Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2

Subject: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Feb 01 - 04:53 AM

I guess it's time to start another thread. The other was at 120 messages.

Click here for the original thread

---

I know of one very powerful song about child abuse - Liverpool Lullaby. I heard the song when Judy Collins first recorded it in the 1960's, but didn't pay attention to it until recently. -Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 29 Aug 01 - 11:37 PM

No Mans Land-June Tabor.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,iamjohnne
Date: 29 Aug 01 - 11:47 PM

In this same strain it has gotta be MY Name is Luca by Suzanne Vega. Johnne "goin where the weather suits my clothes"

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:06 AM

Any song from the movie "Songcatcher" is beginning to strike fear in me. As a matter of fact, the name "Songcatcher" is beginning to strike fear in me.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: ddw
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:27 AM

I was reading through the original thread and found a lot mentioned that get to me, but others were surprisingly missing. I have trouble with Ralph McTell's "Streets of London," Odetta's "He Had A Long Chain On" and "No More Cane On The Brazos," Bob Gibson's "Civil War Trilogy," and Tom Rush's "No Regrets."

There are lots of others that I wouldn't trust myself to try in public without a lot of practise because I tend to lose it on songs about fear and loneliness.

cheers,

david

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:35 AM

Our own Larry Otway (INOBU) has written two fine songs that SHOULD make folks feel uneasy. The story of "Amadou" is well known, but another song of his "Yvette's Song" deserves to be heard. It tells the story of the native kids in Canada who were removed from their homes to be raised as "white". It is harsh and truthful. The Roman Catholic Church was very powerful in Quebec for many years and and pressured the politicians to allow one of the most shameful episodes in Canadian history. It took a lot of those kids many years to die on the streets, so nobody thinks of it as genocide, but it was.

I shouldn't imply that it happened only in Quebec; it was widespread and most of these kids were never even told if their parents were alive or dead after a number of years. They came from very remote areas, and few were able to afford to go back even after becoming adults.

Rick

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Cllr
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 03:46 AM

Robb Johnson -quite a lot of his work actually.

A song from Robb Johnson "I close my eyes" on his latest album "Margaret Thatcher My part in her downfall" Irregular records.

I asked him to play this a few years ago when he was the resident musician at a folk club I was running in in Slough (uk). It is so powerful that there was a few moments of silence while the audience -stunned- tried to react appropriatly and eventually they burst into applause.

The song's main theme is about one man's experience of the second world war (amongst other things).

Most powerful songs on emotive uncormfortable issues such as child abuse (as mentioned earlier in this thread) have such an impact because the listner does not want to be seen to be approving of the subject matter while still wanting to acknowledge the effect of the song.

Robb has many many songs that fall in to the catergary of powerful songs some of which I have seen reduce people to tears on many occasions and will also be uncomfortable.

I do not agree with Robb's stark political viewpoint but any one who is interested in politics could not be failed to be moved in some way by his work.

It would be unforgivable to portray an overview of his music as being strictly polemical when it is his observance of every day day life that he is at his most moving and powerful.

Cllr

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: ard mhacha
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 05:38 AM

Skibereen, The Band played Walting Matilda and Willie McBride, the latter two powerful and descriptive anti-war songs and Skibereen for all the dispossessed,refugees and the starving people of the World. Slan Ard Mhacha..

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GeorgeH
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 07:21 AM

I would say Robb's work is rarely polemical even when it's directly political . .

Mind, I can't even listen to "6B go swimming" without it bringing a tear to my eye . .

G.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,redhorse
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 08:33 AM

Two of Brian Bedford's "What's the Use of Wings" and "Breathing Space"

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 10:30 AM

Tracy Chapman does a song about domestic violence on her first album, but I can't remember the name of the song. It is quite chilling, as is "Fast Car"--the song which gave her her first break.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 10:40 AM

The Tracy Chapman song is called Behind The Wall (track 4 on her 1st CD)

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 10:52 AM

The Living Years-Mike & The Mechanics, I switch the radio off every time this song is played.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Deda
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:02 AM

I didn't read the first thread so these may have been mentioned. Tom Paxton did two powerful anti-war songs, "My son John", which is subtle and beautiful, and "I never killed before" which is acerbic, bitterly sarcastic.

I think it was Hot Rize that did a song about someone's dying which never fails to make me tear up, but I can't think of the lyric or title. They played it here in Boulder when Charles Sawtelle (?) died. This may be so Boulder-centric that it doesn't ring any bells anywhere else.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Deda
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:02 AM

I didn't read the first thread so these may have been mentioned. Tom Paxton did two powerful anti-war songs, "My son John", which is subtle and beautiful, and "I never killed before" which is acerbic, bitterly sarcastic.

I think it was Hot Rize that did a song about someone's dying which never fails to make me tear up, but I can't think of the lyric or title. They played it here in Boulder when Charles Sawtelle (?) died. This may be so Boulder-centric that it doesn't ring any bells anywhere else.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:23 AM

Four Green Fields

by Tommy Makem

So poetic, so beautiful, so sad, so moving. being 1/4 Irish and several generations and several thousand miles removed, Even I am sometimes moved to take up the fight.

But then I think about the bombings, and the children killed on both sides. I'd like to sing it in public but I don't want to condone war or terror for any reason.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: White Dove
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 11:37 AM

.....a friend of mine always asks me to sing....'My youngest son came home today'...I have never sung his song!!!!

When this track comes up on the CD..not sure which, Mary Black I think, then I press fast forward.

....the very idea of anyones son coming home on a butchers tray is chilling....

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:27 PM

Heard Bogle doing a song once about a black man in a South African jail. One morning the jailers came to take him and hang him. As his courage started to fail him, his brothers in the jail started to sing in a South African rhythm, "Courage, brother, you do not walk alone. We are with you, to sing your spirit home". The whole song is amazingly powerful and reaches into me on a primal level. When one has been very close to death, and seen its face, this song connects in a powerful way.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:48 PM

Gray Iron Prison sung by Judy Collins about the Attica Prison uprising. You don't know its' spoken by a dead man until the end.

The soundtrack from Dead Man Walking.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: DaveJ
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 12:56 PM

"Who's Garden Was This?" by Tom Paxton
I just had the pleasure of seeing/hearing Tom do this at the New York State Fair.

"The Most Amazing Thing in the World" by Grit Laskin
I usually have to fast forward this one...It is just to moving for me.

DaveJ

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Deni
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 01:12 PM

Mayn Rue Platz

- My Resting Place. it's absolutely chilling in structure. Does anyone know if it's a trad song or not? It is partly sung in Yiddish - I think, and is actually about slaving away day after day. The sheer hopelessness of the song really gets to me, but it's still one of my favourites.

Cheers deni

Subject: Lyr Add: SINGING THE SPIRIT HOME^^
From: Big Mick
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 01:42 PM

They came for him in the morning, an hour before the dawning
the pale white moon was waning in the African sky.
The cell door flew wide open, they stood looking at him

He saw no mercy in their hearts, no pity in their eyes.

As they took him and they bound him, tied his trembling hands behind them
He felt his courage leave him, his manhood disappear
His legs would not support him, so from the cell they dragged him
He sobbed and screamed and cursed them in his loneliness and fear

CHORUS:
Chains, chains, chains, How many souls have died in freedom's name?
To some it is a way of life, to others just a word,
To some it is a snow white dove, to some a bloody sword
But until the last chains fall, freedom will make slaves of us all.

With faces closed and hidden, the white guards walked beside him,
Indifferent to his pleading, they'd been down this path before.
But other eyes were watching, other ears were listening,
Other hearts beat with him, in his final desperate hour.

CHORUS

From the darkness of that prison, came the sound of his brothers singing
"Courage", their voices told him,"You do not walk alone"
From their cells beyond the shadow, he heard their voices echo
As in love and pride and sorrow, they sang his spirit home.

Their song of hope and freedom, rang inside that prison
It beat against the iron bars and hammered against the stone
As in their fear and hate they hung him, the last sound that filled his being
Was his brothers singing, singing, singing his spirit home

Courage, brother, you do not walk alone.
We are with you, to sing your spirit home

Courage, brother, you do not walk alone.
We are with you, to sing your spirit home

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: jaze
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 01:48 PM

The Magdelene Laundries by Joni Mitchell

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: catspaw49
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 02:04 PM

Powerful song Mick.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 03:17 PM

Wow! The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, The Streets of London, and The Dutchman never fail to get to me. Another one that chokes me up some when life gets a bit te'jus for either me or a friend is Gordon Bok's Turning Toward the Morning.

