The Ultimate Crime Playlist
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 4:00AM in Alafair Burke We've had discussions here about music - whether we listen when we write, what we listen to, and, most recently from JD, the hassle of obtaining permission rights for lyrics. But I recently thought about music from a new perspective last week when I had a group of my criminal law students to our apartment for a pizza party. For the evening's music, I compiled a playlist of crime-related songs.
The idea started as a joke in class. To study accomplice liability, our class discusses State v. Ochoa, a case in which defendants are convicted as accomplices for the murder of a sheriff because they assaulted a deputy at the scene who might otherwise have come to the sheriff's rescue. After the first couple mentions of the man who "shot the sheriff," I noticed a few snickers. Better to clear the air, I figured. "How many of you found yourself singing I Shot the Sheriff when reading this case?"* Lots of hands. "Bob Marley or Eric Clapton?" More Marley than Clapton. Good students, I thought. "Might have to add that to the pizza party playlist."
So I did. And then my OCD kicked in and I couldn't stop. Who knew there were so many songs related to crime? Okay, so maybe the connection's a little loose on some of these, but whatevs. It was a fun project. Here's the list.
- Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm (Michael Jackson works too.)
- Gimme Shelter - Patti Smith (ditto, Stones. I like covers.)
- Rehab - Amy Winehouse
- Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash
- Chain Of Fools - Aretha Franklin
- Panic - The Smiths
- 99 Problems - Jay-Z
- Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
- One Way Or Another - Blondie
- Wanted Dead Or Alive - Bon Jovi
- I Fought The Law - The Clash
- Human Nature - Michael Jackson
- Rebel Rebel - David Bowie
- I Confess - The English Beat
- Criminal - Fiona Apple
- Born to Run - Frankie Goes to Hollywood (Save your noise, Springsteen fans. I said I like covers.)
- I Shot the Sheriff - Bob Marley (Even I won't take Clapton over Marley.)
- Lust For Life - Iggy Pop (a lyrical stretch, I know, but it's Iggy.)
- Town Called Malice - The Jam
- When You Were Young - The Killers
- Let's Go Crazy - Prince
- F*** the Police - NWA
- I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones
- Jailhouse - Sublime
- Shoplifters Of The World Unite - The Smiths
- Ball And Chain- Social Distortion
- 187um - Dr. Dre
- Burning Down The House - Talking Heads
- Call Me - Blondie
- She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
- I'm Your Villain - Franz Ferdinand
So, which are your favorites? What have I missed? What other songs should be here based on titles, lyrics, or band names?
*Needless to say, my law school classes are not like those you may have seen in Paper Chase or Legally Blonde.
Music 
Reader Comments (35)
Well, the obvious first choice for me is Steve Earle-The Devils Right Hand. Then of course, there's Earle's Copperhead Road, Billy Austin, What's a Simple Man to Do, etc.
Some others:
Down By The River-Neil Young
L.A. County-Lyle Lovett
Criminal-Eminem
Kill You-Eminem
Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts-Bob Dylan
The entire Desperado album-The Eagles
Intruder-Peter Gabriel
Family Snapshot-Peter Gabriel
Smoking Gun-Robert Cray
Murder Gonna Be My Crime-Sippie Wallace
Waitin' For My Man-Velvet Underground
The Road Goes On Forever-Robert Earl Keen
Gonna Get Me a Shotgun and Kill All The Whiteys I See-Garrett Morris
Cottonseed-Drive By Truckers
1952 Vincent Black Lightning-Richard Thompson
Killing Jar-Richard Thompson
I could go on....
That’s a fantastic list.
I'd like to raise my hand and wave it around a bit to draw attention to Nick Cave. He released a collection of Murder Ballads in about the mid 90s. Stand outs for me are 'Where the wild roses grow', 'Henry Lee' and ‘Stagger Lee’. I think he adapted some old folk songs…which often have dark crime ridden undertones. Also, ‘Hard hearted Hannah’ Ella Fitzgerald… I loved that song for the sheer blood minded audacity as a kid.
‘…To tease them and thrill 'em
To torture and kill 'em
Is her delight they say
I saw her at the seashore with a great big pan
There was Hannah pourin' water on a drownin' man…’
What! You missed Jailhouse Rock, by Elvis? Tsk, tsk.
There's a three CD set of Johnny Cash available, with one CD devoted entrely to murder. (The other two are Love and God.) The Murder CD has some of the darkest songs I've ever heard, and no one sang those kinds of songs like Johnny Cash. Makes Irish dirges sound like ABBA.
