Another murder ballad with lots of oral tradition behind it, linked below the video as usual.
The story involves ax murder and dismemberment of Charlie (Johnny) Silver by his wife Frankie, and subsequent burning of the body parts to destroy the evidence.
In consideration of the fact that today is 4/20, I decided to include a less traditional murder ballad. “Twelve Heads” is about Mexican drug gangs dropping off a bag of human heads near a mall in Southern Mexico.
Wikipedia states that this is part of a broader genre of “sweetheart” murder ballads. I’m going to have to go ahead and disagree with that there. In no culture do we murder our sweethearts. Murdering a love interest is a sure sign of pathological narcissism. NOT LOVE.
Here’s Doc Watson’s version. The oldest recorded version is by Grayson & Whittier in 1929.
There’s also a couple of video documentaries that discuss the story at the root of the song, linked below:
Accused of murder, but your only alibi is that you were sleeping with the spouse of your best friend. Do you use the alibi, lose your honor as well as that of your lover, and lose your best friend? Or do you keep quiet, suffer the punishment of execution and lose your lover?
I can certainly respect Kurt Cobain’s choice of Leadbelly as his favorite artist. Leadbelly was one of the first country blues artists that took hold of my soul. Just one listen to Midnight Special, coupled with the knowledge of the roots of that song, and it’s likely to happen to you too.
I journeyed back in 1995 to Leadbelly’s grave, but that’s another story for another time.
Also known as Frankie and Johnny, as performed by other artists, this one is the story of a man who wins a dance competition with a woman other than his own, and when he returns home, he is shot in the stomach by his scorned woman. Infidelity? It was only dancing. But that’s enough for a scorned woman, and apparently Frankie had had enough at that point.