So, there is a sub-genre of ballads dedicated to murdering a lover. From traditional songs like “Banks of the Ohio” to blues/rockers like “Hey Joe” or “Down By The River”. With that in mind, are they really singing “Like the river flows, surely to the sea” or are they singing “Like the river flows Shirley to the sea”. Because with that 2nd version, I think most of the rest of the lyrics would fit in to a murder ballad.
Airplane jokes aside, I think you’re the only person in the world to think this, but you never know!
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=841347
That’s what I was wondering.
They’re not all about murdering a lover - see “Stagger Lee”, “I Shot the Sheriff”, or “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”, for example.
Frankie and Johnny
Lyle Lovett, “L.A. County”
Elvis Costello, “Alison”
Garth Brooks, “Papa Loved Mama”
I’m sure there are more recent examples, but I’m out of the loop for contemporary music.
What is there about Alison that suggests it’s a murder ballad?
If we’re supposed to be listing them, I can’t resist the temptation: Delilah by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
I believe some Welsh fella also did a version. But nothing of note.
j
“Railroad Bill” (1895!?)
If we’re listing them, then the Killers (no pun intended) have a murder ballad trilogy worthy of note; “Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf”, “Midnight Show”, and “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine”.
They also did a pretty stellar cover of Kenny Rogers’ “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town”.
The Felice Brothers Whiskey In My Whiskey.
Declan declaims that it is not a murder ballad, but there are definitely suggestive lines. The chorus alone should give one pause:
Alison, I know this world is killing you.
Oh, Alison, my aim is true.
There’s nothing in the lyrics to suggest that Elvis means “aim” as in “purpose” because he never made his purpose clear. It could just as easily be the aim of a gun. And he’d then simply shrug it of by saying “well really, it was the world that killed her because she’d changed so much from the Alison I used to know.”
Some more supporting lines, not proof themselves but in context of the chorus can be taken to suggest murder:
“Somebody better put out the big light”: I see this as snuffing out the light of life.
The way that he emphasized “stop” in “wish that I could stop you from talking” to me emphasizes a final and forceful way to stop her from talking.
But really, it’s the chorus that does it for me.
The Rembrandts’ Johnny Have You Seen Her? seems to imply foul play. The singer is questioning his good pal Johnny as to the whereabouts of his girlfriend. On the surface we’re meant to be suspicious of Johnny but what if Johnny is actually protecting the girlfriend from the singer?:dubious: He sounds kind of possessive, with lines like
“Johnny did she tell you that her heart belongs to me?
Did she tell you that I will never set her free?”
Or maybe it’s just me. It could just be implying that Johnny and the missing girl are having an affair but the dark tone suggests mayhem, no? 
Everybody run, the homecoming queen’s got a gun.
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.
Melody Motel by Squeeze, in which the protagonist murders a prostitute.
Country Death Song by the Violent Femmes, in which the protagonist murders his daughter and then hangs himself.
Cheery stuff.
The author denied that interpretation in this 2002 Rolling Stone blurb about the song: Alison Bechdel on 'Fun Home''s Tony-Award Triumph
Thanks for suggesting it though; I never knew till now how “I Hope My Aim Is True” became the name of that album.
Though it’s more about the singer’s attempt to run away from the crime, ‘Red’ Arnall’s country classic, “Cocaine Blues,” fits the OP. I like Hank III’s cover: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmiy-QLQO0M
“The Green, Green Grass of Home.” He’s murdered someone, by gum, why not Mary?
What about R. Dean Taylor’s Indiana Wants Me? It could be interpreted that he not only killed the lover, but his baby’s mother (I wish I had you to talk to).
You know, I really wonder if this is a gun-culture country vs non-gun-country culture thing. I was virtually queuing at 9AM waiting for the record shop to open in order to buy the album, so I’ve known the song well for more than 40 years, and this is the first time that the thought that this might possibly be about murder had crossed my mind. Or been pushed across my mind.
FWIW, my interpretation - the narrator musing on meeting an ex whose subsequent choices of men have gone badly wrong. It’s painful to see her as she is now, to the point that he wonders if she would be better off dead (or perhaps, that it would be easier for him to take if she were dead). The narrator would have been her best choice because of his decency - “My aim is true”.
Now, in light of this discussion, I grant that the line may have a double meaning - artist’s prerogative - but a murder ballad? No, I don’t get that at all - I’m with the writer on that one.
j
Nick Cave’s got an entire album of 'em: Murder Ballads. I quite like it.