Sirius/XM Radio: (Un)healthy Relationships

I've previously posted (here, here, here and here) on how much I am loving my Sirius/XM radio service that came as a free trial with a new vehicle.

Those posts were on the fun side; today's is a bit more serious.

Being born in the middle of the post-WWII baby boom, my musical tastes run mostly to classic rock of the 60s and 70s.  Two of my favs, which are pretty iconic rock anthems, are:

     Bad Company:  Feel Like Making Love
     Foghat:  I Just Want to Make Love to You

However, it finally dawned on me recently just how awful these lyrics are: both use the preposition TO rather than WITH, as in “making love to you,” rather than “making love with you.”

How is that possible? Making love “to” somebody implies dominance, control, a lack of free agency on the part of the recipient, etc. Making love “with” somebody implies a mutually agreeable, consensual activity undertaken as equals.

Maybe I’m reading far too much into lyrics that were penned decades ago, under personal and cultural circumstances that I know nothing about. Perhaps I am being too harsh. But words do matter, and I would not want a guy to have this sort of sexual viewpoint concerning one of the women in my family (or any woman, for that matter).

OK, moving on to Linda Ronstadt. Over the past couple days Sirius/XM radio happened to have served up a major dose of LR, whose music I have always adored. Along the lines of words matter, I began to speculate on her song You’re No Good, another classic.

That must have been one dysfunctional relationship. In this single song she disses some guy no fewer than 20 times, telling him repeatedly that he’s no good. Ouch! 

(Note that there are another 8 instances of the lyric "you’re no good" which are about the singer: “I broke a heart that's gentle and true…I wouldn't blame him if he said to me…You’re no good etc.)

Let’s end on a happier note. Lest we think that LR only sings about dysfunctional relationships, I also heard Different Drum, yet another iconic classic. Although it’s about a breakup, sounds like a healthy breakup to me.