Partner Abuse (Music's Hidden Dirty Little Secret) Quiz

Answer: Little Walter

The song that begat the quiz. I knew the Pat Travers version of this song from way back and always assumed it was one of those "Let's get the drunk concert goers to throw their hands into the air and shout out the chorus" kind of song. Needless to say I never lent the words an ear. Then one night about four months ago I was driving home and a college radio station (you all know colleges: bastions of political correctness) played the original Little Walter version of this song. And when I this time DID listen to the lyrics I almost ran my car into the center divider of the Hollywood freeway! I never knew this song was about beating the tar out of your "baby" because she stayed out too late! I especially could not believe I was hearing this on a college radio station! And then it occurred to me: this was not the only "beatin' up my baby" song I have ever heard - it was just one of the most extreme. And suddenly the idea for this quiz was born.

The song was originally recorded by Little Walter (and credited to Stan Lewis). He was a genius harmonica player who came to prominence after joining Muddy Waters' band in 1948. Little Walter's version was recorded and released in 1957, and by all accounts summed up his personality and temper with great precision! Pat Travers covered the song on his 1979 'Live! Go for What You Know' LP and the song became a huge success for Pat.

Answer: Suzanne Vega

Ok... so my prediction that right about this time you would have young coworkers named Luka never came true. But still... for a while this song by Suzanne Vega about a kid who is being beaten by his parents certainly seemed popular enough that this could have been a distinct possibility.

This song was released as a single in 1987 and it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Answer: The Beatles

Written by John Lennon, for 1965's "Rubber Soul".

Now this record here... in the later 1970s - WELL after this song had been released (Like at LEAST ten years after this song had been released) feminists started to protest radio stations and demand that this song be pulled from any sort of rotation and never be played again as it advocated killing women (I am not kidding. This really did happen). To put this into perspective: Right around the exact same time as when these protests were happening was when FM radio was playing the hell out of Pat Travers' incredibly popular cover version of "Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)" and not a one of these same feminists made a single minor 'peep' in protest of THAT song!

Answer: The Crystals

Believe it or not: I once actually dated a girl who thought this was the most romantic pop song ever written! I stopped dating her after she told me that.

This paean to fists was written "under the guidance of Phil Spector" by Carole King (herself a domestic abuse survivor at the hands of her husband Jerry) and her songwriting partner and husband Jerry Goffin in 1962 (exactly what kind of "guidance" is what I'd really like to know. Like a gun pressed against their temples?) after he heard that their babysitter, Little Eva, was regularly beaten by her boyfriend, actions which, she claim, were motivated by his love for her. Bizarrely enough (considering other examples which were all but ignored over the years) this song actually did receive protests about the subject matter which severely hurt its chances at receiving as much airplay as it might have otherwise.

Answer: Bessie Smith

The empress of the blues has her moment in the sunshine that is this quiz as well. Written by Clarence Williams & Sarah Martin and released on the Columbia record label in 1923 as the B Side of "Mama's Got The Blues" - that is ALL I can find about this song online outside of the lyrics. Here's some of them:

"I've got the meanest man in the land
But his love is that sticking brand
His kiss just lingers on my lips
And thrill me to my fingertips
People say I'm a fool
He's heartless and also cruel
But outside of that, he's all right with me
Outside of that, he's sweet as he can be
I love him as true as stars above
He beats me up, but how he can love
I never loved like that since the day I was born
I said for fun, I don't want you no more
And when I said that, I made sweet papa sore
He blacked my eyes, I couldn't see
Then he pawned the things he gave to me
But outside of that, he's all right with me"

Answer: Nickelback

Outside of the fact that I can not believe I actually included Nickelback in a quiz of mine this song was released in July of 2002. The video they made for the song was scrapped due to its violent nature.

This song is about a drunkard creep who beats his mate.

Chad Kroeger once had rocks thrown at him by a South American audience.

One of these two is abuse (hint: it's the former).

Answer: Antony & The Johnsons

This track was written in 2002. It is about somebody who accepts their lover's beatings as their physical expression of their love. It does not appear to be about a sado-masochistic relationship (at least this is what I get from reading the lyrics).

Antony Hegarty aka Anohni was born in the UK in 1971. Her family moved to San Francisco in 1981 and in 1990 she moved to New York where she eventually formed Antony & The Johnsons. In 2016, Anohni became the first ever openly transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award (she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song - "Manta Ray").

Answer: The Dixie Chicks

"Goodbye Earl" was written in the '90s by Dennis Linde for the band Sons Of The Desert for an album which remained unreleased. It was eventually recorded by The Dixie Chicks in for their fifth album 'Fly'. Despite it not being released as a single the song started getting airplay that forced the band and record label to release it as a single at which point it went to number 13 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles & Tracks.

The song is a "comedic" (not my word) that tells the story of two best friends from high school. One of which marries an abusive husband who puts her in intensive care after she files for divorce from him and gets a restraining order. The two girls then decide to kill him by putting something in his black eyed peas.

Answer: Tom Jones

Oh you did not KNOW that's what this song was about? Maybe the slightly more demented hit cover version (their cover was BIG in Europe) by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band in 1975 might have tipped you off? Still no? Well there ya go!

