74. 10 Venomous Songs

In fact, it seems better to split this into two different playlists - one for Bob Dylan and one for everyone else, since no one has such a rich collection of venomous masterpieces as Bob Dylan.
So first, Bob's ten

Positively Fourth Street - Bob Dylan
Masters of War - Bob Dylan
Ballad of a Thin Man - Bob Dylan
When the Ship Comes In - Bob Dylan
She's Your Lover Now - Bob Dylan
Ballad in Plain D - Bob Dylan
Just Like A Woman - Bob Dylan
Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan
Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue - Bob Dylan

It's no exaggeration to say that four or five of those are among my favourite songs ever. Bob Dylan's nasty songs were fundamental and formative for me in getting to understand what songs ought to be like.
Anyway, plenty of other folk have had a good go at bitterness, anger and spite in song too. Here are 10 of them - not necessarily the most venomous, but 10 of the best, in my opinion.

There, There, My Dear - Dexys Midnight Runners
The Rat - The Walkmen
Patience - Micah P Hinson
I Want You - Elvis Costello
Archives of Pain - Manic Street Preachers
Punka - Kenickie
He's Misstra Know-It-All - Stevie Wonder
Take Your Carriage Clock and Shove It - Belle and Sebastian
Death or Glory - The Clash
Bang - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

It's just a selection, I'm sure there are plenty of others. Shame to miss Morrissey, most of hip-hop and other greats such as Ugly Kid Joe. Hoho. And the Delgados ... their sweet songs dripping with poison.
You can write nasty songs which are just condescending and sarcastic (Bang), you can write them in a way that the self-loathing is unmistakeable(I Want You), you can even write then with just a tint of empathy to make the ultimate put-down even worse (Just Like A Woman) - there is something delicious about a really powerful song of venom, as the pleasure so many people take from Rage Against The Machine's recent coup demonstrates.
I really don't have the gift for sarcasm and making people feel bad I used to - sadly, adulthood often makes us go soft. Even the so-called song of venom below is full of messages of peace and love once it gets going.

And I'll sing a song of venom, of joy and precious venom
As I leave some hotel on some frosty morning,
overwritten textbooks curling on the bonfire
with the vanished phrases of my final warning

And the words I longed to speak will have flowed like lava,
Days of bitten tongue so well forgotten,
And the foes who had no fear until that final hour
will be looking downwards from the very bottom.

And the toothless pariahs will be freed to fan the fires
and the icons of the age will shield their eyes
and from their shelters, all those quiet underbargained heroes
will come banquet on their truths they'd thought were lies.

And doubt will rule desire and power will be for hire
to the lowest bidder and to the quietest talker
And there'll be no succour other than the loved one for the lover
and the body'll cry for nothing but blessed water.