Please recommend beautiful songs about difficult things.
April 23, 2018 6:57 AM Subscribe
This song popped into my brainpan today and I would like recommendations for other good songs about important things. Any genre, any subject. It just has to be good and memorable. I first heard this song on a radio interview about Magdalene Laundries in the early 90's and I've never stopped thinking about it.
I'm at work and don't have access to YouTube, so I have no idea what the original song is, but there's a persistent rumor that "Here Comes Your Man" by the Pixies is about dropping the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. The key is that the name of the plane that dropped the bomb was Bockscar. For what it's worth, Black Francis has denied this interpretation of the lyrics, but it works.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:13 AM on April 23, 2018
posted by kevinbelt at 7:13 AM on April 23, 2018
Joan Baez has a beautiful song about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
(And Joni Mitchell has one about the Magdalene Laundries, too.)
posted by AgentRocket at 7:14 AM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
(And Joni Mitchell has one about the Magdalene Laundries, too.)
posted by AgentRocket at 7:14 AM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Vlad the Astrophysicist isn't necessarily about a difficult thing, but it is about a big and important thing, or a set of entwined things.
posted by spindrifter at 7:23 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by spindrifter at 7:23 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Woody Guthrie song "Deportee (Plane Crash at Los Gatos)" (sung by Arlo Guthrie in this version).
It's a protest song about a plane crash that killed 28 Mexican citizens who were being deported after the harvest season in California. From the Wikipedia page about the crash: "Initial news reports listed only the pilot, first officer, stewardess, and the immigration guard, with the remainder listed only as 'deportees'. Only 12 of the victims were initially identified. The Hispanic victims of the accident were placed in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno, California, with their grave marked only as 'Mexican Nationals.'"
posted by AgentRocket at 7:32 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
It's a protest song about a plane crash that killed 28 Mexican citizens who were being deported after the harvest season in California. From the Wikipedia page about the crash: "Initial news reports listed only the pilot, first officer, stewardess, and the immigration guard, with the remainder listed only as 'deportees'. Only 12 of the victims were initially identified. The Hispanic victims of the accident were placed in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno, California, with their grave marked only as 'Mexican Nationals.'"
posted by AgentRocket at 7:32 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Warmth of the Sun by The Beach Boys was deeply influenced by the death of JFK.
posted by Jellybean_Slybun at 7:37 AM on April 23, 2018
posted by Jellybean_Slybun at 7:37 AM on April 23, 2018
David Francey has lots of story songs. Torn Screen Door references bank foreclosures on farms, of which there were so many. All of his stuff is wonderfully heartwarming or heartbreaking.
posted by kate4914 at 7:52 AM on April 23, 2018
posted by kate4914 at 7:52 AM on April 23, 2018
Are you looking for examples of major social and historical issues, or are you interested in difficult topics generally? Several of Richard & Linda Thompson's albums are about their stormy relationship, with the final album, Shoot Out the Lights, being all but literally a soundtrack of their divorce.
Richard and Danny Thompson (no relation) also recording a song cycle called Industry, about the decline of manufacturing in England, and it has its share of lovely and sad moments.
posted by ardgedee at 7:57 AM on April 23, 2018
Richard and Danny Thompson (no relation) also recording a song cycle called Industry, about the decline of manufacturing in England, and it has its share of lovely and sad moments.
posted by ardgedee at 7:57 AM on April 23, 2018
The Sinead O'Connor song Black Boys on Mopeds is about a shooting covered up by cops in Thatcher-era England. It's been covered lots of times.
posted by clavicle at 8:05 AM on April 23, 2018
posted by clavicle at 8:05 AM on April 23, 2018
Steve Earle has a few of these:
Billy Austin (anti-death penalty; loosely based on Gary Gilmore?)
Ben McCulloch (Civil War general; "sung from the perspective of a foot soldier in McCulloch's infantry")
Tecumseh Valley (actually written by Townes Van Zandt; completely fictional as far as I know, but hauntingly beautiful song)
Christmas in Washington ("Come back Woody Guthrie...")
posted by Bron at 8:24 AM on April 23, 2018
Billy Austin (anti-death penalty; loosely based on Gary Gilmore?)
