songs about abortion

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: quokka
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 02:29 AM

I found the old thread finally! Here it is :

Translated by Sidney H. Bremer
Bertolt Brecht wrote:On The Infanticide Marie Farrar
----------------------------------

1
Marie Farrar: month of birth, April
An orphaned minor; rickets; birthmarks, none; previously
Of good character, admits that she did kill
Her child as follows here in summary.
She visited a woman in a basement
During her second month, so she reported
And there was given two injections
Which, though they hurt, did not abort it.

But you I beg, make not your anger manifest
For all that lives needs help from all the rest.

2
But nonetheless, she says, she paid the bill
As was arranged, then bought herself a corset
And drank neat spirit, peppered it as well
But that just made her vomit and disgorge it.
Her belly now was noticeably swollen
And ached when she washed up the plates.
She says that she had not finished growing.
She prayed to Mary, and her hopes were great.

You too I beg, make not your anger manifest
For all that lives needs help from all the rest.

3
Her prayers, however, seemed to be no good.
She'd asked too much. Her belly swelled. At Mass
She started to feel dizzy and she would
Kneel in a cold sweat before the Cross.
Still she contrived to keep her true state hidden
Until the hour of birth itself was on her
Being so plain that no one could imagine
That any man would ever want to tempt her.

But you I beg, make not your anger manifest
For all that lives needs help from all the rest.

4
She says that on the morning of that day
While she was scrubbing stairs, something came clawing
Into her guts. It shook her once and went away.
She managed to conceal her pain and keep from crying.
As she, throughout the day, hung up the washing
She racked her brain, then realized in fright
She was going to give birth. At once a crushing
Weight grabbed at her heart. She didn't go upstairs till night.

And yet I beg, make not your anger manifest
For all that lives needs help from all the rest.

5
But just as she lay down they fetched her back again:
Fresh snow had fallen, and it must be swept.
That was a long day. She worked till after ten.
She could not give birth in peace till the household slept.
And then she bore, so she reports, a son.
The son was like the son of any mother.
But she was not like other mothers are - but then
There are no valid grounds why I should mock her.

You too I beg, make not your anger manifest
For all that lives needs help from all the rest.

6
So let her finish now and end her tale
About what happened to the son she bore
(She says there's nothing she will not reveal)
So men may see what I am and you are.
She'd just climbed into bed, she says, when nausea
Seized her. Never knowing what should happen till
It did, she struggled with herself to hush her
Cries, and forced them down. The room was still.

And you I beg, make not your anger manifest
For all that lives needs help from all the rest.

7
The bedroom was ice cold, so she called on
Her last remaining strength and dragged her-
Self out to the privy and there, near dawn
Unceremoniously, she was delivered
(Exactly when, she doesn't know). Then she
Now totally confused, she says, half froze
And found that she could scarcely hold the child
For the servants' privy lets in the heavy snows.

And you I beg, make not your anger manifest
For all that lives needs help from all the rest.

8
Between the servants' privy and her bed (she says
That nothing happened until then), the child
Began to cry, which vexed her so, she says
She beat it with her fists, hammering blind and wild
Without a pause until the child was quiet, she says.
She took the baby's body into bed
And held it for the rest of the night, she says
Then in the morning hid it in the laundry shed.

But you I beg, make not your anger manifest
For all that lives needs help from all the rest.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: quokka
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 12:05 AM

'The Infanticide of Marie Farrar' by Bertold Brecht is a very powerful song, I think I posted the words on another thread a couple of years ago, I will try to find it

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 10:42 PM

"Lignum Vitae" is from pg 90 of "Mango Time".

Subject: Lyr Add: Lignum Vitae
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 07:07 PM

LIGNUM VITAE
(From "Mango Time: Folk Songs of Jamaica" coll. Noel Dexter and Godfrey Taylor, 2007 Ian Randle Publishers)

1. Some woman talk about tea,
Mama look tea, Mama look tea,
Some woman talk about tea,
Mama look tea, Mama look tea.

Come an' drink di Mazzawatti,
Di ile-a-bush an' di taama weed.
Dat's why di young gyal crazy fi di lignum vitae,
Oh mama look tea.

2. Di young gyal talk about tea,
Mama look tea, Mama look tea,
Di young gyal talk about tea,
Mama look tea, Mama look tea.

