Tom Waits "I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things."

With reference to Steve's post about Brown Sugar, there is a 'problem' with songs tackling difficult subjects. The music and singing can 'hide' the message. Arthur McBride by Paul Brady has a jaunty sound to it but it tells a violent tale.

Then you can have songs written by the performer, released on an album but then not performed live by the artist. Georgia Lee by Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan.As far as I know, he has not performed it at a gig. I could be wrong about that. Others have performed the song.

Albion by Chris Wood is another powerful song. I don't know if he has ever sung it at one of his own gigs. Both this and Georgia Lee are based on real life events.

Once you have decided to perform your disturbing song, where do you place it in your set list?

Strange Fruit, which has been mentioned, is a powerful song. When Billie Holiday was singing it, lynchings were still happening. She was playing in clubs, people drinking etc., so where do you place the song?. From wikipedia:

"Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances.[14] Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore.[10] During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer."

Another disturbing song is The Boiler by Rhoda Dakar.

It is more a spoken rather than sung piece, and it is about rape.

She wrote it while performing with The Bodysnatchers. She also recorded it with The Special AKA,which is the version I first heard.

She did perform the song at gigs. The following is taken from an interview with her.

"What prompted you to write 'The Boiler' with The Bodysnatchers and what was it like to perform it live? What was it like to record the song with The Special AKA?

It came about because I was just talking over a riff in rehearsal. I didn't know about writing songs, but I knew how to improvise - I had originally wanted to act and had worked in the theatre on leaving school. Performing it live was acting, that's all. A friend had been raped a couple of years earlier and I suppose I was thinking of her at the time. Recording it was a very long and drawn out process. It was released a year after it was first recorded. I remember Jerry on the phone to the studio from New York organizing remixes."

There is a recording from a 1980 gig in Folkestone on the net. It is a very disturbing piece, and i am not sure how it would go down at a gig, especially with women. If you did not know it beforehand i would imagine that it might well affect your evening.

Apologies for mentioning non folk songs but the topic does interest me. Songs are a tricky medium for dealing with disturbing subjects.