Ben McCulloch (Civil War general; "sung from the perspective of a foot soldier in McCulloch's infantry")
Tecumseh Valley (actually written by Townes Van Zandt; completely fictional as far as I know, but hauntingly beautiful song)
Christmas in Washington ("Come back Woody Guthrie...")
posted by Bron at 8:24 AM on April 23, 2018
The Divine Comedy's A Lady of a Certain Age tells the story of a glamorous, wasted life- a tragedy writ small. Lyrically, atmospherically, musically, it is one of the most perfect songs I've encountered.
posted by EKStickland at 9:06 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by EKStickland at 9:06 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
The song John Wayne Gacy Jr. is beautiful and also difficult to listen to because of the subject matter.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 9:21 AM on April 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Dressed to Kill at 9:21 AM on April 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
Not sire if you're only looking for things that sound sort of delicate, but I'll give it a go with a bit of a mix of sounds:
Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
Black Man in a White World - Michael Kiwanuka
White Man's World - Jason Isbell (which is practically its companion song)
Why is it So Hard? - Charles Bradley
Doing the Right Thing - Daughter
posted by cnc at 9:31 AM on April 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday
Black Man in a White World - Michael Kiwanuka
White Man's World - Jason Isbell (which is practically its companion song)
Why is it So Hard? - Charles Bradley
Doing the Right Thing - Daughter
posted by cnc at 9:31 AM on April 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
Here's my list pretty much off the top of my head of songs that revolve around important themes, mostly my main interest which is mental health and surviving.
No Bad News - Patty Griffin
Dead Slate Pacific - John Vanderslice
I Love You and Buddha Too - Mason Jennings
Patti and Robert - Mason Jennings
Lantern - Josh Ritter
Up the Wolves - the Mountain Goats
Remember That I Love You - Kimya Dawson
Jam Eater Blues - the Mountain Goats
Deuteronomy 2:10 - the Mountain Goats
Be Here Now - Mason Jennings
Raised Up Family - James Taylor
Humanize - Lizzo
Your Belgian Things - the Mountain Goats
A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
posted by fairlynearlyready at 10:11 AM on April 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
No Bad News - Patty Griffin
Dead Slate Pacific - John Vanderslice
I Love You and Buddha Too - Mason Jennings
Patti and Robert - Mason Jennings
Lantern - Josh Ritter
Up the Wolves - the Mountain Goats
Remember That I Love You - Kimya Dawson
Jam Eater Blues - the Mountain Goats
Deuteronomy 2:10 - the Mountain Goats
Be Here Now - Mason Jennings
Raised Up Family - James Taylor
Humanize - Lizzo
Your Belgian Things - the Mountain Goats
A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley
posted by fairlynearlyready at 10:11 AM on April 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
Deep Red Bells by Neko Case is about the Green River serial killer.
posted by PussKillian at 10:16 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by PussKillian at 10:16 AM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Couple of specific events:
Ohio - Crosby, Stills & Nash, about the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970.
The President Sang Amazing Grace - Joan Baez cover of Zoe Mulford song about the 2015 mass shooting in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
More abstract:
Vietnam Love Song - Judy Collins, about the Vietnam war.
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye, about police brutality
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:21 AM on April 23, 2018
Ohio - Crosby, Stills & Nash, about the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970.
The President Sang Amazing Grace - Joan Baez cover of Zoe Mulford song about the 2015 mass shooting in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
More abstract:
Vietnam Love Song - Judy Collins, about the Vietnam war.
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye, about police brutality
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:21 AM on April 23, 2018
Midnight Oil's "Blue Sky Mine" is about the workers at an actual asbestos mine in Australia. It's less well-known than their "Beds Are Burning," about the indigenous peoples, but in my opinion a better song.
posted by praemunire at 10:33 AM on April 23, 2018
posted by praemunire at 10:33 AM on April 23, 2018
Tomorrow Wendy by Concrete Blonde is about the AIDS crisis through the lens of the suicide of a friend.
posted by moonlight on vermont at 11:41 AM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by moonlight on vermont at 11:41 AM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Definitely second Sinead's Black Boys on Mopeds.
The Mountain Goats' "Matthew 25:21" is kinda the gold standard for "I accidentally played this at work and I need to take a few minutes now, I'm crying and I feel unsteady," to me.
It's a pretty sparse aesthetic, but it definitely has beauty and is very difficult: Mount Eerie's "A Crow Looked at Me" album. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Crow_Looked_at_Me
posted by kensington314 at 11:50 AM on April 23, 2018
The Mountain Goats' "Matthew 25:21" is kinda the gold standard for "I accidentally played this at work and I need to take a few minutes now, I'm crying and I feel unsteady," to me.
