‘Murder Ballads Old and New: A Dark and Bloody Record’ By Steven L. Jones

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Murder Ballads Old and New by Steven L. Jones

In 1956 the Louvin Brothers released “The Knoxville Girl,” the first-person account of a murder without any explanation. The song predates that version and continues to be performed. 

The subject matter of a song can be anything. Why then is there such a long history of songs about killing? Long ago, these tales set to music even warranted its own genre, murder ballads. With Steven L. Jones’ Murder Ballads Old and New, the gruesome ledger gets an update.

It was obvious early on that Hüsker Dü was a complex band. Working within the confines of hardcore punk, the band’s melodicism was a brave facet. Parsing Grant Hart’s “Diane” (from the EP Metal Circus), Jones illuminates the reader. Diane Elizabeth Edwards, an acquaintance of Hart, was a waitress who was brutally murdered. Jones notes how her name transforms to “Die Anne” and into “dying.” Initially a way to shine a light on a horrific event, by the time the song turned into a crowd singalong, Hart removed it from the set list.

Murder and death—from the oral history that brought forth traditional songs originated in the British Isles to Muddy Waters’ sideman Pat Hare’s harrowingly prescient “I’m Gonna’ Murder My Baby.” Jones connects the dots from Billie Holiday’s condemnation of a brutal lynching with “Strange Fruit” to Lou Reed singing about JFK. Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and Nick Cave have all characterized killers but has anyone done it better than Leon Payne’s “Psycho?” Even Charles Manson gets a chapter with tunes by The Beach Boys, Neil Young and Sonic Youth. As far as mixtapes go, this book is lethal.

Get Murder Ballads Old & New at Amazon here.

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