Delbert McClinton also has quite a few crime oriented songs out. "I'm Dying as Fast as I Can" is a favorite.
Clapton's "Cocaine" -- and while we're on the subject, "Minnie the Moocher" (She gave him money to go his bail; he left her to rot in the county jail.)
I should have known JD could quickly double the list! These are great suggestions. By the time I'm done downloading, I'll have spent my next advance on itunes.
I am way out of my league here....
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - AC/DC
Breaking the Law - Judas Priest
And Justice For All - Metallica
Been Caught Stealing - Jane's Addiction
The Tower - Ice-T (1st person narrative from a guy in jail)
Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy
Criminal - Disturbed
Side of a Bullet - Nickelback
Cop Killer - Ice-T
Band On The Run - Paul McCartney & Wings
The Patient Mental - Mudvayne
Jailbreak - AC/DC
Hell Is For Children - Pat Benatar
I Am the Law - Anthrax
Perry Mason - Ozzy Osbourne
A couple more...
18 And Life - Skid Row
Hold Her Down - Toad The Wet Sprocket
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Warrant
Take the Money And Run - Steve Miller Band
This is a fabulous list ... getting longer by the second.
Starting with Marty Robbins "El Paso" and adding Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder and Lead" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend."
Alright I have to be the oddball and put the country songs in here (Johnny Cash not withstanding):
Goodbye Earl - The Dixie Chicks
Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood
The Eleventh Commandment - Collin Raye
Beer for my Horses - Toby Keith & Willie Nelson
Old Red - Blake Shelton
This list needs more Golden Earring. Specifically, "Twilight Zone".
"The Ballad of TV Violence (I'm Not the Only Boy)" by Cheap Trick; it's about Richard Speck.
I've got a Crime Jazz CD on my iPod that I play at work. "Frankie Machine" and "Daddy Long Legs". And I love the theme for "Harry's Game" by Enya.
But these are great lists!
How about Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" (lynching) or an obscurity, "Girl Come Out" by Skin (lyrics include, "I'll make sure I pull the trigger/Don't tell me I ain't got the right...")?
The first song that popped into my head:
Paul Revere -- Beastie Boys
Great, Melanie, now I've got that in my head, too: "Just me and my horsie and a quart of beer."
Fran and Emma have classed up the list with their picks. And serious gold stars, folks, for creativity. Someone at Apple needs to follow this thread and create a Murderati playlist on Itunes.
Alafair, your class sounds like fun. Great list. Of course, if you include drug use as a criminal activity, you'd have to include most songs written in the 60's, including the musical Hair, LOL.
Okay to close off the list... maybe not a *HUGE* crime... but how about "Mr Policeman" from Brad Paisley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlQQMLTDbFE
How could I have forgotten Tired Eyes by Neil Young:
Well, it wasn't
supposed to go
down that way.
But they burned his brother,
you know,
And they left him lying
in the driveway.
They let him down with nothin'.
He tried to do his best
but he could not.
Let's see, here are but a few that come to mind...
Criminal Mind - Lawrence Gowan (currently of Styx)
My Sharona - The Knack (sex with a 16 year old girl is a crime in at least 39 states)
Ball & Chain - Aldo Nova
Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves - Cher (oh yeah, I went there)
Blood on the Bricks - Aldo Nova
Taxman, Mr. Thief - Cheap Trick
I Stole Your Love - KISS
Stolen - Dashboard Confessional
Getting Away with Murder - Papa Roach
Prisoner - Dokken
Big Guns - AC/DC
Poison - Alice Cooper
Alibis - Sergio Mendes
The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
and of course, Helter Skelter (choose your version)
My favorite, Andy Warhol Was Right - Warrant (a serial killer tune,with lyrics):
"I want to bathe in your light.
I want to be on the news.
If I take your life
its nothing personal.
Just a boy and his toy gun
dying for attention.
I'm sitting on the steps.
The sun is sinking low.
The world gets very quiet
as the street lamps start to glow.
I step out and I raise my gun
time just seems to slow."
Great post - and didn't Jon Jordan do a CD for Bouchercon a few years ago that had all crime-related songs on it?
Here are some of mind, with apologies for duplicates with anybody else!
