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Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
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Subject: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Joe Offer Date: 26 Feb 01 - 04:53 AM I guess it's time to start another thread. The other was at 120 messages. Click here for the original threadI know of one very powerful song about child abuse - Liverpool Lullaby. I heard the song when Judy Collins first recorded it in the 1960's, but didn't pay attention to it until recently. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 29 Aug 01 - 11:37 PM No Mans Land-June Tabor. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,iamjohnne Date: 29 Aug 01 - 11:47 PM In this same strain it has gotta be MY Name is Luca by Suzanne Vega. Johnne "goin where the weather suits my clothes" |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: catspaw49 Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:06 AM Any song from the movie "Songcatcher" is beginning to strike fear in me. As a matter of fact, the name "Songcatcher" is beginning to strike fear in me. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: ddw Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:27 AM I was reading through the original thread and found a lot mentioned that get to me, but others were surprisingly missing. I have trouble with Ralph McTell's "Streets of London," Odetta's "He Had A Long Chain On" and "No More Cane On The Brazos," Bob Gibson's "Civil War Trilogy," and Tom Rush's "No Regrets." There are lots of others that I wouldn't trust myself to try in public without a lot of practise because I tend to lose it on songs about fear and loneliness. cheers, david |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Rick Fielding Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:35 AM Our own Larry Otway (INOBU) has written two fine songs that SHOULD make folks feel uneasy. The story of "Amadou" is well known, but another song of his "Yvette's Song" deserves to be heard. It tells the story of the native kids in Canada who were removed from their homes to be raised as "white". It is harsh and truthful. The Roman Catholic Church was very powerful in Quebec for many years and and pressured the politicians to allow one of the most shameful episodes in Canadian history. It took a lot of those kids many years to die on the streets, so nobody thinks of it as genocide, but it was. I shouldn't imply that it happened only in Quebec; it was widespread and most of these kids were never even told if their parents were alive or dead after a number of years. They came from very remote areas, and few were able to afford to go back even after becoming adults. Rick |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Cllr Date: 30 Aug 01 - 03:46 AM Robb Johnson -quite a lot of his work actually. A song from Robb Johnson "I close my eyes" on his latest album "Margaret Thatcher My part in her downfall" Irregular records. I asked him to play this a few years ago when he was the resident musician at a folk club I was running in in Slough (uk). It is so powerful that there was a few moments of silence while the audience -stunned- tried to react appropriatly and eventually they burst into applause. The song's main theme is about one man's experience of the second world war (amongst other things). Most powerful songs on emotive uncormfortable issues such as child abuse (as mentioned earlier in this thread) have such an impact because the listner does not want to be seen to be approving of the subject matter while still wanting to acknowledge the effect of the song. Robb has many many songs that fall in to the catergary of powerful songs some of which I have seen reduce people to tears on many occasions and will also be uncomfortable. I do not agree with Robb's stark political viewpoint but any one who is interested in politics could not be failed to be moved in some way by his work. It would be unforgivable to portray an overview of his music as being strictly polemical when it is his observance of every day day life that he is at his most moving and powerful. Cllr
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: ard mhacha Date: 30 Aug 01 - 05:38 AM Skibereen, The Band played Walting Matilda and Willie McBride, the latter two powerful and descriptive anti-war songs and Skibereen for all the dispossessed,refugees and the starving people of the World. Slan Ard Mhacha.. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GeorgeH Date: 30 Aug 01 - 07:21 AM I would say Robb's work is rarely polemical even when it's directly political . . Mind, I can't even listen to "6B go swimming" without it bringing a tear to my eye . . G. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,redhorse Date: 30 Aug 01 - 08:33 AM Two of Brian Bedford's "What's the Use of Wings" and "Breathing Space" |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST Date: 30 Aug 01 - 10:30 AM Tracy Chapman does a song about domestic violence on her first album, but I can't remember the name of the song. It is quite chilling, as is "Fast Car"--the song which gave her her first break. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 30 Aug 01 - 10:40 AM The Tracy Chapman song is called Behind The Wall (track 4 on her 1st CD) |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 30 Aug 01 - 10:52 AM The Living Years-Mike & The Mechanics, I switch the radio off every time this song is played. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Deda Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:02 AM I didn't read the first thread so these may have been mentioned. Tom Paxton did two powerful anti-war songs, "My son John", which is subtle and beautiful, and "I never killed before" which is acerbic, bitterly sarcastic. I think it was Hot Rize that did a song about someone's dying which never fails to make me tear up, but I can't think of the lyric or title. They played it here in Boulder when Charles Sawtelle (?) died. This may be so Boulder-centric that it doesn't ring any bells anywhere else. