Murder and Mayhem

The murder and mayhem I was referring to here has often been the unusual subject of popular songs throughout the years. So let us separate the facts from the fiction. In the popular song “Folsom Prison Blues” Johnny Cash might have sung about shooting a man in Reno but he never did but it did make for one popular song. The song combined the elements of two popular folk styles – the train song and the prison song. It actually became one of his signature songs. In 1968 the song recorded as a live version among inmates at Folsom State Prison rose up to number one on the Country music charts.

Then there is Marty Robbins ever popular story song “El Paso City” about a young man who gets killed. These happenings also never happened but to my imaginative mind the song still impressed me so that I was inspired to write a narrative poem. So you see once inspiration hits for writers and poets what comes out comes out.

There are two other songs worth mentioning which were popular but told of events that never happened. One is “I Shot the Sheriff” by Eric Clapton and the other which I particularly like “The Night Chicago Died” by Paper Lace with a very catchy melody and telling about a shootout with police. It was a fictional shootout happening between the Chicago police and the Al Capone Syndicate.

Guns N Roses took up the subject of love gone wrong. Where the words say the guy just had to kill the woman and put there six feet under. The song is “Used to Love Her”.

Even the ever popular The Beatles had their song about killing someone with a whack to the head in “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”. I don’t think anyone who has listened to this song has really thought about it being a song about killing. Incidentally even the poor judge trying the case gets done in. Just enjoying the music and the fact that it’s sung by a famous band

As amazing as it might seem murder and mayhem is quite a popular song theme. So one last one was actually about a well-known authors story. The band Iron Maiden took Edgar Allen Poe’s story about “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and in their own way set it to music and a song was born.

Two songs were actually about real murders. One was a haunting song by Sufjan Stevens “John Wayne Gacy Jr”. Of all topics this song was written about notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy who was known as the “Killer Clown” and was sentenced to death in 1994. Gacy had killed at least 33 young men and boys. Not quite the topic for a song but here it is.

A popular song called “Stagger Lee” was inspired by a real murder that took place on December 27, 1895 in a St. Louis, Missouri barroom where an argument broke out between a man named Billy and another named “Stag” Lee. The story came out in the next day’s newspaper headline “Shot in Curtis’s Place”. It stated that the incident occurred between two black men William Lyons, 25 and “Stag” Lee Sheldon in a saloon resulting in Lyons being shot in the abdomen.

By the date you can see this happened a very long time ago but since then it seems nothing has really changed in this world. Why? Because it is the same old story – the men were drinking, started arguing over politics and it all went out of control when Lyons grabbed Sheldon’s hat from his head. What else is new? It appears that the world has progressed but things remain the same. Afterwards when the dust cleared and the victim had fallen to the floor Sheldon just took his hat from the wounded man’s hand and walked away.

In 2003 Cecil Brown wrote the book “Stagolee Shot Billy” in which he tells the story about the real “Stag” Lee and how he became an iconic figure in African-American folklore and how his story became the subject of various songs through the years from the age of steamboats to the electronic age to the American 21st century. The most famous musically being “Stack O’ Lee Blues” by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928 and “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price in 1959. Price’s song rose up on the pop charts and became a number one hit.

There are more and it is surprising how long the list is so I will end it here having made my point that even murder and mayhem can become a topic for a song,