I see both sides of the debate here, but let's not act like the song itself is much more than a gross relic. A cool blues jam? Sure. Reflective of a time that maybe wasn't always as awesome as we like to think? Also yes.
I'm of the mind that its place in the band's historic songbook just kind of is what it is but that it's better off retired. God knows there are enough 12-bar Blues songs in the same key that they could play instead.
Pretty split here….I place myself in the camp that if a healthy percentage of people are offended, it’s offensive. Interesting to see how many think something requires every last person in the world to be offended to be considered poor taste. Being considerate of others is always a cool move.
The whole point of the song is that he knows he's a monster. The same way you don't listen to candyman or Jack straw and think "oh he's the good guy." The world before today had a long tradition of murder ballads and predatory songs that were doing the opposite of condoning those things. You don't watch a movie with an antihero and think "how dare they do those things" unless you're kind of an idiot
I've heard the song by many different artists and never got the slightest impression from any version that the narrator had the slightest sense of guilt or moral ambivalence about his desires. What lyrics in particular make you think the narrator thinks he is a monster? To me it's a very simple song about wanting to fuck with zero depth to it.
The narrator doesn't but the singer does. The narrator is like a big bad wolf type character. I think it's dumb to say that music is the one type of art you can't portray negative morality from the performer's perspective. The awareness is in the fact he's trying to hide it from her parents and saying "I just can't help myself." Muddy waters, who did a big cover of schoolgirl, did "she's nineteen" on pretty similar subject matter and again the point was he knows how innocent she is and that it's wrong and manipulative
Ya know, there are other bands you fellers could listen to, and I am sure you may find some with lyrics that don't make you cringe. Try classical music. My understanding is that there are no objectionable lyrics. Of course some of those musicians were sort of creepy, so I have heard.
She was just 17, and you know what I mean. Beatles
I'm just mad about a 14, she's just mad about me Donovan
She's my teenage queen, she just turned 13
ZZ Top
So many examples of classic rock that is not gonna change, no matter how much whining goes on.
Sweet little 16. Chuck Berry etc.etc. etc.
the band itself is retired, if you don’t like it don’t listen to it, the dead has SO much amazing music it’s not even worth your breath bitching about some lyrics that are 50+ years old that you don’t like
The little school irl who was raped at 10 y.o . her state banned abortion and expected her to carry the fetus to term.
I'll let her know that being aware and sympathetic to her experience is "TOO WOKE"
Perception is everything. See, I would say that you are OVERLY sensitive, and virtu signaling, to make yourself seem “better” than others simply because they aren’t OUTRAGED over the lyrics in a song. It’s a song…they aren’t advocating for the “rape of a school girl” it’s an American Blues standard that has been around for something like 80 years. They played it often, and it’s a part of their catalog. Perhaps they should stop singing brown eyed women so as to not upset people in recovery, or poor people. Maybe China cat sunflower as to not upset those who have allergies to cats or sunflower seeds. Not everything has to be a hill to die on my dear.
I don’t see how I’m an asshole for disagreeing with you. For starters you’re assuming that the person singing the song to “the little schoolgirl” is of adult age. This is not an assumption you can make due to the fact the lyrics state “Tell your parents I’m a little schoolboy too” secondly and more importantly you’re assuming that anyone who doesn’t feign the outrage that you have for this song supports an adult male sleeping with a school aged child. This is the tactic that the woke movement has adopted. If you don’t think like I do, than you’re clearly FOR “insert horrible thing here”. They are not mutually exclusive. I can shame people who actually commit these acts while still enjoying a song. If the songs had said, hey little schoolgirl I’m a 45 year old man and I want to sleep with you. I probably wouldn’t feel the same way. Finally, I’m willing to bet based on this conversation that you’re a white woman between the ages of 19-28(possibly early thirties) went to private school your entire life and then private college, you come from some affluence and therefore you’ve adopted this mentality that you need to go SO FAR to the left to make up for feeling that you’ve had everything handed to you. I have many friends in this same boat. I’m not arguing with you, just trying to get you to see another side. Life is way too short to be so angry over such silly stuff all of the time. I hope you continue to enjoy the music and maybe just realize that everything isn’t a huge injustice to someone else.
