The Darker Side of Subject Matter Quiz

Answer: The Holocaust

'The Intense Humming of Evil' is a song on the Manics' third album, 'The Holy Bible'. Both it and another track, 'Mausoleum', were inspired by a visit to the concentration camps of Dachau and Belsen. The lyrics quote 'Arbeit macht frei', the inscription on the gates of Auschwitz. The song also mentions Hartheim Castle, where disabled people were executed; Block 5, a block at Dachau where inmates were experimented on, including infection with malaria; and Sigmund Rascher, a Nazi doctor who performed experiments at Dachau. The sample at the beginning is from a report on the Nuremberg trials.

Sample lyrics:
'Welcome, welcome
Soldier smiling
Funeral march for agony's last edge
Six million screaming souls
Maybe misery, maybe nothing at all
Lives that wouldn't have changed a thing
Never countered, never mattered, never be.'

Answer: Lynching

Many musicians, from Nina Simone to Siouxsie and the Banshees, have sung 'Strange Fruit', a poem written by Abe Meeropol in 1937 to protest against the lynching of black people in the US. However, Billie Holiday made the song her own when she recorded it in 1939, and it is often regarded as one of her signature songs. Meeropol was inspired to write the song after the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana, in 1937. Both men, who had been accused of murder, were dragged from their cells and hung from trees by a mob. Holiday made the song a regular part of her setlist, and would perform it at the end of the set. When Holiday performed at the integrated Cafe Society club in Greenwich Village, waiters would stop serving during the song and the lights would be turned off, save for one spotlight illuminating Holiday's face.

Sample lyrics:
'Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.'

Answer: Death of a parent

'Avenging Angels' was written by Space singer Tommy Scott about the death of his father in 1994. Scott and his father shared a love of Frank Sinatra and 'Female of the Species', Space's first hit, was the result of Scott wanting to write a song that would make his father proud. Scott stated in multiple interviews at the time that he believed the spirit of his father was watching over him. 'Bad Days', another song on Space's 1998 album 'Tin Planet', is also about the deaths of loved ones.

Sample lyrics:
'Angel, oh angel
Here to brighten up my darkest day
Take me in your arms, protect me from my enemies
Oh deadly angel, oh angel
When they've got me on my knees
When I'm just about to do the deadly deed, you rescue me.'

Answer: Rape

'Me and a Gun' appears on Amos' debut album, 'Little Earthquakes', and was also a B-side on 'Silent All These Years'. It is sung a cappella. It is based on an incident that occurred after one of Amos' early gigs in Los Angeles, when she was 21; a man in the audience asked her for a lift home, and when she gave him a lift, he raped her at knifepoint. Amos said many years later that she had a narrow escape: "If he hadn't needed more drugs, I would have been just one more news report, where you see the parents grieving for their daughter." During her 2007 tour promoting 'American Doll Posse', in which she played a set as one of the characters or 'dolls' on the cover of the album, Amos performed an industrial version of 'Me and a Gun' at a Chicago gig in the character of Pip, who represents the more aggressive side of female sexuality.

Sample lyrics:
'It was me and a gun
And a man on my back
And I sang 'Holy, Holy' as he buttoned down his pants
You can laugh, it's kind of funny
The things you think in times like this
Like, I haven't seen Barbados, so I must get out of this.'

Answer: Homelessness

Kirsty MacColl was suffering from writer's block. As luck would have it, Johnny Marr - who had played guitar on MacColl's album 'Kite' - wanted to write a guitar song with a dance influence, and after leaving the Smiths, he had written a track and kept it to one side to prevent people stealing it. He sent MacColl the demo tape, and she wrote the lyrics. The rap on the song is performed by Manchester DJ Aniff Cousins.

Sample lyrics:
'See, you give them your nickels, your pennies and dimes
But you can't give them hope in these mercenary times, oh no
And you feel real guilty about the coat on your back and the sandwich you had, oh no
From an uptown apartment to a knife on the A-train
It's not that far
From the sharks in the penthouse to the rats in the basement
It's not that far
To the bag lady frozen asleep in the park, oh no
It's not that far
Would you like to see some more?
I can show you if you'd like to.'

