I know of one very powerful song about child abuse - Liverpool Lullaby …….

Funny Joe: "Liverpool Lullaby" was just about growing up, to me. ……….

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. ………

Having been born and brought up in Liverpool and having learnt the song there, I have never connected it to child abuse and still don't, even in these days of political correctness and paranoia. I agree with the comments above that it was just an expression - a slightly stronger way of saying "wait 'til your Father gets home".

Just a point on the lyrics that you linked to Joe, my copy of the "Liverpool Lullabies – the Stan Kelly Song Book" gives the line:

Now Nellie's working at the loom    as    Now Nellie's working at the lune

Liverpool had no tradition of weaving. That was associated with the central Lancashire cotton towns. The Lune was a laundry company common throughout the north west of England and definitely present in Liverpool. It took its name from a river in the north in Lancashire.


DC