One song in particular immediately popped into mind, but when I started to type this up, I can't' remember what it was. Repressed it, I guess. I suspect it's something that really gets to me.

Other than folk songs, I sometimes have a hard time listening to music from La Bohème without getting a lump in the throat. Lush, emotional stuff, especially if you know the story (bunch of young folks living in a garret in Paris, passionate young love, Mimi, who has been frail all along, dies).

A few years back, when it was evident that Walt Robertson had only a few weeks to live, Bob Nelson, Nancy Quensé, a couple other people and myself got together at George Austin's house to do a tape that Walt asked us to do. Each of us had a song or two that Walt especially wanted to hear us sing. We went through the list that Walt requested, then George recorded one that Walt especially wanted. Before They Close the Minstrel Show. Some time later, George sang it again at the very end of the memorial Song Circle meeting for John Dwyer, who died suddenly and unexpectedly. I love the way George Austin sings that song, but now whenever he sings it, I (and several other people, I suspect) can't help but puddle up a bit.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 03:51 PM

Jaze, Grace Notes sang 'Magdalene Laundry' at the Whitby FF last week. It is on their album Red Wine and Promises, and was written by John Mulhern.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 04:27 PM

Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, 2nd movement. The sung text is directly taken from a prayer to the Virgin Mary written by a 18-year-old Polish girl on the wall of her 3-foot-square cell in a Gestapo prison. The clarity of the vocal over the sombre, murky background is symbolic of the single finger of light that entered the cell from above, penetrating the overwhelming darkness...

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,paddy
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 05:03 PM

Leon Rosselton's "Stand Up for Judas." A number of my Christian friends get VERY uneasy when I play them this little chestnut.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 05:34 PM

Tom Rush's "Lost My Drivin' Wheel"--even though I first heard it eons ago, it still makes me cry.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,DocJohn
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 06:48 PM

oh where have you been the live long day My little wee pruden dooo?

I've been to see my step mother Oh mammiie come make my bed new

And what did your step mother give youto eat? My little wee pruden doo?

She gave me two wee green fish

Oh Mammie come make my bed new

and what did you do with the bones of the fish My little wee pruden doo?

She gave them to My poor wee dog

Oh Mamie come make my bed new

and what did your dog when he ate of the fish? my little wee pruden dooo?

He laid his wee self down and he died Oh Mamie come make my bed new

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Madhatter
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 06:57 PM

I think people are confusing uneasy with moving. I cried at La Boheme's most famous scene but then a lot of Puccini's stuff does that to me, being moved to tears by a song for what ever reason is not the same as being made to feel uneasy by one. Some anti war songs make me angry and some make me think but not all of them make me uneasy.

If this thread was just about powerful songs that move us the list sould be nearly endless or if it was songs that made us uneasy "poising pidgeons in the park" might be one that animal rights activists might have a problem with.

Powerful songs that make us uneasy must be a much smaller list than some of suggestions that have been made. I think this might be a case of people not reading the title of the thread properly.

Madhatter

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,maire
Date: 30 Aug 01 - 07:09 PM

The original post was: POWERFUL SONGS THAT MAKE YOU UNEASY? ...that is, you LIKE them but they arouse strong emotion in you or in listeners...

I'd add Joe McDonnell (by the Wolfe Tones' Brian Warfield). I had a hard time, whenever they go to listing the names. Whether you agree or disagree with their cause or their action, it's hard not to be moved.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: AliUK
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 12:51 AM

The third song in Bogle's ant-war cycle "All The Fine Young Men"kicks the doodoo out of his others, it is the finest out of the three and the most resonant. Check it out on DeDannan's album "Ballroom".

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Metchosin
Date: 31 Aug 01 - 01:21 AM

The Living Years too, john in hull, also a number of Harry Chapin's including Mr. Tanner

Subject: RE: Main Rue Platz - Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Ben
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 08:58 PM

Hi,
the song is by Morris Rosenfeld, a NY Jew who wrote poems about religion and sweatshop experience around the turn of the century (1862-1923).
It is beautiful and heartbreaking. The melody is traditional.

Rosenfeld writes elsewhere:

And if for a moment, forgetting to ponder
On grief and oppression, song breaks out anew,
I hear in his lay only: "Wander and wander!"
And ev'ry note tells me the singer's a Jew.

Ben

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jim Lad
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 11:09 PM

Skibereen does it for me too. "Kilkelly Ireland" took forever to learn. Just reading the words choked me up. Eric Bogle's "Leaving Nancy" aroused the same emotions for many years.


Funny Joe: "Liverpool Lullaby" was just about growing up, to me. It spoke of a mothers devotion to her child while his Da' was out taking care of his social responsibilities. Little wonder that I have zero tolerance for any form of child abuse. Thank You for pointing that one out.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: frogprince
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 11:19 PM

"Touch a Name on the Wall", by Joel Mabus.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jim Lad
Date: 05 Feb 07 - 11:19 PM

Completely forgot "My Sweet Lady" in the movie "Sunshine".

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 12:15 AM

Skibereen does it for me too. But I am still stunned by "I Come and Stand at Every Door."

Don

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Gurney
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 01:17 AM

Joe, I'll go along with Jim Lad about 'Liverpool Lullaby,' it never ocurred to me that his Dad would REALLY 'give him a belt,' but that it was just an unsubstantiated threat to get the little bloke to calm down.

When I was a little guy, the threat was "The nine-o-clock hosses will get you!" Never did find out what they were.

On topic, 'Fanny Blair' moves me, and 'A Mother's Love's a Blessing' will make Her Indoors cry, sometimes.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Alec
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 01:52 AM

"The Infant Kiss" by Kate Bush in which a young woman sings of her sexual desire for the little boy for whom she is babysitting.
Well-written song on a deeply unpleasent subject.
Maybe just as well for her that most Tabloid journalists simply never bother listening to lyrics.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Johnmc
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 07:30 AM

I haven't seen the first thread but I think Alec has got the flavour here: songs which make you uneasy because you feel it is inappropriate subject matter for song as a vehicle, or songs where the writer deals with human instincts usually controlled in the adult psyche. Again, there are many trad songs which have bits that make you feel a bit queasy: Will o' the Winsbury where the father says he'd fancy Will if he were a woman; the song quoted about the dog reminds me (is it the same?) of the ballad Carthy sings about the poisoning of the son - quite gotesque.
   Also, too confessional a song can be difficult: Lennon has a few.
As for ones that simply are unbearably moving, I'd add Andy Irvine's "West Coast of Clare", Jimmy Webb's "Sandy Cove", "Mary Morison" and "Beeswing".

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: eddie1
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:01 AM

I have a problem with Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven", written after his son fell to his death. What happened was terrible and I really sympathised with him. He then went on to write a great song which must have been some kind of catharsis.
The song went on to be very successful with big sales, I guess if he'd donated the proceeds in perpetuity to some kind of children's charity I'd have been much happier.
Yes, I know he does a lot for charities, especially those working with problem drug users but it would have been wonderful to make the song a real memorial for his son.

Ah well. Maybe it's none of my business.

Eddie

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:07 AM

"The God Song" by Randy Newman - but as sung by the incomparable Etta James. RN's version is very understated - throwing his utterly chilling words into relief; but EJ's simply blows the lid off you (and she has the voice to carry it off). As far as I can remember, it's on the same album as another Newman gem, "Sail Away", also a powerhouse. But then, Etta could sock it to you with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (you'd never look at outer space in the same way again).

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Alec
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:32 AM

"Cry,Baby,Cry" on The White Album has a very sinister ambience, & "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" from the same album in which Lennon trawls a net through his own Id & catalogues what he finds there.
And that's before you take into account the horrible new meaning that the title was to take on a dozen years later.
The white album was itself used as a rationale for mass murder. (Though blaming The Beatles for this would be every bit as unfair as blaming J.D. Salinger for Lennon's murder.)
"My Mummy's Dead" from his first proper solo album,very close to home.
Then there's the sheer detachment of his vocals on "A Day In The Life"...
And some people still think of him as a cute head-shaking little popstar.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Johnmc
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 08:52 AM

Thanks for reminding me of these, Alec; can we blame it on Primal Scream Therapy?
   The one that I had at the back of my mind was "How do you Sleep".
Remember the story Macca tells of how Lennon, after some sardonic diatribe, would
lift up his specs and say "it's only me..."

