# Songs about rape **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339 "2009-03-05T00:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/41 "2009-03-05T14:20:53Z")
_Diane_ - Therapy? [link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbO1AaCnWnQ) ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/42 "2009-03-05T14:24:23Z")
“[Prison Sex](http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Prison-Sex-lyrics-Tool/40CB2B8CEEB60F7A48256A57002BD4CA)” by Tool is a about a molestation victim becoming a molester himself. ETA: as Freudian Slit already pointed out. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/43 "2009-03-05T14:57:35Z")
“Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis seems to have a little prison rape in it, thought it could certainly be consensual: _Number forty-seven said to number three: Youre the cutest jailbird I ever did see. I sure would be delighted with your company, Come on and do the jailhouse rock with me._ ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/44 "2009-03-05T15:18:29Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Parking Lot, by Emmet Swimming. > > Not that anyone but me has ever heard of them, it seems. I have, but I’m from Arlington, VA. Perhaps they aren’t well known outside the DC area? ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/45 "2009-03-05T15:32:47Z")
_Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?_ by the Offspring is about a sexually abused girl. ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/46 "2009-03-05T15:59:28Z")
“Me and a Gun” by Tori Amos - chilling, a capella account of a rape - I believe she has said this was based on an actual incident from her life. Amos also did a cover version of Eminem’s “Bonnie and Clude '97” which is about a guy who has killed the mother of his daughter and is dumping the body with the daughter present – I guess not technically sexual assault but pretty gruesome violence against a woman. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/47 "2009-03-05T16:06:53Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Nirvana’s Polly is about the rape/torture/murder of a girl. The girl survives and gets away, though. So, rape yes, torture arguably, but not murder. I always thought the song was about the Polly Klaas case (with an invented ‘happy’ ending), but apparently it was written years before that. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/48 "2009-03-05T16:07:42Z")
A reminder, folks: please don’t quote more than about five lines, or one verse, of a song to make your point. I’ve shortened a few quotations here. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/49 "2009-03-05T16:10:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The girl survives and gets away, though. So, rape yes, torture arguably, but not murder. I always thought the song was about the Polly Klaas case (with an invented ‘happy’ ending), but apparently it was written years before that. Oops. She got away–did not know that. Although now that I remember, I do think I read somewhere that she pretended to be bored (“She’s just as bored as me”) during the whole thing. And I also thought it was based on the Polly Klaas case. I guess that’s why I thought she died. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/50 "2009-03-05T17:00:24Z")
Devo’s _Triumph of the Will_ certainly sounds suggestive: “I’m not a wanker or a banker I’m not afraid to take a risk It is the thing females ask for When they convey the opposite” ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/51 "2009-03-05T17:10:03Z")
“Date Rape” by Sublime, in which the rapist winds up getting prison raped in the end. Mighty catchy tune for a song about rape. “Frat Pig” by Tribe 8, about revenge against college rapists. _Frat Pig It’s called gang rape Let’s play Gang castrate_ “DA Don’t Care” by Team Dresch, about not being believed when reporting a rape. Honestly, pretty much every riot grrrl affiliated band had at least one rape song. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/52 "2009-03-05T17:36:25Z")
“Caleb Meyer” by Gillian Welch is about an attempted rape. Doesn’t really end well for anyone involved, but the rapist got the worse end of it. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/53 "2009-03-05T18:41:11Z")
How far back do you want to go? [Crow and Pie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow_and_Pie) has versions dating to circa 1500 but has no extant music; [The Baffled Knight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baffled_Knight) (attempted rape) has matching lyrics and music from 1609. Plus about 50 other Child ballads from various later dates… ---
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/54 "2009-03-05T19:01:12Z")
Nick Cave has already been mentioned upthread, a couple more of his songs on the topic: **Do you love me** All things move toward their end I knew before I met her that I would lose her I swear I made every effort to be good to her I made every effort not to abuse her Crazy bracelets on her wrists and her ankles And the bells from the chapel go jingle-jangle Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Like I love you? **Stagger Lee** “I’m a bad motherfucker, don’t you know And I’ll crawl over fifty good pussies just to get one fat boy’s asshole” ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/55 "2009-03-05T20:53:24Z")
Jonny Hit and Run Pauline - X ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/56 "2009-03-05T20:57:47Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Second half includes these lyrics: > > Cheery song, eh? But how do you know the “She” is his mother? Could be a different woman. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/57 "2009-03-05T21:04:24Z")
Two enormous Top 10 hits (going back quite a ways) are about something that, while perhaps not what’s usually meant by “rape”, come pretty close. _Brown Sugar_, by The Rolling Stones, is about sex with women or girls who are slaves. Current enlightened thinking tells us that slaves are in no position to give or withhold consent to or from their “owners”, so that there can be no consensual sex with a slave. I always think it’s strange when I hear that song on the radio – there’s no way whatsoever it could be recorded and released today without a huge outcry. But it gets a free pass. _Can’t Get Enough_, by Bad Company, certainly has threatening overtones. I’m quoting from memory, but the lines “I take whatever I want/and baby, I want you” certainly have kind of a creepy sound when sung by a male singer, especially one who intentionally presents himself as a hyper-macho man. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/58 "2009-03-05T21:18:53Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > . > > _Brown Sugar_, by The Rolling Stones, is about sex with women or girls who are slaves. Either that or brown tar heroin. I’ve seen it described both ways and never have got the straight dope. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/59 "2009-03-05T21:28:09Z")
> [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](#): > > **Stagger Lee** > “I’m a bad motherfucker, don’t you know > And I’ll crawl over fifty good pussies just > to get one fat boy’s asshole” I never thought of that as anything more than a proverbial reference to homosexuality, with ‘boy’ not necessarily meaning ‘child’ - I’ve heard the similar ‘he’d crawl over fifty naked women to get to a beer’, which certainly wasn’t meant to be taken literally! Edit: I’ve just remembered that there’s also forced oral sex elsewhere in O’Malley’s Bar. Damn, anybody who doesn’t know Nick Cave must really be keen to explore his music now… ---
**Author:** ![Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Cornelius\_Tuggerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cornelius_Tuggerson)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339/60 "2009-03-05T21:41:03Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Damn, anybody who doesn’t know Nick Cave must really be keen to explore his music now… I discovered him around 97, its amazing how melodic and beautiful his music is considering most of the subject matter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-rape/488339.md?page=4)