Jeri, you beat me to the punch.

If songs about taking the law into your own hands to "deliver justice" to a wife beater may be a bit over-the-top (and seeming to endorse both illegal and excessive punitive measures), "Before He Cheats" really epitomizes such excess.

Before He Cheats
Artist: Carrie Underwood
Album: Miscellaneous

BEFORE HE CHEATS
Songwriters: Josh Kear, Chris Tompkins

Right now he's probably slow dancing
With a bleached-blond tramp
And she's probably getting frisky.
Right now he's probably buying
Her some fruity little drink
'Cause she can't shoot whiskey.

Right now, he's probably up behind her
With a pool stick
Showing her how to shoot a combo,
And he don't know

I dug my key into the side
Of his pretty little souped-up 4-wheel drive,
Carved my name into his leather seats.
I took a Louisville Slugger to both head lights,
Slashed a hole in all 4 tires.
Mybe next time he'll think before he cheats.

Right now she's probably up singing some
White-trash version of Shania karaoke.
Right now she's probably saying, "I'm drunk,"
And he's a thinking that he's gonna get lucky.

Right now he's probably dabbing on
3 dollars' orth of that bathroom Polo,
Oh, and he don't know

That I dug my key into the side
Of his pretty little souped-up 4 wheel drive,
Carved my name into his leather seats.
I took a Louisville Slugger to both head lights,
Slashed a hole in all 4 tires.
Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.

I might've saved a little trouble for the next girl,
'Cause the next time that he cheats,
Oh, you know it won't be on me,
No, not on me!

'Cause I dug my key into the side
Of his pretty little souped-up 4 wheel drive,
Carved my name into his leather seats.
I took a Louisville Slugger to both head lights,
Slashed a hole in all 4 tires.
Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.
...

© Big Loud Songs, Mighty Underdog Music, Sony/atv Tunes D/b/a Cross Keys Pub


Not only does the narrator not know, but only suspects, that the guy is cheating, but since when does infidelity -- and presumably not even by a spouse (since the car is "his" -- justify vandalism and destruction of property?   

I agree that most people would take the song - like the Dixie Chicks' "Goodbye, Earl" - as a sort of "venting" and not a prescription for action.   But I find it hard to identify, even in fantasy, with someone who thinks a boyfriend or girlfriend deserves this sort of "payback" for being a philanderer.   

There are many folk songs that tell of rejected or betrayed lovers murdering the one they thought cheated on them, but I see most of them as sort of theatrical narratives (not unlike Shakespeare's "Othello") and not recommendations for how to behave.   (And in some of these, the one who exacts such revenge ends up in the gallows after all.)