This song was written by Barry Mason and Sylvan Whittingham Mason (the lyrics) and Les Reed (the music) and released by world renowned panty catcher Tom Jones in 1968, This song was seriously massive. You could not get away from it throughout 1968! Not in the USA, and especially not in Europe (and yes: I experienced that firsthand in that year on both continents). It went to Number One just about everywhere except for the UK (Number Two) and the USA (Number 15) yet still: this song was absolutely inescapable that year! Nowadays various British Football clubs have adopted it as their theme song (you think I am making this all up, don't you?) and groups such as Il Volo cover it. The song, in a nutshell, is about a man who sees his lover making love to another man in silhouette in a window and is driven insane and kills her.

Answer: Stiff Little Fingers

"Guilty As Sin" is a track from Stiff Little Fingers' 'No Going Back' album, released in August of 2014. Their first album in 12 years, it reached Number One on BBC Radio 1's UK Top 40 Rock Album Charts on September 14, 2014.

The song is about child abuse and the hypocrisy of the church.

Answer: Joni Mitchell

A track from her 1994 release 'Turbulent Indigo'.

There was a lot of speculation at the time that the track "Not To Blame" was either about the O.J. Simpson case or the allegations about Jackson Browne and Daryl Hannah, all of which have been repeatedly denied by Joni. But still, if you listen to the words you gotta wonder...

Answer: Cheap Trick

This track off of Cheap Trick's 1979 "Dream Police" album seems to be about a family with domestic problems. It APPEARS to wind up with the father buying a gun for reasons not clearly explained. Cheap Trick are no strangers to bizarre subject matter in their lyrics ("Daddy Should Have Stayed In High School" on their self titled debut record, is about a child molester for example).

While the song itself was never released as a single, the album went to Number Six on the Billboard 200 chart in 1979 and was their last Top Ten album.

Answer: Lou Reed

This track, off of Lou Reed's impossibly godlike, amazing and beautiful 1973 album "Berlin" (one of the five greatest albums by anybody ever imo) is just one song in a series of many songs on that album about messed up subject matter. The concept album is about Caroline, an addict with children who has physically abusive boyfriends and an out of control speed problem that results in her children being taken away from her. "Why that sounds JUST LIKE Jon Anderson's idea for "Tales Of Topographic Oceans" you say? Ummmm.... no.

Answer: Pink Floyd

"Don't Leave Me Now" is a track from Pink Floyd's obscenely popular 1979 release 'The Wall'.

Roger Waters has publicly stated that this song is about "two people who have treated each other very badly"; this song takes dissonance in popular song to entirely new extremes. The album topped the charts just about everywhere in the known universe. I like Pink Floyd. A lot. This album is one of three they did that I do not like much at all. That said this is one of maybe five songs on the record I genuinely do like.

Answer: Black Sabbath

This track, from their 2013 release entitled '13' (Thirteen), their best album in decades and one which reunited the original classic Black Sabbath line-up. It was written by bassist Geezer Butler, who wrote it as a reaction to the stories of child abuse within the Catholic Church. The track is about a pedophile priest.

Answer: Alice Cooper

"Only Women Bleed" was a track from Alice Cooper's first solo album "Welcome To My Nightmare", issued in 1975. If you were familiar with the song from the record or radio and wondered what exactly the song was about, if you went to see the WTMN show in concert seeing the song performed live left ZERO doubt as to its meaning. A female doll was thrown and kicked around the stage and then tenderly caressed in a bed on the stage and beaten some more.

The song was released as a single in April of 1975 and charted around the globe (although it only went to the Number One spot in Canada).

Answer: Killswitch Engage

Released on their 2016 release 'Incarnate'. Another track about physical abuse, this song actually rails against domestic abuse and makes it pretty clear that one should never allow oneself to be a victim of it.

Answer: Pearl Jam

A track from Pearl Jam's debut album 'Ten' from 1991.

The lyrics, written by Eddie Vedder, are from a third person viewpoint and about a young girl who has been committed to a psychiatric hospital by her mother (whose visits she refuses). The girl, who is not ill, refuses all rules and medical treatments, thus making her stay there worse as her rebellion is seen by the staff as proof of her mental illness. The album 'Ten" went to Number Two on the Billboard 200 Chart and Number 18 in the UK.

Answer: David Bowie

One of the standout tracks from David's final album from the "Berlin Trilogy", the extremely underrated album 'Lodger' was released in 1979.

This song is one of the more brutal songs about spousal abuse lyrically speaking. It is about a sociopath named Johnny who beats his wife regularly and is convinced there is a better life awaiting him. In this song everybody is to blame for his behavior except for poor little Johnny himself. He could have married Anne, he could have had the Cadillac if the school had taught him right. He beats her for the food being cold, but hey: the bruises won't show if she wears long sleeves - seriously: this song is vile and the musical accompaniment to the words is slightly queasy and nauseating. It's a brilliant track. Never released as a single, the album 'Lodger' was one of David's worst selling albums in years. Which is sad as it really is one of his greatest records waiting to be rediscovered.

Answer: David Sylvian

Did you see what I did there? This song has a number of similarities to the David Bowie track "Repetition" from the previous question. Equally brutal and equally vile but what makes this track a much more difficult listen if you are listening to the lyrics is the beauty of the music and David's always beautiful voice. In a way this track is David Bowie's "Repetition" taken to the next level. In this song it is not a matter of "the bruises won't show", but rather ""Next time I'll break every bone in your body"! The track is from David's fourth solo album 'Secrets Of The Beehive' released in 1987.

The album went to number 37 on the UK album chart. The song was never released as a single. How could it possibly ever have been?