Please could you help with song choices for an English assessment

[JMSA]

‘Morning all
My teen has an English assignment and I’d love to hear your song choices (the assignment is for English but with a music theme!). I thought about The Drugs Don’t Work by the Verve, but I’m not sure. Ideally it would be quite a ‘meaty’ song so that we can really analyse the lyrics!
Thanks very much

Survivor destineys child

TLC - no scrubs 😆

Two on theme of domestic conflict
He hit me (and it felt like a kiss)- The Crystals originally I think
Behind The Wall - Tracy Chapman

Lot to say about societal views on domestic violence, what's healthy in a relationship, messed up ideas around passion, affect of the domestic on others in wider society...
I'd let them chose their own songs though to be honest, I don't think you should help with the choice.

Hazard - Richard Marx

(I would walk walk all the way)
From Boulder to Birmingham by Emmylou Harris, about love and loss after the death of Gram Parsons.
( it’s Boulder, Colorado and Birmingham, Alabama to avoid any confusion)

It ain’t me babe by Bob Dylan could be juicy.

Paul Simon is a truly amazing lyricist, his songs are studied as poetry in many US schools and so well worth listening to as a whole, from albums like ‘Homeward Bound’ to ‘Graceland’, and more.

Early Elton John's song have great lyrics (by Bernie Taupin) so maybe one of those?

In a similar vein Scissor Sisters.

David Bowie life on Mars album.

Please can we do your teen's homework...?

I thought the OP was asking for suggestions for their DC to listen to as a starter/pointer for the project rather than saying ’use this one and this one’ etc.
There’s a lot of music out there!

If the theme is the perils of drugs...

Sister Morphine by the Rolling Stones.
Mother's Little Helper by the Rolling Stones
Cold Turkey by John Lennon - The Plastic Ono Band

If your teen is prepared to consider modern folk music, I'd suggest "No Man's Land" by Eric Bogle. (The Furies did a cover version and renamed it "The Green Fields of France", but the original title is more meaningful, IMO.)

Well how do you do, Private William McBride
Do you mind if I sit here down by your grave side?
A rest for awhile in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done
And I see by your gravestone that you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, William McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
And though you died back in 1916
To that loyal heart are you always 19
Or are you just a stranger without even a name
Forever enclosed behind some glass-pane
In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?

Well the sun it shines down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished now under the plough
No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it is still No Man's Land
And the countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation that was butchered and damned.

Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the pipes lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?

And I can't help but wonder now Willie McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you 'The Cause'?
Did you really believe that this would war would end wars?
But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame -
The killing, the dying - it was all done in vain
For Willie McBride, it's all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the pipe lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers o' the Forest'?

Justin Bieber - Love Yourself. I always thought it was a great song to illustrate toxic relationships and coercive control to a younger generation who think they’re invincible and beyond being ill-treated.

Good luck, sounds like an interesting assignment

Any hardcore straight edge song/band. Too many to choose!

Imagine - John Lennon

As reminded of on another thread today - 'I've Had a Little Time' by Beautiful South. Or 'Common People' by Pulp. (links to videos below)

Lots of System of a Down songs about war…War?, BYOB, soldier side, Boom…

People are going to just say their favourite songs. Shouldn't it be songs that your teenager actually likes themselves and already knows?

But if I was in school again and got this work I'd do Joanna Newsom because her songs are really poetry to music. Maybe Baby Birch, which is about an abortion and really a tour de force imo. But your teen might think it's crap!

I don’t think I know that one but thanks 👍

Thank you all so much. Really, really appreciate your help. I’ll let you know which ones we choose!

Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield

One of my favourites 🥰🥰

Well surely the idea is they pick something that has meant that to them!? This is a personal assignment, why isn’t your DC doing it!?

Ed Sheeran Bad habits
Ignore all the vampires in the video- I read a lot of drugs and drink stuff in the lyrics

I remember doing a similar assignment in high school and chose 'Old Red Eyes' by The Beautiful South