Results for “wounded pride”

Songs

Forever On My Mind

Son House

A Delta blues lament built on the classic AAB stanza form, this song traces a man's attempt to reconcile betrayal with lingering…

betrayal and abandonment obsessive longing wounded pride

A Song from Under the Floorboards

Magazine

A first-person monologue delivered from a position of self-declared abjection, in which the speaker inventories his own…

self-loathing as identity perverse pride alienation

I Love L.A.

Randy Newman

A booming, boosterish anthem that turns out to be a satire of boosterism itself: the narrator's civic pride is so shallow and…

civic pride as delusion class blindness American boosterism

Doin' Time

Lana Del Rey

This is Lana Del Rey's faithful, lightly reworked cover of Sublime's 1996 track, itself a reggae-inflected reimagining of the…

betrayal and possessiveness local pride and belonging romantic disillusionment

9th Wonder (Blackitolism)

Digable Planets

A loose, jazz-inflected posse cut in which the Digable Planets crew trade boasts about style, borough pride, and lyrical…

borough/regional pride Afrocentric and cosmic imagery lyrical dexterity as identity

Proud to Be Black

Run-DMC

A blunt, celebratory statement of Black pride built from direct proclamation, historical name-checking, and defiant refusal of…

Black pride and self-affirmation historical memory and education defiance against oppression

Fight the Power (From "Do The Right Thing" Soundtrack)

Public Enemy

A rallying anthem built on funk breaks and blunt sloganeering, the track argues that Black cultural pride and outright refusal…

Black pride and self-determination media and cultural gatekeeping collective action versus passivity

Mr. Big

Free

A blues-rock warning shot aimed at a rival encroaching on the narrator's relationship. It's less a fully worked lyric than a…

jealousy and possessiveness masculine pride confrontation

Stackolee

Mississippi John Hurt

Mississippi John Hurt's version of the Stagolee legend strips the story down to its bare bones: a hat, a gun, a killing, and an…

violence and its casualness justice and law folk mythology

Foolish Heart

Alison Krauss

A young narrator rehearses her own exit from a doomed relationship, arguing herself into leaving before she can be hurt again.…

self-protection versus vulnerability romantic disillusionment pride as armor

Blindness

The Fall

This is a plainspoken cautionary tale about romantic self-deception: a man ignores his own instincts, falls hard for a woman who…

self-deception romantic ruin pride and consequence

Represent

Weezer

A brash sports-anthem pep talk built for the 2010 World Cup, 'Represent' trades Weezer's usual self-deprecation for…

competition and pride integrity versus winning family and reputation

What They Do

The Roots

A mid-90s Roots track built around a single defiant refrain, positioning the group's artistic integrity against a hip-hop…

authenticity vs. commercialism artistic integrity hip-hop lineage and craft

The Next Episode

Dr. Dre

A West Coast victory-lap posse cut in which Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg reassert their partnership and their region's dominance,…

regional pride hedonism and ritual (weed, cars, drinking) reunion/partnership

So Fresh, So Clean

OutKast

A hook-driven strut through vintage cars, retro cool, and pickup lines, where the chorus's braggadocio functions less as…

vanity and self-presentation seduction and courtship rituals nostalgia for Black pop-culture iconography

California Roll

Snoop Dogg

A breezy, sun-drenched ode to Los Angeles life that runs its title's double meaning -- rolling a joint and 'going with the flow'…

California/L.A. mythology cannabis culture seduction and courtship

In Your Eyes

Peter Gabriel

A love song that treats romantic devotion as a form of spiritual salvation, where another person's gaze becomes the only stable…

romantic devotion as salvation spiritual longing expressed through eros restlessness and escape

Pale Shelter

Tears for Fears

A song about emotional withholding, built as a plea disguised as a diagnosis. The narrator keeps demanding certainty and love…

emotional neglect need for control insecurity in relationships

Honey

Robyn

"Honey" is a slow-burning dance track that turns sensual invitation into a philosophy of pleasure and self-repair. Built from…

desire and surrender self-care as sensuality the gap between want and need

409

The Beach Boys

An early Beach Boys car song that treats a Chevrolet engine like a lover and a racehorse at once, built almost entirely on chant…

car culture masculine pride and status consumerism/saving toward a goal

Friday

Ice Cube

This is Ice Cube's contribution to the 'Friday' soundtrack lineage, a loosely structured verse-by-verse tour of a South Central…

neighborhood pride and territoriality hedonism as escape normalized violence

Above And Beyond (The Call Of Love)

