Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy? (closed)

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Matt_R
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 12:32 AM

Heard a very powerful yet disturbing one the other day, by Queen, called "White Man". Even though my family didn't get here till the late 1880's, it still makes me feel guilty about what was done to the Native Americans.

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Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 11:41 PM

I'm puking.

ww

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Plume
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 11:40 PM

Rosemary's Sister by Simon Nicol and From a Distance, but only as sung by Nanci Griffith. I have sprained my wrist wrenching the knob on the radio whenever Bette Midler's version comes on. Ray Charles's version of America gets me every time.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: cowboypoet
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 11:16 PM

The late and much lamented Townes Van Zandt wrote a song about the homeless called "Marie." One of the most powerful songs I've ever heard, and one that has never failed to produce a profound silence in place of applause from any audience I've ever played it for.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Peter T.
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 06:28 PM

I happened into a music store yesterday, and heard Johnny Cash's version of "One" from his new album (the one that won the Grammy -- Solitary Man). It was not bad. A number of other songs were not that hot. I almost bought the album on the strength of it, however.
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 04:37 PM

I'm retired from the US Fish & Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service. It is true.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 04:30 PM

Is this true? If so, it makes me want to puke.

Well, look at how impossible it is to buy anything that isn't manufactured in China these days, and consider who's making all their cheap shit and how impossible it's been to get any of our fearful leaders to say, "YOu know, we'd love to buy this flood of cheap textiles and electronics and every other tchotke imaginable, but, well, the citizens of the United States sort of hate the idea that it's made with convict labor, many of them the patriots and lovers of freedom who were arrested marching in Tiannamen Square, and the labor of children. So, maybe you could sort of, like, stop doing that and we'd be happy to consider shutting down all our factories so we can spend $1 an item less to put your people to work ... "

But, hey. This is a music thread ...

ww

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 01:58 PM

there is another whaling song (anti whaling) which goes..Its muffled boom the cruel harpoon that blast their lives apart.. Song of the Humpback whale. Everytime you buy something made in Japan, think what they are doing to the whales. Whale steak sells for $400.00 a pound in Japan, and, the scraps are made into dog food. They are killing thousands every year in the name of research. This is clearly a violation of the Whaling act, and, the Marine Mammals protection act. We have the right, under the MMPA, to put sanctions on Japan, but, our candy ass politicians wont do it.The great blue whale, the largest creature that ever lived, is doomed to extinction with an estimated 200 left in the world.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: bluebird
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 01:52 PM

Tennesee Waltz Jesse Winchester a song I was singing while walking down the road. Does not make me feel uneasy but it is a powerful song.....

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Dunc
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 11:55 AM

A few years ago I was involved in a ten day struggle to save a 50ft sperm whale which had taken a wrong turn and ended up trapped in the Firth of Forth on the east coast of Scotland. 'Moby' and I got to know each other well during those days and it made a big impact on me when he eventually died on a mudbank.

Because of this "THE LAST LEVIATHAN" always brings a lump to the throat and even a tear to the eye.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 11:45 AM

WW I have dozens of them in the back of my head. I'd be willing to share.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: WyoWoman
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 10:33 AM

"I Am Stretched On Your Grave" by Kate Rusby.

"The Last Leviathan," mentioned above.

"How Will I Ever Be Simple Again?" by Richard Thompson.

"Love Don't Need a Reason," a show-tuney one whose author I can't remember but which became an anthem in the gay community and which I sang with a friend who is HIV positive and whose days are exceedingly numbered. Also "Ballad of the Sad Young Men," ditto.

"Cornflower Blue," by Kate Wolf for supremely personal reasons: It reminds me of when the kids dad and I fell in love back in our hippie-dippie days and I thought I'd have that love forever.

"Sonny's Dream" on the Mary Black CD because it represents letting life go by because we're too fearful and dominated by others to step outside a world that constricts us.

"Martha" by Tom Waits. Sometimes love never is requited, but the memory of its tenderness never leaves us.

And of course, "All Quiet Along the Potomac."

Now I want to learn about a dozen of the songs mentioned above. I adore gut-wrenching songs, musical drama queen that I am.

WW

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 09:23 AM

Thanks Peg. You obviously have great taste in songs. That second verse just tears me up. Most un-curmudgeonly!

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Peg
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 02:25 AM

I'll second that, Kendall! (especially when you sing it)

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 25 Feb 01 - 01:03 AM

Lonesome Robin

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Linda Mattson
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 09:45 PM

There are so many. To name a few:

Christmas in the trenches Tenting tonight on the old camp ground Johnny I hardly knew ye The parting glass Too late - sung by Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin. Kate thought it was just about lovers who parted, until I mentioned the lines in the chorus "Too late too late, I saw those dark eyes fade away, Beneath that old elm tree, In heaven I know that I can say, A dark eyed angel waits for me, Too late too late..."