It's a pretty sparse aesthetic, but it definitely has beauty and is very difficult: Mount Eerie's "A Crow Looked at Me" album. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Crow_Looked_at_Me
posted by kensington314 at 11:50 AM on April 23, 2018
Pretty much the entire "Carrie and Lowell" album, by Sufjan Stevens. "The Only Thing," "John My Beloved," and "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross" come to mind, but I think they all fit into your question.
posted by kensington314 at 12:43 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by kensington314 at 12:43 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Skeleton Tree, by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is an extraordinarily beautiful, haunting, heartbreaking album of Cave grappling the death of his 15-year-old son. He had evidently written most of the lyrics before his son died (which is eerie, given how closely many lyrics seem to anticipate a loved one's death), but the music was composed and the album recorded while he was working through the grief (as depicted in the documentary One More Time with Feeling).
Jesus Alone
I Need You
Girl in Amber
Distant Sky
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 12:58 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Jesus Alone
I Need You
Girl in Amber
Distant Sky
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 12:58 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
The Commander Thinks Aloud by the Long Winters (and its associated Song Exploder episode) is about the Challenger explosion.
Famously, In The Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel is a concept album about Anne Frank, off of which my favorite song is probably Holland 1945. (Ghost, my other fave, isn't as much about Anne Frank.)
posted by peppercorn at 1:49 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Famously, In The Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel is a concept album about Anne Frank, off of which my favorite song is probably Holland 1945. (Ghost, my other fave, isn't as much about Anne Frank.)
posted by peppercorn at 1:49 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Whoops, sorry, Commander Thinks Aloud is about the Columbia explosion.
posted by peppercorn at 1:55 PM on April 23, 2018
posted by peppercorn at 1:55 PM on April 23, 2018
Cold Missouri Waters by Cry Cry Cry tells the story of the Mann Gulch fire in which 13 wildland firefighters lost their lives.
Billy Bragg's Tender Comrade is about love between soldiers during wartime.
(Wish I could find the playlist I used to have titled "Beautiful Downers". Nthing "The Commander Thinks Aloud" which wrecks me.)
posted by Lexica at 3:02 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Billy Bragg's Tender Comrade is about love between soldiers during wartime.
(Wish I could find the playlist I used to have titled "Beautiful Downers". Nthing "The Commander Thinks Aloud" which wrecks me.)
posted by Lexica at 3:02 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Tommy Sands song "There Were Roses" about the Troubles in Ireland is beautiful and sad and has been performed by many people; this version is my favourite.
Whatever you think of U2, they do have a lot of songs about Important Things, like "Pride", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day". Some of them, like "Bad" and "Running to Stand Still" (both about the heroin addiction epidemic in Ireland in the 80s), "Mothers of the Disappeared" (about the Madres de Plaza de Mayo; see also Sting's "They Dance Alone", also about the "disappeared" people under Pinochet) and "Walk On" (about Aung San Suu Kyi) are arguably also beautiful. (The video I linked to for "Bad" is to the Live Aid performance; there is a pretty awesome story to that particular performance as well, since Bono jumped into the audience to dance with a girl at the front - she later revealed that she was being crushed by the people around her and Bono saw this from the stage, gestured to the ushers to help her but when they didn't understand jumped down to help her himself. You can see this in the video starting around 6.34; it takes a couple of minutes before she's safe.)
Peter Gabriel does a bit of this too. The beauty of Biko is arguable, maybe, but Don't Give Up (inspired by Dorothea Lang's images of the Depression era) certainly is. [See also 10,000 Maniacs' "Dust Bowl Days", which features some of the photos.] I also think that his cover of Bowie's "Heroes" is just sublimely, achingly beautiful, far more so than the original (which is good in its own right but not beautiful IMHO).
posted by Athanassiel at 6:31 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Whatever you think of U2, they do have a lot of songs about Important Things, like "Pride", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day". Some of them, like "Bad" and "Running to Stand Still" (both about the heroin addiction epidemic in Ireland in the 80s), "Mothers of the Disappeared" (about the Madres de Plaza de Mayo; see also Sting's "They Dance Alone", also about the "disappeared" people under Pinochet) and "Walk On" (about Aung San Suu Kyi) are arguably also beautiful. (The video I linked to for "Bad" is to the Live Aid performance; there is a pretty awesome story to that particular performance as well, since Bono jumped into the audience to dance with a girl at the front - she later revealed that she was being crushed by the people around her and Bono saw this from the stage, gestured to the ushers to help her but when they didn't understand jumped down to help her himself. You can see this in the video starting around 6.34; it takes a couple of minutes before she's safe.)
