Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy? (closed)

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: English Jon
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 04:02 AM

Prince Heathen is a rare and strange piece of unnecesary violence. It does truly strange things to you, but you have to sing it, otherwise you won't see what I mean.

The cruel ship's carpenter is quite unsettling too.

Mary Ellen Carter, I love singing, but it has a profound effect on audiences. Good old Stan.

Like McGrath, Dancing at Whitsun.

Currently, Turtle Dove gives me real problems. (Why do women do that, eh?)

Weird isn't it? Just words and notes...

English Jon

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Snuffy
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 08:35 AM

D-Day Dodgers

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,Fibula Mattock
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 11:50 AM

"Seasons in the Sun". No, really. It gives me the creeps. I find it very uncomfortable listening, and I don't like it. And not just because it's crap.
Ian MacIntosh's version of "My Old Man".

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: LR Mole
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 12:21 PM

"They Say That the Battle is Over", by Mr. Mallett. Also "Crucifixion" by Phil Ochs, but I'm not sure if that's just because it's so long and complicated. Come to think of it, the latter would be a better theatre piece, or at least ensemble choral reading. "With the speed of insanity, then, he dies."

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Kim C
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 12:31 PM

Metchosin, I can't speak for any other city, but stations in Nashville played the bejeezis out of "Rocket Launcher." SOB and all. Still hear it once in awhile.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,Lonesome Cannuck
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 12:38 PM

The Moose Song brings me to tears everytime I hear it. It describes perfectly the special love me and my girlfriend have.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 12:44 PM

Kate Long's "McNamara's Tear" hits me so hard that I get emotional just thinking about the song.

The first song I thought of when I read the thread title was "Hollis Brown."

"The Railroad/Butcher Boy" didn't start affecting me until I became a parent.

I can't always get through the verse in "Little Musgrave & Lady Barnard" that goes "He's taken out his long long sword to strike the mortal blow."

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 01:13 PM

As mentioned several times before, "Dancing At Whitsun."

It took a long time to learn because I'd tear/choke up about the third verse.

There is also a song from the musical "1776" called "Mama, Look Sharp." First verses sung by wounded soldier, last verse ("I'll close your eyes, my Billy, those eyes that cannot see...") sung by the mother.

Bat Goddess

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: ruthie-a
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 02:26 PM

'The Drover's Boy', as sung my Nancy Kerr and James Fagin. That song is full of so many beautiful emotions - it's had me in tears the last few times I've heard it. Most embarassing for my friends, who have to try and console me whilst looking like they don't know me.

Ruthie

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 02:30 PM

Mollificent

Last Leviathan was written by Andy Barnes. He lives somewhere in the Berkshire region of UK.

Haven't seen him for a couple of years but I bet he is still a regular at Towersey festival.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,Phil Cooper
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 06:28 PM

From the Tabor catalogue I have to put "Joe Peel" in as a song that's hard to sing without choking up. Other songs, not in the folk genre that are powerful to me would be Patty Loveless singing "How can I Help you Say Goodbye" or Martina McBride singing "Independence Day." Back in my favorite realm of folk, when I heard Andrew Calhoun singing "Lord Gregory" and the line "She stood all last night at our gates, but I wouldn't let her in." Got me. Jez Lowe's "Last of the Widows" is also a powerful song. When I first heard Martin Carthy singing "Famous Flower of Serving Men" I thought that was brilliant and disturbing story (would make a great Ingmar Bergman type film). I've tried singing that around the house and it falls flat.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: MarkS
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 06:32 PM

Isn't it amazing how the name Stan Rogers keeps coming up in this thread? What a loss his passing was.
MarkS

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 06:40 PM

The Jeannie C.Stan Rogers. The Old Blue Ox... dave mallet The Band played waltzing Matilda. E. Bogle No time to say goodby..Tom Paxton The wheelhouse door..Sean Gagne

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 06:51 PM

A couple of Richard Thompson's spring to mind as well like "Down where the drunkards roll" and "The Great Valerio".

"Hard Love" by Bob Franke. Several Ani DiFranco songs.

I agree with many of the suggestions above also.

mcmoo

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 07:58 PM

Let's not forget Rick Fieldings The Margins of my neighborhood.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,CMorwood
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 08:24 PM

I agree. There are a lot of Stan Rogers songs that do that. Have you heard Laidlaw's Last Lament by David Kilpatrick? Very good. He does this on MP3 for any who care.

Chuck

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Hotspur
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 08:58 PM

The Flowers of the Forest and Culloden's Harvest both make me cry, as does Empty Chairs at Empty Tables from Les Miz. I Am A Rock, by Simon and Garfunkel, is creepy "I touch no one and no one touches me." Eek.

