It’s the “what’s in this drink” line that causes it to be called the “Date Rape Song” in our family.
(I mean “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” not “White Christmas.”)
However, as much as I am a total McCartney fangirl, “Wonderful Christmastime” can go away completely. Lennon’s “Happy Christmas / War is Over” is way better IMO.
Speaking of pop Christmas songs, I love Elton John’s “Step into Christmas” and I do like the original “Feed the World / Do They Know It’s Christmas.”
What are the lyrics in question?
Sidebar-
Was listening on the news today about the comeback of vinyl. Might just have to haul those 4 boxes of albums out of storage. One of our gifts for Xmas to DS#2s gf are my 3 Beatles albums from many decades ago. Will look forward to getting a call. About that tomorrow sometime. She is apparently a big fan.
I think you have to take the “what’s in this drink” in the context of the whole song. I see it as a song about desire - she stopped over his house, and her objections to leaving aren’t that she doesn’t want to say, but what will her family / neighbors think, and he’s giving her the excuses she needs (it’s too dangerous to make your way home). I don’t see anywhere where he badgers or forces her. I think it was nicely outré for the 1940s and I read it as fun and flirty, though I know others differ.
http://persephonemagazine.com/2010/12/listening-while-feminist-in-defense-of-baby-its-cold-outside/
Here’s kind of how I see it, Hunt. Interested in your reaction.
Here are some of the key lyrics:
quote Mind if I move in closer
(At least I’m gonna say that I tried) What’s the sense of hurting my pride
(I really can’t stay) Baby, don’t hold doubt
[Both] Baby, it’s cold outside
(I simply must go) Baby, it’s cold outside
(The answer is no) Baby, it’s cold outside
(The welcome has been) How lucky that you dropped in
(So nice and warm) Look out the window at the storm
[/quote]
In this song, no doesn’t mean no. Also, he uses all sorts of arguments, including guilt (“how can you do this thing to me?”) to get her to stay, in addition to plying her with alcohol. (Also, I’m pretty sure he tells her not to “hold out,” as opposed to “hold doubt.”)
I may also be influenced by hearing it in Dean Martin’s voice.
(A similar song is “Do It Again” as sung by Judy Garland.)
The link to the lyrics inside that link is a dead link.
Ah, thanks hunt
There is no doubt from the lyrics that he tries to persuade her to stay.
There are a lot of old xmas songs that are actually kinda creepy now, like **“the stalker” **song:
Yes. Persuading her to stay is not the same as date rape, and I really wish we could stop conflating the two.
Exactly. In Baby It’s Cold Outside, they are snuggled up in front of the fire, and very much enjoying one another’s company. She wants to stay because she’s a young woman with a healthy sex drive, but it’s the 1950’s and she’s worried about ruining her “good girl image” (Those of us old enough to remember know quite well the types of social pressure women were under to maintain a facade of innocence. Of course, being a 1950’s man, he’s never had to worry about appearing sexually chaste, and thereby has no conflicting interests. He wants the fun to continue. Full stop. When she says, “Say, what’s in this drink?”, I interpret it as, “Geez, this feels entirely too good, and soooo hard to resist Whatever happened to my willpower?” The song is very much a reflection of the social conventions of the time. But one thing it’s not is a “date rape song.”
Good heavens, this makes me even more afraid that I am liberal…
Time to ban “Blue Christmas” in every Red State in the union. Sorry Elvis.
And let us remember too, that just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is smut. Even if she chooses to stay overnight, there is nothing in that song to indicate they must have sex. One or both might hope for it, but that isn’t the same thing. For any of us to assume that they will have sex, well, that isn’t in the song, it’s in the mind of the listener.
In fact, the song indicates the female lives with parents, but makes no mention of the male. He may have others in the household too.
From the first time I ever heard this song, the “Hey, what’s in this drink?” seemed to me to be saying that she thinks her drink has been spiked.
Funny, I took it in much of the context of the rest of the song, the playful banter between a couple, both drinking(she requests “just a half a drink MORE”), both looking for excuses for the woman to stay longer.
She claims she’s under “a spell”, but I don’t think her companion is Merlin the Magician. She also wants to delay the goodbye by wanting another cigarette. If one wanted to argue the lyrics should be interpreted literally, even Gloria Allred could see this woman continues to sing and talk sensibly, indicating she is not too impaired to make decisions. Even today, I’ve heard the expression “don’t drink the water” when the meaning truly isn’t that the water is impure, just that there are some coincidences. I see the lyrical expressions figuratively, and don’t add my own interpretations to create sinister meanings.
Sill think it is hope/persuasion for an overnight(post 48), as PG has concurred in post 50.
My goodness, what thoughts some might have if they hear “That old black magic” song. Is Ella Fitzgerald racist? Or Frank Sinatra in an interracial relationship? Should I interpret Ol’ Blue Eyes’ black magic as being under the spell of a Haitian voodoo queen? Is Ella’s beau into witchcraft?
Or is it just figurative, and merely poetic license?
Agreed. If this is the direction that liberalism is heading, I will politely bow out…
It’s not. It’s really not. This is seriously nothing more than the media playing into the need for older generations to show that younger generations are overly sensitive. It’s been going on forever it’s just that now we have instant access to pretty much anything that ever happens and the media can highlight whatever they want to make it seem universal. It’s not. It just gets clicks.
Good grief.