Criminal Record is the theme this old school friday. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be artists with criminal records, or a songs about crime. There are multiple choices on either side of that fence, but I’m not all that familiar with the arrest records of musicians. A lot of songs about crime come to mind. I bet you know the ones I mean, and I imagine some of the musicians performing these songs have criminal records.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds had a whole album full of murder ballads, including the rather haunting Where the Wild Roses Grow. Sufjan Stevens wrote the disconcerting John Wayne Gacy Jr.. Bob Marley Shot the Sheriff, The Clash Fought the Law, Johnny Cash had the Folsom Prison Blues, and so on and so forth.
Then there’s the lite fare of Alice’s Restaurant, an 18 minute song about the true crime of Guthrie’s littering on Thanksgiving (illegal dumping if you prefer), and it’s affect on his eligibility for conscription to serve in Vietnam.
The revisited version, after “Watergate”.
More lite fare with this old Paul Simon song, Me and Julio Down By the School Yard. I know a crime was committed here, but like those who came before, I can only speculate as to the source.
And where would we be without the old it’s her fault I murdered her scenario. Delilah.
What’s your crime song? Or your crime, if you prefer.
OSF sponsored by Conversations With Marva and Mrs Grapevine
peace
Title courtesy of Warren Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns and Money
Thanks Cooper. I never listened to the last part of that version of Alice’s Restaurant before. My loss
It was my father’s favorite song–I’m sure I’ve written about that–he was pro Viet Nam but anti anybody actually fighting (don’t try to understand) and would help anybody get out of the draft
He, my mother and some friends would go to Stockbridge every summer as they were cultured unlike Redneck Daughter–and he claimed that one year he committed a traffic offense on purpose to get a ticket from Officer Oppie—who was very nice and said that many people committed infractions on purpose to get a ticket from him but he was retiring. I have no idea if that story is true or not as I didn’t have ten people corroborate it as I normally would. I just liked the story
I shot the sheriff has long been one of my favorite songs but does anybody really understand it?
Me and Julio takes me back both to the time it came out and to my childhood when going to Corona meant going to one pizza place for a slice of regular, a lemon ice from the Lemon King (I think) and a slice of Sicilian (which I hate now as it’s so doughy but loved then)
Once again I have written a post in your comments :) When you close them I can be bereft. Sad I know–I’m addicted to wonderlandornot
.-= pia´s last blog ..Beginnings, again =-.
Corona, Queens right?
I sometimes close them so people don’t have to feel obliged to comment, or if I’m not going to be around to comment back.
That site has both versions, I’d never heard the second version until this weekend, I’d heard the first some time ago.
some great songs Cooper!!
Delilah :)
hadn’t heard the Wild Roses before… ethereal… especially Kylie’s red hair..
ummm I’ll have to think about my favourite criminal song… hmmmm
I’ve always liked Smooth Criminal by MJ…
a lot lighter than the JWG song…very creepy… and to think he painted too :(
.-= laketrees´s last blog ..A lovely surprise in the mail.. =-.
Yea the JWG song is quite creepy.
Smooth Criminal is good.
Bob Marley’s “Bad Boys”, Cops gave it a bad rep. It’s a great song.
.-= jake´s last blog ..What I’m Reading =-.
Yea it’s too bad that song has been destroyed by that awful show. Who watches that kind of stuff anyway?
ok
how about
Warrant – Uncle Tom’s Cabin (my partner’s suggestion)
and some aussie classics
Waltzing Matilda and Ned Kelly Story. Australian Irish folk music and
“The Original Ned Kelly Song”- TEX MORTON
:) :)
.-= laketrees´s last blog ..A lovely surprise in the mail.. =-.
Nice choices I hadn’t even thought of.
I went with Long Black Veil.
Always wondered about “the school yard incident”. My imagination goes wild….
Dehlia, a true stalker song that ends in death.
Is that the whole 18 minute version of Alice’s Restaurant? Nice. At least I know where to go when I have a free 18 minutes.
.-= g´s last blog ..Old School Songs of Criminal Record =-.
That is a creepy song too. There are more strange murder, death, crime songs out there than I know what to do with, now that I’ve started looking and am getting emails and links from people.
I’ll have to think about criminal records.
Boy George had one– a criminal record, and Elvis sang Jailhouse Rock. That’s all that comes to mind right now . I remember Springsteen had one or two that might work.
Don’t ask me why Boy George came to mind.
The Alice’s Restaurant is great, thanks for finding it.
.-= jacob´s last blog ..Life =-.
ha, ha, he was a criminal wasn’t he. I love Boy George.
The Clash had another crime song – Someone Got Murdered – which I used to play for the beephole upstairs who liked to play his piano at all hours of the morning. Only took a couple of times playing it with the subwoofer ramped to get his attention.
Most of my BSM neighbors were pretty considerate and neighborly. He wasn’t one, unfortunately.