My friend Arlene Immerman does a workshop at our New Year's gathering - Songs that make you cry. Snif. -Linda

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: ray bucknell
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 07:51 PM

Kathy Mattea's "Where've You Been?" (written by her husband about his grandparents in a nursing home); Phil Ochs' "No More Songs" (portending his suicide?); Tom Paxton's "On the Road from Srebrenica" (the first time I heard him perform it I almost got up and left the auditorium) and, for some reason unbeknownst to me, "Scarlet Ribbons" always chokes me up.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Peg
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 06:22 PM

Counldn't sing "I But a Little Girl" for years; always cried when I heard this one singer do it live. Still get choked up when I sing it.

"Silent All These Years"; am I the only one (yeah right) who thinks Tori is speaking directly through/to me in that song??? Unbefuckinglievable.

"Kilkelly" is tough, yes. Sang it a coupel years back, three part harmony. A sad one and it needs be done right, solemn, not heavy, emotive, not sappy...

"How Fortunate the Man With None" that instrumental break just tears me apart...

Everything on side two of "Hounds of Love" by Kate Bush...

peg

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 03:09 PM

Phil Brown by Dave Mallett

It's about a town drunk who was a painter. David was one who saw beyond the obvious. Not unusual for Dave.

sample of the lyrics

and he'd come to town with his old wool hat pulled down
surrounded by the dogs that were his friends
At times too drunk to stand, he'd shake familiar hands
And sit around the ESSO station 'til his loneliness would end.Br> And all through the night, a faded yellow light
Would burn inside the room where he would stand
And play the old Victrola, drink his rusty wine
And conduct the Mozart music with his hard and shaking hand..

Man..I am so lucky to have this guy as a close friend.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Feb 01 - 12:12 AM

"The Death Of Queen Jane"

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: FOG(Friend of Gnome)
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 05:18 PM

'It all came back today' by Tanita Tikaram from the album The Sweet Keeper cos it reminds me how lucky I was to get out of the things that seemed like a good idea at the time. 'Windego' by Buffy Saint Marie from Coincidence and likely stories.-Everyone should listen to this. 'When angels cry' by Janis Ian from Revenge(I think) I know this is all a bit more contemporary but these are the ones that can make me shake and quake Oh nearly forgot-'Who knows where the time goes' by the beautiful Sandy Denny sorely missed to this day by all Brit folkies of that age group.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 05:00 PM

Dammit!

Okay, obviously "Very, very eerie..." etc was supposed to be on another line.

I'm shutting up now. Damn html.

M

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 04:59 PM

Sorry to double post, but I just remembered...

speaking of Dusty and eerie songs,

when we were sitting around last night remembering her, Myrlin's downstairs neighbors were playing music quite loudly, and all of a sudden we realized that it was the movie of "Evita"--the first musical Myr and I were in together about ten years ago. Not only that, but the current song was "Another Suitcase in Another Hall," the solo I sang in the show. So of course we started singing it together, and the lyrics were almost eerie in their relevance...

Time and time again I've said that I don't care,
That I'm immune to gloom, that I'm hard through and through;
But every time it matters all my words desert me--
So anyone can hurt me,
And they do...

Call in three months' time and I'll be fine, I know;
Well, maybe not that fine...but I'll survive, anyhow.
I won't recall the names and places of this sad occasion;
But that's no consolation,
Here and now. * Very, very eerie. But fitting.

Molly

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 04:43 PM

Kendall--it is just an amazing song, I guess. I mean, it's murder on the ole tear ducts, but I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. :/

Amergin--I'll pass your condolences along to Myrlin, and thanks...I still can't quite believe it. Weird...my paternal grandmother died last week, and I barely shed a tear (I didn't know her very well,) but my best friend's cat dies and I'm a basket case. Guess I've got *my* priorities straight *lol*.

Maybe I'll write a song for Dusty. To the tune of "The Queen of Argyll." ;)

M

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 03:34 PM

I knew The Band Played Waltzing Matilda for at least 10 years before I could sing it in public. I've seen grown men come apart remembering war experiences. I once sang Malletts "You say the battle is over", and one guy came to me after and said he was going home and sell his shotgun. He did just that.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: thehippydragon
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:49 PM

The hangman and the papist is really powerful too. June Tabour has done the definitive version of Waltzing Matilda. I've heard lots of different versions, but that's my favourite. Always makes me cry.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Amergin
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:20 PM

Yes the Honor of Your Company is one powerful song, Kendall....one of my favourite Paxton songs...

