![\"Weezer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Weezer-1994-The-Blue-Album-Far-Out-Magazine.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u2018No One Else\u2019 \u2013 Weezer<\/p>\n
Around the turn of the \u201890s, the rock scene started to get more progressive. Even though bands were willing to talk about any kind of smut out there, the riot grrl movement and male allies like Kurt Cobain stood up for violence against women<\/a>. Cobain may have been one of Rivers Cuomo\u2019s biggest influences, but that didn\u2019t stop some questionable lyrics slipping through the cracks on \u2018No One Else\u2019.<\/p>\n Right after the opening song \u2018My Name Is Jonas\u2019, Weezer\u2019s second-ever song has Cuomo playing the role of a manipulative boyfriend, talking about wanting to have total possession over his girlfriend. Although it\u2019s easy to play it off as Cuomo being insecure<\/a>, he makes it much harder to take his side throughout the track, including his lover not leaving the house without him and only putting on makeup for him.<\/p>\n The toxic tendencies may have been Cuomo trying to sing about what alpha males are supposed to do, but the fallout of\u00a0Pinkerton\u00a0made some of his confessions abundantly clear, including his talking to young fans about how they pleasure themselves when thinking of him. Weezer may have been a lot of fun to listen to back in the day, but if there\u2019s one thing to take away from their glory years, it\u2019s that Rivers Cuomo is one of the most twisted frontmen who has ever lived.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018Black Licorice\u2019 \u2013 Grand Funk Railroad Sometimes the sexist vernacular in rock songs<\/a> derives from the time the song was made. While it certainly was from a more ignorant time, it\u2019s easier to give people the benefit of the doubt when certain words meant different things when the song was recorded. In the case of Grand Funk Railroad, putting one stereotype on top of another just makes \u2018Black Licorice\u2019 1,000 times worse.<\/p>\n As their star continued to rise because of the strength of \u2018We\u2019re An American Band\u2019, these rockers thought it would be a good idea to sing about their affection for black women\u2026in the most stereotypical way possible. Though they might have thought they were cheeky, none of the lines holds up, like talking about this woman wrapping the singer up in her slender legs.<\/p>\n Seeing how the United States was also going through problems with civil rights not too long before this, the singer talks about a woman who has evil in her eyes. Grand Funk Railroad never made the listener think that hard when listening to them, but there\u2019s a good chance that some fans were listening to this tune for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018Wrong Way\u2019 \u2013 Sublime The legacy of Sublime has always been slightly over-mythologised after Bradley Nowell\u2019s death. Though Nowell had a wealth of talent in ska and rock music, he never realised them to their fullest extent before dying of a heroin overdose before the release of their self-titled record. Songs like \u2018What I Got\u2019 may have survived because of its good time energy, but \u2018Wrong Way\u2019 should have been forgotten when it was taken off the radio.<\/p>\n Since Nowell knew about the seedy streets of Los Angeles<\/a>, this is his warped fairy tale about a girl who gets thrown on the streets. Instead of the usual love story angle, Nowell talks about her turning to prostitution and then having sex with her because he can\u2019t help himself. For as much as there\u2019s wrong with this picture, Nowell goes mental in the final verse, going so far as to tell her how to live her life.<\/p>\n The song might be called \u2018Wrong Way\u2019 because of this girl turning to prostitution, but Nowell is equally at fault here, especially considering that the first verse implies that she started life as a prostitute when she was 14-years-old. Call yourself a man as many times as you want, Nowell, but none of that will change the statutory stuff in this tune.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018Misery Business\u2019 \u2013 Paramore There\u2019s nothing that prevents sexist songs from happening from both angles. As much as rock is abundant with questionable songs between men and women, it\u2019s a different story when hearing the girls\u2019 side of the story. When Paramore approached a breakup tune on \u2018Misery Business\u2019, even singer Hayley Williams later admitted they went too far.<\/p>\n For most of the song, Williams sings about all her dreams<\/a> with her man that this new girl shattered into a million pieces. Instead of feeling depressed, though, Williams talks about taking her version of the high road, calling her a whore and convincing herself that she\u2019ll stay like that for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n Considering that was what the song was being built around, the chorus about having this boy right where she wants him makes the lyrics much more dark. As opposed to moving on, Williams is the manipulator pulling the strings until her man crawls back to her. Even though this remains one of Paramore\u2019s biggest hits, Williams retired the song from the group\u2019s setlist for many years before bringing it back.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018You Can\u2019t Do That\u2019 \u2013 The Beatles None of the Beatles was squeaky clean behind the scenes. Underneath those mop-tops were a lot of questionable decisions in the early days, including John Lennon being abusive towards his first wife before they were married. Lennon may have sought forgiveness throughout his life<\/a>, but only that insecure of a man would write a song as awkward as \u2018You Can\u2019t Do That\u2019.<\/p>\n Although it might soundtrack the madcap comedy A Hard Day\u2019s Night, this is the most possessive Lennon ever got in a song, reprimanding his girlfriend for daring to talk to another man in his presence. It\u2019s easy to forgive one line, but Lennon doubles down throughout the verses, convincing his lover that everyone is happy about their relationship and she shouldn\u2019t waste a chance with him by so much as talking to another man.<\/p>\n Granted, this song only ends one way, with \u2018No Reply\u2019 off the next album,\u00a0Beatles for Sale,\u00a0presumably picking up with this same sad sack as he desperately tries to manipulate his way back to his old flame. Lennon\u2019s character might have needed some relationship counselling, but whoever the girl is in the song probably needs to run as far away from this man as possible.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018A Man Needs a Maid\u2019 \u2013 Neil Young No one can ever say that Neil Young didn\u2019t follow his heart.