Come an' drink di Mazzawatti,
Di ile-bush an' di taama weed,
Dat's why di young gyal crazy fi di lignum vitae,
Oh mama look tea.

3. Lignum vitae means a long life,
any girl who was not a wife,
If she know just what she fi do,
she don't have to be a mother too.
Dat's why di young gyal crazy fi di lignum vitae,
Oh mama look tea.

This song was recorded in the 1920s in the US by Sam Manning, a Trinidadian vaudeville performer who recorded many mento-jazz and Jamaican folk songs.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST
Date: 18 May 11 - 09:04 PM

Peggy Seeger has a nice one called "The Right to Life." You can listen to it on her website
here

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 18 May 11 - 06:29 PM

The Harry Belafonte version repeats "stay home and mind baby", implying that the woman must keep the child even if its father (a soldier) doesn't come back. Takes the punch out of the original song.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 18 May 11 - 05:23 PM

"Brown Skin Girl", in its original version, includes the line "Throw away the damn baby."

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: oldhippie
Date: 18 May 11 - 05:08 PM

"Will The Fetus Be Aborted?" by Judi Bari

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Bettynh
Date: 18 May 11 - 04:54 PM

Si Kahn wrote "The Senator" about a state representative who finds himself pregnant and finds out that right-to-life laws (that he pushed through) keeps the doctor from "helping him out."

From Malvina Reynold's website:

Rosie Jane

Notes: words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1973 Schroder Music Company, renewed 2001.


This song is addressed to my sisters.

Any man who is present may listen,
Any priest, any public official, any physician.

But it gives him no license to touch us.
We make the decision. 

Me and Lydia, Josie and Rosie and Eve,

We handle this matter ourselves, 

You'd better believe, or you better leave.


Chorus:

Rosie Jane, are you pregnant again?

Rosie Jane, you can hardly take care

Of the four you had before. 

What in heaven's name were you thinking of!

Rosie Jane, was it love?


I had an extra shot on top of what I'd got,

In a word I was drunk, so was Bill.

At least I think it was Bill,

And I'd forgot to take my pill.

I guess it was God's will.

(Chorus)

When that baby is a child,

It will suffer from neglect,

Be picked upon and pecked, 

And run over and wrecked,

And its head will be crowned with the thorn.

But while it's inside her

It must remain intact,

And it cannot be murdered till it's born.

(Chorus)

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,Amy
Date: 18 May 11 - 02:46 PM

I heard an interview with Natalie Merchant years and years ago, now, and she sang part of a song sung from the perspective of a mother whose daughter had hung herself because she was pregnant and unwed, and in it she laments if the girls had only come to her she would have told her how to use the twig. I found this thread because I was hoping to find this song. Anyone have a guess?

Also- the willow twig- I'm guessing- would have been used not medicinally but in a more physical sense- right up the old hoo-ha. I mean, people have been doing abortions since before there were wire coat-hangers, right?

Just because a thing isn't right doesn't make it wrong, and vice versa. People forget that sometimes.    I enjoyed reading the responses from people that understand the complicated nature of this issue, and saddened by the ones who don't.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jul 10 - 05:25 PM

I was directed here due to a 45 I had heard when I was young. It was called please don't pick the flowers and I can't find the lyrics any where. It is an abortion song disguised as a children's song. It put fear in me as a kid.

Living here in the United States we do have the ability to choose and to debate like so many of you have done on this thread. So I am just going to be honest and follow my heart.

I was adopted and with this came great sadness that I couldn't discuss with my family growing up. I was grateful for their loving kindness and decided to handle my grief in a very dysfunctional way. My self esteem suffered. I developed ADHD and later bipolar disorder..with poor emotional regulation and didn't even believe that I had a wise mind. I did what other people told me too. I feared constantly that people would abandon me if I went against their wishes. I began drinking in my 20's, self medicating, and again thinking I had no choice. At 26 4 hours from home and living with a boyfriend I became pregnant. When I told my boyfriend he immediately wanted to get in touch with the nearest abortion clinc. I didn't want to and I was scared. But he insisted. I didn't even know about goverment insurance for pregnant woman.

