In these politically correct times of ours infanticide has fallen out of favour as a form of family planning and it’s seldom the stuff of song. Planxty’s version of The Well Below the Valley is perhaps the best known treatment of the theme and they didn’t really play it for laughs. Whether or not The…
In these politically correct times of ours infanticide has fallen out of favour as a form of family planning and it’s seldom the stuff of song. Planxty’s version of The Well Below the Valley is perhaps the best known treatment of the theme and they didn’t really play it for laughs. Whether or not The Decemberists do you can decide for yourself. This has had me chuckling inappropriately all week.
A fan has helpfully made a video of their track The Rake’s Song with the lyrics.
Hahahahahahaha… is it even more inappropriate for a teacher to laugh? I read a deliriously funny review of this concept album, can’t remember where… here? The Guardian, probably. Speaking of which, did you see the piece in today’s paper by the guy from King Creosote? A Dad’s Dance Mix. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and now I want to hear some of KC’s stuff, but I can’t find anything but live, badly recorded, performances on YouTube, or thirty second snatches I can’t judge at iTunes. Do you like them? Him? I am going to get this Decemberists album… Hm. Also, did you like their _The Tain_? I wasn’t so keen on the execution of that quite cool concept.
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In the Irish ballad tradition, I recall a frankly unpleasant song about infanticide (with jaunty melody) the Dubliners did, which went something like (from memory)
There was an old woman
and she lived in the woods
A weela-weela wila
There was an old woman
and she lived by the woods
Down by the river sila
She had a baby
two months old
a weela-weela wila
She had a baby
two month old
a weela-weela wila
down by the river sila
It goes on to say that ‘she had a penknife long and sharp’ with the refrain, then ‘she put the penknife in the babys head’ and then the police knocking at the door etc. and the judge and her execution etc.
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I remember once visiting a Roman Villa in Sussex where excavations had shown a tiny infant remains buried unceremoniously in jars.
The most likely explanation that occurred to me was that they were the unwanted pregnancies of slave girls, the offspring of their Roman Masters.
No doubt, this sort of thing was quite common.
Not to mention what happened in the past when there were famines.
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Hazards of love is a superior bit of work. I was a big Cúchulainn fan in my youth which is why I bought The Tain but it does not really come together musically.
Lots of cultures practised infanticide. The Spartans famously used to expose sickly children on mountains and the Romans used to throw them on the rubbish dump. Who says morality isn’t socially conditioned?
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Liam redux 
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