We're aliens in our own world

[sovay]

Happy birthday, lesser_celery!

The rest of you, happy Halloween! It is bright and falling out there. And at this time of year, you can never have too many murder ballads.


Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer, "Cat-Eye Willie Claims His Lover"

Now, Bonnie, make the bed that you were born in
And turn your daddy's picture to the wall
For you'll not marry Cody come the morning
Tonight old shuffling Willie comes to call

If this one catches you, check out Erik Amundsen's "Blue Vervain Murder Ballad #2: Jack of Diamonds" in Not One of Us #40. It's the second-best murder ballad Trad. never wrote.

David Bowie, "Please Mr. Gravedigger"

There's a little churchyard just along the way
It used to be Lambeth's finest array
Of tombstones, epitaphs, wreaths, flowers, all that jazz
Till the war came along and someone dropped a bomb on the lot

The Decemberists, "Leslie Anne Levine"

Fifteen years gone now, I still wander this parapet
And shake my rattle bone
Fifteen years gone now, I still cling to the petticoats
Of the girl who died with me

Judy Collins, "Anathea"

Anathea, o my sister
Are you mad with grief and sorrow?
He will rob you of your flower
And he'll hang me from his gallows

Kerstin Blodig, "The Cruel Sister"

They made a harp out o her breastbane
(Lay the bent to the bonny broom)
The sound o which would melt a heart o stane
They took three locks o her yellow hair
(Lay the bent to the bonny broom)
And with them strang the harp so fair

Murders cross water in different languages: compare "Horpa (The Harp)," from Norway.

The Killers, "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine"

She said she loved me, but she had somewhere to go
She couldn't scream while I held her close
I swore I'd never let her go

Liz Phair, "Dance of the Seven Veils"

Johnny, my love, get out of the business
The odds are getting fatter by the minute
That I have got a bright and shiny platter
And I am going to get your heavy head

Louise Taylor, "Miriam Bell"

The gun she fixed in his own hand
And leaned to kiss his forehead
The gun she fixed in his own hand
And wiped her lips and fled

Meg Davis, "The Ravens"

And a fortnight later they told me
How a dagger pierced his side
How he fought to the death in the raging sea
And slowly sank and died

Nancy McCallion, "On We Go"

And on we go, and on we go
Can you recall the day we married, oh?
And on we go, and on we go
Wouldn't you be frightened to die alone?
Come a little closer to me, darling-o

PJ Harvey, "White Chalk"

Dorset's cliffs meet at the sea
Where I walked, our unborn child in me
White chalk, coarse scattered land
Scratch my palms—there's blood on my hands

Tom Waits, "Lucinda"

Now her hair was as black as a bucket of tar
Her skin as white as a cuttlefish bone
I left Texas to follow Lucinda
Now I'll never see heaven nor home