Appropriate for Halloween, the Seattle Times has a good article tracing the history of American murder music from early folk songs like "Banks of the Ohio" and "Tom Dooley" to more recent additions to the cannon such as...er...Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" and The Dixie Chicks' "Goodbye Earl"? Ummm, okay. We'll go with it. Interesting facts abound in the piece. Many of the songs mentioned are traced back to actual cases from hundreds of years ago.
There seem to be some glaring omissions, though. Where is Neil Young's "Down by the River?" Or even Eminem's "Stan"? Or anything about ol' Charley up there? Don't forget that at one time he was an aspiring singer-songwriter orbiting around the '60s Laurel Canyon scene. And some more analysis remains to be done on why in so many of these songs, including Nick Cave's "Where the Wild Roses Grow" (mentioned in the article), the crimes happen by a river. Another musico-literary project to add to my list of ones to get to at some point.