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Deda Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:02 AM I didn't read the first thread so these may have been mentioned. Tom Paxton did two powerful anti-war songs, "My son John", which is subtle and beautiful, and "I never killed before" which is acerbic, bitterly sarcastic. I think it was Hot Rize that did a song about someone's dying which never fails to make me tear up, but I can't think of the lyric or title. They played it here in Boulder when Charles Sawtelle (?) died. This may be so Boulder-centric that it doesn't ring any bells anywhere else. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Jack the Sailor Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:23 AM Four Green Fields by Tommy Makem So poetic, so beautiful, so sad, so moving. being 1/4 Irish and several generations and several thousand miles removed, Even I am sometimes moved to take up the fight. But then I think about the bombings, and the children killed on both sides. I'd like to sing it in public but I don't want to condone war or terror for any reason. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: White Dove Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:37 AM .....a friend of mine always asks me to sing....'My youngest son came home today'...I have never sung his song!!!! When this track comes up on the CD..not sure which, Mary Black I think, then I press fast forward. ....the very idea of anyones son coming home on a butchers tray is chilling.... |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Big Mick Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:27 PM Heard Bogle doing a song once about a black man in a South African jail. One morning the jailers came to take him and hang him. As his courage started to fail him, his brothers in the jail started to sing in a South African rhythm, "Courage, brother, you do not walk alone. We are with you, to sing your spirit home". The whole song is amazingly powerful and reaches into me on a primal level. When one has been very close to death, and seen its face, this song connects in a powerful way. All the best, Mick |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Walking Eagle Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:48 PM Gray Iron Prison sung by Judy Collins about the Attica Prison uprising. You don't know its' spoken by a dead man until the end. The soundtrack from Dead Man Walking. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: DaveJ Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:56 PM "Who's Garden Was This?" by Tom Paxton I just had the pleasure of seeing/hearing Tom do this at the New York State Fair.
"The Most Amazing Thing in the World" by Grit Laskin DaveJ |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Deni Date: 30 Aug 01 - 01:12 PM Mayn Rue Platz - My Resting Place. it's absolutely chilling in structure. Does anyone know if it's a trad song or not? It is partly sung in Yiddish - I think, and is actually about slaving away day after day. The sheer hopelessness of the song really gets to me, but it's still one of my favourites. Cheers deni |
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Subject: Lyr Add: SINGING THE SPIRIT HOME^^ From: Big Mick Date: 30 Aug 01 - 01:42 PM They came for him in the morning, an hour before the dawning the pale white moon was waning in the African sky. The cell door flew wide open, they stood looking at him He saw no mercy in their hearts, no pity in their eyes. As they took him and they bound him, tied his trembling hands behind them He felt his courage leave him, his manhood disappear His legs would not support him, so from the cell they dragged him He sobbed and screamed and cursed them in his loneliness and fear CHORUS: Chains, chains, chains, How many souls have died in freedom's name? To some it is a way of life, to others just a word, To some it is a snow white dove, to some a bloody sword But until the last chains fall, freedom will make slaves of us all. With faces closed and hidden, the white guards walked beside him, Indifferent to his pleading, they'd been down this path before. But other eyes were watching, other ears were listening, Other hearts beat with him, in his final desperate hour. CHORUS From the darkness of that prison, came the sound of his brothers singing "Courage", their voices told him,"You do not walk alone" From their cells beyond the shadow, he heard their voices echo As in love and pride and sorrow, they sang his spirit home. Their song of hope and freedom, rang inside that prison It beat against the iron bars and hammered against the stone As in their fear and hate they hung him, the last sound that filled his being Was his brothers singing, singing, singing his spirit home Courage, brother, you do not walk alone. We are with you, to sing your spirit home Courage, brother, you do not walk alone. We are with you, to sing your spirit home |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: jaze Date: 30 Aug 01 - 01:48 PM The Magdelene Laundries by Joni Mitchell |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: catspaw49 Date: 30 Aug 01 - 02:04 PM Powerful song Mick. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Don Firth Date: 30 Aug 01 - 03:17 PM Wow! The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, The Streets of London, and The Dutchman never fail to get to me. Another one that chokes me up some when life gets a bit te'jus for either me or a friend is Gordon Bok's Turning Toward the Morning. One song in particular immediately popped into mind, but when I started to type this up, I can't' remember what it was. Repressed it, I guess. I suspect it's something that really gets to me. Other than folk songs, I sometimes have a hard time listening to music from La Bohème without getting a lump in the throat. Lush, emotional stuff, especially if you know the story (bunch of young folks living in a garret in Paris, passionate young love, Mimi, who has been frail all along, dies). A few years back, when it was evident that Walt Robertson had only a few weeks to live, Bob Nelson, Nancy Quensé, a couple other people and myself got together at George Austin's house to do a tape that Walt asked us to do. Each of us had a song or two that Walt especially wanted to hear us sing. We went through the list that Walt requested, then George recorded one that Walt especially wanted. Before They Close the Minstrel Show. Some time later, George sang it again at the very end of the memorial Song Circle meeting for John Dwyer, who died suddenly and unexpectedly. I love the way George Austin sings that song, but now whenever he sings it, I (and several other people, I suspect) can't help but puddle up a bit. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,Willa Date: 30 Aug 01 - 03:51 PM Jaze, Grace Notes sang 'Magdalene Laundry' at the Whitby FF last week. It is on their album Red Wine and Promises, and was written by John Mulhern. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST Date: 30 Aug 01 - 04:27 PM Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, 2nd movement. The sung text is directly taken from a prayer to the Virgin Mary written by a 18-year-old Polish girl on the wall of her 3-foot-square cell in a Gestapo prison. The clarity of the vocal over the sombre, murky background is symbolic of the single finger of light that entered the cell from above, penetrating the overwhelming darkness... |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,paddy Date: 30 Aug 01 - 05:03 PM Leon Rosselton's "Stand Up for Judas." A number of my Christian friends get VERY uneasy when I play them this little chestnut. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Lin in Kansas Date: 30 Aug 01 - 05:34 PM Tom Rush's "Lost My Drivin' Wheel"--even though I first heard it eons ago, it still makes me cry. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,DocJohn Date: 30 Aug 01 - 06:48 PM oh where have you been the live long day My little wee pruden dooo? I've been to see my step mother Oh mammiie come make my bed new And what did your step mother give youto eat? My little wee pruden doo? She gave me two wee green fish Oh Mammie come make my bed new and what did you do with the bones of the fish My little wee pruden doo? She gave them to My poor wee dog Oh Mamie come make my bed new and what did your dog when he ate of the fish? my little wee pruden dooo? He laid his wee self down and he died Oh Mamie come make my bed new |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Madhatter Date: 30 Aug 01 - 06:57 PM I think people are confusing uneasy with moving. I cried at La Boheme's most famous scene but then a lot of Puccini's stuff does that to me, being moved to tears by a song for what ever reason is not the same as being made to feel uneasy by one. Some anti war songs make me angry and some make me think but not all of them make me uneasy. If this thread was just about powerful songs that move us the list sould be nearly endless or if it was songs that made us uneasy "poising pidgeons in the park" might be one that animal rights activists might have a problem with. Powerful songs that make us uneasy must be a much smaller list than some of suggestions that have been made. I think this might be a case of people not reading the title of the thread properly. Madhatter
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,maire Date: 30 Aug 01 - 07:09 PM The original post was: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY? ...that is, you LIKE them but they arouse strong emotion in you or in listeners... I'd add Joe McDonnell (by the Wolfe Tones' Brian Warfield). I had a hard time, whenever they go to listing the names. Whether you agree or disagree with their cause or their action, it's hard not to be moved. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: AliUK Date: 31 Aug 01 - 12:51 AM The third song in Bogle's ant-war cycle "All The Fine Young Men"kicks the doodoo out of his others, it is the finest out of the three and the most resonant. Check it out on DeDannan's album "Ballroom". |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Metchosin Date: 31 Aug 01 - 01:21 AM The Living Years too, john in hull, also a number of Harry Chapin's including Mr. Tanner |
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Subject: RE: Main Rue Platz - Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,Ben Date: 05 Feb 07 - 08:58 PM Hi, the song is by Morris Rosenfeld, a NY Jew who wrote poems about religion and sweatshop experience around the turn of the century (1862-1923). It is beautiful and heartbreaking. The melody is traditional. Rosenfeld writes elsewhere: And if for a moment, forgetting to ponder On grief and oppression, song breaks out anew, I hear in his lay only: "Wander and wander!" And ev'ry note tells me the singer's a Jew. Ben |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Jim Lad Date: 05 Feb 07 - 11:09 PM Skibereen does it for me too. "Kilkelly Ireland" took forever to learn. Just reading the words choked me up. Eric Bogle's "Leaving Nancy" aroused the same emotions for many years. Funny Joe: "Liverpool Lullaby" was just about growing up, to me. It spoke of a mothers devotion to her child while his Da' was out taking care of his social responsibilities. Little wonder that I have zero tolerance for any form of child abuse. Thank You for pointing that one out. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: frogprince Date: 05 Feb 07 - 11:19 PM "Touch a Name on the Wall", by Joel Mabus. