wee_ginga_yin
Well-known member
A song about Peter Kürten written by Randy Newman done tango style.
In germany before the war.
- Thread starter wee_ginga_yin
- Start date
drbekken
Well-known member
Randy Newman!! A true king of songwriters!!
This song is one of his absolute best.
Very nice version, Sir!
This song is one of his absolute best.
Very nice version, Sir!
OP
OP
wee_ginga_yin
Well-known member
I see that Katie Melua and Marianne Faithful are now coming up in the featured box,
with slow brooding discordant versions of the song. For some reason I am reminded
of that other song about a killer by Kurt Weill "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" and in
my head I have always heard the Newman song as a tango played in a seedy bar in Berlin.
This is the most uncomfortable song I have ever sung, because of the history behind it.
There is just something menacing in the lyrics even when Newman sings it slow and wistful.
When doing some research on the song I discovered that there are over 100 songs dealing
with killers... some fictional and some not. Mac the knife, Ode to Billy Joe, Lizzie Borden,
Tom Dooley, Bonnie and Clyde, but the most chilling for me is Sufjan Stevens' "John Wayne Gacy Jr."
Although Nick Cave presses him a close second when he does a duet with Kylie on "Where the wild roses grow"
drbekken
Well-known member
You should try to check out a cd box set called AMERICAN MURDER BALLADS, a collection of blues and folk tunes dealing with all kinds of murder and murderers. A treasure trove!
OP
OP
wee_ginga_yin
Well-known member
There is a long tradition of murder songs in old blues tunes Stagolee (killing a man for his hat) Frankie and Johnny, (unfaithfulness) The lonesome death of Hattie Carrol (colour of your skin)
William Faulkner's gothic South has delivered up some gems in the genre. One that I particularly like is The wound that never heals by Jim White
Dying happens to everyone... falling in love doesn't... yet I bet there are more love songs than songs about death
