Murder Ballads

I said a couple weeks ago that I would do a post of Murder Ballads, and I guess Halloween is an appropriate time to do that. So here they are.

To start off here is Ralph Stanley and Patty Loveless performing "Pretty Polly".



Many murder ballads originated somewhere on the British Isles, and then the events were relocated to this side of the ocean when they were brought over and performed in the United State. "The Knoxville Girl" originates from an Elizabethan poem titled "The Cruel Miller". Here is Jim & Jesse McReynolds' version of that song.



Most of the videos of murder ballads are by men, but here is Joan Baez performing "The Lily of the West". Also in this one—unlike the previous two—it is not the girl that gets murdered.

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I am not sure if this last song counts as a murder ballad or not. It deals with the consequences of a murder, and not the murder itself. But I am including it anyway. Also—compared to the previous songs—this is a recent song, having been written in 1959 by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin. Here is Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris' version of "Long Black Veil".