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10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: The Sandman Date: 12 Oct 21 - 03:32 AM yes i agree, about Andrew Rose |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: BobL Date: 12 Oct 21 - 03:25 AM Yes, Fanny Blair - nasty little piece of jailbait who frames an innocent man for a fictitious child rape. Most disturbing indeed. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST,Rigby Date: 11 Oct 21 - 11:02 AM I always find The Oxford Girl very disturbing. It's something about the way the narrator dispassionately recounts the murder even though he can't really explain or understand his own motives. Also, how is Fanny Blair not on the list? |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Mrrzy Date: 11 Oct 21 - 10:39 AM Lamkins bothered me as a child. So did The baggage coach ahead, and The letter edged in black. But those are just sad, not disturbing. Weela wallya, anyone? |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Steve Shaw Date: 11 Oct 21 - 04:57 AM Little Musgrave is pretty chilling, epic though it be... more so when performed in Planxty's understated way. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Rusty Dobro Date: 11 Oct 21 - 04:24 AM I always find the king in ‘Willie o’ Winsbury’ rather creepy. Also not many laughs in ‘Fair Flower of Serving Men’…. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Thompson Date: 10 Oct 21 - 05:03 PM Without doubt, James Stephens singing the chilling magical refrain O the brown and the yellow ale |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST,PyschedOutStolas Date: 10 Oct 21 - 04:21 PM I feel like if this list was going to include Dylan the obvious choice is "Ballad of Hollis Brown" but I originally immediately jumped to Pearl Byrant. The graphic nature of the song's about her death (of which there are at least 2 I know of) is deserving of this list. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Tattie Bogle Date: 10 Oct 21 - 04:04 PM Even as a retired medic, I also find Alistair Hulett’s song “He fades away” quite disturbing, but correctly so as it highlights the plights of those affected by asbestosis in the Australian mines. Then there is Allan Taylor’s song “Roll on the Day” re those affected by miners’ pneumoconiosis: another one that I won’t be afraid to sing but with disturbing images. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 09 Oct 21 - 03:46 AM I suppose that what makes a song disturbing is the images and feelings that it conjures in your imagination, whether fear, pity or indignation. On that basis I would nominate "Penny Evans" for the line "and every month I mail the damned thing back". Another song that I stopped singing as it gave me an uneasy feeling was Richard Thompson's "House of cards". Robin |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Joe Offer Date: 09 Oct 21 - 01:25 AM My intention when I started this thread was to change all the songs listed into links. I'll get to it. But I gotta say, I'm impressed. Thanks to everyone who contributed. Keep 'em coming. -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Elmore Date: 09 Oct 21 - 12:46 AM "Sam Stone" by John Prine disturbs me. Sheath and Knife too,but that was already mentioned. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Tattie Bogle Date: 08 Oct 21 - 07:38 PM Gerry, you just beat me to it there: I too find that quite disturbing, along with Eric Bogle's "Glasgow Lullaby". Domestic abuse is still rife. Andrew Lammie and Suzie Clelland both have some similarities with so-called "honour killings" as still practised today, sadly, in some cultures. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GerryM Date: 08 Oct 21 - 05:51 PM Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST,Peter Date: 08 Oct 21 - 10:39 AM I assumed, before opening the thread, that this would be about people objecting to their performance. Despite listening to folk song for over half a century one that still disturbs me is Banks of Red Roses. Pete Coe's setting has such a lovely tune which makes the story hit home all the harder. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST Date: 08 Oct 21 - 10:30 AM I agree that Long Lankin should be on the list. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Steve Gardham Date: 08 Oct 21 - 10:01 AM There are just as many disturbing things occurring today in so-called civilised society. Some of these were obviously written as warnings, some as political statements. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Steve Shaw Date: 08 Oct 21 - 08:58 AM "Willie's Lady is pretty disturbing in its own way." Lady's Willie would be even more so. I'll get me coat... |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST,Clive Foden Date: 08 Oct 21 - 08:31 AM Surely Hugh of Lincoln? |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST,RA Date: 08 Oct 21 - 08:27 AM How about 'Sheath and Knife' or 'Child Norris/Morris', anyone? |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Dave Hanson Date: 08 Oct 21 - 06:58 AM Andrew Rose is even more disturbing when you hear the truth of what his so called shipmates did to him. Dave H |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Dave Sutherland Date: 08 Oct 21 - 06:31 AM "Baron o' Brackley or 'Andrew Rose/Ross" |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: G-Force Date: 08 Oct 21 - 06:18 AM When I was younger and even more unsophisticated than I am now, I remember being shaken to the core by the last verse of 'Step it out Mary'. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: matt milton Date: 08 Oct 21 - 06:08 AM Lots of songs that I personally think are more disturbing than that list. Horses for courses I guess. The aforementioned Well Below The Valley is very disturbing for obvious, horrible reasons when you read the words. Willie's Lady is pretty disturbing in its own way. The White Fisher. The Wife of Usher's Well. Child Owlett. Little Sir Hugh (with or without the antisemitism) Some of the songs (but definitely not all) of the songs I just mentioned manage to be quite cathartic as well as disturbing. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST Date: 08 Oct 21 - 06:00 AM The Bonny Hind |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST,John Robinson Date: 08 Oct 21 - 04:09 AM I nominate 'The Banks of Green Willow'. I first heard it sung by Tony Rose, and you might think, 'Hang on! That's not disturbing.' But for me, it has a kind of fractured quality to the narrative - it might be all remains of a longer song - and it involves a boat full of Jonahs chucking a woman and her baby off a sailing ship to avoid bad luck. Imagine that on News at Ten. If you try to perform it you might understand why I've selected it, because it's such a weird little story, though 'The Outlandish Knight' is even more so... |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: r.padgett Date: 08 Oct 21 - 04:08 AM Morley Main disaster by Keith Marsden ~ when I first heard this and subsequently I had to go out of the room Time has put it in its place of course Miners worked in highly dangerous places underground and people point to agricultural workers deaths yes that too, but largely above ground and in better conditions Yes I live in Barnsley and was always aware of the danger from being a young miner's lad Ray |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Steve Shaw Date: 08 Oct 21 - 04:01 AM Well if we're straying away from folk songs, there's John Lennon's "Run For Your Life:" "I'd rather see you dead little girl Than to be with another man..." (He did apologise for writing it). |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GerryM Date: 08 Oct 21 - 02:29 AM Any votes for I Come and Stand (aka Little Dead Girl of Hiroshima)? Come Away Melinda? Strange Fruit? |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: GUEST,ottery Date: 08 Oct 21 - 01:37 AM I'm not sure how this list could have been written without Long Lankin/Lamkin. Not so much creepy as nightmare fuel. Also: Prince Heathen, Chyld Owlett...the last verses of Silkie of Sule Skerry are pretty heartbreaking. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: punkfolkrocker Date: 08 Oct 21 - 01:06 AM Further proof how useless the breakaway facebook group is... Big ups for the far superior researchable Mudcat forum archival database... |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Nick Date: 07 Oct 21 - 10:02 PM Pretty Polly that I heard Judy Collins sing is up there for me. My wife refuses to listen to it! |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Hagman Date: 07 Oct 21 - 08:27 PM As disturbing as "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" is, I can't help thinking that "Ballad of Hollis Brown" is much more stark and shocking. I can still recall the recoil when I heard that second-last verse conclude, and that was a very long time ago..... |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Steve Shaw Date: 07 Oct 21 - 08:14 PM Well as a long-time Shirley Collins aficionado, I'd nominate two of her songs. There's Polly Vaughan, which I have on a superb album called Fountains Of Snow. Then there's The Murder of Maria Marten, on that greatest of English folk-rock albums, No Roses. Then there's The Banks Of Red Roses by De Dannan, sung by Johnny Moynihan. I've just realised that I've picked three songs about the murder of women... Is that apposite for the modern era, I have to ask myself... |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: meself Date: 07 Oct 21 - 07:06 PM Thanks, Joe. Not identical with my list, but that's okay. I highly recommend the radio documentary provided with #4. |
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Subject: RE: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - BBC From: Jeri Date: 07 Oct 21 - 07:04 PM The Well Below the Valley |
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Subject: 10 of the Most Disturbing Folk Songs - B From: Joe Offer Date: 07 Oct 21 - 06:22 PM Somebody posted a link to this article on the Mudcat Facebook page, and it will disappear sooner of later. Seems like a good thing to discuss in the Forum. https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/8beeaac5-064c-4406-9e85-d42cebf9a53b The Ten songs listed are: |
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