# Vitriolic Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2000, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557 "2000-12-01T09:47:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dustMagnate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/fbc32d/32.png) [@dustMagnate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dustMagnate)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/21 "2000-12-01T15:43:03Z")
“Bitterly scathing; caustic” Danielle Dax “Bad Miss M” we’re gonna have a party when you are gone-desecrate your grave and sing this song (about Thatcher) Voice Farm “Walk Away” I don’t like your new friends and I hate your stupid haircut Dead Kennedys: Most of the catalog notably “Holiday In Cambodia”, Jock-o-Rama, Well Paid Scientist, etc. etc. Bob Dylan: “Masters of War” Peter Tosh: “Downpresser Man” I would like to be a flea under your collar man Ween: "Piss up a Rope"Now you’re up shit creek with a turd for a paddle Jason and the Scorchers: “Change the Tune” You think it’s morning when it’s late afternoon Mmmm, vitriol. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/22 "2000-12-01T16:02:34Z")
Someone that no one but me has ever heard of: I Can’t Stand You Now, by Paul Sanchez. First Line: “You’re one sad and sorry son of a bitch I hope you’re gone for good” Last Line" “You goddam stupid cow!” And the bridge (my favorite): “I hope as you sink lower You’ll watch me climbing higher I wouldn’t take a piss on you If I saw you were on fire!” Now _that’s_ hatred. Or, as Paul says when he plays it live, “I was very upset when I wrote this.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/23 "2000-12-01T16:09:02Z")
And how about **“Young Ned of the Hill”** by **The Pogues** : > [@](#): > > A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell, > You who raped our motherland; > I hope you’re rotting down in Hell > For the horrors that you sent > On our misfortunate forefathers, > Whom you robbed of their birthright; > “To Hell or Connaught!” > May you burn in Hell tonight! Now _that’s_ vitriol. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/24 "2000-12-01T16:18:09Z")
**DustMagnate** , you beat me to nominating the **Dead Kennedys**. Pure, unadulterated vitriol. From _Man with the Dogs_ A stare is worth a thousand biting phrases, See how stupid you are? From _Holiday in Cambodia_ So you’ve been to school for a year or two And you know you’ve seen it all. In daddy’s car, thinkin’ you’ll go far, Back east your type don’t crawl. Play ethnicky jazz to parade your snazz On your five grand stereo Braggin that you know How the niggers feel cold And the slums got so much soul It’s time to taste what you most fear Right Guard will not help you here Brace yourself, my dear…It’s a holiday in Cambodia It’s tough, kid, but it’s life It’s a holiday in Cambodia Don’t forget to pack a wife You’re a star-belly sneech You suck like a leach You want everyone to act like you Kiss ass while you bitch So you can get rich But your boss gets richer off you Well you’ll work harder with a gun in your back For a bowl of rice a day Slave for soldiers till you starve Then your head is skewered on a stake Now you can go where people are one Now you can go where they get things done What you need, my son… Is a holiday in Cambodia Where people dress in black A holiday in Cambodia Where you’ll kiss ass or crack Pol Pot Pol Pot Pol Pot Pol Pot etc… Where you’ll do what you’re told A holiday in Cambodia Where the slums got so much soul This song is genius…you have to hear it. MR ---
**Author:** ![HalberMensch242](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecb155/32.png) [@HalberMensch242](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HalberMensch242)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/25 "2000-12-01T17:16:12Z")
Let me have a go at this: Skinny Puppy- Testure, Tin Omen, Vx Gas Attack, but then again it’s really hard to tell wether or not these songs are of the vitriolic fashion, for they are sung in and written in stream of conscience form. Front Line Assembly- Iceolate, MegaSlave… Front242- Religion NIN-happiness in slavery Mesh-People like Me(with this gun) that’s all for now… ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/26 "2000-12-01T18:27:20Z")
Biggirl returned the thread to the 90’s and I hereby push it back to the 60s. **Hostility Rag** by Tom Lehrer **Masochism Tango** also by Tom Lehrer They’re upbeat, chipper, tunes with ill-tempered, nasty lyrics. It’s a Lehrer specialty! (cf. **Poisoning Pigeons in the Park** also) ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/27 "2000-12-01T19:14:40Z")
