten years ago) link
It seems a lot of people in this thread don't understand what second-person narrative is.― emil.y, Tuesday, July 22, 2014 1:37 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
That song that goes "You say / I only hear what I want to" to thread
― bernard snowy, Tuesday, 22 July 2014 19:30 (ten years ago) link
Actual good example, from a band I've just started to get into: Cursive, "Tall Tales, Telltales":
four winds converge upona point where your compass spirals round in useless motions, mocking everything while bilge collects your cupped hands attemptto shovel out the last few inches and you plead with the godsbut they send you no sign
― bernard snowy, Tuesday, 29 July 2014 18:00 (ten years ago) link
"Mothership, Mothership, Do You Read Me?" off the same EP could qualify but it's not clear to me whether there is a second voice speaking the titular refrain & "Does anyone hear my song?" bits
― bernard snowy, Tuesday, 29 July 2014 18:03 (ten years ago) link
recalling mount eerie by the microphones when the mountain (?) sings
You're higher on your hillSo your big black cloud will comeSo your big black cloud will comeAnd press you to the groundThe air will leave your chestYou'll fade from where you're foundWhen you find you're standing stillAnd your fingers all go numbGet higher on your hillSo your big black cloud will comeSo your big black cloud will come
― ogmor, Tuesday, 29 July 2014 23:34 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww9VlmXKYgs
― The Reverend, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 00:28 (ten years ago) link
Please take both of my incorrect contributions off the master list, A Sort of Homecoming and Busy Bodies
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 00:54 (ten years ago) link
And replace them with this correct example: Sultans Of Swing
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 01:41 (ten years ago) link
Steely Dan I think have a couple (the one addressing Jack comes to mind)
― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 03:19 (ten years ago) link
Kid Charlemagne
― voodoo chili, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 03:58 (ten years ago) link
I can't believe no one's mentioned this one yet!
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your lifeSee that girl, watch that scene, digging the Dancing Queen
Friday night and the lights are lowLooking out for the place to goWhere they play the right music, getting in the swingYou come in to look for a kingAnybody could be that guyNight is young and the music's highWith a bit of rock music, everything is fineYou're in the mood for a danceAnd when you get the chance...
You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeenDancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourineYou can dance, you can jive, having the time of your lifeSee that girl, watch that scene, digging the dancing queen
You're a teaser, you turn 'em onLeave them burning and then you're goneLooking out for another, anyone will doYou're in the mood for a danceAnd when you get the chance...
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 07:20 (ten years ago) link
Not written in the second person Tuomas, that song is "you" referring to another person whereas what we are looking for is songs where "you" is the singer referring to him/herself e.g. "Suzanne takes you down".
― goth colouring book (anagram), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 09:05 (ten years ago) link
How do you know "Dancing Queen" is referring to another person? I thought a common interpretation of the lyrics is that they're about the singer reminiscing the days of her youth?
Also, the initial post was asking about tunes where "you" is the protagonist, no one said the "you" has to refer to the singer. "Captain Jack" has a pretty similar lyrical scheme to "Dancing Queen", with both it's unclear whether the singer is talking about himself/herself or another person.
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 09:24 (ten years ago) link
It's like watching quadriplegics having a pillow fight.
― Three Word Username, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 09:25 (ten years ago) link
The Dancing Queen is only 17, so the song's lyrical perspective is an omniscient narrator speaking directly to this young nymphet who can dance, jive and have the time of her life. We are not all Dancing Queens.
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 10:37 (ten years ago) link
I guess you can argue that, but the same argument could be made about "Captain Jack" or "Suzanne"... After all, we're not all drug addicts, or in love with someone named Suzanne.
I don't think it's an uncommon storytelling technique to talk of "you" when you really mean "me", usually it's done to add some distance to the narrative. For example, the interpretation of "Dancing Queen" that I've often heard is that the narrator is an older woman talking to her 17-year old self, that's why she's using "you" instead of "me".
― Tuomas, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 11:21 (ten years ago) link
I have no quibble with "Dancing Queen" & suspect those who do of male chauvinism
― bernard snowy, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 16:53 (ten years ago) link
At first I was gonna write something about how exuberant repetition of the "dancing queen" epithet creates the illusion of a character more powerfully than the use of the second person can contain it; but then I realized, Nah, it's just that I'm a manly man & I tune out when the radio calls me a dancing queen, otherwise I'd be getting in a lot of dumb fights with the radio
― bernard snowy, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 16:59 (ten years ago) link
Dylan owns this one. Positively 4th Street is another
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 17:59 (ten years ago) link
You got a lotta nerve to say you are my friendWhen I was down, you just stood there grinning
and so on
― Number None, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 19:06 (ten years ago) link
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
― dlp9001, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 19:29 (ten years ago) link
As mentioned above, "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen does this, and I find it extremely irritating. I realized that if read in another voice, it could basically pass for one of Garrison Keillor's monologues on Prairie Home Companion. Try it:
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river, and you can hear the boats go by, and you spend the night beside her, and you know that she's half crazy, but that's why you want to be there... And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China, and just when you mean to tell her, that you have no love to give her, then she gets you on her wavelength, and she lets the river answer that you've always been her lover... and you want to travel with her, and you want to travel blind, and you know that she will trust you because she's a nice girl, raised in the Lutheran tradition, just like you were
― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 21:28 (ten years ago) link
hehehe
― bernard snowy, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 21:36 (ten years ago) link
― nxd, Wednesday, July 23, 2014 1:38 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
lol
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 23:32 (ten years ago) link
BAKER STREET, yo
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 23:37 (ten years ago) link
Pink Floyd - Pigs (Three Different Kinds), Shine on You Crazy DiamondsFrank Sinatra - (Love is) The Tender Trap
― ablaeser, Friday, 1 August 2014 03:05 (ten years ago) link
Billy Joel - Viennahttp://songmeanings.com/songs/view/77983/
― nxd, Friday, 1 August 2014 14:37 (ten years ago) link
Hold Steady - You Can Make Him Like You
― ablaeser, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 02:31 (ten years ago) link
Kleenex - "You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjQJeE79nDg
― Mark G, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 08:47 (ten years ago) link
Bruce Springsteen - Night
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 13:05 (six years ago) link
More Dylan songs from the same era as others cited above – “She’s Your Lover Now,” “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window” (maybe others I’m not immediately thinking of...)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 13:52 (six years ago) link
The Magnetic Fields – “You You You You You”
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 13:57 (six years ago) link
Napalm Death - You Suffer
― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 13:58 (six years ago) link
Later Dylan – “Tight Connection to My Heart”
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:00 (six years ago) link
Mid-period Dylan: “Up to Me”
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:03 (six years ago) link
With all due respect, I'm not sure those two Bob songs qualify.
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:06 (six years ago) link
I noticed that this happens so much in Belle and Sebastian songs.
― loud horn beeping jazzsplaining arse (dog latin), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:10 (six years ago) link
xpostWhy not – or am I misunderstanding the premise?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:17 (six years ago) link
Hmm maybe I am
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:18 (six years ago) link
also - a lot of Leonard Cohen (like Suzanne, most prominently).
― loud horn beeping jazzsplaining arse (dog latin), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:19 (six years ago) link
was gonna mention every single Pet Shop Boys song but I guess that's been covered
― frogbs, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:24 (six years ago) link
lotta Frank Sinatra, including Tell Her You Love Her, Come Blow Your Horn, Love and Marriage, Young at Heart
― Josefa, Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:28 (six years ago) link
xp Being Boring a wonderful exception to the rule tho!
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 28 March 2018 14:33 (six years ago) link