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.

She's Making Whoopee In Hell Tonight

While Lonnie Johnson disliked the "blues" label, "She's Making Whoopee in Hell Tonight" is a fine example of that genre.  Recorded in 1930, the complex guitar playing and it's dark, chilling lyrics, make for a truly wicked little song.  The next time someone claims that nobody ever sung about "bad things" before 1965, point them to this little ditty.

You been gone all day, set to make whoopee tonight 

I'm gonna take my razor and cut your late hours, 

I will be serving you right 

The undertaker's been here and gone, I gave him your height and size 

Undertaker's been here and gone, I gave him your height and size 

You'll be making whoopee with the devil in hell tomorrow night  

Of course to claim that this song, is no different than modern murder songs, would be wrong as well.  Lonnie Johnson seems to take no real joy in the act.  He's become her slave, and the only way to free himself from her cruelty is to kill her.  He'll be happy to see her dead, but killing her with his razor seems to be a means to an end.  Still the act of using a razor makes me think, he really wants her to suffer, like the way she's made him suffer.  Nasty, brutal stuff.

Told you, next time you go out, please carry your black dress along 

'Cause a coffin will be your present and hell will be your brand new home 

Another way that "Whoopee" differs from songs like "I Used to Love Her", is that in some, albeit, twisted way fear of female power plays into it.  She's not simply disposable trash that's killed because her lover has tired of her, she's killed because she holds power over him.

You made me love you, just got me for your slave

He can't simply leave her.  The only way he can free himself is to kill her.  While the view of a woman as a dangerous enslaver of men, is not exactly feminist, the image brings a complexity to the song, that so many new songs lack.

Delia's Gone

In high school my friend and I developed this theory: if you sing it slowly and with an acoustic guitar, you can pretty much get away with anything. One example we always provided, was Johnny Cash's Delia's Gone. It's your age old tale of a cheatin' lying woman getting her comeuppance from a vengeful lover. But it's how he does it that makes it so unerrving: he ties her to a chair, and shoots her. With a submachine gun.

I don't think it's a conicidence, that this song came out during the height of gangster rap. But unlike Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre and other of their ilk, their were no hysterical polticians and no complaints from NOW.

Like so many of my generation, this was the song that taught me that country could be cool. This dark, violent, "love song" with the coolest dude on the planet. I still get chills.

Here's an earlier version of the song, with slightly different lyrics. I think it proves that Cash was well aware of popular culture when he updated it for American Recordings:

99 to Life

She was my woman

I thought that she'd be true

Now she's gone and left me

You know her life is through.

- Social Distortion, 99 to Life

A simple age old tale. He loved her, she left him and he killed her "with his knife". Now he's in jail for the rest of his life, tortured by her memory.

While released in the 1990's, Social Distortion's 99 to Life, takes much of it's inspiration from another era. Blues and country ballads of love, broken hearts and murder permeate the song. Yet, the hard style of playing, and Mike Ness' rough vocals give the song a very modern edge. Mickey Spillane meets Johnny Cash meets the Ramones.

Don't try this at home . . .