In the end "I" made the choice (but in my mind I felt like I had to do this or I would have no where to go) to get an abortion. IT was awful and it really felt like I entered into Hell. The sadness I felt was overwhelming, thoughts of my biological mother kept coming into my head (which deepened the sadness). I hadn't been diagnosed with Bipolar yet but I was acting like someone who was majorally depressed and underneath I was angry. Some people might say "well now you'll go to Hell"..guess what Hell belongs to God and God (Jesus Christ) is all about forgiveness and love.

I am now 40. In 2001 I gave birth to my daughter who is my pride and joy. It took me until 2006 to finally address my emotional issues with the abortion being a very important issue to expose, grieve, and let go of. Believe me that child will always be in my heart. I am a christian and I practice christian beliefs. I asked for God's forgiveness and he cleansed me. God loves me even back in my darkest hour. To be honest I don't personally believe in abortion anymore. But I do believe in choice. God is a God of choice. He doesn't make anyone do or not do anything. He gave us those choices. We have to learn from our choices. That is the only way to learn.

If someone reading this now is considering an abortion remember to review all your choices. Don't make a rash decision based on fear like I did. Use your wise mind and throughly investigate your options. Then whatever choice you make will be based on your wise mind.

So back to the 45. You see I found it a few days ago in a chest in the basement. I just wanted to know what it said. Now I believe that maybe I was supposed to get on here for other reasons.

take care

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: webfolk
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 10:05 AM

I have just flicked very quickly through this long thread, and I dont think anyone has mentioned Graham Parker's (and the Rumour)song 'You can't be too strong' on the 'squeezing out sparks' album.
Not folk, but it is an acoustic track (almost) and very very powerful.

Geoff

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Scoville
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 09:41 AM

Gillian Welch's Soul Journey album includes a song, something about "ain't one soul in the whole world knows my name".

I've often wondered a little about "Selchie of Skule Skerry". Really, I know it's just about a selchie, but it did occur to me that claiming it was a selchie and throwing it into the sea would be one way to get rid of a "shameful" illegitimate child. Or maybe my mind is just in the gutter today.

Not about abortion, but somewhere I've got a recording of "Unwed Fathers", about a teenaged Appalachian girl leaving home and having her baby alone in the city after she is abandoned by her boyfriend and her family sends her away. I forget who wrote it but I think the recording I have is the Dry Branch Fire Squad and it's both exceptionally pretty and quite sad--a single voice and clawhammer banjo.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Howard Kaplan
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 07:49 AM

The song "Mary McGill" was attributed to "Kim Walleck" in a posting earlier. The song's official title is "Freedom to Choose", and it is by (the late) Bob Blue and Kim Wallach. The song is included in the "Mister Blue Songbook", and Kim Wallach's performance of it is on the 2 CD set "The Best of Bob Blue". My understanding is that the songcrafting is primarily Bob's, but the ideas were developed jointly by the two writers.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Haruo
Date: 15 Aug 06 - 02:28 AM

Kind of tangential, but there's a play currently being staged (world premiere) at Seattle's ACT (A Contemporary Theatre), entitled Mitzi's Abortion. I went to see it last Saturday, mainly because the reviews indicated it was somehow also about Esperanto. The plot involves a not unwanted pregnancy; not planned, but not unwanted, which goes off its tracks when the fetus turns out, in the second trimester, to be anencephalic. St. Thomas Aquinas is a major character.

Mrs. Haruo and I really enjoyed it, thought it did a good job of showing the complexity of some of the aspects of abortion that are taken for granted, and yes, it has a strong Esperanto component. There are two songs in the play, both sung in Esperanto. Neither is original. The first is an Esperanto version of "Those Were the Days, My Friend", the second of "Somewhere over the rainbow".

Haruo

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Vixen
Date: 27 Jul 04 - 08:23 AM

"My Baby Needs a Shepherd" EmmyLou Harris on the Red Dirt Girl CD

"Oh Woman" Jack Hardy on the Omens CD

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 25 Jul 04 - 03:15 PM

Guest,brit

For a fuller version see the DT's My God, How The Money Rolls IN

Nigel

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,brit
Date: 08 Jun 04 - 12:43 AM

i've heard
my father sells condoms to sailors
he pokes holes in the tips with a pin
my ma does back-alley abortions
my god how the money rolls in

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,Pollyanna Boyer
Date: 17 Apr 04 - 09:51 PM

I wrote a third song. Here it is.
" Jesus loves all unborn babies.
All the unborn in the world.
He made their inward parts.
Please don't stop their beating hearts.
Jesus loves the unborn babies of the world."

