Papa Loved Mama

Papa Loved Mama, penned by Garth Brooks and Kim Williams, adds another tale to the the pantheon of tunes about killing your spouse/wife/partner/lover/obsession.  Seems a trucker has discovered that his wife likes to fool around while he's on the road.  Naturally he reacts to this in a calm, rational, manner:


Well the picture in the paper showed the scene real well
Papa's rig was buried in the local motel


Yep, he drives his semi into the motel room where she's holed up with her one night stand. You have to admit, "Papa" was creative.  Significant others in other tunes have been stabbed, shot (a popular option) cut with a razor, and beaten with sticks.  They've also been tied to chairs, then shot.  I'm pretty sure that "Papa Loved Mama" was the first song that involved death by truck.



Ever wanted to hear David Allan Coe cover this song?

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.

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:

Miss Otis Regrets

A fine Cole Porter tune. This version, is by the lovely Ella Fitzgerald:








The moment before she died/she lifted up her lovely head and cried

I love that line.

Unlike the previous two songs I've discussed, "Miss Otis Regrets" is told in a third person narrative. A servant (?) telling Miss Otis' friends, oh so politely, that her mistress is unable to fulfill her social obligations because, she's, well, sort of dead. A fallen woman, who can no longer speak for herself. The tragedy of the song, isn't really the murder, it's her downfall.

Another great take on the song:

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 . . .