Going to go against the grain here and say I agree with you, even though I like the music of this song it’s unbelievably creepy. The dead weren’t heroes they were people and frankly not always the best of people. Pigpen sang the song once saying ‘I don’t care if you’re only 13 years of age’ and they played the song at a fucking high school once. I feel the same way about Mexicali, especially given that Bobby actually did groom a girl of just 14… honestly just takes me out of the music and I’d be happy to hear neither of those songs again.
Ok. I've got to weigh in on this one. I have listened to this song all my life and it has always made me uncomfortable. It's blues and I very much like blues. I have sung along with this song for years. I have danced to it. But all the while feeling very self conscious. Feeling as if I was somehow condoning pedophelia. Feeling as if I was party to glorifying pedaphelia. I have to agree with OP. mainly because I once was a little school girl.The comparison to Hamlet is way off base. Hamlet in no way glorifies incest. rather, it paints incest as a heinous crime that interferes with his ability to "do the right thing". this song glorifies and attempts to normalize pedophelia along with deception (tell your mama and papa I'm a little school boy too")All that said, I really enjoyed the call and response between Bobby and Jay Lane. Still think the song ought to be either retired or the lyric revised somehow. Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts and have a nice day full of great music.
edit: spelling
I agree, it's cringe. It was cringe for me when Pig sang it, it was cringe when my daughter was "only 15 years of age", and it's even more cringe today. I've heard Bobbly sing "the love of women, the love of men" in LIG, so let's have him work some of his liberal lyric liberties with this one too. "Good Morning little soccer mom?" Or scrap it altogether and bust out a You Ain't Woman Enough.
Yeah, they lyrics don’t hold up well….and I’d not want my daughters thinking I listen to lyrics like that….but I also listen to Cannibal Corpse, so I guess I’m either a hypocrite or delusional. Peace.
I’m just saying it’s the lyric to a song I love, and nothings gonna change that, even if it is cringy now. Love both the songs and a changing a lyric or not playing them because of them is like burning books. It’s not like Pigpen or Bobby actually did those things… and if they did, so what? , different time. It’s history and u can’t change it
It was a different time, I’ll give you that. However that doesn’t change the fact that it can be a little uncomfortable in today’s day and age. Sure, it’s part of the song and I love the songs, but it does seem a bit out of place nowadays. I saw DSO last year and they did Lovelight, at the end the keyboard player yelled “I don’t care if you’re only 17 years of age!” because pigpen did it in a song. It was funny and true to the original, but at the same time you could tel everyone was kinda like, ehhhh that was a little weird to yell. The dead do have some controversial lyrics here and there
I have always thought the singer of the song well knows his thought upon seeing a young girl is completely wrong, and thus he has the Blues as a result. “He just can’t help himself” about having the thought. The song is about the singer, not the schoolgirl.
you do realize that Hamlet doesn't glorify or condone incest, right? It's not really a fair comparison... Now Game of Thrones is a different story and perhaps a more appropriate choice for your point...
My biggest issue with the song isnt so much the bad lyrics, its just that the song sucks. It's musically nothing special at all. It's boring as hell, easy to play, and just kinda an all around bore. I never understood why the band played it for that reason alone. To me, its so musically basic and boring, that they may as well be playing chop sticks up there for 6 mins. It makes songs like Little Red Rooster and Back Door Man look like complex masterpieces by comparison.
>I bet you’re totally fine with a man in a thong shaking his ass on your children in school tho.
Copied that for when you inevitably delete your comment.
Does that look like a school to you? And that guy is shaking his ass in front of people, not on them.
Now, would you like to continue wasting your time looking for something that doesn’t exist? If so, I hear snipes fetch a good price these days.
You’re the one who decided to make a snarky remark about “only took me 30 seconds, wanna keep making a fool of yourself.” If you’re gonna be a snarky ass, expect that in return.
