Farewell Possum.

George Jones wasn't a murder ballad type of guy, he was more of "drinking whiskey and crying 'cuz she left me" honky tonk guy.  But looking at his life, it's almost surprising that he didn't become the topic of a murder ballad: violence, drug addiction, divorce, occasionally singing like a duck on stage, more divorce, and a lot of booze.

I'm not kidding about the duck thing either:

In his autobiography "I Lived to Tell It All," country legend George Jones describes a mega-bender of booze and drugs that continued until his brain snapped and he found himself locked in a Donald Duck voice that he couldn’t stop using when he spoke. Let me reiterate: George Jones got so wasted that he was only able to speak in a Donald Duck voice for days on end. He performed several entire concerts in his Duck impression and, at one point, to make matter worse, he locked himself in his dressing room and wouldn’t hit the stage until he was introduced as Hank Williams.  - Holy Taco 

There's also this legendary tale:

Once, when I had been drunk for several days, Shirley decided she would make it physically impossible for me to buy liquor. I lived about eight miles from Beaumont and the nearest liquor store. She knew I wouldn't walk that far to get booze, so she hid the keys to every car we owned and left. 

But she forgot about the lawn mower. I can vaguely remember my anger at not being able to find keys to anything that moved and looking longingly out a window at a light that shone over our property. There, gleaming in the glow, was that ten-horsepower rotary engine under a seat; a key glistening in the ignition.

 I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did. -  George Jones, "I Lived to Tell All"1

But that voice:

I've been racking my brain trying to find words to describe it that haven't already been used.  Pure  heartbreak in a voice.  A national treasure. How about, "goddamn, that voice"?

Only a voice like that, could lyrics like this seem poinant:

I pulled the head off Elvis
Filled Fred up to his pelvis
Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone
And so are you.2

Eventually, with the help of his 4th wife Nancy, Jones cleaned up.  With the exception of a few stumbles (and one huge car crash) he pretty much stayed out of the news.  

He died April 26th 2012 at the age of 81.  With all the slick, pop driven, sugar coated crap that's being passed off as country music,  I can't help but thing that so much of the real thing has died with him.

---------------

1.  Jones, George with Tom Carter.  I Lived to Tell it All. Dell Publishing, 1996

2.  Ferris, Roger. D. The King is Gone and So Are You 

Off Topic: Mutiny in Heaven - Nick Cave and the Cavemen

In between The Birthday Party and the Bad Seeds, there was "Nick Cave - Man or Myth?" and "Nick Cave and the Cavemen" (link).  The latter is pretty clever, huh?  I wouldn't really call them separate bands, more like attempts to try out different names.

But there's this . . .

Can someone please tell me what hell he's saying at the beginning of this video?  Is there anyone out there that can translate drunk-heroin-taking-Australian to English?

Ted, Just Admit It

Proof that there was a time when Perry Farrell was actually involved in making good music.   While the album came out in 1988, I associate it with the summer of 2000:  I was working backstage in a production of Wizard of Oz and I had met an awesome new friend.  When not at class or at the theatre, I would spend a lot of time writing bad poetry, drinking and listening to this:*


So why is it here?  "Ted, Just Admit It" contains samples from an interview with serial killer Ted Bundy.

There's going to be people turning up in canyons, there's going to be people being shot in Salt Lake City , because the police there aren't willing to accept what i think they know, and they know that i didn't do these things.

That's Bundy, denying his crimes.  Despite overwhelming evidence, he proclaimed his innocence throughout his trials.  It was only until his appeals were exhausted that he began to give details about the murders.

Despite the song's age, there's a certain relevance to it: blood, violence and crime: it doesn't really bother people in this modern age.








*I also spent a lot of time listening to Summertime Rolls, but you didn't come here for a love story.

Psycho

 A brilliant piece written by legendary songwriter Leon Payne, and performed by Jack Kittel.  I managed to dig up some info on it here and here.

