Randy Remote wrote: "The flip side of these songs is the Dixie Chick's "Earl Had To Die" in which an abused woman and friend decide to kill the batterer...and it turns out that Earl is a "missing person that nobody missed".... great video with NYPD's Dennis Franz as Earl. RR"
The first time I heard this song, I was in my car, on the highway that circles the city of Madison, and I almost ran off the road. Indeed, not only was Earl a "missing person that nobody missed at all," but the police gave up on Earl's disappearance after a perfunctory investigation, and the two women spent the rest of their lives happily selling jam at the roadside to everyone in their community. Apparently, this was a concept of justice that all there could live with quite comfortably, under the circumstances. Contrast the response of law enforcement in that song to Tracy Chapman's "Behind the Wall," from her first album, _Tracy Chapman_ (1988): "Last night I heard the screaming Loud voices behind the wall Another sleepless night for me It won't do no good to call The police Always come late When they come at all." In this song, sung from the perspective of a concerned but frustrated neighbor, the police finally do come when the abused woman is beaten to a pulp and has to be removed from the scene by ambulance. At that point, the cops tell the crowd to disperse, because, ironically, "I think we all could use some sleep." However, Mike, you might want to take note that the Dixie Chicks song is part of a new breed in which women fight back in some way against male violence--or, from another perspective, perhaps mete out vigilante justice, after "the law" steadfastly refuses to do anything when the woman is actually being abused. Martina McBride's "Independence Day," from a few years back, comes to mind. If I remember correctly, the woman in that song, the mother of the little girl from whose perspective the song is sung, burns down her abuser's house. Interestingly, both of these images of women fighting back--in both instances, with additional violence, however well-justified individual listeners may regard it--come from country music. Mary P. P.S. Going back to Mike's original question, another example might be Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" from around 1984, in which the protagonist sounds spunky and feisty, but tells her partner to "fire away."