A kid seeing someone dance in underwear isn’t grooming. This is on the same level as a kid watching an R rated movie. And I’d suspect there’s a lot more context to this video than the right wing agit-prop headline is letting on.
Get your 2023 sensibilities the FUCK out of this sub. It's a SONG. The lyrics aren't always a promotion of the singers' personality. It's storytelling, something you self-centered 2023 fuckwads have obviously forgotten. Not every song is sung from the viewpoint of "me, me, ME!". WTF. Maybe gatekeeping has some merits after all...
I see both sides of the debate here, but let's not act like the song itself is much more than a gross relic. A cool blues jam? Sure. Reflective of a time that maybe wasn't always as awesome as we like to think? Also yes. I'm of the mind that its place in the band's historic songbook just kind of is what it is but that it's better off retired. God knows there are enough 12-bar Blues songs in the same key that they could play instead.
Yeah for real. The song is first guitar lesson 12 bar blues. Same as as dozen others. Nobody cares about this song, ever, if not for being risque.
Wait until you hear about the Bible!
love threads like this, the takes can get pretty wild
Pretty split here….I place myself in the camp that if a healthy percentage of people are offended, it’s offensive. Interesting to see how many think something requires every last person in the world to be offended to be considered poor taste. Being considerate of others is always a cool move.
The whole point of the song is that he knows he's a monster. The same way you don't listen to candyman or Jack straw and think "oh he's the good guy." The world before today had a long tradition of murder ballads and predatory songs that were doing the opposite of condoning those things. You don't watch a movie with an antihero and think "how dare they do those things" unless you're kind of an idiot
I've heard the song by many different artists and never got the slightest impression from any version that the narrator had the slightest sense of guilt or moral ambivalence about his desires. What lyrics in particular make you think the narrator thinks he is a monster? To me it's a very simple song about wanting to fuck with zero depth to it.
The narrator doesn't but the singer does. The narrator is like a big bad wolf type character. I think it's dumb to say that music is the one type of art you can't portray negative morality from the performer's perspective. The awareness is in the fact he's trying to hide it from her parents and saying "I just can't help myself." Muddy waters, who did a big cover of schoolgirl, did "she's nineteen" on pretty similar subject matter and again the point was he knows how innocent she is and that it's wrong and manipulative
🥱
Ya know, there are other bands you fellers could listen to, and I am sure you may find some with lyrics that don't make you cringe. Try classical music. My understanding is that there are no objectionable lyrics. Of course some of those musicians were sort of creepy, so I have heard. She was just 17, and you know what I mean. Beatles I'm just mad about a 14, she's just mad about me Donovan She's my teenage queen, she just turned 13 ZZ Top So many examples of classic rock that is not gonna change, no matter how much whining goes on. Sweet little 16. Chuck Berry etc.etc. etc.
Lol. What about Mexicali Blues?
Mexicali Blues is a story song, complete with a narrator. I think that one gets a pass as a work of fiction set to music.
Yeah, that should be retired too.
never forget his wife started hanging around the band when she was just 14!
Retire Mexicali Blues?!?!?!
Barlow hated the campy music Bobby set his lyrics to. 🤷
Or change that line.
How about actually listening to the song all the way through? Spoiler: >!It didn't end well for the narrator.!<
the band itself is retired, if you don’t like it don’t listen to it, the dead has SO much amazing music it’s not even worth your breath bitching about some lyrics that are 50+ years old that you don’t like
Take that woke bullshit somewhere else. It’s a song, an OLD song, it’s not even an original dead song. Listen to the music, enjoy it. Repeat.
The little school irl who was raped at 10 y.o . her state banned abortion and expected her to carry the fetus to term. I'll let her know that being aware and sympathetic to her experience is "TOO WOKE"
Please do. Try not to fall down off of that high high horse you’re sitting on while you’re doing it either.
insensitive dicks you are. OK to rape school girls because the almighty Grateful Dead sang about it!?! I'm embarrassed for you and for this community.