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Alba
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 09:11 AM

A Different Kind Of Love Song by Dick Gaughan used to make me feel uneasy and then...I included the song in my set because for me, this song become the key that opened a door to certain songs that I didn't perform in case they made my audience 'uncomfortable'. I sing what I feel to sing now.

"I could close my eyes to the suffering
I could switch off my mind and sing pretty songs
I could close my ears to the crying
I could sing, take the money and run
But that wouldn't help those in trouble
That wouldn't help make their pain disappear
And the homeless, the workless, the hopeless and helpless
Wouldn't be any happier, would still live in fear" ~ Dick Gaughan

Thank you Mr G.

Have a good'un All.
Jude

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 09:58 AM

La Mamma Morte by Maria Callas, Working Man by Rita Mac Niel and Strange Fruit by Billy Holiday.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Stu
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 11:13 AM

Roots by Show of Hands. Ducks.

OK, OK - it was meant as a joke!

James Connelly by Christy Moore.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 12:36 PM

Ahh, thanks Stig for reminding me about Christy Moore. Among many, many others: The Sun Is Burning.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Mike B.
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 12:37 PM

The old Irish tune "Johnny I Hardly Knew You" (Martha Schlamme's rendition is especially powerful); Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre"; Bob Dylan's "Ballad of Emmett Till".

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 01:37 PM

How about "Hello in There" by John Prine? It's especially poignant if you've ever watched loved ones through their elderly years and see the loneliness that sometimes lies behind their eyes.

Ian Tyson did one called "Barney" around 1970 about having to put down his old horse because he probably couldn't survive another Canadian winter. Unfortunately, Tyson chose to shoot him rather than use an injection like the vets use for euthanasia and the horse didn't die quickly. Heck, I tear-up just thinking about the grief Tyson poured into that song.

SC

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,DriveForever
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 02:08 PM

Just about anything from 'Dad Loves His Work' By James Taylor
will make me uneasy, and I usually love most of Taylor's
music. Throw "Rosanna" by Toto in there as well.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: oldhippie
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 02:45 PM

The Tom Paxton song noted above (I've Never Killed Before) is correctly titled "The Willing Conscript".
Another Paxton song that belongs in this category is "She Sits On The Table".
And, in addition to "Mr Tanner", I'd add another Harry Chapin tune, "A Better Place To Be".

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Bee
Date: 06 Feb 07 - 02:55 PM

"If You Need Oil" (I think is the title), by Randy Newman. Love it, but it's very chilling.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: EBarnacle
Date: 07 Feb 07 - 12:00 PM

Joe Heukerott came out with an album about 20 years ago. Almost all of its content is extremely powerful, especially "Hungry" and his piece about abortion.

My own song, "The Loss of the Pride of Baltimore," is powerful enough to clutch at my throat whenever I sing it.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Flash Company
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 10:20 AM

Perhaps our perception of songs changes, I used to sing 'Go to sea no more' now I can't get past the first verse,

Come all you lads draw near by me,
That I am not forsaken,
For this day is lost the Jeannie C,
And my living has been taken
And I'll go to sea no more.......

It's nearly as bad typing it!

FC

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: bubblyrat
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 11:09 AM

Some time ago,I saw a very moving TV documentary about Sir John Franklin"s expedition to find the North-West Passage. The sight of the exhumed bodies,looking just as they did when they died,apart from the curled-up lips,in their shallow graves in the ice, was extraordinarily poignant, and made more so by the song they kept playing about going on the journey with Franklin. No,it wasn't the " Lord Franklin" song about "only the Eskimo in his skin canoe " etc---it was a different Franklin song,very stirring,more like a Shanty. I would love to know what it was called.But if I ever heard it again, I would instantly get shivers down my spine,I know I would.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Geordie-Peorgie
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 01:36 PM

From day one aah've never liked 'Imagine' - It gives uz the creeps and aah divvent knaah why!! "Workin' Class Hero" wez great, so wez "A Day In The Life" and "In My Life" is a masterpiece

One that aalwez meks uz bubble like a bairn is "We Stayed Awake" by Huw Williams - When he's waalkin' the floor with hiz bairn at some ungodly hour - then in the last verse when the bairn's a young lady and just has to 'take hold of my finger' - That's it..... aah've gone again.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Blindlemonsteve
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 02:20 PM

"Hurt" by "Johnny Cash", i can say no more.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Ref
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 06:42 PM

Maybe it's a function of an idealistic youth leading to a too-comfortable middle age, but what makes me most uneasy is singing the old "movement" songs and thinking about things I could or should have done to make the world a better place. it makes my warm, comfortable existence a little less so, and probably should.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 08 Feb 07 - 07:53 PM

bubblyrat, the Franklin song to which you refer is I think Nothwest Passage by Stan Rogers which is in the DT complete with Midi

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: oldhippie
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 07:40 AM

I really don't consider it a "powerful" song (in the connotation of this thread), but a song that always makes me uneasy is Eric Bogle's "Nobodys Moggie Now".

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: bubblyrat
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 08:52 AM

Thanks a lot,Geoff Lawes,but it"s all Greek to me !! ---What"s the DT, & to what Midi do you refer ?? Some of us have only had a computer for 3 months,you know !! The only DT I know is something suffered by alcoholics , & the Midi is a skirt or a French canal. What am I missing here ??

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 01:25 PM

I know of one very powerful song about child abuse - Liverpool Lullaby …….

Funny Joe: "Liverpool Lullaby" was just about growing up, to me. ……….

Joe, I'll go along with Jim Lad about 'Liverpool Lullaby,' it never ocurred to me that his Dad would REALLY 'give him a belt,' but that it was just an unsubstantiated threat to get the little bloke to calm down. ………

Having been born and brought up in Liverpool and having learnt the song there, I have never connected it to child abuse and still don't, even in these days of political correctness and paranoia. I agree with the comments above that it was just an expression - a slightly stronger way of saying "wait 'til your Father gets home".

Just a point on the lyrics that you linked to Joe, my copy of the "Liverpool Lullabies – the Stan Kelly Song Book" gives the line:

Now Nellie's working at the loom    as    Now Nellie's working at the lune

Liverpool had no tradition of weaving. That was associated with the central Lancashire cotton towns. The Lune was a laundry company common throughout the north west of England and definitely present in Liverpool. It took its name from a river in the north in Lancashire.


DC

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: zalby
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 01:46 PM

Hurt by Johnny Cash especially when accompanied by the video...his own epitaph or what? makes the hairs on my neck stand on end

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 02:10 PM

Heroin, by Lou Reed. Nails on a blackboard.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 02:19 PM

"Grey Walls" by Richard Thompson. Utterly bleak song about mental illness.

"My darling walks the floor, my darling walks the floor, she walks every minute that she can;"
"I heard my darling say, I heard my darling say, that she don't know who I am..."

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: patriot1314
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 02:19 PM

I always thought that "Hotel California" was a bit dark and scary.
"Dear Mr President" by Pink is very evocative, particularly when you see the video (you can find it on YouTube)
There are loads more which give me that feeling.
As far as poems go, check out "The Haggis of Private MacPhee" by Robert Service, I've never been able to recite it without breaking down.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Jack,
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 04:37 PM

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 05:00 PM

Jack the Sailor,

I don't think Tommy Makem intended "Four Green Fields" to be a war song.
I think he wants to see a united Ireland and comments on the blood that accompanies the "troubles". In this, I think he is more like Tommy Sands.

The problem with the "troubles" is that it seems to be a religious war (which most wars are).

Tommy Sands is a spokesperson for peace and what I know of Tommy Makem, he is as well.

One of the songs that really makes me feel uncomfortable is "If You Don't Like Your Uncle Sammy" from the 1920's.

Also, any song with the N word in it. I won't sing that. Even if if it powerful.

The song about wife-beating in "The Wee Cooper of Fife" and the part about I would beat my "ain sheep skin" bothers me greatly.

This is a good thread because it points out that not all folk songs have a base that's humanitarian. Those songs that denegrate humanity are best left to the dust bin. or as Woody used to say "I hate a song that makes a man feel small....."

