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I love you, you don't love me anymore because you've gone back to her/him
He loves you, but I love you moreHe doesn't love you so why don't you forget him/come on over to meSexual Encounters
Needless to say, many times what appears to be a love song is, consciously or unconsciously, really about sex. There
are a huge number of songs about sex and sexual encounters, comprising all shades of innocence and explicitness.
Songwriters have tried all kinds of ingenious procedures to disguise what their songs are really about in this field.
Think of 'Maggie May' (the schoolboy and the hooker), 'More Than Words' (the persuasion song), 'Young
Girl' (illicit love), 'Does Your Mother Know', 'Me and Mrs. Jones', 'Some Of Your Lovin'', 'Help Me Make It
Through The Night', the unparalleled vulgarity of 'Tonight's The Night', 'Let's Get It On', 'Sexual
Healing' (badgering), 'Norwegian Wood', 'Orgasm Addict', 'Relax', 'Feel Like Makin' Love', 'Let's Spend The Night
Together', 'Hi Hi Hi', 'Midnight At The Oasis', 'Je t'aime (Moi Non Plus)', 'Wet Dream', 'This Is Hardcore', 'Melt' and,
of course, vast tracts of Prince's back catalogue.
Given the relationship between pop music, teenagers and confusion over sexual identity, it's not surprising this
should also be an issue in songs such as 'I'm A Boy', 'Girls And Boys', 'A Boy Named Sue', 'Lola', 'Walk On The
Wild Side', 'Sexuality', 'House Of Fun', 'Teenage Kicks' and 'Pictures Of Lily' – all of which deal with teenage
sexuality. 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?' looks at this issue from a distinctly female perspective, as do 'Papa
Don't Preach' and 'Like A Virgin'.
Subjects Other Than Love
There are hundreds of possible categories of themes that have been (and will be) the subject of song lyrics. Here are
a few categories to get your imagination working. Some songs fit more than one category.
Geography
Write a song about a place, travelling into the unknown, living in a city or in the country, or wanting to live
somewhere else. This involves more than mere description of a place. It encompasses such profound questions as:
Where are you? Where have you been? Where do you want to be?
Geography has been highly significant in American song lyrics. There are so many songs named after American
places you could construct an atlas out of them. The U.S. is so varied in terrain and culture the notion that a better
life waits for you at the end of a long highway can seem plausible. This is a big theme in the blues music of the
migrating workers from the South in the early 20th century, and the idea of travelling to the Promised Land is
important in the music of Bruce Springsteen. Here are a few famous songs with American place names in their titles:
'Do You Know The Way To San Jose?', 'Anchorage', 'Wichita Lineman', 'Boulders To Birmingham', 'Sweet Home
Alabama', 'Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again', 'If You're Going To San Francisco', 'New York,
New York', 'No Sleep Till Brooklyn', 'LA Woman', 'Pasadena', 'Viva Las Vegas', 'What Made Milwaukee Famous',
'Yellow Rose Of Texas', 'Don't Go Back To Rockville', 'Witch Queen Of New Orleans', 'Lights Of Cincinnati', 'The
Bus From Amarillo', 'California Dreamin", 'California Uber Alles', 'Mississippi Queen', 'Toledo', 'Baltimore',
'Atlantic City', 'Philadelphia Freedom', 'Please Come To Boston', 'The Night Chicago Died', 'Blue Moon Of
Kentucky', 'Night Train To Georgia', 'Kansas City', 'Kokomo', 'Union City Blue',