posted
I've heard that "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" by the Beatles ( lyrics here ) is the first ever recorded song about a serial killer.
I've looked serial killers up on Wikipedia and Maxwell Edison seems to fit all the categories
quote: A serial killer is someone who commits three or more murders over an extended period of time with cooling-off periods in between. In between their crimes, they appear to be quite normal, a state which Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hare call the "mask of sanity." There is frequently—but not always—a sexual element to the murders.
I find it hard to believe there wasn't an earlier song but I can't find any. Does anyone know of any?
-------------------- I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from "Now We Are Six" through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So there! Posts: 802 | From: London, UK | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
That is a good candidate but I'm not sure if he's a serial killer, more of a career criminal. None the less, Wikipedia attributes the following crimes to him:
quote:a dead man on the Strand a rich man, Schmul Meier, disappeared for good Jenny Towler, killed with a knife in the chest Seven children and an old man killed in an arson fire Rape of a child widow (minderjährige Witwe) in her bed
-------------------- I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from "Now We Are Six" through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So there! Posts: 802 | From: London, UK | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
Bob Dylan's "Ballad of Hollis Brown" (1963) might be another candidate.
-------------------- Another lifetime I'd have fallen in love with you Swept away by my feelings, ashamed and confused But just now it's enough to be walking with you Let the mystery play as it will! -Lui Collins Posts: 2669 | From: Jouy en Josas, France | Registered: May 2005
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posted
My friend and I tried to write a musical about Ted Bundy, but we never finished (partly because, though the lyrics were decent, neither of us can write music), so I guess this post is in no way helpful .
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quote: Bob Dylan's "Ballad of Hollis Brown" (1963) might be another candidate.
Well it certainly pre-dates Maxwell, but it looks to me like its about a man "going postal" and killing his family so he is not technically a serial killer. The lyrics are quite ambigious though, in the best tradition of Bob.
quote: My friend and I tried to write a musical about Ted Bundy
I like the sound of this! I don't suppose you have any of the lyrics to hand?
-------------------- I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from "Now We Are Six" through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So there! Posts: 802 | From: London, UK | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I'm sure this song doesn't count as a serial killer (although he was convicted of manslaughter) but it's an interesting song anyway, written in 64. Of course my favorite is C.W. McCall's song about Packer, Comin Back For More.
-------------------- Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. Posts: 2110 | From: Chicago, IL | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:posted by Tarquin Farquart I like the sound of this! I don't suppose you have any of the lyrics to hand?
Well, the notebook that contained most of them is in a box somewhere I'm not sure of, but off hand I can remember a small part of one song. And it sucks. But I have no problem embarrassing myself for the amusement of others, so here you go:
quote: If you knew what I'd do to go you'd be aghast, But you think that I'm helpless for I wear a cast, I lead you to my VW so beige and so rusty I seem average and pleasant and that's why you'll trust me, But once you get inside no door handles you will find, Now you will soom be a victim of my demented mind
I remember that part because we kept trying to re word it(for obvious reasons ). I still consider using the word "aghast" as a lyrical achievement second only to Rick Springfield working the word "moot" into Jessie's Girl.
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote: If you knew what I'd do to go you'd be aghast, But you think that I'm helpless for I wear a cast, I lead you to my VW so beige and so rusty I seem average and pleasant and that's why you'll trust me, But once you get inside no door handles you will find, Now you will soom be a victim of my demented mind
Please don't be offended by this but when I first read those lyrics I found myself singing along... "borrowing" the tune of Ballad of Bilbo Baggins by Leonard Nimoy!! Well it kind of works for the first couple of lines...
-------------------- I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from "Now We Are Six" through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So there! Posts: 802 | From: London, UK | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:If you knew what I'd do to go you'd be aghast, But you think that I'm helpless for I wear a cast, I lead you to my VW so beige and so rusty I seem average and pleasant and that's why you'll trust me, But once you get inside no door handles you will find, Now you will soom be a victim of my demented mind
I rather liked that, Candy Cane. Don't s'pose you could dig that note book out and give us a few more verses?
