Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: rock-n-roll
Song Meaning of “There’s No Pleasing You” by Joe Brown
This song by Joe Brown is a retrospective reflection on trying to please someone who is impossible to please. In it, the narrator is talking to a significant other who constantly criticizes them and never seems satisfied with their attempts to make them happy. The narrator reflects on how, no matter what they do, there’s no pleasing this person, with each effort met by seemingly endless fault-finding and put-downs.
The opening lines of the song set the tone – “Take a feather from your cap, you want two / Your mood is black, that’s no use, so tell me” – stressing the feeling of powerlessness in the face of someone who never seems satisfied. In the chorus, the narrator sums up the frustration of trying to please someone who can’t be pleased; “There’s no pleasing you, there’s no pleasing me / No pleasing us, and that’s how it’s got to be.”
Though the narrator still cares for their loved one, they ultimately accept that their efforts to make them happy will never be enough, and that pleasing this person is an impossible task. Ultimately, this song is a commentary on the futile attempts at pleasing someone who is never satisfied.