Posted by Bruised at 12:46am Oct 14 '07Forbidden love has been a staple of many songs for longer than you would think. Consider in "Jamaica Farewell" by Harry Belafonte for instance:
Belafonte (or whoever is covering the song) has fallen in love with a child, and will have to leave her behind, being unable to transport her over national lines under the laws of Jamaica and the United States. He won't be able to marry her, and he won't be able to have sex with her. Pretty daring stuff for a time when Van Morrison changed his song from "Brown-skinned Girl" to "Brown-eyed Girl" because interracial love songs wouldn't get played on the radio. In the version on our Little Mermaid calypso cassette, Sebastian changed it to "I had to leave a little crab in Kingston Town".
Of course, by the 80's, things got more daring. Who could forget that Police hit, "Don't Stand So Close to Me"?
A junior high student gets approached by a teacher of about 27. And when he sees her,
Nabokov wrote Lolita. The lure of the young is alluded to thusly: this schoolgirl is a tempting girl, or "nymphet".
Such themes of pedophilia are not always delved into as deeply as they are in "Jamaica Farewell" and "Don't Stand So Close to Me", however. Sometimes they are glossed over and the subject's age is only hinted at once. In "Sheila" by Tommy Roe, for instance, Roe sings:
Even the Beatles, respected as they are, show their pedophiliac tendencies. Take, for instance, the following:
This from "I Feel Fine". Chilling, considering John Lennon was 23 when he wrote it. But it is not always males who prey on those younger vicariously through song. In "She's So Shy" by the Pointer Sisters, these female artists sing:
Talk about robbing a cradle! No wonder he's shy; he's being approached by women who are old enough to be his mother.
There's also a whole realm of ephebophile songs to discuss ("Hey, Nineteen" by Steely Dan), and teleiophilia has a place in the rock canon -- Van Halen did a song called "Hot for Teacher", which junior high students would sing in their classrooms to unnerve Mrs. Spiegzweiler.
Pedophile songs add a nasty, raucous vibe to the play lists of radio stations, and yet many sound so innocent, so nonchalant about the age of this delicious jailbait, that no one seems to care much. The superficial wholesomeness of many of these songs reminds you that a pedophile could be your doctor, your priest, the postman . . . he could even be your next-door neighbor.
My heart is down
My head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town
Belafonte (or whoever is covering the song) has fallen in love with a child, and will have to leave her behind, being unable to transport her over national lines under the laws of Jamaica and the United States. He won't be able to marry her, and he won't be able to have sex with her. Pretty daring stuff for a time when Van Morrison changed his song from "Brown-skinned Girl" to "Brown-eyed Girl" because interracial love songs wouldn't get played on the radio. In the version on our Little Mermaid calypso cassette, Sebastian changed it to "I had to leave a little crab in Kingston Town".
Of course, by the 80's, things got more daring. Who could forget that Police hit, "Don't Stand So Close to Me"?
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside him there's longing
This girl's an open page
Book marking - she's so close now
This girl is half his age
A junior high student gets approached by a teacher of about 27. And when he sees her,
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
that book by Nabokov
Nabokov wrote Lolita. The lure of the young is alluded to thusly: this schoolgirl is a tempting girl, or "nymphet".
Such themes of pedophilia are not always delved into as deeply as they are in "Jamaica Farewell" and "Don't Stand So Close to Me", however. Sometimes they are glossed over and the subject's age is only hinted at once. In "Sheila" by Tommy Roe, for instance, Roe sings:
Man, this little girl is fine
Even the Beatles, respected as they are, show their pedophiliac tendencies. Take, for instance, the following:
I'm so glad that she's my little girl
She's so glad, she's telling all the world
This from "I Feel Fine". Chilling, considering John Lennon was 23 when he wrote it. But it is not always males who prey on those younger vicariously through song. In "She's So Shy" by the Pointer Sisters, these female artists sing:
He's so shy
He's so shy
That sweet little boy who caught my exe
Talk about robbing a cradle! No wonder he's shy; he's being approached by women who are old enough to be his mother.
There's also a whole realm of ephebophile songs to discuss ("Hey, Nineteen" by Steely Dan), and teleiophilia has a place in the rock canon -- Van Halen did a song called "Hot for Teacher", which junior high students would sing in their classrooms to unnerve Mrs. Spiegzweiler.
Pedophile songs add a nasty, raucous vibe to the play lists of radio stations, and yet many sound so innocent, so nonchalant about the age of this delicious jailbait, that no one seems to care much. The superficial wholesomeness of many of these songs reminds you that a pedophile could be your doctor, your priest, the postman . . . he could even be your next-door neighbor.