Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

After sitting out the annual murder songs mix for Halloween last year, here’s Volume 4. That’s now 86 songs about murders, with more still in line… All previous Murder Song links are working again, by the way, as are all Halloween links.

At this point I ought to issue a caveat: despite whatever flippancy might accompany this post, I’m not playing the subject of murder for easy laughs. I can’t, having lost a niece to her knife-wielding husband. The guy was mentally ill, so there’s that. But also, he refused to get help, so fuck that guy. He killed himself after stabbing my niece.

This year domestic abusers get their just deserts. The Dixie Chicks kill Earl — of course, it’s an Earl — who killed his wife, their friend. They make Earl disappear, so no body, no crime. That theme is recycled 20 years later by Taylor Swift in her excellent douchebag-killing song.

It’s all a lot Fried Green Tomatoes, the 1991 film in which a domestic abuser is disappeared. I am not advocating vigilante justice, and these songs should give us greater reason for thought than cheer. But at the same time, if the killers of men who abused women get away with it, I won’t cry about the injustice of it all.

It seems that Mr. Lee, a teacher, might have it coming from Harlem girl-group The Bobettes. In 1957, they were still singing adoringly about Mr. Lee (based on a real teacher, whom they had sought to diss in song, until Atlantic Records insisted on him being their crush. It featured on Any Major ABC of the 1950s). By 1959, they did a sequel, in which the hated Mr. Lee had to be shot.

Atlantic refused to release the track — which, as the first song, was written by the five Bobettes. So the group re-recorded it for Triple-X Record, and were having a minor hit with it. Then Atlantic sued for copyright infringement — of as song written by the Bobettes! — and had all stock of the record destroyed, releasing the version instead. Tragically, in 1980, a stranger stabbed Bobette Jannie Pought to death. She was 34.

Of course we also have the usual crimes of passion, though Norah Jones takes it to spooky limits with her song. Of these tracks, I think soul singer Bobby Marchan’s cover of Big Jay McNeely’s There Is Something on Your Mind is the best. His vocals are superb, especially the spoken bit.

One track here is not necessarily a murder song. It depends on your position on capital punishment. My inclusion of the Bee Gees song tips you off about where I stand on the subject. Taking a defenceless life is murder, and more so if the execution is a miscarriage of justice, as it is in Vicki Lawrence’s  The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia. At least the killing in Marty Robbins’ Big Iron is a fair fight. Happily the bad guy, with the 20 notches on his gun, loses.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, includes home-death-wished covers, and the text above and tracklisting below in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.

1. Frank Sinatra – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown (1974)
The Vic: Leroy, looking like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone
2. Bobby Darin – Moritat (Mack The Knife) (live, 1971)
The Vic: Louie Miller. He disappeared, babe
3. The Bobbettes – I Shot Mr. Lee (1960)
The Vic: Mr Lee, a good-looking sex-pest teacher
4. Bobby Marchan – There Is Something On Your Mind (1964)
The Vic: His girl and her lover, at least theoretically
5. Bee Gees – I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You (1968)
The Vic: A message-sending killer, on the electric chair
6. Vicky Lawrence – The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia (1973)
The Vic: Andy Warlord, a cheating sister-in-law, and an innocent man hung
7. Carole King – Smackwater Jack (live, 1973 or 1976)
The Vic: Smackwater Jack, after he killed the congregation
8. Martina McBride – Independence Day (1993)
The Vic: An abusive father and husband, in a fire
9. Dixie Chicks – Goodbye Earl (2000)
The Vic: Wife-killer Earl. His body disappeared…
10. Taylor Swift feat. HAIM – No Body, No Crime (2020)
The Vic: A generation later, another wife-killer disappears
11. Norah Jones – Miriam (2012)
The Vic: Miriam, getting it from the wife of her lover
12. Jenny Lewis – Jack Killed Mom (2008)
The Vic: Jack’s abusive mom
13. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – We Came Along This Road (2000)
The Vic: Another cheating wife and her lover
14. Nirvana – Where Did You Sleep Last Night (live, 1994)
The Vic: A cuckolded husband, beheaded in the woods
15. John & Audrey Wiggins – Memory Making Nights (1994)
The Vic: Ginger, before she could leave town
16. Waylon Jennings – Cedartown, Georgia (1971)
The Vic: His cheating wife, in Room 23
17. Paul Siebel – Louise (1970)
The Vic: Louise, a sex worker
18. Johnny Cash – Cocaine Blues (1969)
The Vic: Another unfaithful wife, after he took a shot of cocaine
19. Johnny Horton – When It’s Springtime In Alaska (It’s Forty Below) (1958)
The Vic: The singer, done for by Big Ed
20. Marty Robbins – Big Iron (1960)
The Vic: Murderous outlaw Texas Red, in a High Noon duel
21. Georgie Fame – The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
The Vic: One brave man, and then Bonnie and Clyde

GET IT!

Murder Ballads
Halloween mixes
More Mix CD-Rs