Collin Raye, the country singer, does a song called What if Jesus Came Back Like That? which is uncomfortable to listen to, especially if you're Christian. It makes the point that prejudice doesn't die out, it just changes addresses.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 09:29 PM

Apart from many of the songs already mentioned, there is 'The Glen Cinema', a song by the late Danny Kyle about a cinema fire in Paisley on Hogmanay 1929 in which 69 of the town's children died. I found the story in a 1930 copy of the Weekly Scotsman magazine.
Also, as Iain MacKintosh has been mentioned, the long list of songs by Harry Chapin he does: Flowers Are Red, Why Do Little Girls Grow Crooked, Cat's in the Cradle, When Music Came From Wooden Boxes, A Better Place To Be (a real tour de force!), Sure Sounds Like Society To Me. I think it's the understatement that allows you to concentrate on the story.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: granny
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 11:30 PM

Here's a few:

(Though I'm not really a huge fan/listener to either)

I was very moved (to tears) by the haunting loveliness of Alison Krause's "I'm Just A Ghost In This House," -- don't know about name spelling --

And, I'm always rendered beautifully melancholy by The Beatles "Yesterday."

There's others, but...that's what comes to mind at this time.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Matt_R
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 11:36 PM

Ugh that Alison Krauss? Is she ever going to to sing something original? "I'm Just A Ghost" was originally by Shenandoah...a very very sad song.

I listened to Mary Ellen Carter for the first time ever today. Granted, it was good, but I found it too fast to be that powerful. And I didn't really make me uneasy. Guess I don't have the right mind set...

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:16 AM

I dont know if it is best to post lyrics by themselves without any comments by the poster, but, I think it is better, so, here comes one.

Subject: Lyr Add: NO TIME TO SAY GOODBYE^^(Paxton)
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:35 AM

No Time To Say Goodby

It was a phone call in the night, the kind you hear before it rings
It was a phone call in the night
When you can feel an angel's wings
You know before you answer
It's been someones time to die
Then, I learned that it was you
And as I stood there I could feel you passing by
There was no time to say goodby.

There was no time to say goodby
No time to thank you for the years
There was no time to say goodby a lamp goes out light disappears
As I stood there in the darkness
There were more tears than I could cry
For you it is so totally impossible that you could ever die
There was no time to say goodby.

refrain

There are pictures in a box in a room in a house long miles from here
There are old seashells and rocks faded labels from our days of German beer.
There are post cards from Montana
Some faded drawings and some drums
And I cant recall the rest oh God we're never really ready when it comes.

There was no time to say goodby
I was delayed in getting home
There was a mis connecting flight
When I got here you were gone
Someone handed me some coffee, and a sandwich made with rye There was no time to say goodby.

repeat refrain

There are pictures in a box etc

There was no time to say goodby
No time to thank you for the years
There was no time to say goodby
A lamp goes out light disappears
As I stood there in the darkness
There were more tears than I could cry
For you it seemed impossible that you could ever die
There was no time to say goodby.

There was no time to say goodby...
There was no time to say goodby......... Tom Paxton

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:41 AM

I goofed..hard to see to type..after someone handed mesome coffee
And a sandwich made with rye
I put them down and stood there looking at your picture on the mantel
Wondering why there was no time to say goodby.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: nutty
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:46 AM

After further thought I have to add - the prophetically disturbing - NEEDLE OF DEATH by Bert Jansch

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 07:38 PM

Many years ago, an old man appeared on Dave Malletts porch. He had wandered away from the "Home" and didn't realize that he had what we now call "Alzhiemers" He thought he was trying to find his fathers ox which had gotten loose. Grab the tissues folks.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE OLD BLUE OX (David Mallett)
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 07:58 PM

The Old Blue Ox by David Mallett

"Good afternoon I'm looking for the old blue ox"
He said,
"And" he said "I dont believe it, but, I heard my fathers dead,
And just where is the Curtis place? My God how things have changed"
He was a little old man he was almost blind
Walking with a cane.

"I know this is the place because I climbed up Severance Hill
I'd know that hill in a hundred years
And how are Ruell and Will?"
"Ruell Parkman moved away" I said
"Will Green he died you know,
And Willis Pratt has grown a man, and gone on years ago".
Our conversation was quite short, five minutes at the most
But, he stood before me like a child,
And conjured up the ghosts
Of friends and kinfolk from an older and a slower time
fifty years just disappeared like minutes in his mind.