What I can unravel is as follows: 'Psycho' was written in 1966 by a prolific blind songwriter Leon Payne, who's music career stretched back to the 1930s and who's writing credits include such classics as 'Lost Highway' (Hank Williams) and 'I Love You Because' (Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash). Depending on who you believe, Payne wrote 'Psycho' in response to a notorious mass shooting spree at the University Of Texas and the strangely affecting letter the shooter left next to the bodies of his mother and wife, or to the story of murderer and grave robber Ed Gein (who also inspired Bloch's book/Hitchcock's movie of the same name), or possibly both.   - Record Hunting in Australia  

Speaking of Australia, Beasts of Bourbon also recorded a great version:

Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses)

From the long proud history of "she broke my heart, so I broke her neck" type songs, comes Dwight Yoakam's Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses).  It was the fourth single off the album of the same name and the lowest charter (link), which doesn't surprise me.  It's a great song, but songs about spousal murder don't always go over that well.
  





While much detail is paid to the woman, the way she made him suffer, and her oh so lovely red dresses, the description of the murder is short, matter of fact, with a tinge of dark humor.

It's Nick Cave's Birthday!

I was pretty busy last week due to my brother's wedding, but I'm back.  Back in time to celebrate the birthday of one of my favorite singers.  Nick Cave was born today in 1957, in Warracknabeal Australia. 

I'm sure some of you are saying "who in the hell is Nick Cave?" He's a singer, songwriter, composer, novelist, screenwriter and a all around badass dude.  He's fronted The Bad Seeds for about 27 years, and his latest protect Grinderman has blown musicians more than half his age out of the water.

Because it is my blog. I figured I'd post some of my favorite Nick Cave songs.

Deanna (damn you "embedding disabled by request")


Brompton Oratory . . .

Tupelo.  This one is from Denver, where yours truly was in the audience.

How cool is Nick Cave?  So cool that Johnny Cash covered one of his songs.

Because of this date, I decided it was time to make my special announcement.

Read on . . .

Used to Love Her

Random Guns N' Roses Talk 

I used to love GNR a lot.  I was thirteen, so think about your basic Justin Bieber fangirl and replace it with Axl Rose.  Then I discovered Bikini Kill and feminism.  I started wearing  combat boots, writing bad poetry and moved on.

Too bad.  Appitie for Destruction was a great album.  That being said, Axl Rose is an ass.  They could have made a lot of great albums, instead they made one great album, two sort of good albums, one dull covers album, and one bargin bin laughing stock.  

Talk Over

I hesitated before deciding to discuss the Guns' N Roses song, Used to Love Her.  Listening to it makes me feel guilty, the same way that liking the work that Tina Turner did with Ike more than her solo output makes me feel guilty.  While Axl Rose has never killed anyone, there's more than enough evidence out there that he has physically abused his partners.   

What makes this song any different than the other killing women type songs?  Besides the fact it's sung by a man who is an abuser?    The woman in Used to Love Her is disposable.

The women in Deila's Gone and 99 to Life are killed for withholding their very powerful affection.  The poor Knoxvile Girl is possibly killed for an unplanned pregnancy.  The woman in "Used to Love Her"? "She bitched so much, she drove [him] nuts." She became an annoyance, so the man simply killed her and buried her in his backyard.   And he's "happier this way".

The killers in Deila, Knoxvile and 99 pay for their crimes.  All suffer from remorse.  Haunted by ghosts and devils around their beds.   They all go to prison.  Axl Rose's killer is untouched by the law.

Yet the song, in my opinion is pretty damn funny.

I'd knew I'd miss her
so I had to keep her
she's buried right in my backyard

I still can't help but feel conflicted.  I give a lot of other songs a pass.  But not this one.  Is it fair?  Maybe not, but I'm sure that's human nature.

Nebraska

Unlike the previous songs I've written about, the inspiration for Bruce Springsteen's ballad Nebraska can be traced to a man named Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Carli Fugate.

Starkweather, and his girlfriend went on a murder spree across Nebraska and Wyoming that took the lives of 11 people including Fugate's mother, stepfather and baby sister. They were eventually captured in Douglas, Wyoming. At the time of their arrest, he was nineteen and she was fifteen.

Starkweather was sentenced to the electric chair, and Fugate, despite her claims that she was being held hostage was sentenced to life in prison. She was paroled after 17 years.

Many murder songs are sung from a first person perspective, but unlike the fictional tales of Knoxville Girl and 99 to Life, Springsteen is singing from the perspective of someone who actually existed.

The murders in this tale are no crimes of passion, but the violent acts of someone who "loss connection" with his humanity. The song mourns, not for Starkweather, but, like the song says, against the "meanness in this world".

(Info on Charles Starkweather, taken from here)