by Mike Madrid
Borders can do two things. They can keep people inside a place, like a totalitarian country. Or, they can people out, like the wall that the US government is building along the Mexican border. These borders are physical walls, and their purpose is to keep the undesirables out. The undesirables are people who do not fit a society’s image of an ideal member, because of ethnic background, religion, gender, or economic or educational level. But all of a society’s undesirable’s are not always outside of its borders. Many live within a society’s physical borders, but live outside of what is considered acceptable by that society. A society can build borders around a person, or in front of a person that are not made of brick and mortar or barbed wire, but are nonetheless effective in preventing that person from being part of the mainstream culture. These people are called social outcasts.
Unlike rebels, anarchist, or rugged individualist who choose to thumb their nose at society, social outcasts have no say in the matter. A society can determine that certain type of person does not fit in, and erect invisible borders to keep that person isolated from those around them. Corralled behind these artificial barriers, the social outcast is denied those basic things that humans crave-contact, affection, acceptance, the freedom to move around in the world, to be a part of it, and to choose one’s destiny. The social outcasts live among us in the everyday world, but are relegated to a lonely life of rejection behind the borders that society has placed around them.
In popular music, there have been plenty of songs romanticizing the rebel. But what about those that society has chosen to shut out? What about the people who, through no fault of their own, are rejected by society, looked down upon because they are different, and often tormented because of those differences? Where are their songs?
Well, the answer is right here. Here I offer you a collection of songs about those individuals who, by virtue of race, class, or who they have chosen to love, have been rejected by society. What most of these songs illustrate is that it is those most basic things that we often take for granted that bring the greatest happiness, and these are the things that social outcast are denied.
10. Another Country, Another World-The Crystals 1962 Star-crossed love has always been a popular subject for pop songs, but the premise for this tune seems awfully thin. The singer tells how she met a guy a few nights earlier, and it was love at first sight. But she doesn’t dare reveal to him how she feels…
'Cause he’s from another country, living in another world.
Her friends tell her that she shouldn’t love a guy who “don’t belong”, but she can’t deny how she feels. Every time that singer Barbara Alston says the words the words another country, the emphasis that she uses makes them sound like a racial slur. It makes you wonder where this guy is from. What would have been considered so foreign in 1962 as to be an unacceptable love interest? One imagines this guy wearing a bone through his nose, or wearing a coolie hat with the way that she describes his foreign nature. Although she claims…
But I would give my world, just to be his girl,
Oh yes I would
…clearly she won’t. She won’t even tell the guy she likes him, because then she’d be shunned as well. Because he’s from…another country, and no way is she hooking up with the odd man out.
9. Girl From Germany-Sparks 1972
How I wished my folks were gracious hosts,
And not dismayed
But wit and wisdom take a back seat, girl
When you’re that afraid.
The Mael Brothers of Sparks bring a somewhat lighthearted, tongue in cheek twist to this story of parental rejection of a love interest. The singer brings his new girlfriend home to meet mom and dad, and things don’t go that well. Despite the parents’ pleasant conversation and niceties, he knows…
They can hear the storm troops on our lawn
When I show her in
And the Fuehrer is alive and well in our paneled den.
Oh, no bring her home and the folks look ill
My word, they can’t forget that old war, what a war.
The problem is this guy’s girlfriend is German, and his parents still haven’t gotten over WWII. Despite the parents pleasantly remarking that…
My word, she’s from Germany
Well it’s the same old country but the people have changed
…they obviously feel like their son has brought a bloody killer into their home. This falsetto-laced tune illustrates that bigotry is colorblind, and that one can become a social outcast based on the political history of the country of our birth, American tourists, take note.
8. Mongoloid-Devo 1977
This song takes an interesting spin on the subject of social outcasts, because it addresses what it really takes to fit into society. The subject of the song was born with Downs Syndrome, known as a mongoloid in less PC times.
Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid
One chromosome too many.
Mongoloid, he was a mongoloid
And it determined what he could see.