Peter Gabriel does a bit of this too. The beauty of Biko is arguable, maybe, but Don't Give Up (inspired by Dorothea Lang's images of the Depression era) certainly is. [See also 10,000 Maniacs' "Dust Bowl Days", which features some of the photos.] I also think that his cover of Bowie's "Heroes" is just sublimely, achingly beautiful, far more so than the original (which is good in its own right but not beautiful IMHO).
posted by Athanassiel at 6:31 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
The song Wheat Kings by the Tragically Hip is about David Milgaard, who was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of 20 year old nursing student Gail Miller. Milgaard was put in prison at 17 and not released until he was 40. He was raped and abused while behind bars and tried to commit suicide.
The Canadian government paid David Milgaard nearly $10 million for 23 years of wrongful imprisonment, and $750,000 to his mother, Joyce Milgaard, who fought for his release for the entire time he was in prison.
The real murderer was eventually caught and imprisoned, dying partway through his prison sentence.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:04 PM on April 23, 2018
The Canadian government paid David Milgaard nearly $10 million for 23 years of wrongful imprisonment, and $750,000 to his mother, Joyce Milgaard, who fought for his release for the entire time he was in prison.
The real murderer was eventually caught and imprisoned, dying partway through his prison sentence.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:04 PM on April 23, 2018
Quite a lot of Mary Gauthier's work might interest you. Here's an interview about her album Rifles and Rosary Beads, which was co-written with veterans and their families.
Murder ballads can be hauntingly beautiful and at least some of them are based on true stories.
Following the other responses with great interest - good question!
posted by bunderful at 7:35 PM on April 23, 2018
Murder ballads can be hauntingly beautiful and at least some of them are based on true stories.
Following the other responses with great interest - good question!
posted by bunderful at 7:35 PM on April 23, 2018
Whitethorn by Rachel Unthank and the Winterset is about a mother burying her babies.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 8:22 PM on April 23, 2018
posted by the duck by the oboe at 8:22 PM on April 23, 2018
Tragically Hip - 38 years old. Fifty Mission Cap. Many others.
Rush - many, many songs. They do not do love songs.
posted by Enid Lareg at 8:41 AM on April 24, 2018
Rush - many, many songs. They do not do love songs.
posted by Enid Lareg at 8:41 AM on April 24, 2018
Tori Amos' Silent Al These Years is about an abusive relationship. The line where his abusive mother shows up and he holds his abused wife's hand for comfort and reassurance gets me every time.
Similarly, 10,000 Maniacs' What's the Matter Here .
posted by vignettist at 9:16 PM on April 26, 2018
Similarly, 10,000 Maniacs' What's the Matter Here .
posted by vignettist at 9:16 PM on April 26, 2018
++kensington314, carrie and lowell by sufjan stevens is amazing.
i went to see sufjan live in cleveland for the carrie and lowell tour, and the most memorable song was by far "my blue bucket of gold". it wasn't my favorite on the album, but the live performance blew me away -- i started sobbing halfway through, and i don't usually cry at. all.
while not the same as having been there, the recording from the columbus show is also breathtaking (in my opinion)
posted by =d.b= at 5:06 PM on April 28, 2018
i went to see sufjan live in cleveland for the carrie and lowell tour, and the most memorable song was by far "my blue bucket of gold". it wasn't my favorite on the album, but the live performance blew me away -- i started sobbing halfway through, and i don't usually cry at. all.
while not the same as having been there, the recording from the columbus show is also breathtaking (in my opinion)
posted by =d.b= at 5:06 PM on April 28, 2018
New Zealand singer Shona Laing’s ‘Glad I’m Not A Kennedy’.
posted by The Patron Saint of Spices at 3:09 AM on April 30, 2018
posted by The Patron Saint of Spices at 3:09 AM on April 30, 2018
Doorstep, by tUnE-yArDs, is about police violence.
Hymn of Acxiom, by Vienna Teng, is about data brokers.
Who By Fire, by Leonard Cohen, is (as I understand it) about Yom Kippur and the book of fate, and who lives and who dies.
posted by eirias at 5:14 AM on May 11, 2018
Hymn of Acxiom, by Vienna Teng, is about data brokers.
Who By Fire, by Leonard Cohen, is (as I understand it) about Yom Kippur and the book of fate, and who lives and who dies.
posted by eirias at 5:14 AM on May 11, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
I'd go with Billy Bragg's The World Turned Upside Down, off the top of my head.
posted by pompomtom at 7:11 AM on April 23, 2018