In response to what some of your contributors have implied, many pro-life people do care about the babies after they are born and they want to help the mothers as well. Every Crisis Pregnancy Center I have ever been aware of gave material things to the mother. I have been involved in "baby showers" where the items brought were given to Crisis Pregnancy Centers. There are many infertile couples now , thanks to our depleted diets, and they would gladly take the babies.
Some even take babies with severe handicaps. I know there is a need for more of this practical love, but there is some there. Some pro-choice people are prejudiced when it comes to this point. Thanks for posting both sides. Did you know that when Moses was born, that Pharoh was having all the Jewish babies killed? When Jesus was born, Herod had babies killed so Mary and Joseph had to hide in Egypt until he died. Maybe we are experiencing this monumental slaughter of babies again because of a fast approaching important spiritual event? My father was illegitimate. My grandmother never had a thought about killing him to save her reputation. She had to raise him by herself in a poverty stricken mountain town until she met his step-father when he was five. She never recalled that struggle with any regret. Do you think Mary would have aborted Jesus if her culture had allowed pro-choice legality? She wasn't married to Joseph yet.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,PollyannaBoyer
Date: 17 Apr 04 - 09:06 PM

Michael Card wrote the following song and recorded it:

"I thought that I heard crying coming through my door.
Was it Rachel weeping for her sons who were no more?
Could it have been the babies crying for themselves?
Never understanding that they died for someone else.

(chorus)
The voice heard of weeping and of wailing
Hist'ry speaks of it on every page
Of innocent and helpless little babies
Off'rings to the spirit of the age.

No way of understanding this sad and painful sign
Whenever Satan rears his head, there comes a tragic time
If he could crush the cradle, then that would stop the cross
He knew that once the Light was born
His every hope was lost
(repeat chorus)

Now every age has heard it, the voice that speaks from Hell.
Sacrifice your children and for you it will be well.
The subtle serpent's lying - his dark and ruthless rage
Behold, it is revealed to be the spirit of the age!

Soon all the ones who seemd to die for nothing
Will stand beside the Ancient of Days
With joy we'll see that Infant from the manger
Come and crush the spirit of the age!

We'll see Him crush the spirit of the age!

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,Pollyanna Boyer
Date: 17 Apr 04 - 08:54 PM

I have written two songs about abortion. I wonder if you will post them. The lyrics are original but the music is "plagerized" or hopefully borrowed. The first one I wrote at Christmas time one year. It is sung to the tune of "Away in the Manger" Here goes.

" I think of the unborn on Jesus' birthday
And wonder how many abortion will slay.
No life for these babies their mothers decide.
But I know, Lord Jesus, with you they abide"

The second one sprung to life with the music I learned in my anti-war days. It is sung to the tune of "If I were free to speak my mind" sung by Joan Baez.

"Since I am free to speak my mind,
I'll tell a tale to all mankind.
Of millions and millions of babies slain.
They died in innocence and pain.

This weary world has had its fill
Of works of death. Abortion kills
The time has come for pro-life ways
Vote pro-life then,for pro-life days.

Since I am free to speak my mind.
I'll tell a tale to all mankind.
Of millions and millions of babies slain.
They died in innocence and pain."

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,Kent Davis
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 12:16 AM

"The Cherry Tree Carol", though obviously not about abortion, does address the question of whether the "uterine contents" of a pregnant woman are her own to do with as she chooses, or are a child (i.e. a person in his/her own right).

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,emily rain
Date: 15 Mar 04 - 02:43 PM

Prodigal Daughter
(written in and around the old fiddle tune Cotton Eyed Joe by Michelle Shocked)

what's to be done with a prodigal son?
welcome him home with open arms
throw a big party invite your friends
our boy's come back home
when a girl goes home with the oats he's sown
it's draw your shades and your shutters
she's bringin' such shame to the family name
the return of a prodigal daughter
singin
oh cotton eyed joe

i went to see a doctor and i almost died
when i told my mama lordy how she cried
me and my daddy were never too close
but he was there when i needed him most
look here comes a prodigal son
fetch him a tall drink of water
but there's none in the cup cause he drank it all up
left for a prodigal daughter
singin
oh cotton eyed joe

if it had not've been for the cotton eyed joe
i'd have been married a long time ago
oh i'd have been married a long time ago

out in the cornfield i stubbed my toe
i called for the doctor cotton eyed joe
i called for the doctor cotton eyed joe