.-= sauerkraut´s last blog ..Kanye goes “Joe Wilson” on Taylor Swift =-.
There are a lot of crime songs, I wonder why? I forgot about that Clash song.
I like the Zevon.
“Down by the River – I Shot My Baby”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36sesl7DCH4
There are a lot of songs about Crime if you start to look them up.
Who said hip hop was violent, there are a lot of songs about murder, rape, incest, arson, most of them old.
Littering is a crime.
.-= john´s last blog ..The Unwinnable War in Afghanistan =-.
Yea, I forgot the Neil Young song. So much crime, so little time.
I always liked Waylon Jennings for criminal records. “Delia” plagiarizes the melody from House of The Rising Sun, and the story from Delilah, but more repentant.
.-= Doug´s last blog ..Pedestrian =-.
The only Waylon Jennings song I can think of is one he sand with Willie Nelson. Good Hearted Women. Though I know he sand others with him I am not as familiar with them.
I never knew what the house of the rising sun was about, it’s like Julio and the schoolyard, the story seems to be up for debate.
Definitely more repentant, good catch.
Delilah is a classic. But Lawyers, Guns and Money is one of my personal favorites. Ever visit this website named in its honor, http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/
.-= Chris´s last blog ..Far-Side of Crazy =-.
Lawyers Guns and money is newer to me than the others.
Well “Smooth Criminal” and “I Fought The Law” were the first two that came to my mind, but they’ve been mentioned.
How about Knoxville Girl? A little violent for my tastes, but it fits.
And I always kinda liked that “Criminal” song by Fiona Apple. I trust it’s OK to admit that here.
.-= Bone´s last blog ..A Czar is born =-.
I had to take a detour and view that song. That’s pretty violent. Amazing how many man murdering women songs their are.
I like Fiona Apple. I will not think bad of your for that one.
It would be a crime to leave out Jimi Hendrix singing “Hey Joe”. I second Neil Young’s “Down by the River” as another good choice.
Hey Joe, for sure. I was trying to avoid the most obvious, but it’d be nice to have one great big huge list, there are more of these types of songs than I imagined.
The only way I’ll get a title in here that no one else will think of is to mention foreign titles. Probably the British group “The Jam” has something – there’s “Eton Rifles” at least. Early Clash also had “The Guns of Brixton”
In German there’s “Der Tankerkönig” by Hannes Wader – it’s a saga very close in style to “Alice’s Restaurant”, the narrative of a Robin Hood kind of character who kills an industrialist, thereafter fleeing into the woods and living in an abandoned WWII air raid shelter he finds, from which he plans his raids.
If you understand German:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUck0pvw1OE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aegljzm55n4
There’s an early rock and roll title: “Riot in Cell Block 9″
And you’ll also find dozens of prison blues recorded in the 20′s-40′s. There are some by Lightnin’ Hopkins, I think.
I will check those out tomorrow Indie. The German ones, hopefully, will be less depressing than the ones from here.
Prisons are a great place to write songs, and to write songs about I guess. But then again, we may all be in prison, for all we know.
My crime’s always been some sort of grift. I’m notorious for talking people out of their money, especially if I don’t know them. LOL
.-= mojo shivers´s last blog ..Civilization, Are We Really Civilized, Yes Or No? Who Are We To Judge? =-.
MoJo the grifter?
Luka by Suzanne Vega… we tend to forget the crimes against children and music often speaks only as to general crime and man-woman crime.
blame the radio for reminding me.
.-= sauerkraut´s last blog ..Kanye goes “Joe Wilson” on Taylor Swift =-.
I have never heard that song before but am surely going to use it during domestic violence awareness month.
Of course it’s not all men murdering women; the Dixie Chicks’ Goodbye Earl was hugely popular (though it’s still about men behaving badly, sigh.).
We need to figure out why they behave badly I guess. A lot of songs seems to glorify this stuff.
Murder Incorporated, not sure who did the original it’s been done by a few.
.-= kait´s last blog ..The Row =-.
I have heard it by a couple of different performers. Yea lets chalk up another one.
Jann Arden’s Living Under June, reminiscent of Luka, is also worth checking out.
Interesting. Make some use of them for Domestic Violence awareness month. I have used Tracy Chapman’s “Behind the Wall” before for this purpose. these are reminiscent but earlier.
Could not believe it! Was just minding my own business driving behind the amish limousine when the radio put on the old Dead Kennedy’s. Reminded me of my disinclination to ever go on holiday in Cambodia.
Genocide. The ultimate crime of violence.
.-= sauerkraut´s last blog ..Kanye goes “Joe Wilson” on Taylor Swift =-.
Other obvious contenders would include U2′s Sunday Bloody Sunday and Pride (In the Name of Love). And currently playing in my car’s stereo, Blitzen Trapper’s Black River Killer (which should earn bonus points for having several crimes crammed into a single song, sung by a kick-ass band ;)
can’t go past “suffer little children” by The Smiths