Looking at Lyrics (1) [semi-sexually explicit content]

I have always cared about words. I'm not big on poetry, but song lyrics matter a great deal to me. My best friend, Allison, wouldn't care if the lyrics were:

        Aardvaark sitting on a hot stove

        Watching the yarn ball roll away

        Isn't it bacon to say

        I'll never move your chair again

...as long as she liked the music. For her, and I'm sure, most people, the music is the important part. And most people don't even care if the lyrics sit correctly atop the music (meaning the stress falls on the right syllables), which is key for me! Key! I had such a tough time getting used to Alanis Morissette and the way she puts the stress on the wrong sylLAbles!

So in SAMerica I spend too much time thinking about lyrics. When I'm walking around town listening to a playlist on my phone, I can be heard to actually comment out loud, like "Katy, what does Swish Swish mean anyway?" or "Touch WHAT Ariana? What the hell are you talking about?!" or "Elton, it's HARDened by you, not hard DONE by you!" Since lyrics are so important to me, from time to time I'll devote a post here to a song or two whose lyrics I'd like to examine more closely.

Up first, comparing and contrasting a song by Prince and one by Madonna. Prince wrote a song called Sex Shooters for his protégé, Apollonia, which was debuted in the film Purple Rain. From a lyrical standpoint, it's fairly obvious in the way that Prince was:

Sex Shooter

(Prince Rogers Nelson)

I need you to get me off

I'm your bomb getting ready to explode

I need you to get me off

Be your slave, do anything I'm told

I'm a sex shooter

Shootin' love in your direction

I'm a sex shooter

Come and play with my affections

I need you to pull my trigger baby

I can't do it alone

I need you to by my main thing, plaything

Pillar of stone

(Chorus)

Come on and kiss the gun

(Chorus)

No girl's body can compete with mine

No girl's rap can top my lines

No girl's kiss can ring your chimes

Come on boy let's make some time

(Chorus)

(Chorus)

All the nasty people sing it, yeah

So, in 1984, Prince was comparing sex to a gun. Sex could be shot out at you, to your general vicinity, anyway. But it was written to be sung by a woman, and apparently, she couldn't shoot the gun by herself. She needed an accomplice to pull the trigger. The accomplice would be her toy, something she played with, while the accomplice would likewise play with her affections, so it was a fairly equal partnership. But when she gets to the bridge, she takes the equality away, with bragging statements. She had the best body and smoothest lines of any girl, and only her kiss would ring your bell - no, sorry, that was Anita Ward in 1979 - Apollonia would ring your chimes, and she was ready to take you on.

Madonna included a new song called Revolver in a hits compilation in 2009. It took six people to write the darn thing, so it's hard to say where any of the lyrics came from. But in the song she sees sex as a gun too, but more distinctly, her, uh, let's say the place Donald Trump might grab her by, as the weapon. And she seems to be a serial killer let loose on a society of unsuspecting men. Let's take a look:

Revolver

(Madonna Ciccone, Dwayne Carter, Justin Franks, Carlos Centel Battey, Steven Andre Battey, Brendan Kitchen) 

My love's a revolver, volver, volver, volver

Oops I guess I shot ya, my finger's on the trigger

I had a bullet with your name on it

Click, click, I'm a sex pistol, my love should be illegal

Real deal baby, I'm no counterfeit, click, click

Line 'em up and knock 'em down

If looks could kill they will

My body's fully loaded and I got more ammo

Line 'em up and knock 'em down

If looks could kill they will

You're an accessory to murder 'cause

My love's a revolver

My sex is a killer

Do you wanna die happy?

Do you wanna die happy?

My love's a revolver

My sex is a killer

Do you wanna die happy?

Do you wanna die happy?

I let it bang bang

You've been hit by a smooth criminal, a bad girl

I got ya cryin' to your mama, sayin' "I can't believe it!"

I've seen your type, bring a knife into a gun fight

Caught up in the law, right? I think I'm in love

(Chorus 2x)

I shoot 'em bang bang, I shoot 'em bang bang

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the baddest of them all?

I shoot 'em bang bang, I shoot 'em bang bang

I line 'em up and watch them fall

[Rap] Bang the shooter name is Wayne

The victim didn't complain

She just screamed "shoot again!"

I gave her extra rounds

My barrel twist around

I am Mr. Shoot 'Em Down

I leave hearts on the ground

My love is a weapon and yes, I use it well

Then I let the rose petals cover up the bullet shells

I never shoot and tell, I only shoot to kill

And that vest ain't gonna help ya, even if it's made of steel

(Chorus 2x)

I shoot 'em bang bang, I shoot 'em bang bang

I line 'em up and watch them fall

In the first line she says her love's a revolver and then repeats volver, volver, volver, which kind of sounds like vulva. Maybe not entirely straightforward, but she does set it up in your mind, doesn't she? Then she starts like Britney Spears, saying "Oops," as though anything Madonna ever did wasn't planned. So it's sarcasm out of the gate, stating that she shot you, but of course she did because she had a bullet with your name on it, after all. Then she gets right down to business, stating that she, herself, is a sex pistol, and that her love (that certain part of her) should be illegal because it kills men. One by one, she lines them up and kills them with her love. And, like Medusa (hey! touched for the very first time), she can even kill you with a look. So this broad's a real threat to society! But she warns you, so if you find you'd like to be intimate with her you're just as complicit in your own death. And not to worry, you won't only go out with a bang, but with a smile on your face! She borrows a phrase from Michael Jackson to let you know "you've been hit by a smooth criminal," a bad girl, who would leave you crying to your mother, if you weren't already dead. She next takes a second to liken herself to the Evil Queen in Snow White, looking in her mirror and seeing the baddest in the land.

But the song then gives way to rapper Lil Wayne, giving the male side of the story. He says HE'S the shooter! He says Madonna was the victim! He says he shot her again and again and that his barrel twisted round, so I'm guessing he shot himself too, but it was probably just splashback. But wait - after using his weapon he lets rose petals cover up the bullet shells. What could he mean by this? Surely it means his romantic side calms his victim after his passion is expelled. Lil goes on to say he doesn't shoot to tell, he only shoots to kill, so clearly he's no rat, and he says if you wear a Kevlar vest it won't help you, even if it's made of steel. Oddly, he rhymes "steel" with "kill," which, I can tell him, only works in Pittsburgh. How can Mr. Wayne think he's the killer, though, when Madonna is clearly the aggressor. And if her "love" is a revolver, no man has any chance at all.

So there you have it. Two takes on love from two immensely popular pop stars, both seeing sex as gun violence. And after Pat Benatar pleaded with us not to use sex as a weapon!