songs about abortion

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Alice
Date: 19 Sep 97 - 01:43 AM

Ian and Sylvia recorded "The Woman From York". She fell in love with her father's clerk, gives birth to twins in the woods, kills them with a penknife, then meets them "playing at ball" on the way back to her father's hall. "Oh babes, oh babes, it's heaven for you... mother, oh mother it's hell for you..." The formula repeats itself in another Scottish version, including dressing the babes in scarlet, a symbol of blood.

Alice

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Bert
Date: 16 Sep 97 - 11:12 AM

Frank,

The Old Wives Tale in England is to dring Gin and Nutmeg.

Subject: Lyr Add: MARY McGILL^^
From: rich r
Date: 15 Sep 97 - 08:27 PM

MARY McGILL sung by Kim Walleck (I'm not 100% certain she also wrote it)

In a clinic on Main Street in Washingtonville/ Lost in thought by a window stood Mary McGill/ When her eyes met the eyes of a woman outside/ Was it rain on her glasses or tears she had cried/ Outside on the picket line Rose Mary Flynn/ Felt the rain on her face and the anger within/ As she stared at the rface inside, gentle and warm/ That seemed almost to beckon her in from the storm.

And the two women found themselves staring awhile/ Recognition, awareness but never a smile/ And there seemed to be some kind of truce in that stare/ Until Rose Mary Flynn recalled why she was there/ The she held up her sign that said "Thou shalt not kill"/ And she pointed directly at Mary McGill/ And Mary McGill before starting to turn/ Gave a nod to acknowledge Rome Mary's concern.

That day Mary counselled a child named Michelle/ Who tried hard to seem calm in her personal hell/ Mary spoke to MIchelle with the tone of a friend/ And her gentleness brought Michelle's calm to an end/ Michelle told her story with pain hard to hide/ Of her mother and John and the new life inside/ She had meant to show love, she had meant no one harm/ But her mother felt anger and John felt alarm

But the new life inside was a life, it was real/ With a brain and a heartbeat she thought she could feel/ And she wanted the child she would love it so well/ But she'd end the new life for her mother and John/ I'll do it Michelle said for my mother and John/ These words had an emptiness Mary saw through/ If you do it said Mary, pleased do it for you/ Michelle only murmured the words "I don't know"/ And she stood and she turned and she started to go/ And Mary made one last request of Michelle/ With her parting words "Take time to think this out well"

that night Michelle's mother stormed into the place/ Not hiding her anger, yet hiding her face/ My daughter came here with a purpose she said/ Not to have you put foolish ideas in her head / She's too young, she's a girl, and the father's a boy/ And she thinks that a baby is some kind of toy/ Your job was to teach her, to straighten her out/ NOt confuse her and send her home riddled with doubt.

My job explained mary was not to confuse/ But to make her aware of her freedom to choose/ My job is to make sure the options are known/ You are right she is young, but her life is her own/ Then mary saw something in this woman's face/ And remembered the person, the time and the place/ This woman had labelled abortion a sin/ The face on the picket line, Rose Mary Flynn.

People often accuse and are quick to condemn/ When the issue is safe and does not affect them/ I don't envy the job facing Mary McGill/ I don't know all the meanings of "Thou shalt not kill"/ It's a conflict more simply prevented than solved/ But the choice must belong to the woman involved/ And I think that the answers come not from above/ But from us and our consciences tempered with love.

rich r

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 15 Sep 97 - 06:57 PM

I fathered a poor little bastard/ The runt is both stupid and thin/ Don't blame it me and my whiskey/ It's the mother who kept drinking gin.

Allright, so I made up that horrid little rhyme myself, but here is an interesting tidbit. I don't know if this fits in with your research project, but an old wives trick for inducing abortions in Scotland in the late 1950's involved sitting on buckets on boiling hot gin, and drinking the stuff. I don't know how widespread the idea was, but it was certainly tried in my case. My Aunt gave me the dirt on this one time. For those of you who might be a bit slow, let me add....

