That would be “The Week of Living Dangerously” by Steve Earle.
And I had replied previously to Lemur 866’s as “Stagger Lee” or “Stack-O-Lee”, done by a gazillion people, but deleted it. Maybe I overthought it. My reasoning: Billy didn’t grab Stagger’s brand new Stetson hat; he won it. He didn’t pull a gun on the spot; he went home and got his .44. And in all the versions I’ve heard, I don’t remember a trial and conviction.
Don’t think so unless MadTheSwine isn’t remembering it correctly. In Country Death Song they are a poor family without enough food, so the father in desparation pushes his daughter down the well so they won’t have as many mouths to feed, then kills himself out of remorse (or at least he intends to at the end of the song.)
Here one: Guy goes into a bar, buys a girl several drinks, convinces her to go for a ride with him. They drive around for a while, then he stops the car and rapes her. Afterward he drives her back to the bar. The next day the girl calls the cops and the guy is sent to jail for 25 years, where he regularly gets raped by the inmates.
Try this one:
A young girl gets engaged to a nice guy. She is killed in an accident and he commits suicide as a result. The tragedy is remembered by all as a sad example of true love.
“Teen Angel?”
or “Patches?”
Date Rape - Sublime
DING!
Nope, sorry.
I think it’s more likely that I’m remembering it wrong. I just keyed on the guy pushing his daughter.
Dave van Ronk’s has a trial and conviction (“Judge say to Stackolee, Mr. Bad Man Stackolee, gonna hang your body up and set your spirit free… 12 o’clock we killed him, I was glad to see him die”). I figure with so many versions of the story floating around, there’s gotta be one that goes that way. We’d need Lemur to tell us for sure, I guess.
Wow, all these folk, blues, and country songs are full of nothing but murder, bling, and hos.
Here are three submissions of my own:
#1 A woman who is condemned to die imagines herself returning to her hometown and reuniting with her family.
#2 A good-for-nothing layabout recounts the many ways in which his lifestyle is hurtful to his wife and infant, and expresses a desire to be punished for his sins. Ultimately, he blames his upbringing.
#3 The narrator recounts a weekend evening in New Orleans. He and his friend go to a house party and witness dancing, fighting, drinking, eating, drug use, and infidelity. A fat man is playing music in the corner of the room. Eventually the police raid the party, and the narrator is beaten up and thrown in jail.
Neil Young’s Tired Eyes, covered by Cowboy Junkies. Mmmm…Margo Timmins. Y’know, I was going to marry her once…
The song/story version I quoted was from Mississippi John Hurt.
“Gentleman’s of the jury, what do you think of that?
Stack O’ Lee killed Billy de Lyon about a five-dollar Stetson hat”
That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O’ Lee
Standin on the gallows, Stack O’Lee did curse,
Judge said, “Better kill that man fore he kills one of us”
That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O’ Lee
And all they gathered, hands way up high,
at twelve o’clock they killed him, they’s all glad to see him die
That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O’ Lee
Ooh, you’re good. I was listening to Whites Off Earth Now last night, coincidentally - damn, that’s a good album.
Rap: Cinderfella by Dana Dane
(love him)
A male vocalist sings the praises of the sexy lady who introduced him to love making. She’s a dancer with a taste for wine, and he wants to take care of her by buying her nice things.
A group of petty criminals tell a policeman about the causes of their criminality - which has to do with their psychological, social, and family backgrounds, with an occasional mention that maybe they’re just bad people.
Sounds to me like “Gee, Officer Krupke” from West Side Story by Sondheim/Bernstein.