Whisper your suggestions for songs about revenge into Don Corleone's ear ... and maybe he'll oblige. Photograph: AllStar
All major world incidents are followed by a period of reconciliation and reconstruction, and so it is – on a micro scale – with Readers Recommend. Last week's historical events theme provoked one of the most heated blogs I've overseen thus far; for my money, it was also among the most stimulating and thought-provoking. I probably should have chosen a simple, happy theme for this week – flowers, say, or sweet things – but those have been done already, so instead let's stay in an obstreperous mood and look at songs about revenge.
The picture of history that can be formed from this week's A-list is necessarily selective. Just as I was worried that it was all looking a bit academic and earnest, I happened upon saneshane's post on the RR Overspill blog about the Cold War/divided Berlin, and the next thing I knew I was dancing around the room to Nena's 99 Luftballons. OK, it's not strictly speaking based on a historical event – unless we count the sighting of red balloons in the sky from a gig, and I don't think we do – but it's an irresistible song that makes the Top 10 a lot more fun.
Unfortunately, to make room for it, Gillian Welch's absorbing but (and I say this as a devoted fan) slightly dry April 14th Pt 1 had to be booted out, so she opens this week's B-list, followed by Linton Kwesi Johnson's Di Great Insohreckshan, Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldiers, Derrick Morgan's Forward March, John Coltrane's Alabama, the Men They Couldn't Hang's Ghosts of Cable St, the Pioneers' delightful Long Shot Kick de Bucket, Victor Jara's Preguntas Por Puerto Montt, Naseer Shamma's tremblingly beautiful L'abri d'al-Amiriyya and, somewhat for comedy value, the Philadelphia All Stars' Let's Clean Up the Ghetto, a song that could even make doing housework fun. I feel vaguely troubled that the A-list predominately features white artists/history, the B-list predominately black: how typical of the way history is assessed and written.
And so for this week's theme, revenge. I realise there is a strong argument for songs that are themselves the act of revenge to appear in this list. However, one of the first RR playlists was dedicated to what Dorian Lynskey dubbed "hatchet jobs", attacks on individuals or places that included, among others, Shellac's Prayer to God, Bob Dylan's Positively 4th Street and Martha Wainwright's Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole. So it's my feeling that this list should focus instead on songs that describe or explore the concept of revenge, rather than take it themselves.
Deadline for recommendations is midday Monday; please check the RR archive for Dorian's hatchet job list and the A-Z to see if a song you want to recommend has appeared on a previous RR playlist.
