Do you like it when songs dispense practical advice? Examples?

This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land, by Woody Guthrie

If I Had a Hammer also by Guthrie, but Peter, Paul and Mary put it on the map.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone, also P,P and M.

Blowin’ in the Wind This version sung by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

We Shall Overcome Joan Baez

The classics from my youth and the war protests

Several generations loved these and never thought of the lyrics as being preachy.

There’s a place your mother goes
When everybody else is soundly sleeping
Through the lights of Beacon Street
And if you listen you can hear her weeping
She’s weeping because the gentlemen are calling
And the snow is softly falling on her petticoats
And she’s standing in the harbor
And she’s waiting for the sailors in the jolly boat
See how they approach?

With dirty hands and trousers torn
They grapple until she’s safe within their keeping
A gag is placed between her lips
To keep her sorry tongue from any speaking, or screaming
And they row her out to packets
Where the sailor’s sorry racket calls for maidenhead
And she’s scarce above the gunwales
When her clothes fall to a bundle
And she’s laid in bed on the upper deck

And so she goes from ship to ship
Her ankles clasped, her arms so rudely pinioned
Until at last she’s satisfied
The lot of the marina’s teaming minions
And their opinions
And they tell her not to say a thing
To cousin, kindred, kith, or kin, or she’ll end up dead
And they throw her thirty dollars and return her to the harbor
Where she goes to bed, and this is how you’re fed

So be kind to your mother
Though she may seem an awful bother
And the next time she tries to feed you collard greens
Remember what she does when you’re asleep
—A Cautionary Song, The Decemberists

Hold on loosely, but don’t let go

“If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

As a teen, I thought that was the dumbest advice ever. It’s like: Settle!

Certainly.

another good recommendation

From Another One Bites the Dus by Queen:

“There are plenty of ways you can hurt a man and bring him to the ground
You can beat him, you can cheat him
You can treat him bad and leave him when he’s down
But I’m ready, yes I’m ready for you
I’m standing on my own two feet
Out of the doorway the bullets rip, repeating the sound of the beat. Oh yeeeah
Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust”

I also like the advice in this Paul Simon number:

”“the problem is all inside your head”, she said to me
The answer is easy if you take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle to be free
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover

She said it’s really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, i hope my meaning won’t be lost or misconstrued
But i’ll repeat myself at the risk of being crude
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover

Just slip out the back, jack
Make a new plan, stan
You don’t need to be coy, roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, lee
And get yourself free

Just slip out the back, jack
Make a new plan, stan
You don’t need to be coy, roy
Just listen to me
Hop on the bus, gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, lee
And get yourself free

She said it grieves me so to see you in such pain
I wish there was something i could do to make you smile again
I said i appreciate that and would you please explain
About the fifty ways

She said why don’t we both just sleep on it tonight
And i believe in the morning you’ll begin to see the light
And then she kissed me and i realized she probably was right
There must be fifty ways to leave your lover
Fifty ways to leave your lover

Just slip out the back, jack
Make a new plan, stan
You don’t need to be coy, roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, lee
And get yourself free

You just slip out the back, jack
Make a new plan, stan
You don’t need to be coy, roy
Just listen to me
Hop on the bus, gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, lee
And get yourself free ”

”Cash Rules Everything Around Me C.R.E.A.M.
Get the money, dolla dolla bill y’all”
– Wu Tang Clan

”First comes the cash, then comes the ass, then come big blunts with chunks of hash.”
– Biggie

Money can’t buy you love. The Beatles
Those three words are said too much, they’re not enough… Snow Patrol (Chasing Cars)
If dirt were dollars we’d all be in the black. Don Henley (If Dirt Were Dollars)
The bigger the cushion the better the pushin’ you know what I mean! Spinal Tap (Big Bottom)

Can’t believe this hasn’t come up yet! The whole song is nothing but advice. A little shmaltzy I still find it touching.

Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI

“Dance.”

Cats in the Cradle Cat Stevens

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

Bony Fingers (1974) Hoyt Axton

“Work your fingers to the bone and what do you get?
Bony fingers”

You gotta know when to hold ‘em,
know when to fold ‘em,
know when to walk away,
know when to run.
You never count your money
when you’re sittin’ at the table.
There’ll be time enough for countin’
when the dealin’s done.

Owner of a Lonely Heart by YES.

@Adagio Wasn’t that by Harry Chapin?
Great song nevertheless.

@lloydbird Yes, it was Harry Chapin. That answer bothered me yesterday, but I could not figure out why.

@lloydbird Of course, you are quite right! I must have had Cat Stevens’ _Father and Son_in the back of my mind, I think, although it was very definitely the words of _Cats in the Cradle_that were running through my mind. Thanks to your prompt and Wikipedia I realise my error.