"The Unreconstructed Rebel" has to be taken in context as there are many people who still think in these primitive ways. it does give an insight into the mindset of many bitter confederate types, however. It's an uncomfortable song for me nonetheless.

I won't sing the words to Stephen Foster's "Oh Susannah" either. I think the paradox with him although he might have been racist is that he wanted to write more art songs like "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair" rather than the "Ethiopian" songs he wrote for the marketplace.

Many Minstrel Show songs are uncomfortable to sing as are many so-called "coon" songs from the late 1800's through Tin Pan Alley later. As to the latter, it's unfortunate because many of these later songs contain great melodies such as "I've Got A Bimbo Down In the Bamboo Isle" or "Rufus Rastus ----Brown, whatcha' gonna' do when the rent comes 'round". (This great tune was later adapted for Teresa Brewer's rendition of "Music, Music, Music". Also the original verses for "Puttin' On The Ritz" (another great tune) which was "cleaned up" for Fred Astaire's rendition made fun of "high life" in Harlem. Can't sing that either.

But this might be a thread creep because the subject is "powerful" songs. I would imagine that this means that there has to be some dramatic content to be included in this category.
"1913 Massacre" by Woody Guthrie always makes me terribly sad and the subject matter uncomfortable. Yet it's an important song as is "Deportees".

I am uncomfortable with "Sam Hall" although it's a pretty powerful song.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 05:04 PM

I always choke at:
Eric Bogle's The Gift Of Years.
Les Sullivan's Non Tengo Mas Que Darte (from his new album)
...and a guilty confession: You Don't Bring Me Flowers Any More...

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: akenaton
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 05:14 PM

"Goodbye again" by Garnet Rogers is almost too beautifully painful to listen to.

The "second woman" condemned to a lifetime of mental anguish.
One is almost ashamed to listen to her pain.
To identify, almost masochistic....Ake

Does anyone know this song? I have only heard it rarely and have always been deeply affected by it.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: bubblyrat
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 05:50 PM

Tommy Makem a spokesperson for peace ?? Singing & playing with the Clancy Brothers in order to raise funds for the IRA to buy weapons?? Call that peaceful ???

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jim Lad
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 06:50 PM

I'll agree with Bubblyrat to a point. At the time Tommy Makem was singing Rebel Songs, the Provisional IRA had not yet stained the image of the Officials to the extent that they now have. I don't think that you'll ever find a recording of Mr. Makem singing a Provo song and there are few outside of Great Britain and Ireland who know the difference. I do remember the Green Cross collections at many of the functions I attended and still consider that to have been a noble cause.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 06:56 PM

"Ahh, thanks Stig for reminding me about Christy Moore. Among many, many others: The Sun Is Burning."

Which was written by Ian Campbell. :)

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Fossil in NZ (away from home)
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 07:33 PM

Bruce Cockburn - "If I had a rocket launcher....." (some sonovabitch would die!). Very strong. Have tried for ages to get it, but for some reason, it doesn't suit my voice and I can't play it either...

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 09 Feb 07 - 10:44 PM

Harris and The Mare -- Stan Rogers

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Fossil in NZ again
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 01:38 AM

Just thought, that since it dates from 1984 or thereabouts, not everyone might have heard of "Rocket launcher", from Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" LP (as it then was). So here goes:-

START
Here comes the helicopter -- second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay

I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation -- or some less humane fate
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate

I want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher...Some son of a bitch would die
END

Strong stuff, no? Maybe too strong for some. Anyway, thought it followed the theme of this thread quite well.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 10 Feb 07 - 11:21 AM

A few years ago, when I had just started out doing this solo thing, a lady came up to me at a Celtic gathering and handed me a CD saying that there were some songs on it that I just "had" to do because they were perfect for my voice. Well, I tucked the disc away and then rediscovered it a short while ago. The disc - "The World's Room" /
Old Blind Dogs - don't know how I hadn't picked it up on my own before
rediscovering it. As it happens I discovered a fine song on the CD called, "Forfar Sodger;" but, the song the lady would have me do I
wouldn't touch in a hundred years.

The title is, "Mill o' Tifty" and it has one of the most beautiful and compelling melodies to my ear; however, it is a song about a young woman whose family has promised her hand in marriage to a man she doesn't love. She then falls in love with another young man and the family is so shamed by her actions that they disown her; finally, her brother is so enraged that (with the family's permission) he beats her to death. I'M CANNOT SING THIS SONG! It's such a shame, too, because the melody is just beautiful. By the way, it's a true story and I believe the young woman is buried in Fyvie. Cheers.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Alec
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 04:07 AM

Don't know how they slipped my mind, but the sheer sanctimoniousness of a large number of tracks by Dylan on the albums "Slow Train Coming","Saved", & "Shot of Love" leave a nasty taste in the mouth.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 05:56 AM

Tifty's Annie: Child 233. Made all the more poignant by being largely accepted as a true story. Agnes Smith (Bonnie Annie) died in 1673, and her grave can be seen in Fyvie churchyard - as can a stone figure of the trumpeter atop one of the turrets of Fyyvie Castle.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 01:11 PM

I have to defend Tommy Makem. I know that he doesn't support the violence of the IRA and did not officially try to raise money for them. He played with the Clancys because that was a good gig for him. The idea that he raised money for the IRA is promoting a view of Irish citizens that is not true. Many Irish people do not support the violence of the IRA and are appalled at those tactics. It's the same stereotyping of the Irish as drunks or fist-fighters and it's well-proven that there are many more cultures that are more alcoholic than the Irish and many that are just as much if not more violent. I have not heard of the Irish destroying the likes of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. So the idea that all Irish support the IRA including Tommy Makem is specious.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Bardan
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 01:42 PM

I always thought that 'Dublin in the rare auld times' feels like it could be racist, but it's still a very moving song and its hard to pin down whether it really is racist or not. Also quite a few folk songs seem to feature incest which is never a particularly easy subject. The one about the british soldier lying on the bomb to save everyone is quite an uncomfortable one for the irish i think. 'Let the rope soap and calico take me' is quite powerful. There seem to be a lot of rousing 'cal to arms' sort of songs that can be very uncomfortable if you think about the lyrics a bit.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Rockhen
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 01:56 PM

A song which has reduced a rowdy pub to silence on several occasions is Tim the Twangler's song, The Screw. It is hard-hitting and, in my view, one that takes courage to sing. All credit given to Tim for having the guts to do that. It paints a harsh picture and provokes thoughtful silence and sometimes emotional debate from those that hear it.

Check it out on his myspace site. You need to click on the song 'The Screw' if it doesn't come up straight away as the site is set for random play of the tracks on there.

'The Screw' by Tim the Twangler

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: akenaton
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 02:26 PM

A few strange choices coming up here.
Some feel uneasy about Irish republican songs and those who perform them. Would they prefer to see Ireland still under the heel of British Imperalism, or Irish men and women living as second class citizens in their own country?
Would that situation make them uneasy?

The Clancy's and the Makem's supported Republicanism and when the struggle demanded armed conflict with the British they supported the IRA. All part of the process towards freedom and peace which the republicans have won.
Thankfully we have moved into a new phase but the irish people would never have achieved freedom and justice without the IRA and the armed struggle and any attempt to argue otherwise is "specious"

I don't feel uneasy about republican songs or republicanism. I see to day a strong Ireland which is proud of its history, its music, and its hero's. I only wish we Scots could say the same, if we win freedom it will be for only materialistic reasons, not ideological ones, our native music and language despised or ignored by the vast majority of "Scots".....Ake

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: akenaton
Date: 11 Feb 07 - 02:44 PM

Getting back to the song I mentioned earlier, I've just found that it was written by Mary Chapin....it makes my blood run cold
Wonder what the wordsmiths here think of it?
"Goodbye Again" by Mary Chapin

Every night she sleeps alone
And by her bed she puts the phone
And every morning after that
She takes the phone and puts it back

Now he¡¯s got a wife back home
And three kids up and grown
But these are things that go unsaid
He might call her from the road
Just in time to say hello and
Goodbye again

She keeps his picture tucked away
She think she might have it framed someday
And maybe he¡¯ll come see it there
Hanging by her rocking chair
In a corner of her room
On a Sunday afternoon
When all the world is dull and grey
She might close her eyes and sit
Rocking gently for a bit
Till all the bad thoughts go away