Now, normally pleasant society doesn’t know what to do with people with disabilities, and so they are kept out of sight. But this guy figures out a way to beat the system.
And he wore a hat
And he had a job
And he brought home the bacon
So that no one knew.
So therein lies the secret of fitting in. This guy is part of the work force, he acts the part, and his friends never suspect he’s different. Seems so easy. Everyone should try it.
7. November Spawned A Monster-Morrissey 1990
Sleep on and dream of love
Because it’s the closest you will get to love
These sobering lines open Morrissey’s tale of a wheelchair-bound, disfigured “monster”, unwanted, unloved and unlovable, forced to survive on the begrudging charity of others. The “twisted child’s” impassioned plea is…
“But Jesus made me,
So Jesus save me from
Pity, sympathy
And people discussing me”
A frame of useless limbs
What can make good
All the bad that's been done ?
As in many of his other songs that deal with the collateral effects of lust, Morrissey’s tone is a mixture of detachment and judgment. While he has sympathy for the child, there is a tone of morality from the famously celibate singer, who describes the “poor, twisted child” as a “symbol of where mad, mad lovers must pause and draw the line”. The song ends on an optimistic note, with a hope that the girl who is “so ugly” will one day gain her independence, and redemption…
Oh, one fine day
Let it be soon
She won't be rich or beautiful
But she'll be walking your streets
In the clothes that she went out
And chose for herself.
6. Brother Louie The Stories 1973
The Stories had a number one song in 1973 with this sad tale of interracial love.
She was black as the night
Louie was whiter than white
Danger, danger when you taste brown sugar
Louie fell in love overnight
As expected, when Louie takes his ladylove home to meet his parents, things go badly. There is no resolution in this simple song, just as there is still no resolution in race relations today. Louie knows it’s right to love this girl, his parents don’t agree. That’s where it ends.
Louie nearly caused a scene
Wishin' it was a dream
Ain't no diff'rence if you're black or white
Brothers, you know what I mean
5. Smalltown Boy-Bronski Beat 1984
This song was the first release from Bronski Beat, one of the first openly gay pop groups to emerge in the 80’s. Peaking at #3 in the UK charts, it tells the story of a young gay man who leaves home because his family won’t accept him.
Mother will never understand
Why you had to leave
But the answers you seek
Will never be found at home
The love that you need
Will never be found at home
This song is subtler than Erasure’s more heavily discofied Hideaway of 1987, which dealt with a similar coming out theme. Smalltown Boy deals with the idea that the social outcast really has no one to rely on, and often just flees the oppressive environment. The haunting chorus of “run away, turn away, run away” underscores that the unknown is often better than a bad situation.
And as hard as they would try
They'd hurt to make you cry
But you never cried to them
Just to your soul
No you never cried to them
Just to your soul
4. Society’s Child-Janis Ian 1965
Legend has it that 15 year-old Janis Ian wrote this song in the lobby of her psychiatrist’s office. Whether this is true or not, this moving song about an interracial romance from the girl’s perspective was banned by many radio stations when it was released. The singer’s sweetheart arrives at her door with his face “clean and shining black as night”, and has a bad first meeting with her mother.
Now I could understand your tears and your shame,
She called you "boy" instead of your name.
When she wouldn't let you inside,
When she turned and said
"But honey, he's not our kind."
The singer gets further looks of derision from her neighbors, classmates, and hypocritical teachers, who all tell her she can’t see this young black man any longer. The song ends on a note that is strangely optimistic and realistic and the same time. The singer yearns for a day when she will be free of the small minds around her, and can gain her independence.
But that day will have to wait for awhile.
Baby, I'm only society's child.
When we're older things may change.
But for now this is the way they must remain.
In the end, she is crushed by society, and ends the relationship. Janis Ian came back into the spotlight in 1975 when she won the Grammy for her sangfroid analysis of high school life, the classic At Seventeen.
3. We Don’t Belong Sylvan 1965
Pretty blonde UK songbird Sylvan wrote this fatalistic song about social outcasts, possibly the most bleak of this list. Dramatic chimes and nervous piano open this tale of two lovers who make a suicide pact to escape a world that won’t accept their love.
