Song of the Week – If You Wanna Be Happy, Jimmy Soul; First I Look at the Purse, J. Geils Band; When I Turn Off the Living Room Light, The Kinks

Ignored           Obscured            Restored

A few weeks ago I had the idea bouncing around in my head to write a post about my favorite misogynistic, politically incorrect songs.  The deal was sealed when I was at a fantastic wedding in New Orleans last weekend and one of the songs that DJ Pasta played at the reception was on my list — Jimmy Soul’s “If You Wanna Be Happy” (#1, 1963).

If you don’t know the song, it has the lyric:

If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty woman your wife
So from my personal point of view
Get an ugly girl to marry you

And has a spoken work dialog that goes like this:

Voice #1  Say man!
Voice #2  Hey baby!
V#1  I saw your wife the other day!
V#2  Yeah?
V#1  Yeah, an’ she’s ug-leeee!
V#2  Yeah, she’s ugly, but she sure can cook, baby!
V#1  Yeah, alright!

Now you can’t be too sensitive about this, because it’s all meant in good fun.  But at a wedding reception?

Then there’s “First I Look at the Purse.”  The original was recorded by The Contours of “Do You Love Me” fame.  It was released on Motown’s Gordy label in 1965 and was written by Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers and only managed to reach #57 on the Billboard Hot 100.

But the J. Geils Band rescued the song, put it onto their eponymous 1970 debut album, and released it as their first single.

This one has offensive lyrics such as:

Some fellas like the smiles they wear
Some fellas like the legs that’s all
Some fellas like the style of their hair
Want their waist to be small.
I don’t care if their legs are thin
I don’t care if their teeth are big
I don’t care if their hair’s a wig
Why waste time lookin’ at the waistline?
First I look at the purse!

The last song I’ve selected for this little theme (though I’m sure there are many more that fit it) is “When I Turn Off the Living Room Light” by The Kinks.

“… Living Room Light” was released on The Kinks’ The Great Lost Kinks Album.  This 1973 set was a collection of previously unreleased tracks in the Reprise vaults that the label put out after the band had moved to RCA.

More demeaning lyrics:

Your nose may be bulbous, your face may be spotty
Your skin may be wrinkled and tight
But I don’t want to see you, the way that you are
So I turn off the living room light

All intended with tongue firmly in cheek, so don’t be offended.  Just giggle a little!

Enjoy… until next week.


			

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