Back when children played their games
London bridge and Jesse James
She captured flags she bounced the ball
And every time she beat them all

Now she comes home to her cat
In a three room walk up flat
And plays a game of solitaire
Well she made a fist last night
And she broke the hallway light
And the pieces scattered everywhere
You see he¡¯s got a wife back home
And three kids up and grown
But these are things that go unsaid
He might call her from the road
Just in time to say hello
And goodbye again

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Nac Mac Feegle
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 11:53 AM

Roy Bailey sang a song at "Celtic Connections" a few years back, which was broadcast on Radio Scotland. It had a chorus something along the lines of :

"I ain't afraid , of your bible,
I ain't afraid of your Torah,
I ain't afraid , of your Koran.
I'm frightened what you do in the name of your God"

Potential there to piss off a hell of a lot of people. Must have taken some nerve. Anyone know anything about the song ?- just curious.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: bubblyrat
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 12:51 PM

I ,like many other people,particularly in the Armed Forces,used to love,and indeed,sing,Irish "Rebel Songs " as they were so wonderfully anti-authoritarian, and many had quite stirring melodies. The passage of time had,as always,somewhat blurred the original 'message', and even some of the quite virulently anti-British songs were still seen as 'acceptable'. Of course,we were all aware of Irelands troubled history, and the legacy of Cromwell,the BLACK-&-TANS,the Easter Rising,the barbaric treatment of Plunkett & others, etc. But somehow ,time had,as I say,somewhat taken the edge off things .THEN---suddenly,it was 1969, and it all started up AGAIN. Within a few years, we had the terrifying prospect of being killed or maimed,men women or children,by an IRA nail-bomb,placed by some twisted,psychotic ,sub-human thug,who possessed NO IDEA of the bounds of decency or of civilisation, who revelled in the waging of terrorist warfare against civilians who had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the political situation in Eire,and for whom the next thirty years were to be a time of fear,anxiety,and outrage. Under the circumstances,I think we can be forgiven for feeling a bit miffed when confronted with the REALITY of IRA fund-raising,especially in the USA !! How hypocritical is that !! Perhaps Tommy Makem did innocently appear with the Clancy Brothers, not knowing that the men walking around with the collection -boxes were collecting money in order to furnish the IRA with the funds to kill and maim women,babies, and even horses ( how many Irish people were killed by English terrorist nail-bombs? Yes, NONE !! ), but he must have had SOME idea of what was going on ,surely ?? And I don"t recall him ever coming out and openly condemning the dreadful,bloody,inhuman,violence.
So I'm sorry, but I don't believe anyone who says that Tommy Makem didn't know what was going on. Now then---Many of us love Ireland and the Irish people.Many of us still sympathise with the Irish for the hardships that they suffered under the British Government, mainly because MILLIONS of us BRITISH people were also suppressed by the British Government !! But for thirty long years, it was VERY HARD to sympathise with a nation who sought their freedom from oppression by blowing children to pieces by placing bombs in the garbage -cans in shopping malls.That is not the way-------EVER !!

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 01:27 PM

Then There Were Roses

Silas

Now I'm Easy

Survivor Leave

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Tim theTwangler
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 01:37 PM

Yes mate they should stick to the ballot box.
That is the fair and quick way to get justice when you are living under the occupation of a foriegn army.
I reckon if the Palestinians gave it a try they would be Free and happy within a year.
Hey maybe if the starving refugees in Africa voted they could get decent treatment from the rest of the world.
Or maybe they should vote with their feet.
Oh no we dont want them over here do we.
I know let them sit out in the refugee hell holes in the dessert and wait for us and the yanks to go over there and enforce their human rights to a free and fair elction.
OOppps just realised it would be illeagal for the UN or Nato or the EU to send troups anywhere the government in power hasnt invited them in.
Hmmmm seems that people who are opressed may not have the options open to them that we have over here. I wonder what they should do?
I know write a few rousing songs that will sort out all their problems and get them some justice.
Lets see here is a cheap gun made in the west in all probability.
Now shall I use it to fight for the chance of getting our children something to eat?
Or sit back safe int the knowledge that might isnt right,and that the rest of the world is very concerned with our welfare and is ont he way to rescue us. HHhmmmmmmmm?

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 01:46 PM

Akenaton - one certainly cannot deny your feelings; however, isn't this song, "Goodbye, Again," about a woman, maybe a mistress who is
in love with some guy who might have lied to her; then, maybe things got carried away - on both sides - and she gets strung along believing that eventually he will leave his wife, but alas, as in so many situations he ultimately doesn't. She smashes a lightbulb in frustration for being so foolish - or fooled - as well as still being so very lonely. You can have icy blood in your veins for the song but I feel much sadness for the woman and her situation - a tough emotional tug-of-war, I would believe, to give him up or stay in an
ultimately empty, unhappy life. Thanks for reminding me of the song
and the album - one of my favorites from a wonderful writer. Cheers.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: fat B****rd
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 03:09 PM

"Come Away Melinda" Tim Rose version.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 05:17 PM

"Goodbye Again" is a brilliant song...and a hard one to listen too, it's so terribly sad. I think what it is about, Texas Guest, is not the man's former mistress, but his elderly mother, who is living alone now...very alone...

"Now she comes home to her cat
In a three room walk up flat
And plays a game of solitaire"

She remembers being young, strong, and capable...

"Back when children played their games
London bridge and Jesse James
She captured flags she bounced the ball
And every time she beat them all"

Her one real human connection that is left in the world out there is her son...but he's busy with his own life...

"You see he's got a wife back home
And three kids up and grown
But these are things that go unsaid
He might call her from the road
Just in time to say hello
And goodbye again"

Men don't call up their former mistresses whom they have abandoned. They avoid them. They may, however, call their mother occasionally, just to say "hello"...and "goodbye" again.

That song is about the terrible loneliness and helplessness that many people are confronted by in old age. It states an almost universal fear that runs deep in nearly everyone. That's why it's so disturbing.

It's old ladies who sit in their rocking chair. Who play solitaire. And wait for a call from their children.

I'd say it's about the saddest song I have ever heard.


****

Quite aside from that, there's another song I find very disturbing...but in a different sense entirely. "My Way". It absolutely gives me the creeps!

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 06:10 PM

It's also possible that the woman in the song is a former lover or partner of the man who calls on the phone....but if so, why is she now living in such a confined way, as would seem to suggest an elderly person who is alone? Why the rocking chair? Why wouldn't she just go out and find someone else?

I think the "things that go unsaid" are that he has other stuff in his life that matters a lot more to him and that takes all his attention now, and he can't really be bothered with more than a token call now and then, in which case he has really not much to say to her anyway. Those things can't be said. They hurt too much.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Deckman
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 07:39 PM

I will gently add: "Bring My Savior To me", as sung by Evelyn Beers ... and as I learned it from Walt Robertson. If it's done well, it does give "pause for thought!" CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 08:59 PM

I used to find the Stan Rogers song "Lies" hard to listen to (or sing) without tearing up. I seem to be very moved by the theme of coping with aging when it is applied to women.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Texas Guest
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 12:49 AM

Well, tanks fer da tip folks. Now I know why I don't write my own songs - I can't even interpret the ones that are already out there.
Guess I'll just stick with the easy stuff like, "Rising Of The Moon"
and "Day Of The Clipper." Cheers.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 12:55 AM

The Sniper's Promise especially when sung by Fighting Men From Crossmaglen

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 01:28 AM

That was an excellent piece up there, Bubblyrat. The "Green Cross" collections were for the Internee's wives. Hopefully, that's where my money went. Other than that, I'm with you all the way.
As for Stan Rogers;... The one about being unfaithful to his wife... "Sixty Five Years From Now" or something like that. Bad enough that he screwed around on her but to then embarrass her further by trying to make money out of it? Sorry. Not a fan.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 03:00 AM

it was always made clear when such collections were taking place through Noraid in New York and LA in the 80s that the money was for prisoners' families. I, too, hope that that's where the money went. But it always served the British stereotype of Irish Americans to believe they were standing around in pubs, singing rebel songs and cheerfully handing over money for weapons.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 04:11 AM

"Does your chain hang low.", that can be really painful.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 04:55 AM

Hawk and Texas guest....Thanks for the input.
I think I agree more with Texas here, but Hawk's analysis could be just as valid.

