Get Out of Town

With the recent Sirius station shuffling, I've been trying to program in new favorites to scan through on the drive to work. I decided to give the "40's Music" channel a shot. Although many of the songs are well beyond my appreciation, the occasional minor-key woodwind progressions that can be found in music from that era always amuses me.

This morning, I heard a Cole Porter song called "Get Out of Town." Get these lyrics:

Get out of town
Before it's too late my love
Get out of town
Be good to me please

Why wish me harm
Why not retire to a farm
And be contented to charm
The birds off the trees

Just disappear
I care for you much too much
And when you're near, close to me dear
We touch too much

The thrill when we meet is so bittersweet
That darling, it's getting me down
So on your mark get set
Get out of town

One has to love the concept of a song sung by a man that basically threatens a woman to get out of town and somehow twists the argument to make it appear he is the victim. Pointing out sexism in our culture, especially the early part of last century, isn't exactly enlightening, but there is a point where it just gets disturbing. "Get out of town before it is too late," is essentially a threat of violence in today's society, and I can't imagine it wasn't back then as well. Plus, rhyming "farm" with "harm" was way too forced; the least they could have been done was to make the rest of the song sensible.

In fairness, it appears the song has been covered a number of times since Porter's 1938 release, notably by Ella Fitzgerald and Linda Ronstadt who were perhaps making an effort to even the woman's score against Cole's aggression years prior. But perhaps the real lesson here is to stick to the AC/DC channel on Sirius; songs about who has the largest testicles all of a sudden seem way less offensive.