History Main / MurderBallad

* Murder is popular subject for Music/TheBloodBrothers. "USA Nails" features a woman being arrested for a post-natal abortion (of a child THAT WASN'T EVEN HERS), "My First Kiss at the Public Execution" is exactly what it sounds like (only worse), "Giant Swan" involves its protagonist getting killed by a robber with a machete, "Every Breath is a Bomb" is a case a la TerrySchaivo, a woman gets eaten alive by hotel rats in "Rats and Rats and Rats for Candy", and "Wolf Party" tells the tale of a protagonist who has just murdered a pedophilic priest. There are countless other examples.

* "[[Music/{{Ramones}} 53rd and 3rd]]" by Music/TheRamones in which a male prostitute kills one of his clients.

->That bad man, cruel Stack O' Lee \\
With the forty-four \\

* The first section of Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bohemian Rhapsody" from ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera''. "Mama, just killed a man/put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead..." This can also be interpreted figuratively, as inflicting himself with a fatal disease and expressing remorse over it.

** "Excitable Boy" takes a very matter-of-fact "no big deal" tone when discussing a severely disturbed young man, whose somewhat unhinged behavior eventually culimates in him raping and killing his date for the junior prom. Then, after having been incarated in a psychiatric hospital for a decade and having been released, he digs up his victim's grave and makes a cage with her bones.

** "Excitable Boy" takes a very matter-of-fact "no big deal" tone when discussing a severely disturbed young man, whose somewhat disturbing behavior eventually culimates in him raping and killing his date for the junior prom. Then, after having been incarated in a psychiatric hospital for a decade and having been released, he digs up his victim's grave and makes a cage with her bones.

** "Excitable Boy" takes a very matter-of-fact "no big deal" tone when discussing a severely disturbed young man.

* ''Theatre/TheThreepennyOpera'' opens with "Moritat", aka "The Ballad of Meckie Messer," aka "Mack the Knife." This relates the murderous exploits of the gangster Macheath, who kills both for hire and for personal gain. The song in turn became widely covered as a standard, with hit recordings including by Music/LouisArmstrong and Music/BobbyDarin.

->''"In a coat of gold, or a coat of red''\\
''A lion still has claws''\\
''And mine are long and sharp, my Lord''\\
''As long and sharp as yours."''

->''And so he spoke, and so he spoke''\\
''That Lord of Castamere''\\
''And now the rains weep o'er his halls''\\
''With no one there to hear...''
-->-- "The Rains of Castamere", [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire A Song of Ice and Fire]]

** And Cave's own "Music/StaggerLee." Look up the lyrics, [[RefugeInAudacity I dare]] [[BrainBleach you.]] [[spoiler:Cave's Stagger Lee murders at least one person in cold blood]] before the Billy Delyon character even enters the story - and then forces Billy to [[spoiler:perform fellatio on him. And then shoots Billy in the middle of it. He also mentioned beforehand that [[DepravedBisexual he fully intended to have sex with and/or rape him after having sex with his girlfriend (who propositioned Lee) and stated that he would "crawl over fifty good pussies just to get one fat boy's asshole".]]]]

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_ballad The Other Wiki has examples]].

!!Examples with their definitive recording.

Many of the Literature/ChildBallads, collected by Francis Child, are Murder Ballads. Many examples contain LyricalDissonance. Might overlap with VillainSong, particularly if the lyrics are from the killer's point of view. Often overlaps with TeenageDeathSongs and may also cross over with RevengeBallad.

* [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "The Rains of Castamere"]], which in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is not only a murder ballad but a ballad hinting that ''another'' murder is quite likely to occur.

* Music/TheRollingStones' blues-going-on-rock song "Midnight Rambler" from ''Music/LetItBleed'' is a MurderBallad [[PerspectiveFlip from the perspective of the murderer]]. Although no specific murder case is mentioned, the narrator is quite clearly established as a SerialKiller and rapist.

* "Hand of Fate", by Music/TheRollingStones from their album ''Music/BlackAndBlue''.

* ''35MM: A Musical Exhibition'':

* "Die Die My Darling" - Music/{{Misfits}}

* The Japanese band {{Music/BIGMAMA}} has at least two: "Koukyoukyoku 'Shinsekai'"[[labelnote:en:]]Symphony to the New World[[/labelnote]], about a drowning boy who sneaks onto a ship and gets carved up with a knife for trespassing, and "#DIV/0!", which ups the ante by following eight murders [[DrivenToSuicide and a suicide]] among a group of nine people driven by greed for a treasure they intended to split amongst them.

