This song is not about cheating in the traditional sense of the word. The boyfriend/husband is not cheating with another woman. He's being a jerk, going out with his friends, drinking, and gallivanting around town. He comes home drunk and horny and she is ticked. Try's to lay a guilt trip on him "rub his nose in it" then makes a threat "you said you want to get even, you want to get your bad man good" but the husband/boyfriend turns it right back around to on her to get what he wants "well are you in the the mood? you bad girl don't it feel good being bad?" Seems like she caves, and they have a confusing, sorta angry night of of sex where she still feels under appreciated and used. But in the morning he is sober, barely remembers how he acted the night before and is her nice caring boyfriend/husband again. For now "the worst is over" until he decides to act up. So in a nutshell i really think this is about selfishness and the struggle for power in a relationship. "She" wants him to be a good little boy and stay by her side and "he" wants to do his own thing but still have her waiting for him at home. Like i said, i don't think this song is about cheating in a traditional sense i think it more about this guys attitude and an unwillingness to commit to the idea of a real relationship.

I think it is also an allusion to Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. The main character, Laura, is set up for a date with a "gentleman caller", who turns out to be an old crush of hers, Jim from high school. Jim woos her throughout the night and gives her false signs of love, even kisses her, then explains he is engaged. Leaving Laura devastated. Basically, in a nutshell.

So it's a spin on that but I'm almost positive the title is an obvious reference to that play.

i would always skip this song because the intro stresses me out, but i let it play through one day when i was cleaning my room and it stopped me right in my tracks. at about 1:25, i'd say is where this happens. and it happens everytime now.

I don't see the misogynist aspect. I see it as a girl who finds out her husband/boyfriend/lover/whatever is cheating on her, and she wants revenge. She cheats on him and wakes up in the morning regretting it terribly.

Whatever you need to make you feel
Like you've been the one behind the wheel

That part is reiterating the fact that she needed to feel like it was her in control of the situation, not the person cheating on her. He cheated on her, so he had the control. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's what I hear. This song is amazing and beautiful and really nice to listen to. Is it weird that I find it a bit uplifting?

I don't see the misogynist aspect. I see it as a girl who finds out her husband/boyfriend/lover/whatever is cheating on her, and she wants revenge. She cheats on him and wakes up in the morning regretting it terribly.

Whatever you need to make you feel
Like you've been the one behind the wheel

That part is reiterating the fact that she needed to feel like it was her in control of the situation, not the person cheating on her. He cheated on her, so he had the control. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's what I hear. This song is amazing and beautiful and really nice to listen to. Is it weird that I find it a bit uplifting?

I flipped through what people had already said, and while i didn't look very hard, I didn't see anyone come up with this yet.

Someone put up a really long post and mentioned how the song has one obvious meaning, but then read the song incorrectly, as far as I can tell.

They had said that the song was from the woman's perspective, but to me it absolutely looks like the whole song is being spoken by the second man (the one the woman is cheating with).

In the first verse, he's talking trash to her about her husband. "He's always coming home drunk and rude, blah blah."

The first chorus ("Bad boy") continues this.

In the second verse, he's trying to convince her that their affair isn't so bad, and trying to coerce her into it. "You say you want to get even," "Well, are you in the mood?"

The second chorus ("Bad girl-does it feel good being bad?") would be during their affair.

The third verse (the softened part) is the next day, when the man is trying to reassure her, now that she's having second thoughts and feeling guilty ("Whatever I said to make you think that love's the religion of the week," "The worst is over"). The song's mood changes considerably here, and it fits with this idea very well.

The final verse also mentions that Sunday morning is "sober" which implies that the woman was drunk during the affair, and I'm sure the irony there has been covered front to back and all over.

i love the transition. It makes you feel like it's on of those nights where you feel shitty and u've gotten drunk and u just wanna get revenge on something.

then it resolves and everything seems better.
saw them in concert and this 2nd half of the song was an extended melody to end it. oh...it made me feel happy

Does this song really just have to deal with just husbands and wives? I think it just be about a teenage couple as well. I mean, I definitely know this happens to many people, boys and girls. Young and old.