The Germans had some pretty sulfuric war songs even before Hitler. The most famous of these, I think, was Ernst Lissauer’s anti-English “Hymn of Hate”: ``` What do we care for the Russians or French? Shot against shot, and thrust for thrust! We fight the foe with bronze and sheath, And some day or other we make our peace. You we shall hate with enduring hate; We shall not forbear from our hate; Hate on water and hate on land, Hate of the head and hate of the hand, Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown, Hate of seventy millions pressing down. We love as one; we hate as one; We have one foe, and one alone, England. ``` Puhsing it back to the 'teens… ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/28 "2000-12-01T19:53:40Z")
[nitpick] Thea, “Sanz Kant Dance”, is actually “Zanz Kant Dance” for Saul Zaentz, president of Fantasy Records. He screwed CCR royally, and he did sue to have the song title changed. [/nitpick] > [@](#): > > Does Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart qualify as vitrol? She loud and the **lyrics are so overwrought with emotions as to be silly**. (Emphasis mine) Biggirl, if you were in my family I would have found it necessary to kill you. All of Jim Steinman’s songs are like that. No, it doesn’t qualify as vitriol, but if I hear one his songs again, I will DRINK vitriol. Thank god the 80s are over. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/29 "2000-12-01T20:42:09Z")
“I Hope You’re Happy Now” and “No Action” by Elvis Costello. Alos, the Housemartins had some vitriolic lyrics, though they’re hard to notice with the sweet, poopy music. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/30 "2000-12-01T20:53:03Z")
How 'bout **“Unhappy Birthday”** by **The Smiths** : [quote] I’ve come to wish you an unhappy birthday, 'Cause you’re evil and you lie, And if you should die, I may feel slightly sad but I won’t cry!\*\* And I guess you could read **Pretty in Pink** by the **Psychedelic Furs** as a vitriolic song. At least the way I understand it the song is vitriolic. The lyrics of the song are murky enough to be fodder for a debate on their own, but I always understood it to be about a girl who is a bit, er, “loose,” and spends a lot of time out of her clothes. The boys joke that she is “pretty in pink,” _i.e._ she looks good naked. The singer is none too happy with her. Am I the only one who reads it this way? ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/31 "2000-12-01T22:52:01Z")
I can’t believe no one has mentioned “Like A Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. I mean, he must have really hated some girl to triumph over the fact that, although she was once wealthy, now she’s a dirt poor, homeless hooker. Although I love that classic, it still grates on me sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/32 "2000-12-02T00:15:11Z")
Common People by **Pulp.** ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/33 "2000-12-02T04:34:39Z")
Hey Myron, not only did you emphasize my description, you brought to glaring light my ugly typo. The Offspring’s version of Feelings. Talk about your pent-up anger releasing themselves in a song. Well, go ahead, talk about it. ---
**Author:** ![OrcaChow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47c2d/32.png) [@OrcaChow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OrcaChow)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/34 "2000-12-02T06:35:53Z")
Harry Nilsson’s _You’re Breakin’ My Heart_. \*You’re breakin’ my heart, tearin’ it apart, so fuuuck you!" ---
**Author:** ![Mauve\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@Mauve\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauve_Dog)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/35 "2000-12-02T07:35:49Z")
I’ve always sensed a bit of seething from XTC in _Dear God_. But, for some good, old-fashioned explicit loathing, I submit Stabbing Westward’s _The Thing I Hate_: > [@](#): > > You’ve treated me like a worthless piece of s\*\*\* > You think you’re in control but you make me sick > I want to watch you suffer, > the way that you’ve made me suffer. > I want to f\*\*\* up everything you’ve ever loved. > > But I won’t become the thing I hate… > I won’t become the thing I hate… > I won’t become you. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/36 "2000-12-02T23:41:23Z")
XTC’s “Dictionary” is pretty bitter. Andy Partridge’s musical “f-you” to his ex-wife: “F-U-C-K, Is how you spell “friend” in your dictionary…” ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/37 "2000-12-02T23:59:33Z")
Not quite vitriolic, but Dwight Yoakam’s “I Ain’t That Lonely Yet” is (at least) passive-aggressive. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2000, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557/38 "2000-12-03T02:04:40Z")
Pretty much all of the output of the Manic Street Preachers is of a vitriolic bent, directed both outwardly and inwardly. The Clash also indulged at times. Rock The Casbah, Guns Of Brixton, Spanish Bombs, Clampdown, Safe European Home. Lovely stuff all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vitriolic-songs/43557.md?page=1)