You Deserve Much Better Than Me

It's been a few months since the last time I berated popular music lyrics, so I feel the time is right for us to consider a song by which I am deeply troubled. I feel fairly certain that I have shared my feelings about these profoundly disturbing lyrics in person with at least 80 percent of Compulsive Analysis's regular readers (at last count, 5), so if you've already been subjected to my rant and do not wish to continue reading this post, I understand.

That being said, I now provide you with the lyrics of "Better Than Me," by Hinder, the "musical" ensemble responsible for "Lee-ups of an Angel."

I think you can do much better than me
After all the lies I made you believe
Guilt kicks in and I start to see
The edge of the bed
Where your nightgown used to be
I told myself I wouldn't miss you
But I remembered
What it feels like beside you

I really miss your hair in my face
And the way your innocence tastes
And I think you should know this
You deserve much better than me

While looking through your old box of notes
I found those pictures
That you were looking for
If there's one memory I don't want to lose
That time at the mall
You and me in the dressing room
I told myself I won't miss you
But I remembered
What it feels like beside you

I really miss your hair in my face
And the way your innocence tastes
And I think you should know this
You deserve much better than me

The bed I'm lying in is getting colder
Wish I never would've said it's over
And I can't pretend that I won't think about you when I'm older
Cause we never really had our closure
This can't be the end

I really miss your hair in my face
And the way your innocence tastes
And I think you should know this
You deserve much better than me

I really miss your hair in my face
And the way your innocence tastes
And I think you should know this
You deserve much better than me

(And I think you should know this)
(You deserve much better than me)


Aside from the lead singer's gravely, I-smoke-two-packs-a-day-and-sleep-only-from-10 AM-to-2 PM-so-I-can-sound-like-that-guy-from-Creed voice and the unwanted mental image of a latter-day power ballad crooner determining how a nightgown-clad co-ed's innocence tastes, what really irks me about the song is its wretched refrain:

And I think you should know this
You deserve much better than me

I've said it before and I'll say it again: ladies, if a man tells you you deserve better than him, take him at his word and exit immediately. Run away! Run away! I shall now enlighten you as to the only possible reasons a man would use this abhorrent phrase:

1. He has terribly low self-esteem and needs a girlfriend/therapist to keep him from crumbling into a million self-loathing pieces. Get out now or spend the rest of your life babysitting his fragile ego.

or

2. He's absolutely right--you do deserve better than him. He's a self-involved bottom-dweller who knows he's done something to warrant your fury and is faking penitence to prevent a five-star break-up scene and/or the withdrawl of your financial support.

That's it. Those are the only options. Either way, he's got to go.

Clearly, Hinder-man falls into category 2. He's lied to Miss Innocent (line 2) and perhaps moved on to greener pastures, so he fakes guilt (line 3) and regret (lines 28-29). How do I know he's faking? Because it's not her he's missing. It's the sex.

I start to see
The edge of the bed
Where your nightgown used to be

If there's one memory I don't want to lose
That time at the mall
You and me in the dressing room

The bed I'm lying in is getting colder

If he really had such high regard for the woman who deserves so much better than him, why would the entire song be about wanting her (or at least, the sex) back? If he was really as benevolent as the offending lyric attempts to suggest, wouldn't he encourage her to find someone who is good enough, or better yet, demonstrate that he has seen the error of his ways, reformed, and made himself good enough?

I rest my case.