"The ox was gone the day I left
He's been gone a week or two
And, I've come around to fetch his home
Cause I always did you know
Pa will be glad," he started off
I stood and watched him go
Down the way to yesterday
Where warmer breezes blow.

Now apple trees will wither
And barns grow old and fall
Ancient ladies sit in rocking chairs wrapped in their shawls
This old fella does the things he thinks he has to do
He's looking for his past
He might stop and talk to you.
"Good afternoon, I'm looking for the old blue ox"
He said
And he said "I dont believe it, but, I heard my father's dead
And just where is the Curtis Place?
My God, how things have changed.."
He was a little old man
He was almost blind, walking with a cane.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:07 PM

..correction ...he's been gone a week or SO.. Mallett is in Florida doing three gigs, but, I forgot where he said he would be.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: MARINER
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:22 PM

No more auction block for me, by Odetta. Accrington Pals by Mike Harding, Dimming of the Day by Bonnie Raitt. Moonbeam Josephine by Pierce Turner (and numerous others by him) Jenkins History by Frank Hennessy (and others by him) Thoughts and memories by Frank Hennessy Kilkelly by Robbie O' Connell. And The Parting Glass as it was sung at the graveside of Paddy Clancy by Liam Clancy,Bobby Clancy, Paddy Reily,Finbarr Fury,Ronnie Drew,Christy Moore, I think,and all the Clancy family and many others too numerous to mention. Now that, was emotional I could go on but I get to feelin' sad

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: wdyat12
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:44 PM

kendall,

I received one of those phone calls in the night, the kind you hear before it rings. My uncle telling me how sorry he was that my dad had passed away that day, I had not heard the news, yet I had felt it earlier that day. Although I was the last person in my family to see him, I never said goodby. The words to this tune have powerful meaning for me.

wdyat12

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:59 PM

WDYAT12,I lost a dear friend last summer. A man I had known for 50 years. Just typing that song was hard for me.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: wdyat12
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:30 PM

kendall,

I hear ya. I had a tough time reading it.

wdyat12

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: CamiSu
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:43 PM

You guys, I'm in tears just reading the lists. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda (Eric Bogle), I once played on an island in Maine. One of the people there was an Ozzie my brother had picked up hitchiking, and had brought out for the Fourth of July. He was in tears.

I couldn't listen to ANYTHING by Harry Chapin for several years after he died. He was a friend and I baby sat Jenny and Josh. I finally can, but a lot of it is hard. Sniper, A Better Place to Be, The Rock and on and on.

Garnet Rogers, Night Drive, as well as Phil Ochs Crucifixion, and others.

Kilkelly, done right. My mother thinks I'm wierd 'cause songs make me cry. (As well as the play "Someone to watch Over Me" I can't remember who wrote it)

CamiSu

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,SeanC
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 09:54 PM

The Challenger disaster tape is often too tough to handle for me. I was at the convention that it was made at. The con happened just a few months after the disaster, and the musicians had time to put their emotions to words. It is hard to come by, the publisher went out of business, i think. The biggest problem for the singers was to get some emotion in their voices with out being overcome with it. Some did manage that balance perfectly.

I will try to get some of the songs mentioned.

Eric Bogel and Stan Rogers I know and they do fit this catagory.

There is a song called Cranes over Hiroshima that I have trouble singing.

As a parent, there are more songs that shut down my voice then there was 8 years ago.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Metchosin
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 10:02 PM

Great choices kendall

You nailed me with the other as well, we would have to contstantly corral one of my grandfathers when he was in a nursing home. He would stand in one spot outside, staring into the distance and would resist attempts to move him with the admonishment, "The Captain told me to stand here!"

We often wondered if "standing watch" was his form of atonement, as we believe he arrived in North America by jumping ship when he was young, after being raised as an orphan by the British Navy.

I have been working on a song about it and had never heard of the one by David Mallett. A very hard act to follow, especially when you've chosen the same subject matter.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Matt_R
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 10:06 PM

I know Sean...ducking flying objects here...but Kenny G's incorporation of the Challenger tapes in his historical montage of Auld Lang Syne...where you hear the Challenger exploding, and Reagan's speech about how they "slipped the bonds of Earth to touch the face of God" just as the music swells...I always lose it right there. Another similar experience is from Paul McCartney's live album of the Rio De Janerio show...where he sings "Fool On The Hill" and at the end while the music is playing, you suddenly hear the voice of Dr.Martin Luther King "I have a dream..." ...I'm on the verge of tears just thinking about it.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 11:20 PM

Do conservatives feel this kind of pain?