----

Sally's Pigeons
(sung (written?) by Cyndi Lauper)

When I was eight I had a friend
With a pirate smile
Make believe and play pretend
We were innocent and wild
Hopped a fence and slammed the gate
Running down my alleyway
In time to watch Sally's pigeons fly

We loved to watch them dive and soar
Circle in the sky
Free as a bird from three to four
And never knowing why
Neighbors pulled their wash back in
Put away my Barbie and Ken
Look out overhead
While Sally's pigeons fly

I had a fool's confidence
That the world had no boundaries
But instincts and common sense
Come in different quantities

My heart began to
Skip to the beat
Of the boy next door
She had her eye across the street
On someone shy and tall
We lived our dreams
And challenged fate
In tears she told me she was late
And Sally let his pigeons out to fly...

On the dresser sits a frame
With a photograph
Two little girls in ponytails
Some twenty one years back
She left one night with just a nod
Was lost from some back alley job
I close my eyes and Sally's pigeons fly
She never saw those birds again
And me, I can't remember when
A pirate smile hasn't made me cry
I close my eyes
And Sally's pigeons fly...

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: s&r
Date: 15 Mar 04 - 06:27 AM

Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is unlikely to be about abortion see this

Stu

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 14 Mar 04 - 11:20 PM

Plastic Rose by Dave Alvin

From a vase on a coffee shop table
Mary picked her self a flower
While I called the number on a business card
But they said call back in an hour
So I sat back down next to Mary
I said you shouldn't eat I suppose
But Mary didn't say any thing to me
She just held a plastic rose

You two look so sweet the waitress said
So when is the lucky day
Well I ordered a Coke, and I tried to smile
Till the waitress went away
Do you think she knew Mary said
Do you think that it really shows
And she folded her hand in her lap
And she held a plastic rose

And I feel like I should say something
But what, I don't know
When I offer her my hand
She turns away
And she holds a plastic rose

I smoked my last cigarette
As I watched the clock on the wall
And Mary didn't say anything to me
When I said it was time to call
But we talked about it for a week
Both agreeing in what we chose
So I called the number on a business card
And she held her plastic rose

And I feel like I should say something
But what, I don't know
When I offer her my hand
She turns away
And she holds a plastic rose

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Matt_R
Date: 14 Mar 04 - 07:32 PM

"Bodies" - The Sex Pistols

She was a girl from Birmingham
She just had an abortion
She was a case of insanity
Her name was Pauline, she lived in a tree

She was a no-one who killed her baby
She sent her letters from the country
She was an animal
She was a bloody disgrace

Body...I'm not an animal!
Mummy...I'm not an abortion!

Dragged on a table in a factory
Illegitimate place to be
In a packet in a lavatory
Die, little baby, screaming

Body screaming fucking bloody mess
It's not an animal, it's an abortion

Body...I'm not an animal!
Body...I'm not an abortion!

Throbbing squirm, gurgling bloody mess
I'm not a discharge, I'm not a loss in
Protein, I'm not a throbbing squirm
Ah!

Fuck this and fuck that
Fuck it all and fuck the fucking brat
She don't wanna baby that looks like that
I don't wanna baby that looks like that

Body...I'm not an animal
Body...I'm not an abortion

Mummy! Ugh!

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 14 Mar 04 - 06:46 PM

wat bout papa dont preach by madonna

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,Ben
Date: 04 Feb 04 - 01:16 AM

I'm too lazy to read all this crap, but I don't think anyone put Ben Fold's song "Brick". Its his true story about him and his girlfriend having an abortion in high school and how she's dragging him down. Its sad, but yeah.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 18 Nov 03 - 08:52 AM

"The Butcher Boy"
and Malvina Reynolds' "Rosie Jane"

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,Gina
Date: 18 Nov 03 - 12:57 AM

Can someone help me to find this particular song? it was out about 15 years ago. it's the unborn fetus talking about their growth in the womb. the chorus i want to say, was sung by someone like pat boone, but the words were spoke from a child who was unborn. am desperate! thanks

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 03:56 PM

please help I am looking for a song the name of it is Unseen Angel
and in the chorus there are children singing Twinkle Twinkle little star If anyone can help I would really appreiciate it.. I work at Wal mart and a Lady is looking for this song.