Posts: 42 | From: Cardiff, United Kingdom | Registered: Nov 2005
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Creamy Boy, I will definitely look for the notebook, and I'm glad you liked it
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posted
I'm not sure if this counts, since you asked for recorded songs, however there have been multiple street ballads and songs about serial killers before. For example, there is a German "traditional" about Fritz Haarmann I can think of, and somewhere in my library is a book collecting these kind of songs.
Wait, just wait a little while, Haarman will get to you, too with his little chopping knife he'll make liverwurst of you.
I know it's been recorded, just not sure about when and if it was before Maxwell's Silver Hammer.
ETA rest of post after a bit of misclickulation
Posts: 315 | From: Berlin, Germany | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
He's not a REAL serial killer, sure, but there's always old Johnny Verbeck/Roebeck, the Dutch butcher into whose sausage machine numerous people and pets disappeared... that's an ancient scouting song, I believe.
That work for ya? Posts: 49 | From: Pennsylvania | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Wait. We learned "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" in middle school.
It was the same year the teacher showed us a video of "Thriller". I'm surprised we turned out okay.
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posted
There are also folk songs written about Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He was an actual guy who really killed off customers in his barbershop and who, apparently, really had a woman in his employ who would cook his victims up into meat pies. IIRC he was hung in 1801.
And before then... isn't there music about Gilles de Rais and other medieval and Elizabethan era "serial killers"? Hell, depending on how broadly you define "serial killer", either Beowulf or Grendel could be defined as one (yeah, I know that the epic poem is largely symbolic, but still)... and argh, I know I'm not exactly a Bible scholar, but wasn't some psalm or something written about Saul/Paul?
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quote:Originally posted by Page Three: Wait, just wait a little while, Haarman will get to you, too with his little chopping knife he'll make liverwurst of you.
I know it's been recorded, just not sure about when and if it was before Maxwell's Silver Hammer.
The movie M (1931) begins with children reciting this rhyme. If the film counts as a recording, it would predate "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."
Posts: 483 | From: California | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Does "Kinko the Kid Loving Clown" count? I always thought it was about John Wayne Gacy.
Posts: 1111 | From: Albuquerque, NM | Registered: Dec 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Johnny Slick: There are also folk songs written about Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He was an actual guy who really killed off customers in his barbershop and who, apparently, really had a woman in his employ who would cook his victims
ETA: This thread made me wonder: does anyone remember British singer Kevin Coyne? In the late 70's there was quite a fuss about an album he made, Babble, about Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, two notorious British serial killers.
quote: The guy was a nutter, the one she's in love with, but she's a bit nuts herself. It's over-burdened with romance, over-burdened with a very trivial expectation that failed. Which I do honestly believe, reading between the lines, was essentially what happened to Brady and Hindley really. They were part of the love and peace thing. I mean, at least they ran parallel with it. But, ironically, they came close to the truth in some respects. They were how people really are, rather than, you know...
posted
I'm going to have to be ruthless here and exclude folk / traditional songs. (Not because I don't like them - I do very much - but because it is hard to determine when they were written and thus complicates the whole thing even more)
I am intrigued by the Kevin Coyne album, although I should point out it was recorder after MSH.
I must also say that this has been very interesting reading all the posts. Wow!
-------------------- I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from "Now We Are Six" through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty's giant poisoned electric head. So there! Posts: 802 | From: London, UK | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Tarquin Farquart: I am intrigued by the Kevin Coyne album, although I should point out it was recorder after MSH.
Yes, I know it was a bit off-topic in that regard -- I only mentioned it because I remember the row about it. It was performed as a (kind of) musical but was then banned (by the theaters) after a press campaign claiming he portrayed the killers as basically lovable human beings who were misunderstood, couldn't cope with the world, etc..
Kind of "All humans are essentially good, even if they sometimes do horrible things because of a cold and cruel society".
Remember this was the Seventies...
Posts: 794 | From: Utrecht, Utrecht | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
Not that it helps at all but my favourite song about a serial killer is "Butcher Pete" by Buster Poindexter. It's on an album that is otherwise dedicated to songs about drinking "Buster's Happy Hour"
OT, I never knew MSH was about a real person. There's my new thing learned today.
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