Songs rejoicing in justice

Subject: Rejoicing that evil is punished
From: Kent Davis
Date: 03 Feb 08 - 10:51 PM

"Mary, Don't You Weep" is a song of rejoicing that evil is punished.
Lyrics are here: @displaysong.cfm?SongID=4365

I've noticed this theme in songs recorded in the Bible, including three sung by or composed by women:

"The Song of Miriam" regarding the punishment of Egypt:
Exodus 15: 21b
      "Sing to the LORD,
       for he is highly exalted.
       The horse and its rider
       he has hurled into the sea."

"The Song of Deborah" regarding the punishment of Sisera:
Judges 5:1-31 (24-31a below)
      "Most blessed of women be Jael,
       the wife of Heber the Kenite,
       most blessed of tent-dwelling women.
       He asked for water, and she gave him milk;
       in a bowl fit for nobles she brought him curdled milk.
       Her hand reached for the tent peg,
       her right hand for the workman's hammer.
       She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
       she shattered and pierced his temple.
       At her feet he sank,
       he fell; there he lay.
       At her feet he sank, he fell;
       where he sank, there he fell-dead.
       Through the window peered Sisera's mother;
       behind the lattice she cried out,
       'Why is his chariot so long in coming?
       Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?'
       The wisest of her ladies answer her;
       indeed, she keeps saying to herself,
       'Are they not finding and dividing the spoils:
       a girl or two for each man,
       colorful garments as plunder for Sisera,
       colorful garments embroidered,
       highly embroidered garments for my neck—
       all this as plunder?'
       So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!
       But may they who love you be like the sun
       when it rises in its strength."

"The Magnificat" regarding the blessings to be brought by Jesus:
Luke 1:46-55 (Luke 1:51,52 below)
      "He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
      he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
      He has brought down rulers from their thrones
      but has lifted up the humble."

What other examples of songs that rejoice in the punishment of evil come to mind?

Kent

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 02:44 AM

Famous Flower of Serving Men
Long Lankin
Sam Hall (depending on your point of view)

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 03:04 AM

Yes Richard, I thought Famous Flower straightaway.

what was it Lear said, if everyman got his desserts, who should 'scape whipping...? (something like that).

Anyway justice doesn't have a good name in songwriting circles. I think maybe, as a group, we feel aggireved that our genius hasn't had its full quota of recognition.

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: Kent Davis
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 06:20 PM

Thanks for those. Here are three more I've thought of:

"The Six King's Daughters" (Child #4) tells of a serial killer who is himself killed, drowned by the young lady whom he intended to make his seventh victim. thread.cfm?threadid=22848

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" uses the memorable "grapes of wrath" allusion from Revelation 14:18-20 to describe the anticipated defeat of the Confederacy. (I'm NOT speculating about whether God was pleased to be described, in the song, as stomping the blood out of the Confederates. I'm just pointing out that this is the original meaning.) @displaysong.cfm?SongID=528

"The Song of Hannah"
I Samuel 2:1-10
Hannah was the mother of Samuel. Here are verses 8,9:

       He raises the poor from the dust
       and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
       he seats them with princes
       and has them inherit a throne of honor.
       For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's;
       upon them he has set the world.

       He will guard the feet of his saints,
       but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.
       It is not by strength that one prevails;

Here is the whole song: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=9&chapter=2&version=31

Kent

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 06:23 PM

From a different era -"Hats off to Larry".

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 07:17 PM

What's the one where the guy finds out his wife is going to blind & drown him, so he plays along until he steps aside as she's about to push him in the river, and she goes in instead? Is that Eggs and Marrowbones?

In some versions of The Two Sisters, the older sister, who pushed the younger in, gets named by the harp (and, presumably, punished). In others, the miller gets executed for his role in the drowning.

Since the Bible has been cited, there's Chad Gadya in the Passover Hagadah, where The Holy One destroys the Angel of Death. I suppose there are other Passover & Chanukah songs that qualify as rejoicing in the punishment of evil.

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 07:24 PM

Here's a previous thread about Mike Waterson's Stitch in time

Kitty

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: Kent Davis
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 08:23 PM

Wonderful songs!

Here are some references for those who, like me, don't know some of them:
"Egg and Marrowbones" = "Tigery Orum" (Laws Q2)thread.cfm?threadid=82623#1513963

"Chad Gadya" = "One Little Goat" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Gadya

Another Passover song with this theme is "Dayenu" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayenu .

"Fairest Flower of Serving Men" (Child #106) @displaysong.cfm?SongID=1922
Kent

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: curmudgeon
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 08:30 PM

"The Butcher and the Chambermaid"

Subject: Lyr Add: EAST TEXAS RED (Woody Guthrie)
From: catspaw49
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 08:33 PM

The best "Don't Get Mad Get Even" song I know............

EAST TEXAS RED
(Woody Guthrie)

Down in the scrub-oak country of the Southeast Texas gulf,
There used to ride a brakeman--and a brakeman double tough.
He worked the town of Kilgore, and Longview twelve miles down,
And the hobos said little East Texas Red was the meanest bull around.

Now, whether you ride in the dim moonlight, or the shimmering heat o' the sun,
You can always see little East Texas Red just a-sportin' his cool running gun,
And the tale got switched down to stems and mains and everybody said
That the meanest bull on them shiny irons was little East Texas Red.

It was on one cold and drizzly day 'long about nine or ten,
A couple o' bums on the hunt of a job stood in the blizzardy wind.
Hungry and cold, they knocked on the doors of the working people all around,
For a piece of meat, a carrot, or a spud for to boil their stew around.

Now, Red he come on down the line and he waved old number two.
He kicked their bucket over a bush and dumped out all of their stew.
One of the boys said, "East Texas Red, you better get your business straight,
'Cause you're gonna ride that little black train just one year from this date."

Now, Red he laughed and he clumb the bank and he jumped on the side of a
wheeler.
The boys caught a tanker for Seminole, then north to Amarillo.
They found them a job of oilfield work and followed that pipeline down.
It took 'em to a hell of a lot of places before that year had rolled around.

Then on one cold and drizzly day, they caught them a gulf-bound train,
Shivered and shook with the dough in their pockets to the scrub-oak flats again.
Over hills of sand and hard-froze roads where the cotton wagons roll
On past the town of Kilgore and on to old Longview.

The smoke from their fire went higher and higher, and Red come down the line.
He shivered and shook with the snow in his face as he waved old number nine.
He followed the ties past the cinder dump 'til he come to the very same spot,
And there he spied the same old 'boes settin' 'round the same stew pot.

Red went to his knees and he hollered, "Please, don't pull that trigger on me!
I did not get my business straight," but he did not get his say.
A gun wheeled out from an overcoat and it played the old one-two,
And Red was dead when the other men set down to eat their stew.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Feb 08 - 09:11 PM

Dick Gaughan's "Revolution".

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: chrisr18
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 12:39 AM

Not sure if it's exactly what you're looking for, but one that I immediately thought of (because it's one of my favs) was How Can I Keep From Singing:

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,
And hear their death-knell ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near,
How can I keep from singing?

Chris

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: GUEST,Rich
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 05:57 AM

Arthur MacBride (again depending on your point of view!)

Subject: RE: Songs rejoicing in justice
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 05 Feb 08 - 06:51 AM

Eela Weela Waulia (There came a knocking on her kitchen door, eela weela waulya, two policeman and a man, down by the river Saile...)

Our New Doffing Mistress - about a kindly boss woman who defends her staff.