They don’t understand
But tomorrow when we’re gone
They’ll see the reason why we can’t go on
Believing different things
But knowing that we’re right
The fearless pair hold each other, knowing that the have no other choice, and that death will be their friend. The interesting thing about this song is that there is never any explanation as to why their love is verboten. Is it race, class, religion? Are they two women? Never clear, only the mysterious line…
We’re going to a land
Where it’s right to hold your hand.
Goodbye to them that say we’re wrong
We don’t belong
So here is yet another solution to the problem of being rejected by society-the ultimate escape from persecution.
2. Half-Breed Cher 1973
Ok, if you look beyond the opening tom tom’s, The Ageless One’s trademark exaggerated inflection, and her white halter top and feathered headdress, this is quite a good song, and it addresses perhaps the ultimate outcasts of American society-our once proud native people.
My father married a pure Cherokee
My mother's people were ashamed of me
The Indians said I was white by law
The White Man always called me "Indian Squaw"
So, at birth she’s already screwed, because two social groups reject her. The taboo mixed union and the offspring it produces causes the family to become wandering pariahs.
We never settled, went from town to town
When you're not welcome you don't hang around
The other children always laughed at me
"Give her a feather, she's a Cherokee"
Eventually, the half-breed’s shame leads her to life of prostitution, forever a prisoner of the humiliation that society has heaped on her, and the self-hatred that blossomed as a result.
But I can't run away from what I am
She believes that she is as worthless as society has told her that she is, and has accepted that sentence. So, society triumphs again.
1. Love Child Diana Ross & The Supremes 1968
One of the last hits from this legendary group, with incredible production, an irresistible beat, and possibly the finest vocals of Miss Ross’ career. The singer faces a dilemma-she loves her boyfriend, but doesn’t want to have sex with him, lest they produce another illegitimate child like her. She recounts how she was born in a tenement, branded with shame and guilt for having no father. This song eloquently captures the feelings of worthlessness that any social outcast experiences.
Love child, never meant to be
Love child, (scorned by) society
Love child, always second best
Love child, different from the rest
By the end, the singer declares her love and devotion to her man, but swears that she will never bring an unwanted, shame-tainted child into this world. The last lines succinctly describe the lives of all of those who don’t “fit in”.
Love child, love child, never quite as good
Afraid, ashamed, misunderstood
Many of you reading this may think that the sentiments expressed in these songs are dated, and that many of these issues are no longer considered controversial. True, those of us who live in major metropolitan areas of the world have become used to people from different countries and cultures, interracial relationships, homosexuality, single others and unconventional family units, and mental disabilities. But America, which is my home, is a big country, and it is home to people who have a variety of different opinions on people who they deem to be “different”. Beyond that, the world is a big place, filled with a myriad of cultural differences that will undoubtedly take offense to someone for various reasons. Conversely, this vast world is getting smaller, forcing more and more different kinds of people together, and giving them all the opportunity to find more things about someone else that they don’t like. And more reasons to build borders around someone to keep them out.
Bottom line- all societies will always find someone to keep outside of its borders. It just depends on which side you land.
This is my Social Outcast Top 10. If you have other choices, I’d love to know. Feel free to e-mail me and let me know any songs you think I may have forgotten. heaven4@pacbell.net
Now I can understand your tears and your shame.
She called you "boy" instead of your name.
When she wouldn't let you inside.
When she turned and said
"But honey, he's not our kind.
Now I can understand your tears and your shame.
She called you "boy" instead of your name.
When she wouldn't let you inside.
When she turned and said
"But honey, he's not ou
Now I can understand your tears and your shame.
She called you "boy" instead of your name.
When she wouldn't let you inside.
When she turned and said
"But honey, he's not our kind."
Now I can understand your tears and your shame.
She called you "boy" instead of your name.
When she wouldn't let you inside.
When she turned and said
"But honey, he's not our kind."