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:18 PM

...some of those voice are silent now and gone... Tom Paxton

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Amergin
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:54 PM

Sorry to hear about that, Molly.....It is always so hard to lose a pet/friend....

I get to thinking about my grandpas wonderful brothers and sisters (well the ones I met)....and all the wonderful tales they told that were never recorded....hell, might be a song in that in itself....

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:53 PM

My God! how could anyone listen to Killkelly after such an experience. I can hardly stand to hear it anyway. And I'm not even Irish.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:32 PM

I, too, can't listen to "Kilkelly, Ireland" without pretty much losing it. I think it's because I was supposed to sing at my grandfather's funeral, but he chose to shuffle off this mortal coil one week after I'd left for my two month trip to Ireland, and I had to decide whether to return or not. I finally decided that he would want me to stay, but I still can't hear the line "And it's funny the way he kept talking about you,/He called for you at the end;/Why don't you think about coming to visit?/We'd love to see you again..." without losing my cool totally.

Right now I'm trying *not* to think of cat-related songs. My best friend's cat, who has been with her for seven years and was the Queen of the Universe (graciously accepting our love and adoration as her due and bestowing her regard in return) was hit by a car the other night. We held a mini-wake for her last night. The apartment really feels empty without her. :(

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 08:28 AM

LOl Granny! Welcome back to music land! Glad to have you back!

--Matt

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: granny
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 08:24 AM

Matt R -- I kind of agree, re the Alison Krauss song...later, I said, 'Why did I buy this CD?' But, it was amazing that I even sat down and listened to something. I got so out of music that, lately, I feel like I've returned to some long lost land, when I even play something again!!

So, anyway...it was all I could think of....

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:21 AM

I can't get through I Come and Stand at every Door although I love the song and feel the message is important. When I get to the part that says "I'm seven now as I was then, when children die they do not grow" I choke up everytime.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 11:20 PM

Do conservatives feel this kind of pain?

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Matt_R
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 10:06 PM

I know Sean...ducking flying objects here...but Kenny G's incorporation of the Challenger tapes in his historical montage of Auld Lang Syne...where you hear the Challenger exploding, and Reagan's speech about how they "slipped the bonds of Earth to touch the face of God" just as the music swells...I always lose it right there. Another similar experience is from Paul McCartney's live album of the Rio De Janerio show...where he sings "Fool On The Hill" and at the end while the music is playing, you suddenly hear the voice of Dr.Martin Luther King "I have a dream..." ...I'm on the verge of tears just thinking about it.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 10:02 PM

Great choices kendall

You nailed me with the other as well, we would have to contstantly corral one of my grandfathers when he was in a nursing home. He would stand in one spot outside, staring into the distance and would resist attempts to move him with the admonishment, "The Captain told me to stand here!"

We often wondered if "standing watch" was his form of atonement, as we believe he arrived in North America by jumping ship when he was young, after being raised as an orphan by the British Navy.

I have been working on a song about it and had never heard of the one by David Mallett. A very hard act to follow, especially when you've chosen the same subject matter.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,SeanC
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:54 PM

The Challenger disaster tape is often too tough to handle for me. I was at the convention that it was made at. The con happened just a few months after the disaster, and the musicians had time to put their emotions to words. It is hard to come by, the publisher went out of business, i think. The biggest problem for the singers was to get some emotion in their voices with out being overcome with it. Some did manage that balance perfectly.

I will try to get some of the songs mentioned.

Eric Bogel and Stan Rogers I know and they do fit this catagory.

There is a song called Cranes over Hiroshima that I have trouble singing.

As a parent, there are more songs that shut down my voice then there was 8 years ago.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: CamiSu
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:43 PM

You guys, I'm in tears just reading the lists. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle), I once played on an island in Maine. One of the people there was an Ozzie my brother had picked up hitchiking, and had brought out for the Fourth of July. He was in tears.

I couldn't listen to ANYTHING by Harry Chapin for several years after he died. He was a friend and I baby sat Jenny and Josh. I finally can, but a lot of it is hard. Sniper, A Better Place to Be, The Rock and on and on.

Garnet Rogers, Night Drive, as well as Phil Ochs Crucifixion, and others.

