{"product_id":"new-jones-steven-murder-ballads-a-dark-bloody-record-book","title":"New - Jones, Steven - Murder Ballads: A Dark \u0026 Bloody Record - Book","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eMurder Ballads Old \u0026amp; New: A Dark and Bloody Record \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eexplores an age-old topic—the need to document the horrors of the world around us. The traditional murder ballad is expanded to include songs about traumatic loss in modern variants and multiple styles, including punk, post-punk, alt-country, and folk. The book is a graveyard stroll past tombs well-kept and half-hidden. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eMurder Ballads Old \u0026amp; New\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e excavates facts about killers, victims, and the folkloric storytellers who disseminated their tales in song.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAuthor Steven L. Jones defines the tragic ballad as \"an act of remembering and a soul-reckoning with the ineffable.\" He tells tales of homicide, crime sprees, madness, illness, addiction, and war, as recorded by musical scribes famous and obscure in songs both centuries-old and from recent memory. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eMurder Ballads Old \u0026amp; New \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003edocuments devastating losses and the human instinct for commemoration and catharsis through music. Songs examined range from early American folk tunes to Chicago blues, honky-tonk, and classic rock. Jones tackles each in a manner that's equal parts musicological, psychosocial, and genealogical, as he uncovers stories that reveal larger contexts and maps the lineage of songs and themes, forebears, and ancestors. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eMurder Ballads Old \u0026amp; New \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eincludes a wide range of songs and performers from the relatively obscure (Boiled in Lead, the Mekons, Nelstone's Hawaiians) to the massively famous (Johnny Cash, Van Morrison, Lou Reed). Highlights include tales of Muddy Waters guitar sideman Pat Hare, whose incendiary blues boast \"I'm Gonna Murder My Baby\" proved grimly prophetic, and honky-tonk pioneer Eddie Noack, whose morbid stab at late-career rebirth, \"Psycho,\" couldn't match the bottomless tragedy of his own life. As well as Depression-era holdup man Pretty Boy Floyd, Schubert's mythical Erlkönig, and the Manson Family. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eMurder Ballads Old \u0026amp; New \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis a compelling delve into the perennial American fascination with True Crime, told through music. Includes archival and historical black \u0026amp; white images.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tone Deaf Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50281790505200,"sku":null,"price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0053\/3315\/5912\/files\/R-895462-1583616074-1970_4f3af03c-c2b5-40d3-8329-3ee28f275cd7.jpg?v=1787168979","url":"https:\/\/tonedeafrecs.com\/products\/new-jones-steven-murder-ballads-a-dark-bloody-record-book","provider":"Tone Deaf Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}