Ok, here's the deal. I'm going to post five of my favorite songs written in the second person (singular or plural, and regardless of whether the "you" is imagined, or, let's say, George Harrison's ex-wife, or, i don't know, one deity or another) and y'all should do the same. (I am ripping off Alek ripping off Helena with the use of regionally specific contractions, for which i apologize...)
I suppose i'm less looking strictly for songs without mention of the word "I" than i am of songs written in some sort of vocative case. Generally demarcating the other precipitates (rather than necessitates) a description of the self, after all.
in no particular order:
Bob Dylan: "The Times, They Are A Changin"
Peter Tosh: "Downpressor Man"
Sleater-Kinney: "One Beat"/"A Quarter To Three"
The Smiths: "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"
The Stooges: "I Wanna Be Your Dog"
alternate: The Fugees: "Ready or Not"
It occurs to me that virtually any Stooges or Ramones song works here - even "i wanna be sedated" And i suppose "Come On Eileen" really belongs up there as well...
Highly Illegal Edit: I added S-K's "One Beat", which may be my favorite song of the decade, although the "you" in Corin Tucker's lyrics seems hypothetical, tentative - the song is really about an eruption of subjectivity - the "i need to hear a symphony" trumps the "if you think like Thomas Edison," precisely because it is this symphony (this song) which will "shake you" (a different you, perhaps, or if the holding the same referent as it's antecedent, a far more significant one) "and your fossils out." I'm leaving up "A quarter to three" because its plaintive tenor always hits me pretty hard, though "Dance Song '97" shoudl probably be up there as well...
1) "God Only Knows" - Beach Boys
ReplyDelete2) "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" - Al Green
3) "Bonita Applebum" - ATCQ
4) "Express Yourself" - Charles Wright & Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
and of course:
5) "You You You You You" by the 6ths
u2- all I want is you
ReplyDeletesmashing pumpkins - disarm
sheryl crow - if it makes you happy
shakira - donde esta corazon
radiohead - high and dry
patsy cline - i fall to pieces
pulp - like a friend
I don't know if I really understood what you were talking about. But, here's a start.