Results for “American mythology and violence”

Songs

Hymn 43

Jethro Tull

This is a sardonic protest against the commercial and violent hijacking of Christian imagery in American culture, pairing…

religious hypocrisy American mythology and violence commercialization of faith

My Little Town (with Art Garfunkel)

Paul Simon

A reunion single from Simon and Garfunkel that reads as a bitter anti-nostalgia song, dismantling the idea of small-town…

small-town disillusionment loss of faith suppressed violence

Unshaken

D'Angelo

A prayer-like meditation on trying to hold steady inside collapse, written for a video game about the death of the American…

endurance amid chaos spiritual uncertainty frontier mythology and its end

Gimme Shelter

The Rolling Stones

An apocalyptic weather report that turns into a plea for cover. Over a coiling, tremolo'd guitar figure and a hammering rhythm,…

apocalyptic dread violence as imminent, not distant the need for refuge

Thunder Road

Bruce Springsteen

A young man stands in a driveway trying to talk a woman named Mary into getting in his car and leaving town with him. Over five…

escape and flight the limits of romantic promise small-town decay

Freddie's Dead

Curtis Mayfield

A eulogy that refuses to sentimentalize its subject, using the death of a small-time hustler named Freddie as a blunt instrument…

addiction and exploitation urban poverty complicity and blame

Matty Groves

Fairport Convention

This is the Fairport Convention arrangement of the old English/Scottish murder ballad about an adulterous tryst between a…

class transgression sexual desire and consequence honor and violence

The Midnight Special

Creedence Clearwater Revival

CCR's version of this traditional folk-blues song reworks a prison-labor lament into swampy rock, keeping the old imagery of…

incarceration and forced labor longing for deliverance folk mythology / superstition

Tear-Stained Letter

Richard Thompson

A wry, uptempo account of a breakup told from the battered-but-wisecracking side, where physical comedy stands in for emotional…

romantic aftermath toxic love masculine bravado as deflection

Running Up That Hill

Kate Bush

A song about two lovers who keep wounding each other without meaning to, and the narrator's fantasy of a supernatural fix: a…

empathy as an impossible exchange the violence hidden inside love gendered misunderstanding

Strange Fruit

Billie Holiday

A three-stanza protest song about the lynching of Black Americans in the Jim Crow South, built on a single sustained metaphor:…

racial terror and lynching the corruption of Southern pastoral imagery the body as evidence

Superheroes

Ethan Whitney

This is a straightforward pop declaration of devotion that borrows superhero mythology to dress up a fairly conventional promise…

devotion and support escapism fantasy of destiny

Katie Cruel

Bert Jansch

This is a traditional Appalachian song (with roots in older British/American folk balladry) about a woman driven out of a…

exile and social rejection itinerancy gendered outsider status

Wade In the Water

The Staple Singers

This is the Staple Singers' rendition of the traditional African American spiritual, built almost entirely on call-and-response…

deliverance and salvation collective faith and community crossing over / transition between states

Atlantic City

The Band

A narrator in a fading, mob-shadowed Atlantic City weighs a desperate financial choice against a fragile romantic vow, using…

economic desperation moral compromise decay and renewal

What's Going On

Marvin Gaye

A returning-soldier's-eye plea addressed to family members in turn — mother, brother, father — asking why grief and violence…

war and its cost at home generational misunderstanding police brutality and protest

Must Be Santa

Bob Dylan

Dylan's cover of a call-and-response children's Christmas polka builds a cumulative list of Santa's attributes through a…

holiday ritual and repetition Americana and civic satire nonsense/novelty performance

21st Century Schizoid Man (Including "Mirrors")

King Crimson

This opening track sets a nightmarish, distorted portrait of modern civilization against a savage instrumental attack, using the…

dehumanization war and atrocity technological/medical horror

Sinnerman

Nina Simone

A traditional African-American spiritual rebuilt by Simone into a ten-minute chase sequence: a sinner runs from judgment on the…

judgment day futile flight refused sanctuary

Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay

Otis Redding

A man who has moved across the country sits by the water in San Francisco, watching ships come and go, admitting he is doing…

idleness and drift migration and displacement loneliness