Rodney Crowell

A plainspoken proposal song built almost entirely around one repeated pledge: that devotion, not money, will be the measure of a…

romantic devotion class and money courtship and destiny

When It Rain

Danny Brown

A relentless portrait of Detroit street violence set to a hyper-fast, footwork-inspired beat, where the manic tempo and…

urban poverty and survival violence and fatalism addiction as coping mechanism

Dublin Blues

Guy Clark

Guy Clark builds a heartbroken travelogue out of restlessness, cataloguing cities and cultural landmarks as a way of avoiding…

heartbreak and longing restlessness and travel as avoidance pride versus vulnerability

Superwoman

Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight catalogs the domestic labor of a woman keeping a household running while her partner grows cold and indifferent,…

emotional labor and domestic care withheld affection self-respect and pride

Theme from "the Dukes of Hazzard (Good Ol' Boys)"

Waylon Jennings

This is a theme song that doubles as a character sketch and a wink at its own singer, framing rural outlaws as harmless folk…

rural outlaw mythology folk-hero framing of crime Southern identity and pride

All Under One Roof Raving

Jamie xx

A dance-floor chant built from a handful of vocal samples looped and rearranged rather than a lyric in any conventional sense.…

collective identity cultural pride/nationalism (subcultural) defiance

Fight the Power

Public Enemy

A dense, funk-driven manifesto that treats mainstream American culture's chosen icons as instruments of erasure, demanding Black…

institutional racism Black pride and self-determination media and cultural gatekeeping

Not Like Us

Kendrick Lamar

A West Coast diss track that turns a specific rap beef into a broader indictment of cultural appropriation, exploitation, and…

cultural authenticity vs. appropriation predatory behavior and exploitation regional pride (West Coast/Compton)

Lost Your Head Blues

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith delivers a blues complaint about a lover who has gotten money and forgotten who stood by him when he had none. It's…

betrayal after success female self-respect economic power shifting a relationship

I'm Still Standing

Elton John

A breakup anthem built entirely around defiant repetition, where the narrator addresses an ex directly to declare emotional…

resilience revenge through self-sufficiency emotional survival

Never Could Toe the Mark

Waylon Jennings

A plainspoken defense of romantic independence, delivered in Waylon Jennings' outlaw drawl. The narrator explains, without…

romantic independence resistance to conformity outlaw self-mythology

Rolling in the Deep

Adele

A breakup anthem that transforms grief into a threat, built on gospel-inflected repetition and a rising, percussive arrangement.…

betrayal and revenge transformation of pain into power lost potential

Baltimore

Nina Simone

A song-portrait of urban decay, written not by Simone but performed on her 1978 record of the same name, in which a wounded city…

urban decay poverty escape and displacement

You Belong To Me

Chaka Khan

A meditation on jealousy and reassurance, sung by a partner who has just been told about some flirtation or attention from an…

jealousy possessiveness self-assurance

Hush

Deep Purple

This is a straightforward garage-pop cover turned hard-rock workout, built almost entirely from nonsense syllables and a simple…

obsessive infatuation powerlessness in love physical desire

You Belong to Me

Carly Simon

A woman confronts a partner who has just confessed some flirtation or infidelity, and instead of collapsing into jealousy she…

possessiveness disguised as devotion jealousy and self-assurance confession and its fallout

On Hold

The xx

A breakup song built on the gap between assumed permanence and sudden loss, where the narrator realizes too late that…

complacency in love loss of control desire versus resentment

Angel

Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan addresses a fragile, self-sabotaging figure imagined as a wounded angel, urging her toward emotional openness and…

emotional vulnerability self-acceptance healing through love

The Thrill Is Gone

B.B. King

B.B. King turns a breakup into a slow, dignified reckoning, using a repeated confession -- the thrill is gone -- as both wound…

disillusionment in love emotional resignation reclaiming dignity after betrayal