Thanks alot, Cheryl

please email me at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Grab
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 08:19 AM

Wolfgang, I'm just glad there's penalties for murdering doctors in cold blood.

Graham.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Wolfgang
Date: 03 Sep 03 - 06:42 AM

I dreamed I saw Paul Hill last night

Wolfgang (who sometimes thinks there should be penalties for abusing good songs)

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 03 - 02:26 PM

The Saw Doctors had a song about girls going over to England from Ireland to have abortions.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: MAG
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 05:50 PM

Let's not turn this forum into a forum on Choice. Feelings run strong on both sides, Steve.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: sed
Date: 27 Aug 03 - 03:57 AM

Sad to say my friend Carole Rose Livingston died recently. She wrote the great song "I'm a Friend of the Fetus." I like the song because it is not pushy yet it provokes thought. The tune is also friendly. It's lyrics are playfully ironic. When I first heard it my views were rather different than now. My child would be about 32 now if I had not been so foolish as to help arrange his/her abortion through a presbyterian church leader who was also a physician at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. I feel like a murderer but one who God has forgiven. The mother feels the same. God's rules are sound and our faithlessness will never change their soundness. Although the Bible does not specifically forbid abortion I believe that the atmosphere created by God's word does. But as in Carole's song we must be aware of how many humans can be provided for. Chastity is a hard sermon for the testosteroned youth to accept. I know. As a 55 year old celibacy is tolerable, at least for me.

Steve Sedberry

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,I'm a choice not a child
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 05:44 AM

http://www.morethings.com/mp3/im_a_choice_not_a_child.mp3

Thought you might be interested in this Steve Barger song, "I'm a Choice Not a Child"

Al Barger
www.morethings.com/log

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Spartacus
Date: 25 Mar 03 - 02:27 PM

I don't have time to read all of the above to see if anyone mentioned it, but "Brick" by Ben Folds Five is about abortion.

-Spartacus

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Steve Mullinax
Date: 25 Mar 03 - 01:50 PM

SED wrote "Carole Rose Livingston wrote a satirical song called "I'm a Friend of the Fetus" which was published in Songletter back in the 1980's."

Here are the words I have from a CD by "Rebel Voices" (Janet Stecher and Susan Lewis). Sorry, I don't remember the name of the CD.

I'm a Friend of the Fetus

I am no friend to the fathers and mothers,
And I am no friend to the sisters and brothers,
And I am no friend to the poor and oppressed,
And I am no friend to the weak and distressed.

But,
(Chorus)
I'm a friend of the fetus!
A friend of incomparable worth!
I'm a friend of the fetus!
Right up to the moment of birth!

When it's a baby I will not go near it.
I will not feed it, no I will not rear it.
And when it is crying, I won't even hear it,
For I have no room in my heart for a human.

But,
Chorus.

I will not weep for it, I won't lose sleep for it.
I won't not care for it, I won't be there for it.
I'll back away from it, I won't go gray from it.
I will not pray for it, and I won't pay for it.

Chorus.
..., when it needs friends.
Right up to the moment of birth!

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: sadie damascus
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 03:48 PM

Well, in the ballad "The Cruel Mother", in many versions she "leans her back against a thorn", possibly to aid birthing and possibly to shock her body into starting early labor and miscarrying?

I have done some research on abortifacient herbs, and "green willow" doesn't seem to be one of them. There is a really good site at http://www.sisterzeus.com/Abortif.htm, for great herbal advice and analysis. Some of the herbs I found that can cause or help cause abortion are: "American Mandrake, Angelica, Black and Blue Cohosh, Cotton Root Bark, Evening Primrose, Mayapple, Parsley, Pennyroyal,
Pineapple, Pokeroot, Rue, Tansy (very toxic!), Vitamin C (in huge amounts), Wild Cherry, and Wormwood". Very few of these are mentioned in the love songs and ballads that I know that have herbal choruses.

But in one of the most beautiful versions of "Come all ye Fair and Tender Maidens", or "Rue", Dave Van Ronk's version, the betrayed girl laments that in May, when the "primrose fair" comes in, she will pull it up, and, instead, plant a "green willow tree". In other versions, where her "thyme" grew once, now "rue" is growing (both a pun and the name of an herb of mild abortifacient powers.)