<\/a> Young was known throughout his career to put his music on the line if it meant pleasing his muse, including a wilderness period in the \u201880s when he got sued by his own label. Even when Young was making the material his fans loved, some tracks still could have had some sturdier lyrics behind them.<\/p>\n In the middle of his folk opus Harvest comes \u2018A Man Needs A Maid\u2019, which opens with a piano and lavish string section backing Young\u2019s vocal. It might be poised to be a sad tearjerker, but everything about this song is as shallow as a kiddie pool, as Young talks about the importance of needing a maid to do all his chores for him.<\/p>\n Although having help around the house is hardly bad, Young\u2019s insistence on needing a maid starts to feel wrong the more the track plays out, as if he\u2019s looking for some other problem that he can get a woman to fix for him. It might have worked better if the song sounded weak and pathetic, but the fact that it\u2019s treated like an opus makes Young look like some entitled rock star who loves bossing women around.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018Hey Joe\u2019 \u2013 Jimi Hendrix All good rock and roll derives from the blues. As much as Jimi Hendrix may have been warping minds with his guitar playing throughout the \u201860s, his heart always came back to the smooth sounds of Muddy Waters to fall back on. That\u2019s not to say that every blues classic was squeaky clean, either.<\/p>\n Originally by The Leaves, Hendrix\u00a0co-opted \u2018Hey Joe\u2019 for The Experience<\/a>\u00a0and turned it into a blues-rock epic. While the tune\u2019s origins go back to country music, Hendrix\u2019s retelling of this seedy tale makes it sound so much worse, as he mentions catching his old lady walking around with another man. The simple solution? Kill her.<\/p>\n As the song plays out, Joe shoots his old lady down and runs from the law, which he presumably escapes since the song wraps up before any resolution happens. Seeing how this was made at the turn of the Vietnam War, this was also a dark look at America<\/a>, as Lady Liberty was being blown away in the face of the troops coming home. The hippie generation may have been about peace and love, but they didn\u2019t avoid getting insanely dark occasionally.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s So Easy\u2019 \u2013 Guns N\u2019 Roses Although not every hair metal act exploited women, more than a few of them mentioned some questionable things happening between groupies. Some may have been a bit cheeky with dishing their gossip, but Guns N\u2019 Roses didn\u2019t try to hide their sexism on \u2018It\u2019s So Easy\u2019.<\/p>\n Coming off of\u00a0Appetite for Destruction<\/a>,\u00a0this tune is more or less a diary of what the group saw up and down Sunset Boulevard at the time, including cars crashing every night and Axl Rose having no problem drinking and driving. When a girl is brought up in the song, she takes Rose\u2019s orders as he yells at her to wake up and pay for his liquor with her credit card.<\/p>\n The most uncomfortable line comes in one of the final verses where Rose solicits sex from his women because \u201cyou ain\u2019t got nothin better to do and I\u2019m bored\u201d. In Rose\u2019s mind, everyone might be trying to please him on this song, but if he weren\u2019t playing in \u2018The World\u2019s Most Dangerous Band\u2019, he might have gotten his ass handed to him long ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018Every Breath You Take\u2019 \u2013 The Police At the beginning of the \u201880s, The Police were just starting to peak<\/a>. Coming off the heels of the punk movement, Sting\u2019s melodies brought a more refined take on pop music, with songs that had sophisticated arrangements behind them, like \u2018Don\u2019t Stand So Close to Me\u2019. Many songs by the band dealt with the harsh side of life, though, and one of Sting\u2019s best melodies came with lyrics about an insane stalker.<\/p>\n Yes, this is exactly what \u2018Every Breath You Take\u2019 is about. Going through the song line by line, this supposed song of devotion talks about everything this girl does while he watches. It might seem cute at first, but as he gets more descriptive, it becomes clear that this man is most likely watching this woman on her way to work through a pair of binoculars in the bushes.<\/p>\n The bridge does add more context because of how troubled he feels that this girl left him, but this behaviour still sounds like a jilted boyfriend who is not getting the point and is refusing to take no for an answer. There\u2019s quite a wicked streak to every single part of this song, and the fact that it\u2019s used so often during weddings shows the frightening power of having the right melody.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018Under My Thumb\u2019 \u2013 The Rolling Stones When The Rolling Stones burst onto the scene, it felt like getting a second version of The Beatles. Whereas \u2018The Fab Four\u2019 may have talked about more chaste subjects like wanting to hold their lover\u2019s hand, The Stones were into some carnal knowledge, often talking about women only as a means to an end. More than a few Stones classics could qualify for this list<\/a>, but \u2018Under My Thumb\u2019 cuts right to the point from the first line.<\/p>\n Although Mick Jagger can sell being unlucky in love, this song doesn\u2019t translate to his style, as he talks about having this woman at his beck and call every night. Despite some of the bluesy inflexions put into the tune, hearing Jagger talk about how great it is that his lady only speaks when she\u2019s spoken to is more than a little bit creepy looking back on it.<\/p>\n Compared to the depressed and lonely Stones songs, the tone of this tune feels so smug with itself, as if nothing can go wrong as long as this woman knows her place in the relationship. The Stones may be known as one of history\u2019s greatest rock bands, but the mindset of women being seen as property instead of people is better to be lost to history.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018No One Else\u2019 \u2013 Weezer Around the turn of the \u201890s, the rock scene started to get more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,25228,128,23564,15747,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-538632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-guns-n-roses","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-neil-young","12":"tag-the-rolling-stones","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Grand](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Grand-Funk-Railroad-1970s-Far-Out-Magazine.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The-sample-that-almost-sunk-a-classic-Sublime-song.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Mick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mick-Jagger-Keith-Richards-Charlie-Watts-Mick-Taylor-Bill-Wyman-1969-The-Rolling-Stones-Far-Out-Maga.jpeg\")
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