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:21 AM

I can't get through I Come and Stand at every Door although I love the song and feel the message is important. When I get to the part that says "I'm seven now as I was then, when children die they do not grow" I choke up everytime.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: granny
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 08:24 AM

Matt R -- I kind of agree, re the Alison Krauss song...later, I said, 'Why did I buy this CD?' But, it was amazing that I even sat down and listened to something. I got so out of music that, lately, I feel like I've returned to some long lost land, when I even play something again!!

So, anyway...it was all I could think of....

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 08:28 AM

LOl Granny! Welcome back to music land! Glad to have you back!

--Matt

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:32 PM

I, too, can't listen to "Kilkelly, Ireland" without pretty much losing it. I think it's because I was supposed to sing at my grandfather's funeral, but he chose to shuffle off this mortal coil one week after I'd left for my two month trip to Ireland, and I had to decide whether to return or not. I finally decided that he would want me to stay, but I still can't hear the line "And it's funny the way he kept talking about you,/He called for you at the end;/Why don't you think about coming to visit?/We'd love to see you again..." without losing my cool totally.

Right now I'm trying *not* to think of cat-related songs. My best friend's cat, who has been with her for seven years and was the Queen of the Universe (graciously accepting our love and adoration as her due and bestowing her regard in return) was hit by a car the other night. We held a mini-wake for her last night. The apartment really feels empty without her. :(

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:53 PM

My God! how could anyone listen to Killkelly after such an experience. I can hardly stand to hear it anyway. And I'm not even Irish.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Amergin
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:54 PM

Sorry to hear about that, Molly.....It is always so hard to lose a pet/friend....

I get to thinking about my grandpas wonderful brothers and sisters (well the ones I met)....and all the wonderful tales they told that were never recorded....hell, might be a song in that in itself....

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:18 PM

...some of those voice are silent now and gone... Tom Paxton

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: Amergin
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:20 PM

Yes the Honor of Your Company is one powerful song, Kendall....one of my favourite Paxton songs...

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: thehippydragon
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 01:49 PM

The hangman and the papist is really powerful too. June Tabour has done the definitive version of Waltzing Matilda. I've heard lots of different versions, but that's my favourite. Always makes me cry.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: kendall
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 03:34 PM

I knew The Band Played Waltzing Matilda for at least 10 years before I could sing it in public. I've seen grown men come apart remembering war experiences. I once sang Malletts "You say the battle is over", and one guy came to me after and said he was going home and sell his shotgun. He did just that.

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 04:43 PM

Kendall--it is just an amazing song, I guess. I mean, it's murder on the ole tear ducts, but I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. :/

Amergin--I'll pass your condolences along to Myrlin, and thanks...I still can't quite believe it. Weird...my paternal grandmother died last week, and I barely shed a tear (I didn't know her very well,) but my best friend's cat dies and I'm a basket case. Guess I've got *my* priorities straight *lol*.

Maybe I'll write a song for Dusty. To the tune of "The Queen of Argyll." ;)

M

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 04:59 PM

Sorry to double post, but I just remembered...

speaking of Dusty and eerie songs,

when we were sitting around last night remembering her, Myrlin's downstairs neighbors were playing music quite loudly, and all of a sudden we realized that it was the movie of "Evita"--the first musical Myr and I were in together about ten years ago. Not only that, but the current song was "Another Suitcase in Another Hall," the solo I sang in the show. So of course we started singing it together, and the lyrics were almost eerie in their relevance...

Time and time again I've said that I don't care,
That I'm immune to gloom, that I'm hard through and through;
But every time it matters all my words desert me--
So anyone can hurt me,
And they do...

Call in three months' time and I'll be fine, I know;
Well, maybe not that fine...but I'll survive, anyhow.
I won't recall the names and places of this sad occasion;
But that's no consolation,
Here and now. * Very, very eerie. But fitting.

Molly

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: harpmolly
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 05:00 PM

Dammit!

Okay, obviously "Very, very eerie..." etc was supposed to be on another line.

I'm shutting up now. Damn html.

M

Subject: RE: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY?
From: FOG(Friend of Gnome)
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 05:18 PM

'It all came back today' by Tanita Tikaram from the album The Sweet Keeper cos it reminds me how lucky I was to get out of the things that seemed like a good idea at the time. 'Windego' by Buffy Saint Marie from Coincidence and likely stories.-Everyone should listen to this. 'When angels cry' by Janis Ian from Revenge(I think) I know this is all a bit more contemporary but these are the ones that can make me shake and quake Oh nearly forgot-'Who knows where the time goes' by the beautiful Sandy Denny sorely missed to this day by all Brit folkies of that age group.