I agree with stupid name. The meaning of this song is pretty plain (and I don't think you need to dig too deep for most of Cursive's songs). The girl finds out her guy is cheating on her and is pressed to have an affair of her own.

"Whatever you need to make you feel
Like you've been the one behind the wheel" - she wants to think that she's been in control but really the second guy just used her.

I love the ending. Doot doot doot doot...all of the songs on this album blend together, it's crazy.

I hated everything Saddle Creek ever put out until I heard the second half of this song. I haven't heard lyrics capture a moment like that in so long. Bravo, Tim Kasher.

Doo do doo do doo do doo do!

I like setsunamudou732 analysis. Its seems like there are four characters in the song. A couple, not nessecarilly married, and two outsiders who helped mess up the couple's relationship. Both the man and the woman cheated and both end up feeling bad about it.

I think the key line that answers how it all ended up was, "who told you love was fleeting." In other words, who told you love only lasted briefly. There is still love between the couple. Both have lowered themselves and abandoned their morals for a while but love and the relationship will be able to survive the events.

Everyone knows, or is the couple who breaks up and gets back together after cheating. I think the song is a simple story but its content, love and emotions, can be endlessly disputed.

Bold statement, considering you know nothing about this person, save for a lyric that they must enjoy.
No it's alright brokenfireescape, judging people based on next to nothing is considered a Good thing, now.
Hey! My username is a take on a lyric I enjoy as well, would you mind analyzing my grip on the real world?

stupid name, you have absolutely no concept of reality.

Cursive is fucking amazing. Period. Where do you think I got my user name? This song.

Tiki_12 i agree with yr comment about the break down of this song, its the most amazing. The meaning of this song, is obvious. as everyone else has stated. It is about a woman getting revenge on her spouse, because he is an alcoholic. She relises his actions are not as they seem, and she has done the most wrong. The next morning.. "the worst is over."

and now that i've read the second page of comments, i would just like to add that i don't take this is a negative comment towards women whatsoever. if anything, it puts men in a negative spotlight. but mostly, it's just an honest song about relationships and cheating and what not.

you bad girl! does it feel good? being bad.

haha. genius! i love this song.

This song is the truth written for unhappy couples. They are mean and hurtful to each other. They obviously learn at the end that what they did was wrong.

My favorite line is definitely "I'm not looking for a lover
All those lovers are liars"

awesome line..cause it's true a lot of the time!

rock on cursive

I think it's interesting that Tim uses the word 'need' rather than 'want' in the line 'Sometimes men can be so misleading/To take what they need from you'. Maybe this shows that he feels that cheating is more of a primal instinct, an action that carries you away with it before you can think, rather than a well thought-out series of events. Therefore, it's sometimes forgivable - leading to the toned down, more heartfelt last two minutes or so of the song.

That being said, I love this song a whole lot and my interpretation probably isn't the most accurate, especially since it's colored by my own bias.

so does this song scare anyone in the middle of the night, listening to the cd while you're falling asleep? because it does. I don't understand why Cursive's songs aren't used in horror movies because they would do so well!

newho

But in the morning
On the sober dawn of Sunday
You're not sure what you have done
Who told you love was fleeting?
Sometimes men can be so misleading
To take what they need from you

"Who told you love was fleeting?" connects to Excerpts From Various Notes Strewn Around The Bedroom Of April Connolly as well as the verse "On the sober dawn of Sunday" connects to the drunken boyfriend Trevor Post!!! How I love Tim Kasher and Cursive.

To me this song is a story about a cheating husband who comes home to his wife and lies to her face. She knows that he's sleeping around, and she is hurt and angry and wants to get back at him. Another man sees this, and tells her he would never lie to her, to get her to sleep with him. But then she wakes up the next day, and after a sobering night of sleep, she realizes she's stooped to her husband's level, as well as that she's been used and exploited by the man she slept with. So she goes home and confronts her husband, and he admits to the truth and after a big emotional discussion they fall back in love, and hold each other like weaklings, both destroyed by what they've done to each other. The man comforts her, and tells her he still loves her, and promises to do whatever it takes to make her trust him again. The worst is over, the fight is done, and they realize they still love one another.

