Pretty gruesome subject matter this week... but real life murderers have often inspired some fine pop songs as their legacy. Rap and metal are full of tributes to serial killers and mass murderers, but here's ten more mainstream tunes inspired by macabre murderers...
10. Sun Kil Moon - Richard Ramirez Died Today Of Natural Causes
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Mark Kozelek is obsessed with true crime stories. Later, in the song Stranger Than Paradise, he even checks into a hotel where Richard Ramirez stays and starts creeping around like a shoddy detective.
9. Elliot Smith - Son of Sam
David Berkowitz shot a number of people in New York City, 1977, taunting the police with letters while he did it. Some believe he was also the inspiration for Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads, though apparently David Byrne has denied this.
See also Diddy Doo Wop (I Hear The Voices) by Hall & Oates. No, really.
8. Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy Jr.
The sweetest song about a serial killer you'll ever hear. The very definition of "haunting".
7. The Indelicates featuring Jim Bob - McVeigh
Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, in direct reprisal to the goverment for the way they handled The Waco Siege two years earlier. All of which is retold in blistering satirical fashion in the Indelicates' 2011 musical David Koresh Superstar, featuring guest contributions from (among others) Carter USM singer Jim Bob.
6. The Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes
Imagine you woke up in hospital after a transplant operation to find out you'd been given the eyes of a murderer...
5. The Rolling Stones - Midnight Rambler
Albert DeSalvo, The Boston Strangler gets the full Stones treatment here...
Well, you heard about the Boston...
It's not one of those
Talkin' 'bout the midnight... shit!
Run and close the bedroom door
I'm called the hit and run raper, in anger
The knife sharpened, tippy toe
Or just a shoot 'em dead, brainbell jangleur
4. Luke Haines - Leeds United
Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper. Another ghost who haunted my childhood.
No leads for the West Yorkshire police
In Victorian Leeds, concrete Leeds
There's a killer on the terraces, better call in Doris Stokes
The devil came to Yorkshire in the silver Jubilee
It could be Kendo Nagasaki, Jimmy Savile or the Queen
3. The Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
Brenda Spencer. Killed two people and injured 9 more at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School shooting in January 1979. When a reporter asked her why she did it, she replied, "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."
The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload
And nobody's gonna go to school today
She's going to make them stay at home...
2. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska
Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate inspired the movies Kalifornia and Natural Born Killers. They also led to one of Bruce's darkest moments...
I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died
From the town of Lincoln Nebraska with a sawed-off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path
They declared me unfit to live, said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well, sir, I guess there's just a meanness in this world
1. The Smiths - Suffer Little Children
Myra Hindley & Ian Brady. Where I come from, just a stone's throw from Saddleworth Moor, their crimes will never be forgotten. They had a pretty big impact on Morrissey too... but at least he cheers himself up with the idea that the ghosts of their victims will haunt the Moors Murderers forever.
Oh, find me...find me, nothing more
We are on a sullen misty moor
We may be dead and we may be gone
But we will be, we will be, we will be, right by your side
Until the day you die
This is no easy ride
We will haunt you when you laugh
Yes, you could say we're a team
You might sleep
You might sleep
You might sleep
But you will never dream...
The world would definitely have been a better place without the evil, loathsome individuals described above. But would it have been a better place without these ten tunes? When life gives us lemons, the least we can do is try to make some lemonade...
A gruesome list.
ReplyDeleteI'd add "The Shankill Butchers" by The Decemberists about Ulster loyalist gang that kidnapped, tortured and murdered at least 23 people - mostly Catholics (although they also mistakenly killed some Protestants), in Belfast between 1975 and 1982.
A fine tune though. Good call.
DeleteNot a song but an album, "Song Of Sam I Am" by Too Much Joy. I bought it donkey's years ago for about a pound in a branch of Parrot Records. It's alright, has a couple of decent tracks. No obvious reason for the album title stands out amongst the tracks though, as I recall.
ReplyDeleteAh Parrot Records with the cheeky smoking parrot on the bag :-)
DeleteHow can you ever have Too Much Joy?
DeleteParrot Records? Is it a dodgy Portuguese or Greek pressing?
DeleteOr a Norwegian Blue pressing?
Delete"In Germany Before the War" by Randy Newman is a truly chilling song about Peter Kürten a German serial killer and Green On Red's song "The Drifter" is supposed to be about Ted Bundy. Neil Young's really creepy "Revolution Blues" is about the Manson Family.
ReplyDeleteIn my teens in the 1960's, there was an Aberdeen band I knew who called themselves "Albert Fish" after a truly evil man who operated in the United States.
People are fascinated by murderers and criminals. We all have a dark side and hopefully we confine it to words.
The Green On Red sing was in consideration. The Randy Newman should have been.
DeleteDon't Call Me Mark Chapman by Julien Cope springs to mind
ReplyDeleteDuran Duran are mentioned in it and they've murdered a few tunes!
DeleteChapman could probably carry a whole Top Ten of his own. Not that he deserves one.
DeleteHolidays in Cambodia gives Pol Pot although I'm not sure whether he ever personally got his hands dirty
ReplyDeleteWell, he certainly had blood on them.
DeleteFunny how we all seem to love a good murder, as long as it's only in film, book or song form, what a strange species we are. 'Gary Gilmore's Eyes' was the one I immediately thought of on seeing your theme. Hadn't realised there were quite so many other good ones as specific.
ReplyDeleteI think we all have a murderous instinct somewhere deep down, but other instincts prevent it from taking control in most people. We recognise and are fascinated by those who let that instinct rise to the top.
DeleteHave you done a fictional murderer songs list? If you have, I hope you named it better than I just did. Costello's cover of Eddie Noack's Psycho would be my No. 1.
ReplyDeleteI refer the honourable gentleman here...
Deletehttp://histopten.blogspot.com/2012/09/my-top-ten-psycho-songs.html
Although there may also be something about fictional murderers next week, if I get my act together in time for the 31st.
Ask a silly question... That's even more specific than I expected.
ReplyDeleteHow about 'Bonnie and Clyde' by Serge Gainsbourg? Not sure what you could've dropped to include it though, this is a particularly strong Top 10 Rol.
ReplyDelete