The Temptation Playlist
November 25, 2015 12:57 PM   Subscribe

I am looking for songs about temptation, particularly those that wrestle with the question of how to do right by all parties involved.

Actually, it doesn't have to be songs. With writing the above, I immediately thought of the big speech in "Scent of a woman" where Al Pacino talks about "Every time I came to the crossroads, I knew what the right answer was and I did not do it because it would be too hard." I would be thrilled to get video clips of more scenes like that, including that scene in specific.

I guess the real goal here is stuff that validates that doing the right thing is hard, people often feel ashamed of being tempted even when they try like hell to do right by all parties, and crapping on someone is a really common means to resolve a situation where no answer will be both easy and good. You have to pick one of those. You cannot have both.

I am primarily thinking of situations of sexual infidelity, but the speech in "Scent of a woman" is not about that, so other difficult situations are welcome.

Thanks!
posted by Michele in California to Media & Arts (42 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: "Tempted" by Squeeze
posted by headnsouth at 1:10 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: New Birds by Arab Strap is about running into someone you used to fancy and they would totally take you home but you have a partner now so what do you do?
"But you have to remember there's this other kiss"
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:10 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Tempted by Marty Stuart.
posted by OrangeDisk at 1:19 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Don't Stand So Close to Me
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:22 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Joan Armatrading has Temptation and The Weakness in Me.
posted by dywypi at 1:27 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


"Say No To This" from the Hamilton Original Cast Recording.
posted by Ipsifendus at 1:30 PM on November 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: I have done a few of these Asks before and I keep tripping over the problem of finding the time to watch all the videos etc before picking Best Answers. The bar for getting Best Answered here is a link to the video or a bit of description.

Thanks, you awesome people. And happy holidays (I will be offline for a couple of days, so some Best Answers will not happen until the weekend).
posted by Michele in California at 1:33 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: "Torn Between Two Lovers" - Mary MacGregor
posted by mefireader at 1:34 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Into Temptation by Crowded House (and the counterpoint Better Be Home Soon).

I've always thought of Angel From Montgomery as someone just on the cusp of cheating but choosing not to.
posted by Candleman at 1:44 PM on November 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Temptation of Adam by Josh Ritter. Bonus nuclear missile points on that one.
posted by mermaidcafe at 1:54 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: But my man, you're someone else's man
And that ain't the kind of man I would want
But you keep drawing me in with those big brown lion eyes


Pink's The One That Got Away goes with this theme, especially the doing right by everyone part. Here's a video with lyrics!
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 1:55 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Two songs that I remember from the same middle-school year:

Luther Ingram - If Loving You Is Wrong

Billy Paul - Me And Mrs. Jones
posted by morspin at 2:02 PM on November 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Heaven 17 - Temptation.
posted by progosk at 2:20 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Genesis - In too Deep
posted by Alexandra Michelle at 2:23 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Unspoken temptation in Emiliana Torrini's At Least It Was.
posted by progosk at 2:28 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Elliot Smith - Twilight - "Already somebody's baby..."
posted by progosk at 2:32 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Mia Doi Todd - What If We Do?.
posted by progosk at 2:38 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: I know that your lips are sweet, but our lips must never meet (a little creepy with perhaps putting responsibility on the "little girl", but hey, it's a really old song, and the longing is palpable).
posted by amtho at 2:42 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Cat Power's Good Woman.
posted by threeants at 2:51 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: "Liar" by Dragonette
posted by Marinara at 3:17 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Next Lifetime by Erykah Badu

"now what am I supposed to do when I want you in my world? how can I want you for myself when I'm already someone's girl?"
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 3:22 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: The Bay City Rollers Bye Bye Baby
Wish I never had known you better
Wish I knew you before I met her
Gee how good it would be for me.
Shoulda told her that I can't linger
There's a wedding ring on my finger
She's got me and I'm not free so
Bye bye baby
baby Goodbye
posted by billiebee at 4:27 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: I always liked Etta James' Almost Persuaded because, as you say, she sings about everyone involved - not just the Other Man or her husband but also her own integrity.

Last night, all alone at a party
I met a man with a drink in his hand
He had soft brown eyes and coal black hair
And a smile a girl could understand
...
And oh I was all, almost persuaded
To strip myself apart, apart, yes
Oh almost, nearly persuaded now
To push my, push my ole conscience right on the side

Then we danced, then we danced, he whispered, "Baby, I need you now"
He said to me, "Let me take you away, ooh I wanna be your man"
Than I looked in his eyes and I saw it, yeah I saw it
I saw the reflection of my, my wedding band

Oh I was almost, almost, almost persuaded, yes I was
To let a strange lips, somebody's lips lure me, lure me on, now
Oh I was almost, yeah nearly, nearly persuaded
But your, your sweet love made me stop, made me stop and go on
posted by Beti at 5:08 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Darden Smith-Loving Arms
Half of this morning and most of last night
I've been taking tally on the last years of my life
I've been pretty righteous but God only knows
A couple of calls were not even close
At least my indiscretions were sweeter than most

Oh, those loving arms, those sweet, sweet loving arms

Count the bad, count the good
And all I wouldn't change even if I could
I used to stumble back when I was young
And I'm still stumbling but now it's a lot more fun
And I'm falling, I'm falling, I flew too close to the sun

To get your loving arms, your loving arms, your loving arms
Your sweet, sweet loving arms
To get to your loving arms, your loving arms, your loving arms
Your sweet, sweet loving arms

Empty pockets, motel beds
Airline tickets, words better left unsaid
Strange kisses get the ghost
What I miss is what she'll never know
Everyday another mountain, another mountain to climb

To get to your loving arms, your loving arms, your loving arms
Your sweet, sweet loving arms
To get to your loving arms, your loving arms, your loving arms
Your sweet, sweet loving arms

And the world could be perfect even if we are not
If everything is forgiven even if not forgot
And when the morning comes a breaking
And I call out your name, my heart will be running

Oh, running to get to your loving arms, your loving arms, your loving arms
Your sweet, sweet loving arms
To get to your loving arms, your loving arms, your loving arms
Your sweet, sweet loving arms

To get to your loving arms, your loving arms, your loving arms
Your sweet, sweet loving arms
Your loving arms, your loving arms, your loving arms
Your sweet, sweet loving arms
To get to your loving arms
posted by LaBellaStella at 5:11 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Ani Difranco, Shameless.