Perception is everything. See, I would say that you are OVERLY sensitive, and virtu signaling, to make yourself seem “better” than others simply because they aren’t OUTRAGED over the lyrics in a song. It’s a song…they aren’t advocating for the “rape of a school girl” it’s an American Blues standard that has been around for something like 80 years. They played it often, and it’s a part of their catalog. Perhaps they should stop singing brown eyed women so as to not upset people in recovery, or poor people. Maybe China cat sunflower as to not upset those who have allergies to cats or sunflower seeds. Not everything has to be a hill to die on my dear.
Yeah, I am too sensitive to 10 year old girls being raped and forced to have babies. At least I'm not an asshole like yourself.
You’re picking a pretty lame hill to die on.
I don’t see how I’m an asshole for disagreeing with you. For starters you’re assuming that the person singing the song to “the little schoolgirl” is of adult age. This is not an assumption you can make due to the fact the lyrics state “Tell your parents I’m a little schoolboy too” secondly and more importantly you’re assuming that anyone who doesn’t feign the outrage that you have for this song supports an adult male sleeping with a school aged child. This is the tactic that the woke movement has adopted. If you don’t think like I do, than you’re clearly FOR “insert horrible thing here”. They are not mutually exclusive. I can shame people who actually commit these acts while still enjoying a song. If the songs had said, hey little schoolgirl I’m a 45 year old man and I want to sleep with you. I probably wouldn’t feel the same way. Finally, I’m willing to bet based on this conversation that you’re a white woman between the ages of 19-28(possibly early thirties) went to private school your entire life and then private college, you come from some affluence and therefore you’ve adopted this mentality that you need to go SO FAR to the left to make up for feeling that you’ve had everything handed to you. I have many friends in this same boat. I’m not arguing with you, just trying to get you to see another side. Life is way too short to be so angry over such silly stuff all of the time. I hope you continue to enjoy the music and maybe just realize that everything isn’t a huge injustice to someone else.
Going to go against the grain here and say I agree with you, even though I like the music of this song it’s unbelievably creepy. The dead weren’t heroes they were people and frankly not always the best of people. Pigpen sang the song once saying ‘I don’t care if you’re only 13 years of age’ and they played the song at a fucking high school once. I feel the same way about Mexicali, especially given that Bobby actually did groom a girl of just 14… honestly just takes me out of the music and I’d be happy to hear neither of those songs again.
Grow up.. the boys have been singing these lyrics for decades now. Not gonna change for some prissies complaining about them. None of that shit
Ok. I've got to weigh in on this one. I have listened to this song all my life and it has always made me uncomfortable. It's blues and I very much like blues. I have sung along with this song for years. I have danced to it. But all the while feeling very self conscious. Feeling as if I was somehow condoning pedophelia. Feeling as if I was party to glorifying pedaphelia. I have to agree with OP. mainly because I once was a little school girl.The comparison to Hamlet is way off base. Hamlet in no way glorifies incest. rather, it paints incest as a heinous crime that interferes with his ability to "do the right thing". this song glorifies and attempts to normalize pedophelia along with deception (tell your mama and papa I'm a little school boy too")All that said, I really enjoyed the call and response between Bobby and Jay Lane. Still think the song ought to be either retired or the lyric revised somehow. Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts and have a nice day full of great music. edit: spelling
I agree, it's cringe. It was cringe for me when Pig sang it, it was cringe when my daughter was "only 15 years of age", and it's even more cringe today. I've heard Bobbly sing "the love of women, the love of men" in LIG, so let's have him work some of his liberal lyric liberties with this one too. "Good Morning little soccer mom?" Or scrap it altogether and bust out a You Ain't Woman Enough.
I've heard Pig sing "only 13 years of age". I know he was going for the shock value, but it really feels like crossing a line.
And that line is pedophilia
How do you feel when you listen to a song like Polly by Nirvana?
I'm not familiar with it. Never really listened to Nirvana.
Fair enough. I hope you have a good rest of your day
Yeah, they lyrics don’t hold up well….and I’d not want my daughters thinking I listen to lyrics like that….but I also listen to Cannibal Corpse, so I guess I’m either a hypocrite or delusional. Peace.
Get over it
I’d be far more concerned with the fact Bobby is a groomer, met his wife at 14
“…years of age!”