Answer: Child labour

'The Testimony of Patience Kershaw' was written in 1969 by Frank Higgins, and the Unthanks are one of the many folk musicians who have recorded it. It is based on the real-life account of Patience Kershaw, a teenage girl who worked in a mine hurrying coal, i.e. transporting it to the surface of the mine, in a cart known as a corf. Children and women were often given this job because of the smallness of the roadways down which the coal was transported. Kershaw, who was 17, was one of many child and teenage workers interviewed by the Children's Employment Commission, as part of Lord Ashley's investigation, which led to women and boys under 13 being banned from working in coal mines. She came from a family of ten, all of whom worked in mines, though three of her sisters went to work in a mill. She worked 12-hour shifts and was illiterate, and was the only girl in the pit. She also spoke about how the men in the pit would sexually harass her and hit her if she was not quick enough. The interviewer's notes stated, "This girl is an ignorant, filthy, ragged, and deplorable-looking object, and such an one as the uncivilized natives of the prairies would be shocked to look upon."

Sample lyrics:
'It's good of you to ask me, sir
To tell you how I spend the day
Well, in a coal-black tunnel, sir
I hurry corves to earn my pay
The corves are full of coal, kind sir
I push them with my hands and head
It isn't ladylike, but sir
You've got to earn your daily bread.'

Answer: Death of a partner

'Jesus to a Child' was an international Number One single for George Michael in 1996, and was the first single to be released from the album 'Older'. Although this was not public knowledge at the time, Michael wrote it about his partner, Anselmo Feleppa, who he met when he played Brazil in 1991. Feleppa had AIDS, and died two years later of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage. Michael suffered from writers' block for 18 months, but it ended when he wrote 'Jesus to a Child' in an hour. Michael came out as gay three years later in 1999, and subsequently dedicated the song to Feleppa when performing it live. Esther Rantzen later revealed that Michael had donated all the royalties from the single to Childline, but asked that it be kept quiet.

Sample lyrics:
'I'm blessed, I know
Heaven sent and Heaven stole
You smiled at me, like Jesus to a child
And what have I learned from all this pain?
I thought I'd never feel the same
About anyone or anything again.'

Answer: Capital punishment

'Let Him Dangle' is an album track from Elvis Costello's 1989 solo album 'Spike'. It is an anti-capital punishment song, and specifically focuses on the case of Derek Bentley, a 20-year-old man with learning difficulties who was hanged for the murder of policeman Sidney Miles during an attempted warehouse robbery. Bentley was not actually guilty of the crime; Chris Craig had shot Miles when Miles and other policeman came to aid DS Frederick Fairfax, who had been shot in the shoulder by Craig, but Bentley allegedly shouted, "Let him have it!" As Craig was 16 years old, he was not eligible for the death penalty and was imprisoned instead, and Bentley was condemned to death for the murder. He appealed, but the appeal was rejected, and he was hanged at HMP Wandsworth on 28th January 1953, while protests took place outside. He was given a posthumous pardon in 1993. A film, 'Let Him Have It', was made about the case in 1991, starring Christopher Eccleston as Bentley.

Sample lyrics:
'Bentley had surrendered, he was under arrest
When he gave Chris Craig that fatal request
Craig shot Sidney Miles, he took Bentley's word
The Prosecution claimed as they charged him with murder...

Well, it's hard to imagine that times have changed
When there's a murder in the kitchen that is brutal and strange
If killing anybody is a terrible crime,
Why does this bloodthirsty chorus come round from time to time?
Let him dangle!'

Answer: Child abuse

'Luka' was one of Suzanne Vega's highest charting singles, reaching three on the US Billboard charts and Number two in Sweden. The lyrics are about a little boy who is physically and emotionally abused by his parents. Vega was inspired to write the song by a group of children playing in front of her building; one of the children, a boy called Luka, seemed to be a little distant from the rest of the group, and she got the idea of the song from seeing him, although she stated that she didn't know if he was being abused in real life. Vega later wrote a sequel of sorts to the song, 'Song of the Stoic', which appeared on her 2014 album 'Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles'.

Sample lyrics:
'I think it's because I'm too clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it's because I'm crazy
I try not to act too proud
They only hit until you cry
After that, you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore.'

Answer: The Troubles

'Invisible Sun' was inspired by the Troubles, the decades-long sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. Sting was living in Ireland at the time of writing, when hunger strikes were taking place in Belfast. The 'invisible sun' represents hope, the 'light at the end of the tunnel'. The video for the song, which was banned by the BBC, consists of footage from Northern Ireland, with the band's faces superimposed on it. An ArmaLite is a type of rifle which was often used by paramilitary organisations such as the Provisional IRA.

Sample lyrics:
'I don't want to spend the rest of my life
Looking at the barrel of an Armalite
I don't want to spend the rest of my days
Keeping out of trouble like the soldiers say
I don't want to spend my time in Hell
Looking at the walls of a prison cell
I don't ever want to play the part
Of a statistic on a government chart.'