Murder Ballads & Death Songs

“This dreadful, dark and dismal day Has swept my glories all away, My sun goes down, my days are past, And I must leave this world at last.

Oh! Lord, what will become of me? I am condemned you all now see, To heaven or hell my soul must fly All in a moment when I die.”

The Ballad of Frankie Silver is a traditional murder ballad that originated in North Carolina. This version is from 1962.

In 1831 teenage bride Frankie Silver murdered and dismembered her heavy-drinking husband Charlie with an axe, for reasons she took to her grave since she was not allowed to testify at her own trial. There were whispers of family conspiracy since the Silver family was wealthy, but members of the jury supposedly regretted sending Frankie to the gallows, which makes one think perhaps it was self-defense. She was buried a few miles out of town in a grave unmarked until 1952. Because they found different pieces of Charlie at different times, they buried him in three separate graves.

You know when that shark bites With its teeth, babe Scarlet billows Start to spread

A jaunty number about murder originally composed and written by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht for their brilliant production The Threepenny Opera, this is one of those songs that has been covered by tons of artists. Louis Armstrong’s version was the first to hit the radar in America and is my personal fav. There’s even a recording of him singing it with Lotte Lenya, who was married to Kurt Weill. Bobby Darin’s was the first one to be widely popular. Sinatra as well as Ella Fitzgerald (w/ Duke Ellington) also did well received versions.

And lastly, Nick Cave’s more appropriately sinister (but very fun) take on it for the film tribute to Kurt Weill called September Songs:

Loving the acoustic mix of this tale of a seriously dysfunctional family.

This is a good - if lyrically sparse - version of this oft covered classic. A man named Cecil Sharp wrote 4 lines of it and a melody back in 1917, and it grew and evolved from there. Leadbelly’s amazing version is generally accepted as the first recording. I’ve posted Mark Lanegan’s powerful version before. There’s a brief history of some of the different versions of the song over on Wikipedia, and there’s an interesting article that centers around Nirvana’s famous cover here. Excerpt: