Seeing that Kenny Rogers is playing Glastonbury tickled me. This is because of his song Coward of The County. When it was doing the rounds in the early 80's it was the kind of thing I would walk out of the room to get away from. Dreadful country schmaltz sung by Father Christmas in his civvies. Much later, during one of the periodic outcrys about Rap lyrics, I think it was Ice T's Cop Killer, this song came back to me.
I don't recall any demands that CotC be banned for its content, and this was a era when you could get banned for just about anything. So it proved that if the singer is an old bloke with a beard and the tune is Nashville syrup you can get away with writing an approving reflection on a man's violent revenge against the brothers who gang raped his girlfriend.
This song was a huge international hit, but in the country cannon it is not alone in its dark subject matter. Violence, often sexually motivated is a presence in many old country songs. In the early 50's Molly O'Day sung of Ellen Smith being found murdered 'clothes scattered all around.' Nic Cave has enjoyed excavating this murky side of country. It can be heard in the Louvin Brothers and even in the clean cut Everley's. Listen past the staid performance and the plaintive harmony and one can hear the voice of an older darker world.
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