Kilkelly, done right. My mother thinks I'm wierd 'cause songs make me cry. (As well as the play "Someone to watch Over Me" I can't remember who wrote it)

CamiSu

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: wdyat12
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:30 PM

kendall,

I hear ya. I had a tough time reading it.

wdyat12

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:59 PM

WDYAT12,I lost a dear friend last summer. A man I had known for 50 years. Just typing that song was hard for me.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: wdyat12
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:44 PM

kendall,

I received one of those phone calls in the night, the kind you hear before it rings. My uncle telling me how sorry he was that my dad had passed away that day, I had not heard the news, yet I had felt it earlier that day. Although I was the last person in my family to see him, I never said goodby. The words to this tune have powerful meaning for me.

wdyat12

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: MARINER
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:22 PM

No more auction block for me, by Odetta. Accrington Pals by Mike Harding, Dimming of the Day by Bonnie Raitt. Moonbeam Josephine by Pierce Turner (and numerous others by him) Jenkins History by Frank Hennessy (and others by him) Thoughts and memories by Frank Hennessy Kilkelly by Robbie O' Connell. And The Parting Glass as it was sung at the graveside of Paddy Clancy by Liam Clancy,Bobby Clancy, Paddy Reily,Finbarr Fury,Ronnie Drew,Christy Moore, I think,and all the Clancy family and many others too numerous to mention. Now that, was emotional I could go on but I get to feelin' sad

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:07 PM

..correction ...he's been gone a week or SO.. Mallett is in Florida doing three gigs, but, I forgot where he said he would be.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE OLD BLUE OX (David Mallett)
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 07:58 PM

The Old Blue Ox by David Mallett

"Good afternoon I'm looking for the old blue ox"
He said,
"And" he said "I dont believe it, but, I heard my fathers dead,
And just where is the Curtis place? My God how things have changed"
He was a little old man he was almost blind
Walking with a cane.

"I know this is the place because I climbed up Severance Hill
I'd know that hill in a hundred years
And how are Ruell and Will?"
"Ruell Parkman moved away" I said
"Will Green he died you know,
And Willis Pratt has grown a man, and gone on years ago".
Our conversation was quite short, five minutes at the most
But, he stood before me like a child,
And conjured up the ghosts
Of friends and kinfolk from an older and a slower time
fifty years just disappeared like minutes in his mind.

"The ox was gone the day I left
He's been gone a week or two
And, I've come around to fetch his home
Cause I always did you know
Pa will be glad," he started off
I stood and watched him go
Down the way to yesterday
Where warmer breezes blow.

Now apple trees will wither
And barns grow old and fall
Ancient ladies sit in rocking chairs wrapped in their shawls
This old fella does the things he thinks he has to do
He's looking for his past
He might stop and talk to you.
"Good afternoon, I'm looking for the old blue ox"
He said
And he said "I dont believe it, but, I heard my father's dead
And just where is the Curtis Place?
My God, how things have changed.."
He was a little old man
He was almost blind, walking with a cane.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 07:38 PM

Many years ago, an old man appeared on Dave Malletts porch. He had wandered away from the "Home" and didn't realize that he had what we now call "Alzhiemers" He thought he was trying to find his fathers ox which had gotten loose. Grab the tissues folks.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: nutty
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:46 AM

After further thought I have to add - the prophetically disturbing - NEEDLE OF DEATH by Bert Jansch

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:41 AM

I goofed..hard to see to type..after someone handed mesome coffee
And a sandwich made with rye
I put them down and stood there looking at your picture on the mantel
Wondering why there was no time to say goodby.

Subject: Lyr Add: NO TIME TO SAY GOODBYE^^(Paxton)
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:35 AM

No Time To Say Goodby

It was a phone call in the night, the kind you hear before it rings
It was a phone call in the night
When you can feel an angel's wings
You know before you answer
It's been someones time to die
Then, I learned that it was you
And as I stood there I could feel you passing by
There was no time to say goodby.

There was no time to say goodby
No time to thank you for the years
There was no time to say goodby a lamp goes out light disappears
As I stood there in the darkness
There were more tears than I could cry
For you it is so totally impossible that you could ever die
There was no time to say goodby.

refrain

There are pictures in a box in a room in a house long miles from here
There are old seashells and rocks faded labels from our days of German beer.
There are post cards from Montana
Some faded drawings and some drums
And I cant recall the rest oh God we're never really ready when it comes.

There was no time to say goodby
I was delayed in getting home
There was a mis connecting flight
When I got here you were gone
Someone handed me some coffee, and a sandwich made with rye There was no time to say goodby.

repeat refrain

There are pictures in a box etc

There was no time to say goodby
No time to thank you for the years
There was no time to say goodby
A lamp goes out light disappears
As I stood there in the darkness
There were more tears than I could cry
For you it seemed impossible that you could ever die
There was no time to say goodby.

There was no time to say goodby...
There was no time to say goodby......... Tom Paxton

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:16 AM

I dont know if it is best to post lyrics by themselves without any comments by the poster, but, I think it is better, so, here comes one.