The rocking chair in my opinion, is an allusion to the years to come as the woman begins to realise what the future holds.
Trapped by her love for a man who can never be a true companion to her.

A beautiful, bitter, terrifying song written by a master songsmith.

George... I'm pleased you appreciate this song its perhaps my favourite...Ake

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: ard mhacha
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 10:54 AM

Bubblyrat, Jim Lad and Ruth, Do you know what it is like to live for years as a second class citizen, to be despised because of your nationality and your politics, and to leave school with no chance of any work, with your only hope emigration, to leave your family members behind.
Tommy Makem like a lot of other Irish nationalists from the occupied six counties lived through this misery, the amazing thing is that for 50 years we did very little about it, living in a police stste you had little choice.
Has anyone written sings about the children murdered by the RUC and the Britsh Army, would it move you to hear a song about the 14 unarmed men gunned down in Derry, the IRA for all of their faults always gave warnings.
When the Unionist leaders declared " a Protestant parliament for a Protestant people" those songs of resistance are written from the heart, would you have taken this crap thrown in your face for years and stood idly by?.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 11:06 AM

ard mhacha: Yes. I do. Read the whole thing if you have the time. Particularly the earlier posts. I can understand your misconception of myself if you've only read the last few posts. I know & remember more and run much deeper than I care to put down here and so do the others, I suspect.
Regards
Jim
(Immigrant/Emigrant)

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: bubblyrat
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 01:22 PM

I have no objection 'per se' to people who ,rightly or wrongly,feel that their oppression needs direct action,rather than words alone. In fact,there is something very romantic ,and almost admirable,about the notion of a nation rising up under arms against a cruel and tyrannical regime----History has given us Pancho Villa & the Mexicans,William Tell & the Swiss,Spartacus & the Roman Slaves,The Jews in the Warsaw Ghettoes, Yes,OK, the Bolsheviks even (under the circumstances )------The list goes on.But the indiscriminate slaughter of defenceless innocents in pursuit of a liberty that the democratic majority don"t want in the first place, is morally & ethically indefensible. Give a man a rifle and a uniform , and you have a Patriot. Give him a face-mask,some Semtex, and a timer,and you have the Devil himself. Graviora Quaedam Sunt Remedia Periculis.!!

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Midchuck
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 01:52 PM

Give a man a rifle and a uniform , and you have a Patriot. Give him a face-mask,some Semtex, and a timer,and you have the Devil himself.

bubblyrat, that's excellent. I shall probably quote it. If you want any attribution other than "bubblyrat," let me know.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 03:18 PM

Another haunting song is "Martin" by Ralph McTell

Tells part of the story of drug addiction and the horror of watching a loved one slip away.

They say that we start to die the day we're born, but the addicts know their death lasts a lifetime...Ake

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: akenaton
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 03:33 PM

Sorry last post was me.

Bubblyrat
"But the indiscriminate slaughter of defenceless innocents in pursuit of a liberty that the democratic majority don"t want in the first place,"

And what planet have you been on, practicing you're rhetoric, for the last thirty years?
Surely you realise that there never was a democratic majority in Northern Ireland!!
There was however, an exceedingly undemocratic majority who took great pleasure in killing and discriminating against those who attended the "wrong" schools or followed the wrong brand of Christianity.

Democracy!! don't make me fuckin' laugh...Ake

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 03:39 PM

ard mhacha, go back and read my post again - I think you misunderstood it.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jim Lad
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 04:19 PM

Well ard mhacha? Looks like you're maybe lashing out at your friends. Understandable.
Let me add to the list... any "Provo" or "Loyalist" song that was ever written. How many of us need to suffer and die for coloured rags?

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: akenaton
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 06:36 PM

"Joe Peel" written by Pete Bond and performed by June Tabor is one of the most emotive songs I've heard.
I find it always brings tears to my eyes.
I was brought up by a "Joe Peel" and though he's long dead, I think myself blessed to have known him....Ake


He'd do odd jobs for one and all,
Though snow was hard or rain was teeming.
And all the world would seem to call.
The kettle never finished steaming.
'Reach up' He'd say 'by God you're looking thin'
As mischief in his eyes was gleaming.
'If Lizzie thinks you're hungry still,
They'll be nowt for us in her will.'

The day he died, I stayed outside
With scalding tears no comfort knowing.
We all turned up to say goodbye.
The church was filled to overflowing.
You'd never have believed it if you'd seen
How many people mourned your going,
And just how lucky folks still feel
To say they knew Joe Peel

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 07:04 PM

Just wondering, Jim Lad - that Stan Rogers song - do you mean "Forty-five Years"? If so, I thought it was more about being FAITHFUL to his wife - or his prospective wife or to his numbero uno love-interest, at any rate - resisting temptation ("How her smile lights her eyes, but honey, all I see is you" ... ). Or are you relating it to what you know or have heard about the man's personal life?

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 08:54 PM

Joan Baez's cover versions of Richard Shindell's "Reunion Hill" and Dar Williams' "February" (both on the "Gone From Danger" album).

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Effsee
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 10:02 PM

Dunno if anyone's mentioned Eric Bogle's song "It's as if he knows", but that cracks me up every time!

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jim Lad
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 12:38 AM

Meself: You got me thinking. Here's the whole verse.

So alone in the lights on stage every night
I've been reaching out to find a friend
Who knows all the words, sings so she's heard
And knows how all the stories end
Maybe after the show she'll ask me to go
Home with her for a drink or two
Now her smile lights her eyes, but Honey, all I see is you

I understand why you would want to defend the man and I'm not knocking you when I say that. Stan has been blessed with a great deal of loyalty from Nova Scotians.
My interpretation of the last verse leaves me with the belief that it's about fooling around. If you care to offer me a more favourable interpretation, I will read it with an open mind.
To Conclude: With a little more forethought, I would never have written the previous post. In doing so, I am just as guilty of the same insensitivity as the man himself and for that, I apologise.
Sincerely
Jim

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Tim theTwangler
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 12:54 AM

Bubblerat
Couldnt agree more re slaughter of the innocents
Of course when it is our brave boys firing the bullets,dropping the bombs or toruring Johnny foriegner it is called collateral damage.
To me it is still the murder of those without power by those that have.
Praise the lord and pass the ammunition.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 01:51 AM

I hate it when I keep disagreeing with the same person on different matters on different threads ... but anyway, we're all grown-ups, so: the interpretation I put on that verse is, "It's lonely on the road; when I'm performing, my loneliness can be relieved briefly by making a connection with a female fan (from the stage); this is just a harmless fliratation; she may be attractive and available, but "Honey, all I see is you" - 'Honey' being the woman he's been speaking to all through the song, and if 'Honey' is all he sees at that moment when someone else is offering herself to him, that implies that he is going to be faithful to her ('Honey'). It's like saying, "I was tempted to steal the baby's candy, but when I looked at her, all I saw was my little baby sister (so I couldn't steal the candy)."

That interpretation doesn't come out of "loyalty" to Stan; there are things in a few of his songs that do bother me, and I think do not reflect particularly well on the man that wrote them. On the other hand, I do feel I owe something to his memory, having gotten so much enjoyment out of some of his songs. This one being one of them!

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Muttley
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 02:40 AM

Bubblyrat wrote: "Give a man a rifle and a uniform , and you have a Patriot. Give him a face-mask,some Semtex, and a timer,and you have the Devil himself."

n amazing statement - who says the great quotes all come from the political intelligesia:

Another statement I have heard is "One man's Freedom Fighter is another man's Terrorist". The reality is that when one tries to attain freedom and equality and uses a gun or explosives to do it and then turns those methods loose on those not directly involved - then they simply become criminal and contra-indicative of their cause. As long-term friends who sereved in Vietnam have said to me in the past (I was Padre to the Vietnam Veterans MC in Australia for over 10 years) "If they TRULY believed in what they were fighting for and had the CXOURAGE and CONVICTION of their ideals: They would put on a uniform and do it legitimately. NOT hide a device and run away to set it off to kill and maim the innocent.

But to get back to the thread:

I just put these in another thread - probably the wrong one, now I reconsider - but the following ones always crack me up.