It doesn't work.. 'hic, Frank.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: LaMarca
Date: 15 Sep 97 - 05:34 PM

Bert, that reminded me of another version of the same song:

My mother makes cheap prophylactics
She pokes in each end with a pin
My father does quickie abortions
My God, how the money rolls in!

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: bert
Date: 15 Sep 97 - 09:04 AM

There is also the verse of "My God how the money rolls in"

My Uncle's a Harley Street surgeon
with instruments pointed and thin
He only does one operation
My God how the money rolls in.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: rich r
Date: 13 Sep 97 - 09:20 AM

There is a relatively recent song called "Mary McGill" by Kim Wallick that deals with the modern scene of clinic protests and women's choice. It is fairly long. I will have to dig it out and enter it when I can.

rich r

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From:
Date: 13 Sep 97 - 03:06 AM

The only traditional song I know that specifically mentions abortion is Tamlin. The lyrics in the version I sing refer to abortion when she finds herself pregnant--

Then up and spoke another serving girl; "Ever and alas!" said she; "I think I know a herb in the merry green wood, That'll twine your babe from thee, Lady."

So Margaret's taken up her silver comb; Made haste to comb her hair; And she's away to the merry green wood As fast as she can tear, can tear...

But she hadn't pulled a herb in that merry green wood-- A herb but barely one-- When by her stood young Tamlin Saying, "Margaret, leave it alone, my love..."

"Oh why do you pull that bitter little herb, That herb that grows so grey, To take away that sweet babe's life, That we got in our play, my dear?"

etc.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Bruce
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 06:58 PM

Thanks Susan, I even have Lloyd's book, but didn't think to look there.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Susan of DT
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 06:31 PM

also try @baby @deadbaby and @bastard not all songs will apply, but many will

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Susan of DT
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 06:25 PM

Susan - I saw your query on the ballad list and replied to the person who sent it in (I can't seem to 'reply all" onmy current system) and was goin to send you a more researched response to your email.

Tamlin for abortion Bonny Hind, Sheathe and Knife, Lizzie Wan, King's Dochter Jean for incest/murder (child 16, 50,51,52) Cruel Mother, Mary Hamilton It goes on and on and on - nice list, LaMarca

Bruce - "Underneath her Apron" is in the DT

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From:
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 05:55 PM

UNFORTUNATE LASS, in the database.

It is similar to Young Girl Cut Down In Her Prime sung by PEI singer Teresa Doyle, and to any number of that type of song that I call 'beat the drums slowly" songs. Usually there is something about who is to carry the coffin, strew the roses, etc.

Then there's Oh No, Not I, which was done by Doyle and also by Stan Rogers -- "take the child upon your back and a beggin' you may go." I think the "green willow" reference in that song is to an abortion attempt ("Don't ever put your trust in the green willow tree")

I seem to recall reading in Annie Proulx's Shipping News that someone attempted an abortion by this method. The song and the book are set in Newfoundland. (Great book, BTW, both dark and amusing)

However in All Around My Hat the reference to green willow seems to be as a remembrance for a far-away lover, so I don't know. Can any folk herbalists enlighten me?

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Bruce
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 02:50 PM

Where is English "Underneath her Apron"? I lost my copy and reference to it a few years ago and haven't been able to relocate it. A much earlier version: "The rowin't in her apron", Scots Musical Museum, #424.

John Glen said, 'Early Scottish Melodies', p. 231, that there was a version of the SMM tune as "Under her Apron" in the McFarlane MSS c 1740. (3 vols. Vol. 1 borrowed in 1806, and never returned. Remaining are NLS MS 2084, 2085. This is one of several compliations of Scots tunes by David Young, but to the best of my knowledge not printed, and no index available.)

Compare with "Willie o Winsbury".

