Results for “Michael Hurley”

Artists

Michael Hurley Michael Hurley was an American folk singer-songwriter who was a part of the Greenwich…

Songs

Hog of the Forsaken

Michael Hurley

A surreal folk parable built around an animal-totem figure, the 'hog of the forsaken,' who exists outside ordinary human…

mortality and acceptance outsider/scapegoat figures folk surrealism

Michael from Mountains

Joni Mitchell

A quiet, watercolor-toned song about an urban rainy-day romance that stays perpetually unresolved. The narrator observes a…

transience of connection urban pastoral imagery emotional withholding

One More Night

Michael Kiwanuka

A stripped-down mantra of endurance, built almost entirely on the repeated promise that things will feel better by morning.…

endurance self-persuasion emotional suppression

I Want Your Sex, Pts. 1 & 2

George Michael

George Michael turns a single, blunt demand into a sustained argument about desire, patience, and monogamy, dressing up a simple…

sexual desire and frustration persuasion and rhetoric monogamy versus promiscuity

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

George Michael

A cover of Ewan MacColl's 1957 folk standard, rendered here as a slow, orchestral torch ballad. George Michael strips the song…

first love devotion transcendence through intimacy

Freedom! '90

George Michael

George Michael renounces the manufactured pop-idol persona that made him famous, addressing an unnamed 'you' that stands in for…

celebrity and image authenticity vs. performance self-reinvention

Killer / Papa Was a Rollin' Stone

George Michael

This medley pairs George Michael's own song of addiction and yearning for release with a cover of the Temptations' classic about…

addiction and self-destruction longing for freedom absent fatherhood

One More Try

George Michael

A wary, self-protective ballad about a narrator who has been burned by intimacy and now treats love as a dangerous lesson he'd…

fear of vulnerability emotional self-protection power imbalance in relationships

Father Figure

George Michael

A slow-building declaration of total devotion that reaches for every available role — lover, parent, teacher, priest — to…

all-consuming devotion protection vs. control roleplay and identity fusion

The Way You Make Me Feel

Michael Jackson

A buoyant, physically driven declaration of infatuation built almost entirely around a single hook that gets repeated, echoed,…

infatuation desire and pursuit possessiveness

Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing

Minutemen

A dense, aphoristic protest fragment from the Minutemen's live-and-studio patchwork album, this piece takes its title's irony…

militarism and indoctrination the inadequacy of language against violence pop culture versus political urgency

Thriller

Michael Jackson

A horror-movie pastiche built as a seduction, where the terror on screen and the terror of intimacy blur together. The song…

horror as seduction voyeurism and spectacle predator/prey dynamics

Will You Be There (Theme from "Free Willy")

Michael Jackson

A prayer-like ballad built almost entirely from pleas for comfort, this song strips away narrative in favor of accumulated…

dependence and vulnerability spiritual longing the burden of public expectation

Fastlove, Pt. 1

George Michael

A dance-floor confession dressed as a come-on: the narrator openly admits he's chasing casual sex to numb loneliness rather than…

casual sex as self-medication loneliness disguised as hedonism emotional honesty within a pickup

Monkey

George Michael

A pop-funk plea from a partner watching a lover slide back into a destructive habit, with the habit personified as a rival for…

addiction as rival codependency frustrated love

Billie Jean

Michael Jackson

A first-person account of a man accused of fathering a child by a woman he insists was never his lover, told as a paranoid,…

paranoia and fame denial and guilt seduction and manipulation

Off the Wall

Michael Jackson

A pulsing invitation to abandon the grind of daily routine and lose yourself in dance, this title track sells liberation through…

escapism nightlife as liberation rejection of convention

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'

Michael Jackson

A funk-driven complaint about gossip and betrayal, built almost entirely from repetition and chant rather than narrative detail.…

gossip and rumor paranoia and persecution betrayal

Kissing a Fool

George Michael

A torch song about a love ended by other people's interference rather than a lack of feeling, sung by a narrator who oscillates…

betrayal by outside influence wounded pride unresolved devotion

They Don't Care About Us

Michael Jackson

A protest chant built almost entirely from one repeated grievance, this song stacks fragmented images of police violence, media…

police brutality institutional neglect racial injustice

Human Nature

Michael Jackson

A nocturnal meditation on urban restlessness and desire, framed as a defense against unnamed accusers who question the…

urban alienation desire and impulse self-justification

Beat It

Michael Jackson

A pulsing anti-violence anthem disguised as a street-fight taunt: the title's double meaning lets the song urge retreat from…

peer pressure toxic masculinity violence and its futility

Faith

George Michael

A dance-pop declaration of self-preservation dressed up as a love song: the narrator is attracted to someone but refuses to hand…

romantic self-protection distrust of surface attraction patience versus desire

Workin' Day and Night

Michael Jackson

A frantic, groove-driven complaint disguised as a love song: the narrator is exhausted not by manual labor but by the endless…

overwork as metaphor for unreciprocated effort suspicion and jealousy exhaustion

Radio Free Europe

R.E.M.

R.E.M.'s breakthrough single is famous for being nearly unparseable as language, built from fragments that gesture at broadcast…

media distrust obscured communication displacement and arrival