I'm not altogether sure I want to know what it says about me that on a gorgeous day without a cloud in the sky, I have murder ballads running through my head. Yesterday's electric folk post may have gotten me started, and the truth is that some very fine music has been made that is steeped in lyric gore. This is especially true of those traditional songs that come from northern Europe, and those bluidy Scots and Scandis whose folk songs often tell of vengeful revenants and cruel mothers. Cleaned up and taken out in polite company, such stuff went gold for the Kingston Trio and lauched the modern folk movement.
There are many songs, not strictly in folk ballad form, which could rightly fall in the genre. Some of them are elevated to exquisite heights by one particular performance. Others are simply classic no matter who does them.
Here are my picks for the top Ten Murder Ballads, based on one or the other of these criteria. No doubt you could add a few of your own, as indeed I struggled mightily over which would make the cut (and cleverly stretched to fit in an eleventh, as you shall see).
"Down By The River" Neil Young This one often gets drawn out into an extended jam in live performance.
Be on my side
I'll be on your side
There is no reason
for you to hide
It's so hard staying
here all alone
You could be taking
me for a ride
She could drag me
over the rainbow
Send me away...
"Hey Joe" The Jimmi Hendrix Experience made it a classic.
I'm goin' way down south, way down south
Way down to Mexico way, yeah
I'm goin' way down south, way down south, baby
Way down where I can be free
Ain't no one gonna mess with me there, baby
Ain't no hang-man gonna
He ain't gonna put a rope, a rope around me, yeah"Crazy Man Michael" Dave Swarbrick/Richard Thompson. Richard wrote the lyrics for a traditional tune that was later replaced by a new one of Dave's composing.
O where is the raven that I struck down dead
And here did lie on the ground o
I see that my true love with a wound so red
Where her lover’s heart it did pound o
"Matty Groves", traditional, arranged by Fairport Convention: A lady seduces her servant, and taunts her husband who slays them both:
"A grave, a grave!'' Lord Darnell cried, "to put these lovers in.
But bury my lady at the top for she was of noble kin."
"Pretty Polly" various. Joan Baez did a classic rendition, and another by Hilary Burhan was used in the closing credits of an episode of HBO's "Deadwood". It is related to many older ballads, including Childe #90, and the best melange of these is another arrangement by Broadside Electric entitled Jellon Grame:
"Lie you there, oh father dear
My mother's curse to rue
The place that she lies buried in
Is far too good for you."
"Stagger Lee" various. Take your pick: Ma Rainey, Mississippi John Hurt, Duke Ellington, Taj Mahal, the Grateful Dead...
"Tom Dooley " The Kingston Trio. The one that got the ball rolling in the late 1950s. My aunt learned this song while in college around this time and it is a standard at family sing alongs.
"Bruton Town" various artists. I am partial to the 1972 Sandy Denny version, as wel as that by Broadside Electric on their album "With Teeth":
"Now welcome home, my dear young brothers,
Our serving man, is he behind?"
"We've left him where we've been a-hunting,
"We've left him where no man can find."
"Childe Owlet": Childe #291 performed by Steeleye Span. This one breaks all the rules. A man is condemned by false witness to be torn apart by horses because he spurns the advances of his kinsman's wife, who gets away with it.
Lady Erskine sits intae her bower
A-sowing a silken seam
A bonny shirt for Child Owlet
As he goes out and in
His face was fair, long was his hair
She's called him to come near
“Oh, you must cuckold Lord Ronald
For all his lands and gear.”
"Where the Wild Roses Grow" Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, from an album of nothing but Murder Ballads:
On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he stood smiling above me with a rock in his fist
As Theokie noted, leaving "Long Black Veil" off the list is quite an oversight. Not written by Lefty Frizell but written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin in 1959 and first recorded by Frizell. Has become a sort of Americana standard tho with many rock, country, folk groups covering it.
Best performance imo is The Band's. Love Danko's vocal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbVXYQpJV8
Posted by: bokhara | May 14, 2009 at 02:17 PM
In 1996, the National Writers Union used this song I recorded as evidence in a move to expel me. They said I "advocate the murder of women." So much for the NWU's protection of writers and the First Amendment:
THE ROOM ACROSS THE LAKE
Sister Carrie was a con.
Her writ of execution was a foregone conclusion
When they caught her on the take and didn't tell her.
They sent me to the room across the lake to kill her.
Sister Carrie's new career
Was based on exploitation of her old fear of strong men
Who could see she was a fake and didn't tell her.
They sent me to the room across the lake to kill her.
Se casó con un mojado,
Dos veces ya casado, con ambición de poder.
El maton era su espejo,
Realmente un pendejo con atroz pasión por joder.
Sister Carrie's in my sights.
I see her through the window walking naked down the hall,
Leaving white men in her wake who'll never tell her
They sent me to the room across the lake to kill her.
Sister Carrie's by the phone.
I think I'll ring her home and ask her what it's like to die
With all those deals to make, but I won't tell her
They sent me to the room across the lake to kill her.
Se casó con un mojado,
Dos veces ya casado, con ambición de poder.
El maton era su espejo,
Realmente un pendejo con atroz pasión por joder.
Copyright 2009 NADJA MUSIC Reinaldo García
Lyrics: August 18, 1994 Lake San Marcos, CA
Music: August 18-21, 1994 Lake San Marcos-Monterey, CA
Posted by: Reinaldo Garcia | May 14, 2009 at 11:50 AM
'The long black veil' by Lefty Frizzell: 'Folsom Prison Blues' by Johnny Cash: 'She wore red dresses' by Dwight Yoakam: 'Cold hard facts of life' by Porter Wagoner: 'Miller's Cave' by Bobby Bare: Lots of Country songs have murder in mind.....
Posted by: Theokie | May 13, 2009 at 03:11 PM
RW - The Cruel Mother, another bloody Childe Ballad and one I thought of as well!
TO-EU - Well, a top ten list is by its very definition limited, and a reflection of personal taste and experience. Sorry this is valueless to you. Let's see what your's looks like!
Posted by: Greenman Tim | May 13, 2009 at 02:47 PM
"Hey Joe" makes the list, but "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" doesn't?
That, alone, renders this list valueless.
Posted by: The One-Eyed Undertaker | May 13, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Ian and Sylvia's version of Down by the Greenwood Side-o, a.k.a. The Cruel Mother is a chilling story of infanticide.
Posted by: Richard Wells | May 13, 2009 at 11:21 AM
i think powderfinger's a murder ballad too(?), always liked that one on live rust.
Posted by: theo | May 01, 2009 at 09:09 PM