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Hrothgar
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 02:47 AM

Robyn Archer wrote "Backyard Abortion Waltz" back in the 70s. Now I'll try to find some words.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: sed
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 03:18 PM

Carole Rose Livingston wrote a satirical song called "I'm a Friend of the Fetus" which was published in Songletter back in the 1980's.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Joe_F
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 07:32 PM

In some of the versions of "Mary Hamilton" (Child 173), she goes to the garden to pull a leaf off a savin tree, which she hopes in vain will rid her of the babe. (In one version, the king does it!)

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 10:16 AM

Someone mentioned the song by Frankie Armstrong, 'song of the second serving maid' from her Tamlin album. It has effective harmonies, fifths sevenths and stuff appropriate to the seriousness of the topic.

He came into the bar I worked one cold Deember night
He was tall and strong and helped break up a fight
I bathed his bleeding face and even bandaged up his hand
And done much more for him than that before the next days light.

In the way of young soldiers in three weeks he was gone
didn't say where to just said it won't be long
Of course i've never seen him since or even heard from him again
And just like the old song says it turned out he'd done me wrong.

....and some more verses..

And what of the soldier I wonder what's become of him.
How many has he killed in the name of King nd kin?
Now he'll be blessed by bishops, maybee medals broach his chest,
And they've the nerve to tell me that they're the ones know best.
That i'm the one to bear all sin ....
etc
To a real climactic ending

whatever you think about abortin, there have been some very powerfull songs written from all sides.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: MAG
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 10:15 AM

Kat Eggleston recorded "The Decision is Mine" on the Camp Coho tape; according to the liner notes it was written by someone else.

Think about "Look What They Done to my Song."

What gets me about "Well in the Valley" is this women being sexually abused by every one of her male relatives, then blamed for it, and blamed for the infanticide. She and all the other women in these ballads will be as dead as Mary on the Wild Moor for showing up with a baby; what is wrong with this picture??

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,diana
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 04:33 AM

hello i think that it aint write to have abortions and that it is wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,a tourist
Date: 09 Mar 03 - 12:04 PM

The Smiths, This Night Has Opened My Eyes, available on Louder than Bombs. Not about abortion exactly, although people who think too much about such things invariably see a Rohrschach thereof in the first lines:

"In a river the color of lead
Immerse the baby's head"

The lyrics are pretty easy to find, but you ought to hear it sung, especially "The dream has gone but the baby is real (oh, you did a good thing) / She could have been a poet or she could have been a fool (oh, you did a bad thing)"---the delivery really will quite floor you.

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,daylia
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 02:02 PM

Ahhh, Nigel, that's pretty convincing indeed! Love the rhymes :-)

JennyO, I hear you! It would be fun to send PMs (not PMS but PMs he he he) and I DO like to feel I belong. What's holding me back is that I like using the name "daylia" - it has a special meaning for me - but someone is already using it on Mudcat. Maybe I'll hyphenate it or change the spelling a little.

And thanks for what you said about my posts. I feel a "kinship" with you too, and that's pretty wonderful seeing as you're in Australia and I'm in Ontario, and we've never met in person. O the wonders of the internet ... "it's a small world after all"!

I'm 'feline' pretty ready right now! When I'm finished teaching tonight you may just see daylia-in-blue (or something very similiar)!

love to you all

daylia

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 04:09 AM

Message to JennyO & Daylia: (wiyh apologies to Noel Coward)

You do it, I do it,
We can learn to send PMs through it,
Let's do it,
Let's join the 'Cat.

Mrzzy do it, Aine do it,
Bodhran players with a brain do it,
Let's do it,
Let's join the 'Cat.

Way back in time did InObu do it
And he's still in the show.
It's time that you do it,
Come on, have a go!

You do it, I do it,
We can learn to send PMs through it,
Let's do it,
Let's join the 'Cat.


Nigel

Subject: RE: songs about abortion
From: GUEST,JennyO
Date: 16 Dec 02 - 01:49 AM

Daylia, I am just thinking of joining and I have seen some of your posts in other threads, sometimes in answer to mine. You are one of the people I would want to join for, as I feel we have a similar outlook on lots of things. The only reason I haven't yet, is that I'm not sure whether to put yes or no for the question "receive email news?". So I would really like to see you join soon. I like the idea of personal messages and feeling like I belong. SO LETS DO IT!!!!!!!!!
                                     Jenny