CUCKOLDRY IN THE SONGBOOK PART DEUX

See my previous post (if you haven’t already wallowed in it) in which I discuss the sub-genre of songs in the American Popular Songbook that deal with cuckoldry. Yesterday’s song, ‘Two Cigarettes In The Dark’, featured a husband coming upon his wife in flagrante delicto with her lover. Today we put the shoe on the other proverbial foot. And that leads us to the definition of a female cuckold. What, you say? I thought cuckolds were exclusively male. Well, add this new word to your vocabulary. ‘Cuckquean’. A cuckquean is the wife of an adulterous husband/partner and the gender-opposite of a cuckold (no, duh). And that brings us to today’s song, the heartbreakingly sad ‘Guess Who I Saw Today My Dear’, as sung by the great Nancy Wilson. In this little suburban tragedy a wife drives into the city (presumably from a leafy Westchester suburb) and stops at a restaurant where she spies her husband and his inamorata. This song belongs exclusively to female singers–there’s no male heterosexual version that makes much sense though I don’t see why somebody couldn’t give it a try in this day of alternative roles in relationships. Why couldn’t he be the house husband (the one who takes care of the kids and stuff) and she the high powered exec etc. Still the song actually really belongs to Nancy Wilson–once you hear her sing it it’s hard to listen to anyone else’s rendition.

MOVIES
'TIL
DAWN

Sign up for news & updates so you don't miss a thing!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More
articles