Underneath all the glitz and glitter of 70s pop, there are some pretty confessional lyrics if you listen closely. Here are a few songs with lyrics that still hit where it hurts.
“My Life” by Billy Joel
“I don’t care what you say anymore, this is my life / Go ahead with your own life, leave me alone.”
Billy Joel‘s “My Life” is about not needing anyone else’s opinion for validation and about seeking independence. This song is featured on Joel’s album 52nd Street, but it also appeared on the 1980 television sitcom Bosom Buddies, which stars Tom Hanks.
“Here You Come Again” by Dolly Parton
“All you gotta do is smile that smile / And there go all my defenses.”
“Here You Come Again” presents as a sparkly pop tune to most. However, at its core, it’s really a song about a girl who wants to get over a guy. Even though the compelling lyrics in this one make it easy to believe that it was penned by Parton herself, she actually did not write “Here You Come Again”. Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote the song, and Gary Klein produced it, notably adding steel guitar to make it sound more country, per Parton’s request.
“This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)” by Natalie Cole
“You gave me more joy than I ever dreamed of /And no one, no one can take the place of you.”
No genres do love songs quite like soul and R&B. This song has been featured in several love stories on film, including The Parent Trap and While You Were Sleeping. This song was also Natalie Cole’s debut single. That’s pretty impressive considering it went No. 1 on the R&B chart.
“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John
“I’m not a present for your friends to open / This boy’s too young to be singing the blues.”
In a discography full of songs about Elton John, this song is actually about his acclaimed lyricist, Bernie Taupin. “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” presents an analogy in which the narrator wants to move away from something. For Taupin, that was likely the life that fame had given him.
“The lyrics to the title track [this song] do say that I want to leave Oz and get back to the farm,” he told Rolling Stone. “I think that’s still my M.O. these days. I don’t mind getting out there and doing what everybody else was doing, but I always had to have an escape hatch.”
Photo by: Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
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Go To Source | Author: Kat Caudill