Foreword
Introduction
Chapter One: Ancient History,
Origins of the Modern Murder Ballad
Digging for
Clues in the Fatal Flower Garden
Featuring the
songs:
“Fatal
Flower Garden” by Nelstone’s
Hawaiians “Little Sir Hugh” as interpreted by
Steeleye Span
You Can't Win a Race with a
Cannonball
Featuring the
songs:
“My Son John” as interpreted by Boiled in
Lead, Tim Hart & Maddie Pryor
“Mrs.
McGraw” as interpreted by Burl Ives, Tommy Makem, Bruce Springsteen,
and The Weavers
The Triplett
Tragedy
Featuring the
songs:
“The
Triplett Tragedy” by Sophronie
Miller Greer/The Watson Family
“The
Butcher’s Boy as interpreted by Buell Kazee
“Masters
of War” by Bob Dylan
Pat Hare Murders His Baby
Featuring
the songs:
“I’m Gonna Murder My Baby” by Pat Hare
“Cheating
and Lying Blues” by Doctor Clayton
“Goin’ Down to Eli” by Robert Nighthawk
“Me
and the Devil Blues” by Robert Johnson
“Papa’s
‘Bout to Get Mad” by Pink Anderson & Simmie Doole
“Bring
Me My Shotgun” by Lightnin’ Hopkins
“Little
Sadie” by Clarence Ashley
“Delia’s Gone” as interpreted by Johnny Cash
Chapter Two: Hardly Getting Over It:
Contemporary Reckonings with Tragedy
Suffer Little Children
Featuring the
songs:
“Suffer
Little Children” by The Smiths
“Love
in a Faithless Country” by Richard Thompson
“No
One Is Innocent (A Punk Prayer)” by The Sex Pistols with Ronnie Biggs
“You
Need Hands” by Max Bygrave
“Nebraska”
by Bruce Springsteen
Getting Home Alive
Featuring
the songs:
“Diane” by Hüsker Dü
“Pretty
Polly” as interpreted by Dock Boggs, B. F. Shelton
“Polly”
by Nirvana
“Long
Gone Lonesome Blues” by Hank Williams
“I
Saw the Light” by Hank Williams
Like
a God with a Thunderbolt
Featuring
the songs:
“Drone Operator” by Jon Langford and the Skull
Orchard
“Funeral” by The Mekons
“Plenty
Tough and Union Made” by The Waco Brothers
And Everybody Cried
Featuring
the songs:
"Two
Daughters and a Beautiful Wife” by Drive-By Truckers
“Remember
Me Well” by House of Freaks
Chapter Three: Hard Work and Hard Times, Songs of Labor and Strife
And Who Killed
the Miner?
Featuring
the songs:
“The
Bells of Rhymney” as interpreted by The Byrds, Pete Seeger
“Trimdon Grange Explosion” as
interpreted by Louis Killen, Martin Carthy,
Battlefield Band, The Mekons
“Down
in The Coal Hole” by The Mekons
“Abernant 1983/4” by The Mekons
“Coal Miner’s
Grave” by Hazel Dickens
Honey Take a Whiff on Me
Featuring the
songs:
“Tell
it to Me” by Grant Brothers & Their Music
“Cocaine Habit Blues” by The Memphis Jug Band
“Minnie
the Moocher” by Cab Calloway
“Minnie
the Moocher’s Wedding Day” by Cab Calloway
“Cocaine Lil” by The Mekons
Hard Time Killing Floor
Featuring
the songs:
“Killing
Floor” by Howlin’ Wolf
“Hard Time Killing Floor Blues”
by Skip James
Worse Than the
Thing That Possessed Me
Featuring
the songs:
“Dora”
by The Mekons
“Ellen West” by Throwing Muses
“Annalisa” by Public Image Ltd.
