Bad Man (and a cello)

Erica Mulkey, Unwoman, is a San Francisco-based cellist-singer-songwriter. One of her songs is Bad Man. The subject? Rochester, of course.

Mr Rochester (from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre) is one of my most hated literary characters that I'm supposed to love. This song is from the perspective of Mr Rochester, or really any man like him (I've known several) who specifically prey on young and naive women who haven't yet learned the truth about these scoundrels, or don't know to expect better. And the trope of the angelic woman who is the salvation of the emotionally and spiritually stunted stunted man was already tired when Brontë was writing, and still gets plenty of play.

Lyrics

Wouldn’t you love to learn how to love me?
You are what I dream of
Angelic sweetness, faith and mercy

I am not a bad man
Compared to injustice you survived
I tell you you’re my equal
rare and unearthly, pure light

I know they taught you to be a good woman
To stomach the worst of men like me
Tend to my wounds as if you could heal them
Let me prey on your sympathy

I am not a bad man
You’ve always admired an anti-hero
Brooding and misunderstood because
His mind is superior
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