# Songs about killing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 25, 2002, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607 "2002-04-25T19:09:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/41 "2002-04-26T15:08:22Z")
**Oingo Boingo** : “Only a Lad” **Pink Floyd** : “Dogs” (well, that’s more of a metaphor, really…) I can’t believe nobody has mentioned “Psycho Killer” and “Life During Wartime” by **Talking Heads** yet – though I can’t quite recall if there any onstage deaths in the latter. There’s a fair chance _somebody_ dies in **Tom Waits** ’s “16 Shells from a 30-Ought-Six,” but, for the life of me, I can’t figure out who and how. (But can I interest you in some arson in “Frank’s Wild Years?”) There’s a (semi-accidental) murder in the middle of the plot of Waits’s album **The Black Rider** , but it seems to happen between songs – “Crossroads” comes the closest. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/42 "2002-04-26T15:16:03Z")
I forgot one of my favorites: **Dead** by The Pixies. Uriah hit the crapper! ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/43 "2002-04-26T15:44:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by PhiloVance \* > \*\*I’m not sure, but was ‘Mack the Knife’ about murder. IIRC, it was. 😕 \*\* "See the shark with teeth like razors and he wears them in his face. And Mac Heath Has got a knife but not in such an obvious place. … By the Thames turbid waters Men abruptly tumble down Is it plague, or is it cholora Or because Mac Heath’s in town? On a shining sky blue Sunday See a corpse stretched in the Strand See a man dodge round the corner Mackies’s friends will understand." Sounds like murder to me. Of course I can’t speak for the Bobby Darin version. (I should mention, this particular translation is from a version sung by- you guessed it- Nick Cave.) ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/44 "2002-04-26T15:50:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gallows fodder \* > \*\* > > There are so many songs like that! Every Swans song I can think of, for example, is full of bloody, destructive imagery, but it doesn’t seem like anybody literally is killed in the stories. Dang. \*\* Well, somebody committed murder in “Goddamn the Sun”. Knives don’t get in peoples’ backs all by themselves. Damn, all the rest of mine have been taken, even the Pixies. Wait, I bet nobody else mentioned The Residents’ “Tent Peg in the Temple” (as well as most of the rest of the songs on Wormwood since it’s about the Bible.) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/45 "2002-04-26T15:51:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gallows fodder \* > \*\*Ah, but in **Red Right Hand** , no one dies in the song. > > “Well, why is his hand red, then?” > > Wellll, maybe he killed someone in the past, but, hey, he could have also touched some wet paint. The song doesn’t say. \*\* I think his hand is red because he’s THE DEVIL! Although, as my roomie’s girlfriend pointed out, “Wouldn’t his _left_ hand be red too then?” To which my only response was, “Well, the song doesn’t say his left hand _isn’t_ red too.” ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/46 "2002-04-26T17:10:04Z")
I don’t know if this counts, but I always got the impression that _somebody_ was about to die in the Police’s **Synchronicity II**. And **Moon Over Bourbon Street** by Sting is about a vampire…so there is implied killed. “I must love what I destroy and destroy the thing I love” ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/47 "2002-04-26T17:29:50Z")
_Locked in the Trunk of a Car_ by **The Tragically Hip** Gods, I love that song. ---
**Author:** ![fizzestothetop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e79b87/32.png) [@fizzestothetop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizzestothetop)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/48 "2002-04-26T19:12:38Z")
Would **Stan** by Eminem count? Someone dies so I guess it might count. As well as maybe that other song he had with Dre, can’t remember the name of it. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/49 "2002-04-26T21:03:14Z")
**"In the Ghetto"** by Elvis **"Sunny Came Home"** by Shawn Colvin **"Hang Down Your Head (Tom Dooley)"** - Old folk song **"Smooth Criminal"** by Michael Jackson ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/50 "2002-04-26T21:13:06Z")
Eminem–“Kim” and the sequel “Bonnie and Clyde 97”. ---
**Author:** ![No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/no_me_ayudes_compadre/32/5224_2.png) [@No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Me_Ayudes_Compadre)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/51 "2002-04-26T21:26:22Z")
Please Mr. Gravedigger - David Bowie Somebody Got Murdered - The Clash Mack the Knife - Bobby Darin, int.al. Carseat - Blind Melon (tribute to Susan Smith’s kids) Cask of Amontillado, Telltale Heart - Alan Parsons Project (based on Poe, natch) ---
**Author:** ![No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/no_me_ayudes_compadre/32/5224_2.png) [@No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Me_Ayudes_Compadre)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/52 "2002-04-26T21:31:44Z")
Please Mr. Gravedigger - David Bowie Somebody Got Murdered - The Clash Carseat - Blind Melon (tribute to Susan Smith’s kids) Cask of Amontillado, Telltale Heart - Alan Parsons Project (based on Poe, natch) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/53 "2002-04-27T01:54:17Z")
Black Peter - **Grateful Dead** Kill The Poor - **Dead Kennedys** ---
**Author:** ![Spiratu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@Spiratu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiratu)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/54 "2002-04-27T03:49:56Z")
Hasn’t anyone mentioned **Maxwell’s Silver Hammer** yet? ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/55 "2002-04-27T04:38:14Z")
pretty much **every** song by eminem? kim, stan, kill you (do continuous threats count?), '97 bonnie and clyde even _the real slim shady_ features the murder of dr dre. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/56 "2002-04-27T05:39:32Z")
Makes murder sound fun: Lou Reed’s **Kicks** ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607/57 "2002-04-27T05:40:47Z")
And if you count self-murder: **Hey Man Nice Shot** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-killing/105607.md?page=2)