Below you'll find some sample liner notes that students submitted along with their course playlists. Aside from supplementing a few additional class texts associated with the liner notes, these are presented without commentary or editing; these are student voices. You can listen to the playlist on Spotify.

Death With Dignity--Sufjan Stevens (2015)

The opening track of Stevens’ album Carrie & Lowell references Oregon history and its close ties to the artist’s life. The title references Oregon’s watershed 1994 physician assisted suicide law. The artist often weaves local history with personal experiences, in particular Michigan and Oregon, where Sufjan’s estranged mother lived during his childhood . The lyrics of the opening track discuss sudden grief and a lost relationship with his mother, which develop later in the album. Stevens describes the terror of being with a loved one during acute illness going through rigorous treatment in hospital, and expressing love at last during the moment of death.

See: Quill, T. E. (1991). Death and dignity. New England Journal of Medicine, 324(10):691–694.

Swan Upon Leda--Hozier (2022)

The artist Andrew Hozier-Byrne described the song as being inspired by the long history of political oppression and control of women. The song was released in October of 2022 following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and its writing relates to Ireland’s similar history with abortion rights. The lyrics reference Greek and Irish myth, imperial occupation of sacred land, and the politically fraught borders that women who seek medical care have to cross at risk to their health. Hozier writes, “Where nature unmakes the boundary / the pillar of myth still stands.” In spite of the nuance of biology and developed medicine, the religious and cultural pillars that define gender and morality still politically impose on what providers and patients are allowed to do. See: What Ireland’s history with abortion might teach us about a post-Roe America, Professional Civil Disobedience - Medical-Society Responsibilities After Dobbs.

See: Arey, W., Lerma, K., Beasley, A., Harper, L., Moayedi, G., and White, K. (2022). A preview of the dangerous future of abortion bans — Texas senate bill 8. New England Journal of Medicine, 387(5):388–390.

Hamburger Lady--Throbbing Gristle (1977)

An experimental horror noise track by early electronic group Throbbing Gristly using author Al Ackerman’s writing as text, which is undetermined to be fictitious or a real account. Voiceover layered with wavering drone depicts a disfigured burn patient being kept alive in hospital while experiencing continuous pain, lack of consciousness, and incapability of function. The tone is impersonal and distant, describing only outsiders’ view of a patient. Providers reel in disgust and dread as they struggle to help. The text presents a dilemma of prolonging life in conditions of pain and poor quality with no hope for recovery. It is a dilemma in which no outcome or action is morally comfortable, and an individual’s suffering supersedes what the ‘correct’ ethical choice may be.

Angel of Death--Slayer (1986)

The song from the seminal thrasher metal band describes the unethical and genocidal experimentation done by Nazi doctors during the Holocaust on interned people. The lyrics by guitarist Jeff Hannerman are written both from Nazi physician Josef Mengele’s point of view and from a detached condemning observer. The physician performed tortuous experimental surgeries on individuals perceived to be racially or socially inferior. The artist stated he wanted the song to be similar to a documentary on the extremity of the Holocaust. The band was criticized throughout their career due to their subject matter and suspected nazi sympathizing. They’re [sic] graphic lyrics balance between parody, indifference, and glamorizing violent subjects.

Mississippi Goddamn--Nina Simone (1964)

Contemporary to MLK Jr’s Letter From Birmingham jail, this calls out the national oppression degrading the well being of Black people. She references the racial violence and civil tension of 1964 especially of bombings, protests, and segregation in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Simone criticizes moderates that would tell black protest movements to go slow, and calls for civil disobedience, also seen in King’s philosophy. The justification and methods of civil disobedience in medicine are frequently debated and often prompted by government intrusion or negligence of patient wellbeing and against physicians’ advocacy.

Pa’lante--Hurray for the Riff Raff (2017)

Singer/songwriter Alynda Segarra of the project Hurray for the Riff Raff expresses the isolation and exhaustion of Latin immigrant women. She references the dehumanizing sterilization of immigrant and racial minorities during the eugenics movement. Unethical forced sterilization of Latinas and Native Americans was legal and practiced in state hospitals from roughly the 1920s-1970s. Increasing immigration during the 1910s prompted a pushback anti-immigration movement, and the institutionalized idea that ‘lesser’ races should be prohibited from reproducing. After the US gained ownership of Puerto Rico, exploited its natural resources, and exacerbated its economic collapse, Puerto Rican women became unconsenting test subjects of contraceptive studies by American researchers. Segarra samples Pedro Pietri’s 1969 poem “Puerto Rican Obituary”, referencing historical activists, writers, and immigrant neighborhoods. The climactic ending is a call to strength and resilience in the face of degradation and disparity.

See: Tabery, J., Novak, N. L., Sarafraz, L., and Mansfield, A. (2023). Victims of eugenic sterilisation in Utah: cohort demographics and estimate of living survivors. The Lancet Regional Health–Americas, 19.

Lady Godiva’s Operation--The Velvet Underground (1968)

This low-fidelity rock track reminiscent of radio-theater depicts the botched surgery of a transexual woman. The artist Lou Reed performs the song with deadpan humor, much like other satirical Queer art in the 20th century. The subject matter is in reference to the destructive practice of conversion therapy, which attempted to decondition homosexuality and gender-nonconforming behavior premised the on cultural bias and perception of homosexuality as disease.

Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima--Krzysztof Penderecki & Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra (1961)

An orchestral composition devoted to and invoking the soundscape of Hiroshima during the first use of atomic weapons. The bombing resulted in the indiscriminate massacre of 39% of the population, injury, and long lasting health effects. The event has since been debated for its ethical controversy of lives lost versus lives preventatively saved. The US was determined to use the bomb against the Axis of power due to its unstoppable political momentum. There was thus little consideration or debate for the long term health effects of the bomb, rather debate was only focused on diplomacy.