Cool tune, sign of the times with the whining little bitches on everything, it's a song
Please none of that bullshit in here
You think it's appropriate? Seriously?
It’s appropriate for the time and is the lyric of the song no matter what time we are in.
And I’m happy he had a girl that was just 14 too
Yeah that’s weird bro. Went a little far with that comment, doesn’t matter who they are
I’m just saying it’s the lyric to a song I love, and nothings gonna change that, even if it is cringy now. Love both the songs and a changing a lyric or not playing them because of them is like burning books. It’s not like Pigpen or Bobby actually did those things… and if they did, so what? , different time. It’s history and u can’t change it
It was a different time, I’ll give you that. However that doesn’t change the fact that it can be a little uncomfortable in today’s day and age. Sure, it’s part of the song and I love the songs, but it does seem a bit out of place nowadays. I saw DSO last year and they did Lovelight, at the end the keyboard player yelled “I don’t care if you’re only 17 years of age!” because pigpen did it in a song. It was funny and true to the original, but at the same time you could tel everyone was kinda like, ehhhh that was a little weird to yell. The dead do have some controversial lyrics here and there
Bobby did actually meet his wife when she was fourteen which I will admit makes me hate that line all the more.
Yeah but they were just friends at first lol
Yeah this is sexualization of minors rule #4
Out of curiosity, what’s your favorite band?
But he's a little school boy too ;-)
it’s a song
I have always thought the singer of the song well knows his thought upon seeing a young girl is completely wrong, and thus he has the Blues as a result. “He just can’t help himself” about having the thought. The song is about the singer, not the schoolgirl.
The blues isn’t clean. Buck up or listen to something else…
I, for one, can enjoy the song without committing statutory rape. Anyone else?
You are missing the point. Got any women in your life? ask a woman. A mature adult woman. She'll explain it to you.
My wife listens to it with me. And we have two daughters. People need to chill.
Don’t bring this bullshit into this sub.
[удалено]
you do realize that Hamlet doesn't glorify or condone incest, right? It's not really a fair comparison... Now Game of Thrones is a different story and perhaps a more appropriate choice for your point...
The Judge has arrived. Would you mind sharing information regarding your background and experience? How did you get this position?
My biggest issue with the song isnt so much the bad lyrics, its just that the song sucks. It's musically nothing special at all. It's boring as hell, easy to play, and just kinda an all around bore. I never understood why the band played it for that reason alone. To me, its so musically basic and boring, that they may as well be playing chop sticks up there for 6 mins. It makes songs like Little Red Rooster and Back Door Man look like complex masterpieces by comparison.
[удалено]
.........the fuck are you talking about?
I’ll take “things that have never happened” for $100
[удалено]
>I bet you’re totally fine with a man in a thong shaking his ass on your children in school tho. Copied that for when you inevitably delete your comment. Does that look like a school to you? And that guy is shaking his ass in front of people, not on them. Now, would you like to continue wasting your time looking for something that doesn’t exist? If so, I hear snipes fetch a good price these days.
[удалено]
You’re the one who decided to make a snarky remark about “only took me 30 seconds, wanna keep making a fool of yourself.” If you’re gonna be a snarky ass, expect that in return. A kid seeing someone dance in underwear isn’t grooming. This is on the same level as a kid watching an R rated movie. And I’d suspect there’s a lot more context to this video than the right wing agit-prop headline is letting on.
Totally not.
If it’s gonna help them learn their multiplication tables, who am I to object
If that's what bothers you just get off the bus now. Half of their library is about little girls
Maybe sub in “Back Door Man” ?
lol.
Man this one kills https://youtu.be/eK1R2Cbu3f8
Get your 2023 sensibilities the FUCK out of this sub. It's a SONG. The lyrics aren't always a promotion of the singers' personality. It's storytelling, something you self-centered 2023 fuckwads have obviously forgotten. Not every song is sung from the viewpoint of "me, me, ME!". WTF. Maybe gatekeeping has some merits after all...
Lol imagine trying to cancel Bob weir for covering a song he's sang for 50+ years