Wrinkles, The Breaker and A Bushman Can't Survive - all by John Williamson

Mary Did You Know - Kenny Rodgers

And two I almost ALWAYS fast-forward through (unless I WANT a good cry) or turn off the radio:

Scraps of Paper - Eric Bogle

and the already-mentioned

Living Years

Muttley

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 03:13 AM

akenaton, Katherine Roberts does an absolutely beautiful version of Joe Peel - a gorgeous song. Definitely one of the few that can bring tears to my eyes. Not just those last couple of verses, but all the lost promise of his early life...heartbreaking.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: ard mhacha
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 04:42 AM

Bubblyrat, Great songs with feeling come from the downtrodden and oppressed people of the world, when you live in a province made for a built-in majority and suffer centuries of hatred from a parliament of bigots, the songs written and sung are from the heart.
As Akenaton explained, democracy was and still is a standing joke here, murdering the innocent was the norm for all warlike nations, and the new name for that is collateral damage.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Tim theTwangler
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 05:29 AM

TRULY believed in what they were fighting for and had the CXOURAGE and CONVICTION of their ideals: They would put on a uniform and do it legitimately. NOT hide a device and run away to set it off to kill and maim the innocent.
On the face of it how true.
In reality the point of veiw of the guy that would win if only you play by the rules he has invented.
Bit like the modern day conflict in Iraq.
Sure all us rag heads will come line up in one place for yah GW!
then your brave boys can launch a cruise missile or a smart bomb from a very many incredibly safe miles away.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Muttley
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 06:01 AM

Never said war was pretty, even or right; just repeating a truism. Of course I was also probably arguing from behind rose-coloured glasses.
In a "perfect world" (that is, a perfect world that includes war - I think I am going psychotic) there would be a parity of strike capability. The idea of striking from hundreds of miles away is no more gallant than hiding a bomb and running away (or strapping one to yourself and blowing up with it).

I guess what I was trying to say is that - whichever way one chooses to make war; doing so by blowing up innocent civilians to get back at the 'regime' (whoever that regime is) is wrong. I don't care if the regime belongs to England, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, the Red Brigade, USA, Somali Warlords etc or WHOever - attacking the folks sitting having bagels and a latte in a cafe or a Guinness in a pub or faxing a letter from the 82nd floor of the WTC is WRONG and gutless.

As for ard mhacha - so long as you carry the anger and vitriol, Ireland can NEVER recover; try being a start foe peace and good instead of carrying the torch of vindictiveness: And before you have a go at me - I am descended of an Irish convict so I get a say (as well as having more recent family living there). Add to that, one of my best mates was a member of the Orange version of the IRA - an ACTIVE member: bombings / shootings etc - and had the poor grace to fall head-over-heels in love with a Catholic girl and as a result had to flee Ireland in the hold of a ship to England and then Europe and Africa and finally come here. He and his wife can never return because there is still a price on them courtesy of his old "mates" - THAT kind of vindictiveness will continue to prevent healing in Ireland.

Finally - you said "Great songs with feeling come from the downtrodden and oppressed people of the world"

What a load of TRIPE: I sing a great many REALLY good folk tunes of English, Scottish and Australian extract with absolutely NO hint of repression or downtreading of the masses! Some good folk comes from that platform - but so does a lot of crap. A lot of really good folk music comes simply from ordinary life - grow up.

NOW - can we get back to the original thread?????

Mutt

BTW - I am born of Scottish parentage 'ard whatever' - at least MOST of your country is now in YOUR hands. Ours is still under the boot of its 'conqueror' (sorry for that to all my English mates at the 'Cat). Before you try to refute that one I have one word for you since you llike to allude to ancient as well as more modern history - - - - - - - - CULLODEN !!!!!

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: ard mhacha
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 08:15 AM

Muttley,As has happened before, the powers that be on this Site have pulled the plug on my reply, censorship isn`t confined to the north of Ireland.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jim Lad
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 11:28 AM

ard mhacha: Emigration is good for the sole! Come on over.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Mike B.
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 04:36 PM

Tom Paxton's "The Death of Stephen Biko".

Incidentally, I understand he's been asked to update the lyrics to "Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation" to apply to Bush and the Iraq war.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Muttley
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 04:38 PM

Ard - I'm surprised they didn't pull MINE :-D

Mate we just gotta accept that our heritage and the slaughter that accompanies it will never be justified or forgotten.

But if we get bitter and angry, we're no better than the people who made us that way in the first place.

Peace, brother.

Muttley

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: akenaton
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 07:08 PM

Ruth, Thanks...Haven't heard Kathryn's version, but love her voice.

She does a wonderful version of "Ned on the Hill" with Kate Rusby warbling in the background.
I find a lot of similarities in the singing of Katheryn and June, and agree about Joe Peel, a little masterpiece by Pete Bond....Ake

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 09:47 PM

Marching thru Georgia
Horst Wessel Song

I won't sing them, because they are mean.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Bardan
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 09:00 AM

I read somewhere that there were actually more scots on the winning side at Culloden than the losing. When you think about it, the concept of a nation state wasn't all that developed yet and there were complicated political issues at play. A lot of people seem to forget that England and Scotland were united under James the 1st, who was scottish. Before I get lynched, I'm not pro-colonialism or anything and I do see Scotland as a separate nation that should maybe have independance (although it'd be complicated at this stage, and they'd probably do some damage to the economy). I just don't think the history is entirely cut and dried. A lot of the oppresive stuff was carried out by Scots (eg, I think, the Cambells, though I'm not sure.)

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 09:07 PM

Thread drift, but why not?: The 45 wasn't an uprising against England by nationalist Scots. It was a rebellion against the Hanoverian monarchy by supporters of the exiled Stuarts. That was a division of loyalties that ran through both Scotland and England.

If the rebellion had succeeded there would have been a great many English people who were delighted, and a great many Scots who would have been appalled.

Civil Wars frequently get rewritten in after years to make it all seem much simpler than it was. (For example the one in the American Colonies that resulted in independence - a result which at the time many people in Britain welcomed, and many people in America deeply regretted.)

................
Here's a powerful song that definitely makes me a bit uneasy, and it reflects the same kind of messy quality in history that gets ironed out - it's an Afrikaans song which is apparently very popular among many South Africans at present - YouTube coming up - De la Rey.

It's a pretty good song in it's way , and a very effective video - that's the trouble, in the light of the nature of a lot of the comments it has evoked on that YouTube page.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Arkie
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 09:59 PM

Milly's Cafe by Fred Eaglesmith.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,meself
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 10:19 PM

"Black Day in July" by Gordon Lightfoot.


You read your morning paper,
And you sip your cup of tea,
And you wonder just in passing,
Is it him or is it me?

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Lucius
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 10:51 PM

Seventeen - Janis Ian

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jay777
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 08:02 AM

Soap Opera, by Harvey Andrews, from his brilliant Writer of Songs album, 1972 (still one of my most played).

It's about a paedophile, and makes me uneasy because the song makes me feel sympathetic towards him, which I wouldn't in real life, of course.

The album has other controversial songs too, inc. The Soldier (already been discussed at length on Mudcat) and Hey Sandy.

I rate Harvey as the best English singer/ songwriter we have, but that's just mho!

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Jay777
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 08:47 AM

Another Outrage by Afterhours, from their album Hung Up and Dry, used to make me uneasy because I'm English. It's about NI, and although things have moved on, I think it's much too good a song, both musically (a great instr. outro) and lyrically, to be buried.

I tried to Add Lyr it twice, but couldn't. Any tips please?

Subject: Add Lyr: Another Outrage by Afterhours
From: Jay777
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 08:57 AM

ANOTHER OUTRAGE
(Songwriter unknown by me- anyone else?)

Another outrage on the news last night:
A soldier killed, all your neighbours uptight.
Turned out of your local for the good of your health,
As if you'd pulled the trigger yourself.
I sat with Martin in a pub that night,
Old Kilkenny, and his eyes shone bright.
We sang some songs and they made him cry,
Put down his drink and dried his eyes.
Says: "All this killing's an awful disgrace",
While he spoke the tears stained his face,
Couldn't finish what he was trying to say,
We understood him fine anyway.

CHORUS:

800 years and it's not over yet,
Think of the pain and the lies we've been fed,
And above all the tears and the blood
So senselessly shed.

Born in a country that's never your own
Of immigrant parents who've left their own homes,
Those little comments that leave you cold,
Just a foretaste of what's to come,
Like "your father's Pat and your mother's Biddy,
And if you can't share the joke son, that's just a pity".
This humour they find so great,
Born of centuries of hate.