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Jim Lad Date: 05 Feb 07 - 11:19 PM Completely forgot "My Sweet Lady" in the movie "Sunshine". |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,DonMeixner Date: 06 Feb 07 - 12:15 AM Skibereen does it for me too. But I am still stunned by "I Come and Stand at Every Door." Don |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Gurney Date: 06 Feb 07 - 01:17 AM Joe, I'll go along with Jim Lad about 'Liverpool Lullaby,' it never ocurred to me that his Dad would REALLY 'give him a belt,' but that it was just an unsubstantiated threat to get the little bloke to calm down. When I was a little guy, the threat was "The nine-o-clock hosses will get you!" Never did find out what they were. On topic, 'Fanny Blair' moves me, and 'A Mother's Love's a Blessing' will make Her Indoors cry, sometimes. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Alec Date: 06 Feb 07 - 01:52 AM "The Infant Kiss" by Kate Bush in which a young woman sings of her sexual desire for the little boy for whom she is babysitting. Well-written song on a deeply unpleasent subject. Maybe just as well for her that most Tabloid journalists simply never bother listening to lyrics. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,Johnmc Date: 06 Feb 07 - 07:30 AM I haven't seen the first thread but I think Alec has got the flavour here: songs which make you uneasy because you feel it is inappropriate subject matter for song as a vehicle, or songs where the writer deals with human instincts usually controlled in the adult psyche. Again, there are many trad songs which have bits that make you feel a bit queasy: Will o' the Winsbury where the father says he'd fancy Will if he were a woman; the song quoted about the dog reminds me (is it the same?) of the ballad Carthy sings about the poisoning of the son - quite gotesque. Also, too confessional a song can be difficult: Lennon has a few. As for ones that simply are unbearably moving, I'd add Andy Irvine's "West Coast of Clare", Jimmy Webb's "Sandy Cove", "Mary Morison" and "Beeswing". |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: eddie1 Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:01 AM I have a problem with Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven", written after his son fell to his death. What happened was terrible and I really sympathised with him. He then went on to write a great song which must have been some kind of catharsis. The song went on to be very successful with big sales, I guess if he'd donated the proceeds in perpetuity to some kind of children's charity I'd have been much happier. Yes, I know he does a lot for charities, especially those working with problem drug users but it would have been wonderful to make the song a real memorial for his son. Ah well. Maybe it's none of my business. Eddie |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:07 AM "The God Song" by Randy Newman - but as sung by the incomparable Etta James. RN's version is very understated - throwing his utterly chilling words into relief; but EJ's simply blows the lid off you (and she has the voice to carry it off). As far as I can remember, it's on the same album as another Newman gem, "Sail Away", also a powerhouse. But then, Etta could sock it to you with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (you'd never look at outer space in the same way again). |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Alec Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:32 AM "Cry,Baby,Cry" on The White Album has a very sinister ambience, & "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" from the same album in which Lennon trawls a net through his own Id & catalogues what he finds there. And that's before you take into account the horrible new meaning that the title was to take on a dozen years later. The white album was itself used as a rationale for mass murder. (Though blaming The Beatles for this would be every bit as unfair as blaming J.D. Salinger for Lennon's murder.) "My Mummy's Dead" from his first proper solo album,very close to home. Then there's the sheer detachment of his vocals on "A Day In The Life"... And some people still think of him as a cute head-shaking little popstar. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST,Johnmc Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:52 AM Thanks for reminding me of these, Alec; can we blame it on Primal Scream Therapy? The one that I had at the back of my mind was "How do you Sleep". Remember the story Macca tells of how Lennon, after some sardonic diatribe, would lift up his specs and say "it's only me..." |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Alba Date: 06 Feb 07 - 09:11 AM A Different Kind Of Love Song by Dick Gaughan used to make me feel uneasy and then...I included the song in my set because for me, this song become the key that opened a door to certain songs that I didn't perform in case they made my audience 'uncomfortable'. I sing what I feel to sing now. "I could close my eyes to the suffering I could switch off my mind and sing pretty songs I could close my ears to the crying I could sing, take the money and run But that wouldn't help those in trouble That wouldn't help make their pain disappear And the homeless, the workless, the hopeless and helpless Wouldn't be any happier, would still live in fear" ~ Dick Gaughan Thank you Mr G. Have a good'un All. Jude |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: GUEST Date: 06 Feb 07 - 09:58 AM La Mamma Morte by Maria Callas, Working Man by Rita Mac Niel and Strange Fruit by Billy Holiday. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Stu Date: 06 Feb 07 - 11:13 AM Roots by Show of Hands. Ducks. OK, OK - it was meant as a joke! James Connelly by Christy Moore. |
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Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2 From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 06 Feb 07 - 12:36 PM Ahh, thanks Stig for reminding me about Christy Moore. Among many, many others: The Sun Is Burning. |
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