* In "Frankie Teardrop" by Music/{{Suicide}}, the title character is in a similar situation to the protagonist of ''Theatre/{{Woyzeck}}'', working long hours in a mindless factory job. He goes home and kills [[PaterFamilicide his baby, his wife, and then himself]], and finally goes to hell.

* Music/RichardThompson's "Shane and Dixie" is a seriously [[LyricalDissonance lyrically dissonant]] murder-suicide ballad about a pair of OutlawCouple bank robbers though technically, [[spoiler:it's an ''attempted'' murder-suicide ballad, since Dixie (the 'bonnie' of the pair) survives Shane's ('Clyde's') attempt to kill her]]

* From Terrence Zdunich, creator of Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera and Film/TheDevilsCarnival, comes ''WebOriginal/AmericanMurderSong'', a series of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin songs about murder]], set in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer 1816]]. Of particular note is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc4SIEt1kTc Pretty Lavinia]], the true story of alleged multiple murderer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavinia_Fisher Lavinia Fisher]], the first woman executed in the United States.

* As part of throwing fans a curveball, {{Music/ACDC}} did a blues-rock song called "Night Prowler" in the same vein as the Rolling Stones' example listed above, with the {{Unexpected Genre Change}} ominously ratcheting up the tension (using guitars tuned half a step lower than normal, and [[UncommonTime playing in 12/8 time]] - both odd considering AC/DC's usual high energy, head-banging pub rock fare) as the lyrics seemingly describe a SerialKiller in the the process of [[ParanoiaFuel creeping up on his victim in the dead of night]] to [[KnifeNut stab them to death]], basically making it at first listen a hybrid between a blues-rock murder ballad and a {{Slasher Movie}} set to electric guitar. Ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by WordOfGod, as it's actually about two teenage lovers consummating a SecretRelationship, despite attempts by MoralGuardians to [[http://ultimateclassicrock.com/acdc-richard-ramirez-night-prowler/ link the song to the infamous "Night Stalker", serial killer and rapist Richard Ramirez]].

* ''Music/{{Poe}}'': ''Angry Johnny'' is a long list of ways the singer could kill the title character, with the chorus always coming back to "but either way, I'm gonna kill you, I'm gonna blow you away".

* The Japanese band {{Music/BIGMAMA}} has at least two: "Koukyoukyoku 'Shinsekai'"[[labelnote:en:]]Symphony to the New World[[/labelnote]], about a drowning boy who sneaks onto a ship and gets carved up with a knife for trespassing, and "#DIV/0!", which [[UpToEleven ups the ante]] by following eight murders [[DrivenToSuicide and a suicide]] among a group of nine people driven by greed for a treasure they intended to split amongst them.

* "18 And Life" by Skid Row is about a couple bored kids who go out drinking when one of them turns eighteen. They find a gun and one shoots the other on a dare. The killer's so dulled from the world around him that he doesn't even register the trial til his sentencing. This is same in 18 and life remake where Kevin Michael Lee replaces Ricky.

* As part of [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent throwing fans a curveball]], {{Music/ACDC}} did a blues-rock song called "Night Prowler" in the same vein as the Rolling Stones' example listed above, with the {{Unexpected Genre Change}} ominously ratcheting up the tension (using guitars tuned half a step lower than normal, and [[UncommonTime playing in 12/8 time]] - both odd considering AC/DC's usual high energy, head-banging pub rock fare) as the lyrics seemingly describe a SerialKiller in the the process of [[ParanoiaFuel creeping up on his victim in the dead of night]] to [[KnifeNut stab them to death]], basically making it at first listen a hybrid between a blues-rock murder ballad and a {{Slasher Movie}} set to electric guitar. Ultimately [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by WordOfGod, as it's actually about two teenage lovers consummating a SecretRelationship, despite attempts by MoralGuardians to [[http://ultimateclassicrock.com/acdc-richard-ramirez-night-prowler/ link the song to the infamous "Night Stalker", serial killer and rapist Richard Ramirez]].

* "Furnace Room Lullaby" by Music/NekoCase. She also covered the folk murder ballad "Poor Ellen Smith."
** "Deep Red Bells" is also by Neko Case and is generally thought to be about the Green River Killer.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E154ComeWanderWithMe Come Wander With Me]]", the titular song tells the story of Floyd Burney accidentally killing Billy Rayford and being killed himself by Billy's three brothers out of revenge. Floyd believes that it is a scam devised by Mary Rachel and the Rayfords.