# Songs About Crime **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722 "2009-11-24T01:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/101 "2009-11-26T02:22:24Z")
100 posts and nobody mentioned “Breaking The Law” by Judas Priest? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/102 "2009-11-26T02:45:30Z")
Arlo Guthrie - Coming into Los Angeles. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/103 "2009-11-26T03:15:31Z")
Indeterminate Crime: “Me and Julio Down by the School Yard” Paul Simon (“It was against the law” but Og knows what they did) ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/104 "2009-11-26T03:19:51Z")
Underage drinking, maybe **42fish**? “Goodbye to Rosie, the queen of Corona”? Quasio ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2009, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/105 "2009-11-26T04:39:16Z")
_Did You Steal My Money_ - The Who ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/106 "2009-11-27T20:50:25Z")
Schoolyard shooting/mass murder: “I Don’t Like Mondays” – Boomtown Rats “The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” – Julie Brown Cultivation of marijuana “Wildwood Flower” – Jim Stafford Statutory rape The entire _oeuvre_ of Paul Revere and the Raiders ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/107 "2009-11-27T21:18:00Z")
Nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/108 "2009-11-27T21:22:47Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > **Robbery, Assault and Battery** > “Robbery, Assault and Battery” - Genesis In reality, this song is about murders during a robbery. It should have been renamed. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/109 "2009-11-27T23:12:49Z")
Not many Ella Fitzgerald fans here, are there? _I married many men, A ton of them, And yet I was untrue to none of them because I bumped off ev’ry one of them to keep my love alive._ – “To Keep My Love Alive”, Rodgers & Hart Ella goes on to describe her string of black widow murders she commits. Great song. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/110 "2009-11-27T23:20:40Z")
Various nefarious deeds and sordid crimes: “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” by the Traveling Wilburys. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/111 "2009-11-28T00:16:12Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Not many Ella Fitzgerald fans here, are there? > > _I married many men, > A ton of them, > And yet I was untrue to none of them > because I bumped off ev’ry one of them > to keep my love alive._ > > – “To Keep My Love Alive”, Rodgers & Hart > Ella goes on to describe her string of black widow murders she commits. Great song. > > Stranger Oh! “Stone Cold Dead in the Market” (murder) by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Jordan! ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/112 "2009-11-28T02:37:10Z")
Child abuse: _Hell is for Children_ by Pat Benatar (“They cry in the dark So you can’t see their tears They hide in the light So you can’t see their fears Forgive and forget All the while Love and pain Become one and the same In the eyes of a wounded child”) ---
**Author:** ![independentminded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed8c4c/32.png) [@independentminded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/independentminded)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/113 "2009-11-29T00:17:29Z")
Another list of songs about crime: Run, Joey, Run (I forget the name of the person who sings this one): teenaagers’ plans to elope, murder White Wedding: “Shotgun” weddings. “Gonna Wetcha” Murder by gunning down ---
**Author:** ![independentminded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed8c4c/32.png) [@independentminded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/independentminded)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/114 "2009-11-29T22:49:03Z")
_All’s Quiet on West 23rd_, popularized by the group “Jet Stream”, in 1967. This particular song is about the murder of Kitty Genovese by a serial killer while returning from work at around 3 a. m., back in 1964, and how people conveniently refused to help out in any way, even by calling the cops, although her screams for help were heard throughout the Queens neighborhood where Kitty Genovese resided. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/115 "2009-11-30T02:35:45Z")
> [@independentminded](#): > > _All’s Quiet on West 23rd_, popularized by the group “Jet Stream”, in 1967. > This particular song is about the murder of Kitty Genovese by a serial killer while returning from work at around 3 a. m., back in 1964, and how people conveniently refused to help out in any way, even by calling the cops, although her screams for help were heard throughout the Queens neighborhood where Kitty Genovese resided. Yeah… about that: h[ttp://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11767651&postcount=8](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11767651&postcount=8) ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/116 "2009-11-30T02:45:07Z")
Murder, Infidelity, and… well, you’ll have to ask the Milkman [Carolina Drama](http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/raconteurs_the_lyrics_8465/consolers_of_the_lonely_lyrics_77688/carolina_drama_lyrics_771248.html) by the Raconteurs ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/117 "2009-11-30T03:22:33Z")
Child murder: _In Germany Before the War_, Randy Newman Plenty of them in musicals, including: _A Rumblin’ and a Rollin’_, PARADE (Tween-aged rape/murder) _How the Money Changes Hands_, TENDERLOIN (corruption, money laundering) _When Our Ship Comes Sailing In_, LADY BE GOOD! (bootlegging/smuggling during Prohibition) _(In Our Little) Den of Iniquity_, PAL JOEY (adulterous affair) _Ladies of the Evening_, THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE (prostitution) _Moonshine Lullaby_, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN (bootlegging/tax evasion before Prohibition) …and of course, pretty much the whole score of ASSASSINS. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/118 "2009-11-30T17:14:07Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Statutory rape > The entire _oeuvre_ of Paul Revere and the Raiders I think you misspelled “Gary Puckett and the Union Gap”. I’m too lazy to go through the thread… has anybody mentioned “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” yet? ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722/119 "2009-11-30T21:50:06Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > I’m too lazy to go through the thread… has anybody mentioned “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” yet? I think you’re the first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-crime/518722.md?page=5)