RE “Freshmen”- I read a quote by the songwriter (Brian VanderArk) quite specifically saying that it was about a real abortion, but that the girl committing suicide later was made up for the song.
WhiteyPoo- that is exactly the Ani work I had in mind! Unbelievably, I had to point that out to my Ani-fan friend who was playing the album for me. And Ani is definitely pro-choice.
WhiteLightning- I was wrong- it wasn’t EVERCLEAR- it was EVERLAST!!! D’OH!
cowgirl- how did I forget about Cohen’s THE FUTURE! D’oh again!
wakimika- I never heard that GooGoo Dolls song (well, I’ve at least never listened to it) but that sounds pretty clearly about an abortion to me.
I’d have to agree with Justin_Bailey about the Verve Pipe’s song “The Freshmen”. On their next album, the band had a song called “Hero”, from the point of view of a person attempting suicide. It includes the lines: “Love me, love me sweet cowardice/Now that the thrill is mine for the moment/We really didn’t need another suicide, or a song explaining why”; the music and vocals are evocative of the earlier song during this part as well.
In 1974, Kinky Friedman wrote “Rapid City, South Dakota” which he refers to as “to my knowledge the first and only pro-choice country song ever written.” The song is more about the guy who knocked the girl up skipping town:
*Now the reason he was goin’, I ain’t sure I could say
Might be the rodeo in Santa Fe
“There’s a doctor in Chicago, I know she’ll be alright”
He told himself as he stared into the night.
And he said, “I hope to God she finds the goodbye letter that I wrote her
But the mail don’t move so fast in Rapid City, South Dakota.”
And all her people treatin’ her just like they never knowed her
Lord, the winter’s passing slow in Rapid City, South Dakota.*
Well, I’ve heard that Over the Rhine’s Sleep Baby Jane is about abortion. But after reading the lyrics I still don’t know what the hell it’s about. I think it’s more likely suicide than abortion.
It’s never stated outright, but I think “The Valley Road” by Bruce Hornsby & the Range is probably about an abortion.
I don’t want to give complete lyrics to the song, since we get chastised for that, but a few key lines went:
"While no one was looking on the old plantation,
He took her all the way down the long valley road.
They sent her away not too much later…
Out in the halls, they were talking in a whisper.
Everybody noticed she’d been gonme a while.
Somebody said she’d gone to her sister’s,
But everybody knew what they were talking about…
She came back around like nothing really happened…"
Now, I suppose the girl COULD have been sent away for 9 months, to have her baby and give it away, but it’s just as possible she was sent away to get rid of it.
Harry Chapin’s WOMANCHILD really is a creepy song. During the part in the song where the girl gets the abortion, an electric guitar string gets plucked and it sounds like a baby screaming, which eventually fades out. It’s haunting.
Not according to people who have read his diaries (I haven’t, so this is unfortunately second hand.) While it’s true that it can be drank by a woman to cause a miscarriage, and he obviously knows that, he’s talking about his stomach problems- the pain of which is supposedly why he eventually killed himself. Which fits better than abortion with other lyrics like " I’m on warm milk and laxatives/Cherry-flavored antacids." Although the line “Distill the life that’s inside of me” sounds like either a vague reference to abortion (although only if you consider fetal death as less “dirty” than being born) or a strange way of expressing the desire to fix his innards. However, I’ve always thought the song was about his depression and suicial thoughts “Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld /So I can sigh eternally/I’m so tired I can’t sleep” so who knows?
I suspect that the second line of Stumbleine by The Smashing Pumpkins is about abortion " Sally’s in the stirrups claiming her destiny." And is Scar Tissue by the Red Hot Chili Peppers talking about a botched back alley abortion or “just” suicide in middle part of the song? " Blood loss in a bathroom stall/ Southern girl with a scarlet drawl/Wave good-bye to ma and pa 'cause…"
Diary of an Unborn Child by Lil Markie is an unintentionally hilarious piece of pro-life propaganda which has featured on at least one compilation of curious and strange music. Go listen to the MP3.
There’s a big spoken intro about him growing in the womb until:
“December 28th. Today my mother killed me.”
Then, in possibly the first recording by an aborted fetus, he sings:
“Why did you kill me, mommy,
When God made me special for you?
I really wanted to see you
And put my little arms around you.”
I know Lauryn Hill’s been mentioned a couple of times- MTV 2 just played a video “Retrospect for Life” by Common featuring her. Ambivalent in parts but I think ultimately not pro-abortion.