Smash 'n' Grab - AC/DC
Green Hornet - Al Hirt
Mr Policeman - Brad Paisley
Shoot The Messenger, or Mulder & Scully, or Road Rage, or I Am The Mob - Catatonia
Patricia The Stripper - Chris De Burgh
A View To A Kill - Duran Duran
The Trumpton Riots - Half Man Half Biscuit
Mexican Standoff - Elbow
She Bleeds - EMF
Drug Ballad, Criminal or Under The Influence - Eminem
I Love you ... I'll Kill You - Enigma
Sex Crime - Eurythmics
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown or Mack The Knife - Frank Sinatra
Licence To Kill - Gladys Knight
Prostitute - Guns N' Roses
Babooshka - Kate Bush
If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next - Manic Street Preachers
V.F.D. - Michelle Shocked
Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) Nancy Sinatra
Put The Law On You - Natalie Mercant
Outlaw Blues - Pat Benetar
Back On The Chain Gang - The Pretenders
Hazard - Richard Marx
Billy Rose - Joan Baez
Killer - Seal
Free Man - Sheryl Crow
.Execute and Gematria (The Killing Name), Psychosocial, Dead Memories, Snuff, 'Til We Die, Gehenna, (OK, more or less the whole All Hope is Gone album) - Slipknot
You Stole My Money Honey, Getaway, Bartender And The Thief - Stereophonics
Suffer The Children, Watch Me Bleed, The Prisoner - Tears For Fears
Fast Car, Across The Lines, Behind The Wall, For My Lover - Tracy Chapman (all about lives touched by crime)
Joker & The Thief - Wolfmother
Hmmm- Didn't even see the part about just band names:
Stealin Horses (props to anyone who knows this band)
Five Finger Death Punch
Warrant
W.A.S.P. (We Are Sexual Perverts)
L.A. Guns
Guns n Roses
Bullet Boys
Contraband
Jailhouse
Poison
Molly Hatchett
The Killers
Slaughter
Lizzy Borden
Murder C
Cattle Decapitation (I kid you not)
Black Dahlia Murder
It Dies Today
Killswitch Engage
Suffocation
Slayer
and
Milli Vanilli (everything about them is a crime)
Late addition of a truly gruesome tune...
'Lotion' - Greenskeepers.
Someone writing those lyrics spent a lot of time either watching or reading the 'Silence of the Lambs'.
Um... Roxanne?
Because we all know prostitution is a crime, right?
Oh my. I'm with Stephen - WAY out of my league!
Just a few bands off the top of my head.....
Steve Earle
Dashboard Saviors
Go To Blazes
Alabama 3
Dave Alvin
Drive-By Truckers
Dropkick Murphys
Todd Snider
Joe Ely
Tom Russell
Mike Ness
Robert Earl Keen
Renegade (Styx)
Do It Again (Steely Dan)
I'm Just Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail (Everly Brothers)
Mama Tried (Merle Haggard)
Mr. Bojangles (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
Indiana Wants Me (R. Dean Taylor)
Frankie and Johnny (Sam Cooke's version is my favorite)
Pancho and Lefty (Emmylou Harris)
Ain't Livin' Long Like This (Waylon Jennings)
The all-time noir song has to be Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"
I'm so impressed by everyone. I was obviously an amateur in the playlist business!
One nobody's listed so far that I love (go Porter Wagoner!):
Green, Green Grass of Home
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard by Paul Simon
By lyrics there are so many out there...
Murder by Numbers( The Sting)
Dire Wolf ( Grateful Dead)
Murder Incorporated (Bruce Springsteen)
Gangland ( Iron Maiden)
Murder 101( The Wallflowers)
The Inc & Murder Reigns ( Ja Rule)
Gimme Shelter(The Rolling Stones)
Someone got murdered (The Clash)
Wild Boys (Duran Duran)
The point where I find Adam Ant and Culture Club getting murderous is where I need to stop.
Razor Keen (Adam Ant)
Crime Time (Culture Club)
Catherine, I can't believe I compiled a playlist without Adam Ant, Duran Duran, or Culture Club. They should take away my I-Love-the-80's membership card, good for discounts at Benneton, the Limited, and Morrisey concerts.
I'm late, but--"Homicide" by 999!
Here's what I thought of that isn't duplicated:
Every Breath You Take (Police) (Come on, it's about stalking, isn't it?)
Papa Loved Mama (Garth Brooks -- "Mama's in the graveyard, Papa's in the pen...")
The Thunder Rolls (Garth Brooks -- murder/spouse abuse)
The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia (Reba McIntire)
Riot in Cell Block #9 (I like the Blues Brothers cover -- maybe they have other "crime songs"?)