Songs about men who been done wrong by that woman but they keep hanging on:

• - Prince - When U Were Mine
• They Might Be Giants - Out of Jail
• Billy C. Farlow - Cannonball

This post has no mockery or condemnation of the men represented. I have an appreciation for songs in which a man is in love with a woman who isn't "faithful" to him or doesn't "treat him right," yet the man stays devoted to the woman. These songs are from the men's point of view and involve no vindictiveness or even (arguably rational) disconnection from the relationship. Maybe it's a flavor of non-toxic masculinity, a topic frequently on my mind. I don't feel any "cringe" or secondhand embarrassment when I hear these songs; I feel sympathy and want to buy those guys a beer.

For my own clarification, songs in this mental category have these characteristics:

• First-person man singing about a woman
• The woman is not sexually and/or romantically exclusive to the man
• The man wishes she was
• The man shows no vindictiveness
• The man is still in love with her
• The man continues to maintain, pursue, or wish for a relationship with her

The song, therefore, can't just be an "I'm sad because you left" or "because you don't love me back" kind of thing (e.g. Hall & Oates She's Gone and the Marshall Tucker Band's Can't You See? don't quite fit). Asaf Avidan's Baby if You Want Me is really close (and I love love this song) but the narrator sounds pretty OK when he sings "I know that you ain't just mine; that's okay, babe." This category requires clearly feeling the pain of one's ladywoman not being just yours.

I need a shorter label for this category. "Uxorious" is specific to marriage and missing a couple of elements. "P**y whipped" is pretty close, details-wise, but has baked-in hegemonic masculinity, including some misogyny.
#NonToxicMasculinity #music #prince #HallandOates #tmbg #theymightbegiants

Favorite birthday present, from a spouse who knows me well 😍

#TMBG

Three thoughts occur to me as I listen to this song today:

1. I was the same age my kid is now when this song was released

2. I still know every single word of the song, over 30 years later

3. "I am not allowed (To meet the criminal government agent who oppresses me)" is still as relevant (or more!) today as it was in the 1990s.

They Might Be Giants - I Should Be Allowed to Think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UryTypo2qeU
#TheyMightBeGiants #tmbg

Starting off #100daysuke2026 with a new-to-me-playing-it-anyways
They Might Be Giants tune -- Road Movie To Berlin.

I didn't the 100 days last year, on (got sick at a bad time) but I'm going to try it again, and maybe not push quite so hard -- this was the 3rd take of me trying to record this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JboKZDOExjo

#tmbg #ukulele #ukulelecovers #theymightbegiants

WU-TANG!
WU-TANG!
WU-TAAAAAANG!

Oh, #TMBG. I heart you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io63tR8u5_4