Saturday, May 14, 2011

A Cheerful Song for the Weekend

Here´s a very cheerful song that makes you want to stand up and start dancing, but when you pay attention to the lyrics and you realize what you are really singing or dancing to, you feel as if someone were pulling your leg -I guess being a woman helps make me see things this way. This mixture of nice music or rhythm together with lyrics with a not-so-nice meaning is not that rare in popular songs. Read the lyrics and then listen to the song and tell me if you agree with me.

If You Wonna Be Happy
CHORUS:
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.

A pretty woman makes her husband look small
And very often causes his downfall
As soon as he marries her then she starts
To do the things that will break his heart.

But if you make an ugly woman your wife
you'll be happy for the rest of your life
An ugly woman cooks meals on time
And she'll always give you peace of mind

Don't let your friends say you have no taste
Go ahead and marry anyway
Though her face is ugly, her eyes don't match
Take it from me, she's a better catch

Spoken:
  • Say man! 
  • Hey baby!
  • I saw your wife the other day! 
  • Yeah? 
  • Yeah, an' she's ug-leeee! 
  • Yeah, she's ugly, but she sure can cook, baby! 
  • Yeah, alright!


This song sounds  in the final scene from the 1990 movie Mermaids; the scene represents one of those happy family moments and the song fits just fine.


Mermaids is not a film I would die to recommend but if you think your mother is not the way you would like her to be, watch the film or just its trailer here, which shows quite well how peculiar this mum is -   and I´m sure you´ll rejoice at yours.



Do you like the song? What do you think about lyrics? Do you agree with my point of view? Can you think of any other beautiful songs with "uncomfortable" meanings? I´m looking forward to hearing from you...

5 comments:

  1. Sara López16 May, 2011

    Rosa, when I first heard the song I didn't realize the meaning of the lyrics and I only pay attention to the rhym of the song. But the second thime I pay attention to the lyrics and I agree with you about their meaning. I think that a lot of times, when people listen to music in english they don't realize what they are really singing or dancing, so I think we must pay attention to the lyrics too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sara, anyway, do you like the song? How do you feel about the lyrics and the way they refer to women?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Óscar Pallín Arias24 May, 2011

    Rosa, I like the song that you have selected. I enjoy listening the song. I think men shouldn't bother about ugly or beautiful girls. Men just have to focus on the girl they like. I agree with the last paragraph of the song.
    I think I do not have to let my friends tell me if I have chosen the perfect girl for me. Eithet way she is beautiful or ugly.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This song and the message hidden between the lyrics is a very large and problematic topic to discuss. However, i would like to give my opinion. As we can see when we listen to the song, the rhym is very happy and nice, but the lyrics are very different. if you read them, you will discover that the message is very sexist. The girls are seen like objects that men can choose. Moreover, in the song we can find the qualities that we have to consider to choose a woman, the work she do and her beauty. As I said, girls are considered objects and it's the man labour to choose the better. Maybe there are still men that think like that, but I hope there are nobody.
    Now I would like to ask a question, was this song banned or something like that when it came out because of its sexist message?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Edgar, it wasn´t banned because, unfortunately, most people used to agree with the ideas in the song - nowadays many people still do, I´m afraid

    ReplyDelete

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