I gotta cover my butt 'cause I covet
Another man's wife
I gotta divide my emotions
Into wrong and right
Then I get to see how close I can get to it
Without giving in
Then I get to rub up against it
Till I break the skin
Rub up against it
Till I break the skin
...

Just please don't name this
Please don't explain this
Just blame it all on me
Say I was shameless

posted by jesourie at 5:28 PM on November 25, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: "Temptation" by Prince (on Around the World in a Day)
posted by John Cohen at 5:39 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Olivia Newton John, "I Honestly Love You" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac24COCKTVM

The Grass Roots, "Midnight Confession" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nZnqtDdsws
posted by FencingGal at 5:42 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: Chuck Brodsky, "Bill and Annie"

We stopped for peaches at a little roadside stand
Man said his name was Bill, I said "I'm Chuck and this is Annie"
He said Annie was the one & only true love of his life
They met at his wedding but by then he had a wife...

posted by Flannery Culp at 6:01 PM on November 25, 2015


Best answer: "Criminal" -- Fiona Apple
posted by bookworm4125 at 7:11 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: You could drive a person crazy. Now, Soon, Later set of songs from A Little Night Music is temptation/seduction from three perspectives. Also Liaisons and The Miller's Son and Perpetual Anticipation from the same musical. Sondheim has answers for everything.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:32 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Tom Waits, "Temptation."
posted by baseballpajamas at 7:37 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Dolly Parton's "Jolene" is the cheated-on woman asking the other woman not to take her man. I always hated it because it implies the guy's not responsible for cheating, it's the other woman tempting him. But another perspective anyway.
posted by headnsouth at 8:56 PM on November 25, 2015 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Del Amitri - Be My Downfall

Well the bus is pulling out
And I guess I'd better go
Before I make a grave mistake and let my feelings show
And twenty miles away
She waits alone for me
But when I try to picture her you're the one I see

And in another situation I could put up a fight
But you will be my downfall tonight
posted by *becca* at 3:08 AM on November 26, 2015


Best answer: Also Imogen Heap - The Walk

Inside out, upside-down twisting beside myself,
Stop that now; you're as close as it gets without touching me,
Oh no, don't make it harder than it already is,
Mmm, I feel a weakness coming on.
posted by *becca* at 3:18 AM on November 26, 2015


Best answer: Just remembered two albums with this theme running all through them:

Fleetwood Mac had some musical-beds happening when developing the Rumours album, and the lyrics & production reflect it. Go Your Own Way is a good track to start with.

And Richard & Linda Thompson recorded and toured for their Shoot Out the Lights album, which documented their breakup. The whole album is excruciating, as you can guess from the titles (linked to the one I found most haunting).

Don't Renege on Our Love / Walking on a Wire / Man in Need / Just the Motion / Shoot Out the Lights / Back Street Slide / Did She Jump or Was She Pushed? / Wall of Death

Ooh and another song I just thought of - much-covered & also done by R&L Thompson but I'm linking to Percy Sledge because it was written in that era: The Dark End of the Street.
posted by headnsouth at 9:44 AM on November 26, 2015


Best answer: I can't quote a scene, but the Dean Martin character in Rio Bravo comes to mind.

Temptation is also a theme in Porgy and Bess.
posted by SemiSalt at 10:44 AM on November 26, 2015


Best answer: Go Home Girl, Ry Cooder - Wikipedia
posted by smugly rowan at 2:20 PM on November 26, 2015


Best answer: Marty Stuart's album "The Pilgrim" is a meditation on infidelity, longing, and trying to do right. Highly recommended.
posted by valannc at 2:20 PM on November 26, 2015


Best answer: Old 97s, Designs on You. Kind of losing the battle with temptation, and warning the object of his affections that he's going to make a play for her even though he knows he shouldn't.

You can go ahead and get married
And this'll be our secret thing
I won't tell a soul except the people in the nightclub where I sing
I don't want to get you all worked up
Except secretly I do --
I'd be lying if I said I didn't have designs on you.


I also always kind of thought Radiohead's There There was about this kind of temptation.

There's always a siren singing you to shipwreck
Steer away from these rocks, we'd be a walking disaster […]
Why so green and lonely?
The Lord sent you to me.
We are accidents waiting to happen.

posted by snowmentality at 12:20 PM on November 28, 2015


Best answer: Here's a link to The Temptation of Adam, suggested by mermaidcafe above. (Link provided because the song is so so good.)
posted by booth at 10:23 AM on December 18, 2015


Response by poster: I still haven't listened to everything, but the very first answered has worked best for me so far. He isn't happy with the situation, but he accepts the consequences of his actions and gets on with life. I also like the lighthearted playing with language amidst a serious subject:

"I fumble for the clock -- alarmed by the seduction".

Something about that just tickles me.

Happy holidays!
posted by Michele in California at 1:15 PM on December 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


Time Will Show the Wiser by Fairport Convention. Here's another video (with worse sound) that shows the band in the studio.

Was Richard Thompson ever really that young?
posted by Bruce H. at 11:09 PM on August 28, 2016


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