"Down Down" by Status Quo was a massive hit for them and one of their signature songs, but the lyrics seem to be about a vengeful bastard slamming his faithless or independent-minded girlfriend and promising to take her down, in body and in spirit: "I can see you're laughing, and you're laughing at me/ I can take it all from you (---) again again again again again again again /Deeper and down, get down, deeper and down..."- I think the band were quite aware of the rough lyrics, they work quite fine as an ironic put-down of the brutal role character and some other of their songs are remarakably nuanced about macho attitudes, about growing up. But I doubt most of their fans noticed how nasty the guy in the song is.
"Bad Bad Boy" with Scots hard rockers Nazareth would be from around the same time, and it tells of a really mean guy, but the song is so cheeky about the rambling adventures of this playboy that you can't help smiling. Brilliant vocal delivery by Dan McCafferty with lines like:
Well I made my first kill
With the old town girl
She was the apple of her daddy's eye
Well that woman looked up at me
And I said honey we'll be
Together 'till the day I die -
BUT I LIED!
I'm a bad, bad, boy
and I'm gonna steal your love...
and a funky series of rises in key towards the end of the track as he sirens out "I'm a bad, bad.bad... (12 times!) boy" again and again. Outstanding bass hook too. The lyrics are super naughty but not that serious - the opposite of "Down Down".