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: LaMarca
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 10:46 AM

In most of the traditional songs that I know, an unwanted pregnancy is dealt with by killing the pregnant mother, or by post-natal killing of the child. Some other examples of this (in addition to the ones listed above) are:

The Green Willow Tree - English song in which a woman follows her lover to sea, bears baby on board ship and both are thrown overboard by said lover
Banks of the Ohio - American murder ballad where pregnancy usually isn't specifically mentioned as the reason for the girl's murder by her "true" love
Banks of Red Roses - Irish song with same plot as "Banks of the Ohio".
Cousin Joe - grim little English song, recorded by Nic Jones, where young woman deserts her lover to have a fling with Cousin Joe, gets pregnant, attempts to file a paternity suit against original boyfriend, and hangs herself when she loses the suit and can't support the child
Sheath and Knife, Queen Jane - two English ballads about incest, in which the brother kills the pregnant sister to prevent the shame becoming public.
The Month of January, Mary On the Wild Moor - two songs (both Irish?) in which the father casts the pregnant daughter out from the home. In "January", she is singing sadly about her plight; in "Mary", she and the baby die at the barred door of the family home.
The Maid Ga'ed Tae the Mill - Scottish bawdy song about young woman indulging in a fling with the miller and its consequences. Contains verses about the parents' reaction to her baby - one tells her to "cast it out" and the other to raise it in joy.
Underneath Her Apron - English song, again mildly comic, about a very young girl concealing her pregnancy from her family, which is very surprised when the child is born.

All these are traditional. One recently written funny song about birth control is "Bridget and the Pill", where the good Irish Catholic girl Bridget goes up the church hierarchy all the way to the Pope, seeking permission to stop having babies, and finally tells the Church to bugger off and gets herself a prescription.

Some of these are probably in the Digital Tradition database in one form or another; if there's any here you're interested in that you can't find, I'll dig up the words or give you a source.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Laoise
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 07:19 AM

There's also the one about incest if this could be included in your thesis - The Well Below the Valley-O, where the maiden in the tale has had several children by her brothers, Uncles and Father and has them all buried in wierd places. I know people who refuse to sing it because of the meaning of the song.

Laoise.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 07:03 AM

Susan,

I'm not acquainted with any traditional songs about abortion, but unwanted pregnancy is an all too common theme in folksong. "The Cruel Mother" is a chilly tale of infanticide, and there are countless songs of women abandoned with children, "The Dear Companion" from Cecil Sharp's collection is a favourite of mine, Also in Sharp's collection, "I'm a Day Too Young", "No My Love not I", which includes the deliciously wicked verse..

The best thing I can advise for you to do, Is to take your baby on your back and a begging for to go, And when that you are weary love, you may sit down and cry and curse the very hour that you said, not I my love, not I. 'The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" tells of a fellow who leads a girl astray, then knifes the poor wretch.In American folksongs that came over from Britain, references to pregnancy are often deleted ( damn puritans!) but if a young man is inexplicably killing his darlin'....

It ain't folksong, but the Sex Pistols did an incredible song about abortion, I don't remember the title, but it's on their album "Never mind the bollocks". I never could make out all the lyrics, noisy stuff, but I recall lines like..

In a plastic packet in a lavatory,

illegitimate place to be,

Bloody little baby, screaming, mummy, I'm not an animal, it's an abortion. Also..

She don't want a baby that looks like that.

Good uh, hunting??? Frank.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From:
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 06:04 AM

Check out the songs, "My Body" and "Still Ain"t Satisfied" in the songbook called Rise Up Singing. See also the following references in The Mudcat Discussion Forum:

Annie Talley RE: FOLK SONGS TO DITCH 10-Jun-97 and
Jack RE: Parody Folk Circle I 20-Aug-97

Subject: songs about abortion
From: Susan Lerner
Date: 12 Sep 97 - 04:41 AM

For a research project that I am doing, I would appreciate any information on folk songs (traditional or composed) dealing with abortion and unwanted pregnancy. I'm also interested in any recordings of such songs. Thanks. Please feel free to email me directly at [e-mail]

Susan Lerner