Influenced by GR?

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Recently a rather great, deeply felt song about the lost labour of love has
been brought to my attention, which starts with the line "Who's gonna whip
you when I'm gone" (followed later by the heartbreaking verses "Who's gonna
tie you to a chair?" and "Who's gonna shave all your hair?"). It is called
"The Whipping Song", unfortunately I forgot the rather well known name of
the band. But it is a good song, seriously, and not at all like the great
Steely Dan...

On a vaguely related note (this has got to do with Pynchon insofar as it
concerns the problem of how to represent violence in art, certainly one
cannot talk about influence here): I recently bought Eminem's "Marshall
Mathers"-CD. The song "Kim", in which Mathers from his own pov raps about
killing his wife, has kept me thinking for days. I think it is by far the
best song on an 1 album which is greeted in Germany as a hip hop masterpiece
(whereas reactions in the US seem to be rather divided, due to the mostly
homophobic and sexist lyrics, which are much more irritating for native
speakers than for people who cannot comprehend most of Eminem's insults).
"Kim" is different because it goes far beyond the usual, and despite the
often great music mostly tiring, "Suck my dick, bitch" macho stereotype
formula of Gangsta rap. It is very, very intense, which in my aesthetic
system qualifies as "good" (meaning I can really appreciate this aspect of
the song), and at the same time, for various reasons, among them the news
from Eminem's real life behaviour in regard to his marriage, utterly
disgusting. The album is, or was,
no. 1 in the U.S., but if some demented DJ played "Kim" in a shopping mall
it would probably be empty before the song was finished. Any opinions? 

Thomas

P.S. There is, of course, a long tradition of songs about murdering women in
popular music (to mention a few that come to my mind immediately: "Good
night Irene", "Down by the river", "Delia", "Diane", not to mention the
pasticcios of Nick Cave etc.). This is the most direct approach to the
subject imaginable, and the only one that ever scared me.

P.P.S. Yes, this is one of those late night posts.