the most moving child abuse song ever written

[backwoodsbob]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sa0MkWoeTk&feature=related

[Midlodemocrat]

1. I think this one is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZyxYL753w4

[Left Is Write]

2. Yes, as far as moving goes, I have to vote for Luka over Hell Is For Children.

[backwoodsbob]

3. both are amazing

[MajorChode]

14. +1

[Mojambo]

4. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats did a whole album about his abused childhood.

The Sunset Tree

"Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etEGbgF2HuU

[S n o w b a l l]

5. This one's nice too...

Martina Mcbride-Concrete Angel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDm03Foq2T0

[alphafemale]

9. I can't bear to listen to that one. nt

[Midlodemocrat]

10. TM sang that at a talent competition two years ago. Beautiful song.

[Danger Mouse]

6. Congratulations, you win the 'Most Depressing Lounge Thread Ever' Award.

[S n o w b a l l]

8. Ha!

:D

[backwoodsbob]

12. what did I win?

a cupies with a stake through it?

[Arugula Latte]

7. Here's one Natalie Merchant did with 10,000 Maniacs: "What's the Matter Here"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47Wm_IAu_yM&feature=PlayList&p=E363C07D0699CE8A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=14

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. You Think You Know Somebody

http://www.youtube.com/v/junxuOCv81o&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca

You think you know somebody
You think they know you
You think you know somebody
But man you never do

Jackie used to live three blocks away from me
We used to throw the baseball
And we'd climb his old oak tree
You know we would sneak his old man's cigarettes
Behind the picket fence
We swore that we would always be best of friends
We used to sit out on the curb
And talk on summer nights
Until Jackie's dad would call him
And he took off like a light
The Friday nights were all the same
Our high school senior year
We hung out at the river
Drank black label beer
And we would listen to the Stones
With all of our old friends
Maybe sneak a toke or two
Down where the river bends
Well I remember how I said
I'd drive him home on Friday night
Well he said go on without out me
Buddy I'll be all right
We went off to college
Start our freshman year
Well I went off to school
About an hour away from here
But you know Jackie he took off
Went to college out of state
He used to call me all the time
He used to tell me it was great
He said I'm coming home for Christmas
And I hope you'll do the same
Well he'd say that he was coming
But Jackie never came

Ah, you think you know somebody
You think they know you
You think you know somebody
But man you never do

Well the night that he got married
Well I was his best man
He's moved back to town
And now we're neighbors again
I've since found myself a wife
So now I'm married too
Our families get together
Every Sunday afternoon
His boy and my boy
They sit out and talk at night
Until Jackie calls for his boy
And then he takes off like a light
Last night I saw the flashing lights
I quickly ran outside
A neighbor lady told me
That Jackie's youngest boy had died
And I was shocked to see the cops
Had Jackie handcuffed in the car
'Til this morning's paper told me
That Jackie had gone too far
And now they're saying Jackie
He ain't the only one to blame
'Cause battered children, they almost always
Grow up to do the same

You think you know somebody
You think they you know you
You think you know somebody
But man you never do
Ooohhhh...

[Rising Phoenix]

13. Poem by Elia Wise

For Children Who Were Broken
it is very hard to mend......

Our pain was rarely spoken
and we hid the truth from friends.

Our parents said they loved us,
but they didn't act that way.
They broke our hearts
and stole our worth,
with the things that they would say.

We wanted them to love us.
We didn't know what we did
to make them yell at us
and hit us,
and wish we weren't their kid.



They'd beat us up and scream at us
and blame us for their lives.
Then they'd hold us close inside their arms
and tell us confusing lies
of how they really loved us --
even though we were BAD,
and how it was OUR fault they hit us,
OUR fault that they were mad.

When days were just beginning
we sometimes prayed for them to end,
and when the pain kept coming,
we learned to just pretend
that we were good
and so were they
and this was just
on of those days ...
tomorrow we'd be friends.

We had to believe it so.
We had nowhere else to go.

Each day that we pretended,
we replaced reality
with lies, or dreams,
or angry schemes,
in search of dignity ....
until our lies
got bigger than the truth,
and we had no one real to be



Our bodies were forsaken.
With no safe place to hide,
we learned to stop
hearing and feeling what they did to our outsides.

We tried to make them love us,
till we hated ourselves instead,
and couldn't see a way out,
and wished that they were dead.
We scared ourselves by thinking that,
and scared ourselves to know,
that we were acting just like them --
and might ever more be so.

To be half the size of a grown-up
and trapped inside their pain....
To every day lose everything
with no savior or refrain...
To wonder how it is possible
that God could so forget
the worthy child you knew you were,
when you had not been damaged yet ...
To figure on your fingers
that the years till you'd be grown
enough to leave the torment
and survive away from home,
were more than you could count to,
or more than you could bear,
was the reality we lived in
and we knew it wasn't fair.

We who grew up broken
are somewhat out of time,
struggling to mend our childhood,
when our peers are in their prime.
Where others find love
and contentment,
we still often have to strive
to remember we are worthy,
and heroes just to be alive.

Some of us are healing.
some are stealing.
Most are passing the anger on.
Some give their lives away to drugs,
or the promise of like beyond.
Some still hide from society.
Some struggle to belong.
But all of us are wishing
the past would not hold on
so long.

There's a lot of digging sown to do
to find the child within,
to love away the ugly pain
and feel innocence again.
There is forgiveness
worthy of angel's wings
for remembering those at all,
who abused our sacred childhood
and programmed us to fall.
To seek to understand them,
and how their pain became our own,
is to risk the ground we stand on
to climb the mountain home.

The journey is not so lonely
as in the past it s been ...
More of us are strong enough
to let the growth begin.
But while we're trekking
up the mountain
we need everything we've got,
to face the adults we have become,
and all that we are not.



So when you see us weary
from the day's internal climb ...
When we find fault
with your best efforts,
or treat imperfection
as purposeful crime ...
When you see our quick defenses,
our efforts to control,
our readiness to form a plan
of unrealistic goals ...
When we run into a conflict
and fight to the bitter end,
remember ...
We think that winning means
we won't be hurt again.

When we abandon OUR thoughts
and feelings,
to be what we believe YOU
want us to,
or look at trouble we re having,
and want to blame it all on you...
When life calls for new beginnings,
and we fear they re doomed to end,
remember...
Wounded trust is like a wounded knee--
It is very hard to bend.

Please remember this
when we are out of sorts.
Tell us the truth, and be our friend.
For children who were broken...
it is very hard to mend.