The news from Ireland is savage and sad,
And over here they think the Irish are mad,
These Troubles they'll ne'er understand:
It wasn't us who partitioned the land.
Centuries have passed and still we're oppressed
By cruel jokes and ignorance often expressed,
And a system that's made being Irish you'd think an offence.
I've prayed and I've cursed, words spat from my tongue,
All this would end and that a time would come
When songs like this needn't be written and needn't be sung,

CHORUS

So senselessly shed.

INSTR. OUTRO

From the album Hung Up and Dry by Afterhours- they were a great band. Words typed out by me from listening to the tape.

JB

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Bored in July
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 09:32 AM

Hmm, I scrolled through this & the original thread, but barely a mention of Dylan. If he is, indeed, "the greatest of our time" one wonders why so few mentions of him in this sort of thread.

Curious.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 10:12 AM

I may have missed it in scanning this thread, but "Christmas in the Trenches" by John McCutcheon is a hard one for me to get through. I can get through it, but "Hard Times Come Again No More" by Stephen Foster is another gut-wrencher on my list.

And surprisingly, I recently had trouble with "Blowin In The Wind" because it is 40 years old, and still, sadly, current. "And the band Played Waltzing Matilda" is one I haven't performed, but I mean to. Very powerful. One more, and I don't know if this qualifies as a song, but "The Box" done (but not written) by John Denver.

I second "Kilkelly Ireland," but it is such a long song that I don't usually play it. Listeners tend to like shorter songs. At least my listeners. Maybe I'll "challenge" them with it some time.

I am sure I know others, but I can't come up with them at the moment. But others have come up with some really good ones. Great thread!

Saul

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 10:48 AM

Oh, yes, "The Universal Soldier" by Buffy St. Marie.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: TIA
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 11:09 AM

Powerful songs that make me "uneasy". I'll take that to mean not simply moving, but uncomfortable. There's really only one I can think of, but it jumps right to mind: "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin -- particularly as I type this a continent away from my kids who are playing a concert tomorrow.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 11:26 AM

"The Town I Loved So Well," sung by Ronan Tynan, unexpectedly got to me one day.

I also remember singing "Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos" with my old trio years ago. You know how it can be if you have worked in ensembles. Too often, the content takes a back seat to the arrangement and the mechanics of the performance until you have a well-honed sound - a "product." We had practiced our harmonies well and leaned toward the Chad Mitchell arrangement. In the middle of the song, during one performance, I suddenly realized WHAT we were singing and what it described. I always got a lump in the throat every time we sang it after that.

---

Please note that anonymous posting is no longer allowed at Mudcat. Use a consistent name [in the 'from' box] when you post, or your messages risk being deleted.
Thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 08 - 02:52 PM

Halloween (Violet Jacob)

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 05:13 AM

'Thre's no regrets, no tears - goodbye.
Don't want you back - we'd only cry again.
Say goodbye again".

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 09:42 AM

I know you will think this a crazy one.

But I can't stand even the thought of hearing a recordng of my dear dead friend Roger Brooks.

I wish I'd been a better friend to him. I hate the wasteage. I hate it that for specious reasons they don't play his one album on folk programms - for I thought his songs were the best to come from our generation.

I hate it because it reminds me of all my failures. The way I failed Roger; and the way I failed as a writer, because I'll never write anything a tenth as good as his best four or five songs.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Jul 08 - 09:47 AM

"The Idiot" by Stan Rogers. Also "McDonnell on the Heights," "Mary Ellen Carter," and "Northwest Passage" to name a few more.

"And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" will always get me too.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 11 Jul 08 - 03:00 AM

For anyone who has ever been unemployed and desparate for money, the Ewan MacColl song ' Looking For A Job ', probably the most powerful and moving song I've ever heard, sometimes too painful to listen to.

eric

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: topical tom
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 12:20 PM

A troubling, thought-provoking subject in Eric Bogle's "A Reason For It All".

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Jul 08 - 01:19 PM

Del Amitri's 'Nothing ever happens'. The line 'They'll burn down the synagogues at six o'clock and we'll all go along like before' sends a shiver down my spine. When you see the anti-immigrant feeling amongst some people you can see the shades of Naziism rubbing their hands.

On a lighter note 'McArthurs Park' by Richard Harris is very powerful indeed and disturbs me no end - I've not got a clue what it is about. Even 40 years later!

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Mudlark
Date: 13 Jul 08 - 06:21 AM

Staight Outta Compton is to me as compelling as a car wreck. And Roy Zimmerman's Thanks for the Support hits that chord as well.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Joseph de Culver City
Date: 14 Jul 08 - 06:39 PM

'Bold Marauder'-Richard and Mimi Farina

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Stringsinger
Date: 15 Jul 08 - 04:19 PM

One of the most uncomfortable and yet poignant songs was Tommy Makem's version
of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya'". That is for sure a peace song and reflects profoundly
the desires of the man who sang it.

It's too easy to categorize the views of a person with that which they have ostensibly
been associated.

Tommy Makem never intended the death of anyone as I have known him. It is true
that there was much IRA sympathy in the Fifties and the Sixties that would have
caused the Clancy's to be associated with that. They sang IRA songs but it was my
view that they did this in a historical context, not necessarily reflecting their political
views at the time. Whether they contributed to the IRA I don't know. So you say.

There are many Muslims who have contributed to humanitarian projects and yet have
been accused as supporting terrorism. All I am saying is that it's too easy to sit in
judgement when you really don't know the views of those who are being criticized.

Ireland, for the most part, has a history of being oppressed by England. I am not at all convinced that the majority of Irish people not living in Northern Ireland would want the
deaths of their Northern neighbors. And I think the same for Northern Ireland as well
about their Southern neighbors. Many wars are ignited by political ideologies and when
the human element is introduced, these ideologies are exposed for what they are,
a power move.

Wars are fought by sick politicians and religious bigots. Anyone with any ounce
of humanity would decry the death of another human being.

Frank Hamilton

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: mattkeen
Date: 16 Jul 08 - 06:23 AM

The English tradition deals with some very close to the bone issues

Well Below the Valley Oh

Lady of York or any varient of Cruel Mother

"All sing along now with this a nice incest ballad that I originally got from the singing of...."

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,Golightly
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 08:00 AM

Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' makes me uneasy. The couple go out with her looking wonderful, he gets drunk/stoned, she takes him home and puts him to bed.
I can't help wondering how much she enjoyed their nights out.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: theleveller
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 09:07 AM

National anthems make me uneasy - they're usually a load of jingoistic crap, especially the British and American ones. It's particularly unsettling when they're sung standing or with the hand on the heart. Bigotry personified.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: GUEST,brit
Date: 05 Dec 10 - 10:33 AM

my name by george canyon is about the loss of an unborn child it`s amazing

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Joe_F
Date: 05 Dec 10 - 07:49 PM

Marching through Georgia
Warsziawianka
Onward Christian Soldiers
Horst Wessel

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: alanabit
Date: 06 Dec 10 - 04:54 AM

You would have to go to some strange places to hear the Horst Wessel Song these days!

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Micca
Date: 06 Dec 10 - 05:53 AM

I have always been uneasy about McColls "Manchester Rambler" specifically this verse-
I once loved a maid, a spot welder by trade
She was fair as the Rowan in bloom
And the bloom of her eye watched the blue Moreland sky
I wooed her from April to June
On the day that we should have been married
I went for a ramble instead
For sooner than part from the mountains
I think I would rather be dead

I always Thought what a selfish callous bastard to jilt a girl that he waxes so poetical like that about, just to go walking.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 06 Dec 10 - 06:59 AM

Jay,

'Another Outrage' was written by Alan Burke.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: MissouriMud
Date: 06 Dec 10 - 11:44 AM

When I was 18 I saw Buffy Sainte-Marie sing "Now that the Buffalo's Gone" at the Gaslight or one of the other spots in the Village.   The experience was very disconcerting. Buffy seemed to aim the whole song not so much at me but through me - challenging some core beliefs I had been raised on regarding goodness, tolerance, patronization, racial attitudes, etc. I bought the record the next day. It was a great album, but that one song always resulted in that same very conflicted reaction - putting me well outside my comfort zone.

Subject: RE: Powerful Songs That Make You Uneasy - 2
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Dec 10 - 05:10 PM

Alanabit: Under my breath.