Some comments:

1) There is a fine line between feminism and man-hating. Now I know that men (OK, lots of men) think all women are the same and just use them for sex, and otherwise have no respect for any woman. But I'm from Oak Park, aka the most liberal town in America (I'm generally liberal, but this place takes it to an insane level, so much so that it becomes like the community religion and nobody questions it, ever). So I know what it's like to be judged negatively just because I'm a man. This is what happens when feminists become the kind of creatures that they set out to oppose. In high school, there were seriously a large number of girls who were just plain sadistic in leading guys on, then inventing some phony story about how the guy had mistreated them, and brutally dumping him.

2) Jaked on Green Beers explained the (incredibly obvious) meaning of this song... usually I'm all for multiple interpretations, but interpreting this song as something other than this, especially something anti-man, is an affront to a great song.

3) This song, then, isn't misogynist in any way. The MAN is the unfaithful one at first, and the woman cheats on him to get back at him. Obviously that eye-for-eye logic makes sense rationally, but it leads to unforeseen emotional pain. Am I supposed to view it as misogynist because the woman comes to regret her (logical) decision? Does a feminist believe that women never make mistakes, and that if a woman feels shitty, it must be the fault of a man? Whatabout the line, "sometimes men can be so misleading/to take what they need from you." Yes, her man took advantage of her for sex. But the song does not sympathise with the man. It is addressed to the woman, through the woman's point of view, and the underlying nature of the song is that of great sympathy with the woman's moods and emotions (if a feminist wants to say that women should be strong enough to avoid such emotions, or that it is misogynist to portray women as emotional, then that is bs. There is a difference between emotional and overemotional. She's not freaking out and running to a man to save her or anything.). How it documents the course between her rage, her solution, her regret, and her eventual acceptance (the worst is over), is a very empathic portrayal of complex, very human feelings.

4) end long rant about feminism: this song is beautiful. There's something for everyone (except man-haters, I guess, lol). Someone said that they loved the start. I love the end, when it mellows out. I love the low strings at the end, and the lyrics of hope, forgiveness, and moving on. Cursive seems to have something for everyone in that sense. I know they're often compared to Bright Eyes, and I don't like Bright Eyes at all. I definitely see the emo-artsy-angry/depressed connection, but some points that Cursive gets over Bright Eyes for me: some parts of their songs are actually relaxing and cathartic. Bright Eyes is just telling you how shitty the world is for an hour straight. Tim whatshisname (Cursive's lead singer) can actually sing, unlike Connor Oberst. And there's more of a melody in Cursive, even in their most powerful, energetic songs. Granted, sometimes Cursive annoys me by going into making weird, nonmusical noises (see that fairytale song and the first track (sorry I don't know much about them; I just got this CD two days ago)). But Connor Oberst seems to have a fetish for screeches or disembodied voices ranting about crazy shit, and feedback and stuff like that.

So anyways, that was a long, incoherent rant from a guy on cold medicine. Enjoy.

Ouch! Those are some harsh phrases.

This song is an anthem of what *not* to do in a relationship. It's really terrible. I mean, there are plenty of cheating lover songs out there, but they're usually whiny and pathetic.
This is raw and honest.

"He loves his forbidden fruit And as it dribbles down his chin He cries, "Baby, I've been drinking with some friends! Now how 'bout a little kiss!"
The images that conjures up are disturbing.

To emphasive my above point, see sinner's serenade:

But I used her for the game
A scapegoat to carry the blame
For a hate song
For a hate song
It's like masochism
I hate these hate songs

He recognizes the irony of putting all the blame on the woman, who obviously can't speak for herself. This is what separates cursive from other "emo" bands, though in my mind this tag name DOES NOT APPLY, for more reasons than just this.