Chapter Four: Game Changers, Outlaws, and Folk Heroes
A Walkin’ Chunk
a Mean-Mad
Featuring
the songs:
“Pretty
Boy Floyd” by Woody Guthrie
and interpreted by
The Byrds, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Wall of Voodoo
“Al Capone” by Prince Buster
“Bankrobber” by The Clash
“The
Message” by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five
“Robin Hood” by The Mekons
Postcards of the Hanging
Featuring
the songs:
“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday
“Miss Otis Regrets” as interpreted by Ella
Fitzgerald, Josh White, and The Pogues with Kirsty
MacColl
“Beer
for My Horses” by Toby Keith with Willie Nelson
“Supper
Time” by Ella Fitzgerald
“Southern
Man” by Neil Young
“Sweet
Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Alabama”
by Neil Young
The Day John
Kennedy Died
Featuring
the songs:
“The Day John Kennedy Died” by Lou
Reed
“He
Was a Friend of Mine” as interpreted by Bob Dylan, The
Byrds
The Ballad of JFK:
A Musical History of the John F. Kennedy Assassination
(1963-1968) (album) by Various Artists
Charles
Manson Murders the ‘60s
Featuring
the songs:
“Death
Valley ’69" by Sonic Youth
“Revolution
Blues” by Neil Young
“Eight
Miles High” as interpreted by Hüsker Dü
“Never
Learn Not to Love” by The Beach Boys
“Cease
to Exist” by Charles Manson
“Revolution 9” by The Beatles
Chapter Five: Fancies of Love,
Fantasies of Death
Whisperer in
Darkness
Featuring
the songs:
“Der Erlkönig” (Schubert) performed by Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau with Gerald Moore
“Earl
King” by Dom Fleming
Full Moon, Dark Heart
Featuring
the songs:
“Psycho”
interpreted by Eddie Noack, James Kittel,
Elvis Costello
“These
Hands” by Eddie Noack, interpreted
by Hank Snow
“Dolores” by Eddie Noack
“The
End of the Line” by Eddie Noack
“The
Cold, Hard Facts of Life” by Porter
Waggoner
“I’ve Got Someone to Kill” by Johnny Paycheck
“Folsom
Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash
Murder in the Red Barn
Featuring
the song:
“Murder
in the Red Barn” by Tom Waits
When You Get to the Bottom, We'll Kiss You to Sleep
Featuring
the songs:
“Lie Down” by The Handsome Family
“Weightless
Again” by The Handsome Family
“Down
in the Ground” by The Handsome Family
“The
Giant of Illinois” by The Handsome Family
“In
the Air” by The Handsome Family
“My
Beautiful Bride” by The Handsome Family
Chapter Six: Lost and Found
Redemption, Loss, and Wrecks on the Highway
Featuring
the songs:
“Wreck
on the Highway” by Dorsey Dixon and interpreted by Roy Acuff,
The Louvin Brothers, George Jones & Gene Pitney, The Waco Brothers
Satan Is Real
(album) by The Louvin Brothers
“Wreck
on the Highway” by Bruce Springsteen
“Reason
to Believe” by Bruce Springsteen
“Percy’s Song”
by Bob Dylan and interpreted by Joan Baez, Fairport Convention
“The
Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” by Bob Dylan
“My
Back Pages” by Bob Dylan
“Crazy
Man Michael” by Fairport Convention
“Never
Again” by Richard & Linda Thompson
Alone and Forsaken, We All Die
Featuring
the songs:
“T. B. Sheets” by Van Morrison and interpreted
by John Lee Hooker
“Brown
Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison
“T.
B. Blues” by Victoria Spivey and interpreted by Sonny Boy Williamson
“T.
B. Is Killing Me” by Buddy Moss
“What
Sarah Said” by Death Cab for Cutie
“John
Wayne Gacy, Jr.” by Sufjan Stevens
“Casimir
Pulaski Day” by Sufijan Stevens
On
the Rails, Alive and Dead
Featuring
the songs:
“On
the Evening Train” interpreted by Johnny Cash, Mollie O’Day
“Like
the 309” by Johnny Cash
“In
the Baggage Coach Ahead” by Gussie Davis and interpreted by Vernon
Dalhart
“He
Is Coming to Us Dead” by Grayson & Whitter and interpreted by
Gussie Davis,
Steve Ledford, Ron Thomason/Dry Branch Fire Squad
“There’s a Little Box of Pine on the 7:29” interpreted by Asa
Martin & James Roberts,
Hank Snow
Coda: Hurt
Featuring
the songs: “Hurt” by Trent Reznor and interpreted
by Johnny Cash
“In
My Time of Dying” by Blind Willie Johnson and interpreted by Josh White, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin
Appendix
Playlists
Discography
Acknowledgments
Index
