Oooh ooh ooh! Or, Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)
Stagger Lee (or Stack-o-lee, or Stagolee) has been done by a whole host of people too - Neil Diamond, Wilson Pickett, Dave van Ronk, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Grateful Dead, Lloyd Price, Ike and Tina Turner… The earliest version I’ve heard is by Mississippi John Hurt. They’re all variations on an old folk song.
I always thought this song was based on Little Sadie, but it turns out Dylan wrote Little Sadie in 1970. Cocaine Blues seems to have been written by T.J. Arnall in 1958.
For bad women, how about another Nick Cave song : Henry Lee (the wicked woman being sung by PJ Harvey). Some lyrics :
She leaned herself against a fence
Just for a kiss or two
And with a little pen-knife held in her hand
She plugged him through and through
…
Come take him by his lily-white hands
Come take him by his feet
And throw him in this deep deep well
Which is more than one hundred feet
…
Lie there, lie there, little Henry Lee
Till the flesh drops from your bones
For the girl you have in that merry green land
Can wait forever for you to come home
She has the perfect voice for the lyrics, too. It mixes well with Nick Cave’s.
First thing I thought of when I saw the title-
http://www.lyricsdomain.com/14/nick_cave/stagger_lee.html
Eerie how often Nick Cave is coming up in this thread (not that he wrote those lyrics, tho’).
I wonder if his Werewolves of London would apply to this list.
The classic:
Mack the Knife. A number of murders, and in the German/some English translations arson and rape, too.
Dunno, but I’d say * Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner* definitely would.
How about:
–“Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen (which is based on the Charles Starkweather killings);
–“Down by the River” by Neil Young;
–“The Man’s Too Strong” by Dire Straits; and
–“Hey, Joe” by Jimi Hendrix (and many others).
Killing Me Softly With His Song
What, no good?
Yeah, lots of good Johnny Cash picks. Sam Hall from his “The Man Comes Around” album is another good one.
Lots of Marty Robbins numbers. Here are some of them:
Feleena. Part of the El Paso trilogy where the girl shoots herself at the end. Tells the story of Feleena (the girl in El Paso). Great song!
Five Brothers. Some of them teenagers track down a gambler that killed their father and kill him at a waterhole with bad water which kills the brothers.
They’re hanging me tonight. Guy kills his ex and her new man and is to be hung for it.
Billy Venero. Rides to save his girl at ranch from raiding Apaches and is shot on the way there. He arrives at the ranch dead in the saddle. The Apaches never hit the ranch.
San Angelo. Outlaw ambushed by Rangers when he goes back to visit his girl. One the Rangers shoots his girl dead, and though wounded and dying, the outlaw empties his revolver into the Ranger.
That’s a traditional song, for the record.
yep, or Excitable Boy:
‘he took little Susie to the Junior Prom…
then he raped her and killed her then he took her home…
After ten long years they let him out of the Home…
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones…’
Also, a vote for a badass girl:
Josie, by Steely Dan
‘She’s the raw flame
the live wire
she prays like a Roman with her eyes on fire’
Or Boom Boom Mancini
NIN “Big Man With a Gun”
…good stuff!
How about a little ZZ Top?
You’ve got to be bad to wear Cheap Sunglasses.
Besides, they tell us themselves:
“I’m bad, I’m nationwide”
Slight hijack:
In England, are they called “Zed-Zed Top”?
Probably a stupid question, but I’ve always wondered.
Maxwell, of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” by the Beatles. Kills his teacher, girlfriend, and the judge who convicts him of murder, with a freakin’ silver hammer! That’s badass!
Lot’s of good choices already. I Bad Bad Leroy Brown and Max the Knife were the first ones that came to mind when I saw this thread. How about:
The Wanderer - Dion and the Belmonts
And I’m as happy as a clown
With my two fists of iron but I’m going nowhere
Battle of New Orleans - Jimmy Driftwood
We fired our cannon til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind
and when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.
The Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy
Friday night they’ll be dressed to kill
Down at Dino’s bar and grill
The drink will flow and blood will spill
And if the boys want to fight, you’d better let them
My favorite of this type: Howlin’ Wolf’s “Back Door Man”
They take me to the doctor, shot full o’ holes.
Nurse cried, Please save the soul.
Killed him for murder, first degree.
Judge’s wife cried, Let the man go free.
Cop’s wife cried, Don’t take him down.
Rather me died, six feets in the ground.
When you come home you can eat pork and beans.
I eats mo’ chicken than any man seen.
I am a back door man.
I am a back door man.
Well the men don’t know, but the little girls understand.
For something a little more bland, the Kingston Trio’s “Tom Dooley”
Met her on the mountain
There I took her life
Met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with my knife