Unprepared to Die: America's Greatest Murder Ballads and the True Crime Stories That Inspired Them

Cheerfully vulgar, revelling in gore, and always with an eye on the main chance, murder ballads are tabloid newspapers set to music, carrying word of the latest ?orrible murders to an insatiable public. Victims are bludgeoned, stabbed or shot in every verse and killers often hanged, but the songs themselves never die. Instead, they mutate - morphing to suit local place names as they criss cross the Atlantic and continue to fascinate each generation?s biggest musical stars. Paul Slade traces this fascinating genre?s history through eight of its greatest songs.

Stagger Lee?s "biographers" alone include Duke Ellington, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Dr John, The Clash and Nick Cave. No two tell his story in quite the same way. Covering eight classic murder ballads, including "Knoxville Girl", "Tom Dooley" and "Frankie & Johnny", Slade investigates the real-life murder which inspired each song and traces its musical development down the decades. Billy Bragg, The Bad Seeds? Mick Harvey, Laura Cantrell, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family and a host of other leading musicians add their own insights.

"Great work" (Kristin Hersh, Throwing Muses).
"Fantastic" (Dave Henderson, Mojo).
"Compulsive stuff" (Ian Anderson, fRoots).


CONTENIDO:

Introduction

1.- Stagger Lee: Meet the godfather of every gangsta rap song
2.- Frankie is Johnny: The real woman behind Mae West's first starring role
3.- Knoxville Girl: One song's journey from 1680s England to today's Tennessee
4.- The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll: Bob Dylan's masterpiece and the truthful lies it tells
5.- Tom Dooley: Syphilis and murder in the wake of America's Civil War
6.- Pretty Polly: Musical madness from a uniquely sadistic killer
7.- Poor Ellen Smith: Uncovering the 1890s mule thief who wrote this indelible song
8.- Murder Of The Lawson Family: Why did Charlie Lawson kill his family on Christmas Day?

Sources & Endnotes Index
About The Author