Kevin wrote re Red Right Hand and The Murder Ballads:
> The entirety? I dunno. I tend to skip over a couple of the songs.
> Cave, who's usually a smart and surprisingly subtle and witty artist,
> given his frequent subject matter, just chews up the scenery a little
> much on a few of them. The hammy overkill may work in concert, but on
> record it just comes off as a little forced and silly.
It definitely does work in concert. I saw the Bad Seeds last week and it
was an electrifying performance. As well as the great list Kevin gave,
here are a couple more of my favourite noir music examples.
THE FLAMING STARS (not to be confused with The Flaming Lips). The lead
singer, Max Decharne who wrote the non-fiction book HARDBOILED
HOLLYWOOD. He's a big fan of crime fiction (as seen by the titles of
some of the band's songs - You Don't Always Want What You Get, Kiss
Tomorrow Goodbye, Face On The Barroom Floor, A Hell of A Woman, New
Shade of Black, Downhill Without Brakes...songs from the bottom of a
beer glass.
THE RAMONES - 53rd and 3rd is about a male prostitute who kills his
customer with a razor blade (written by Dee Dee Ramone who was,
apparently, a male prostitute at one point to feed his heroin
addiction). The KKK Took My Baby Away was written by Joey Ramone
allegedy after ultra-conservative Johnny Ramone nicked his girlfriend.
Blitzkrieg Bop with its line "Shoot 'em in the back now", Beat On The
Brat which was written by Joey Ramone after she saw a mother beating her
child with a baseball bat, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue...loads of dark
and twisted lyrics in their songs.
VIOLENT FEMMES - Country Death Song - about a man who pushes his
daugther into a well. "Well, I'm a thinking and thinking, til there's
nothing I ain't thunk, Breathing in the stink, till finally I stunk. It
was at that time I swear I lost my mind, And started making plans to
kill my own kind." brrrrrrrrrr.
THE CRAMPS - with their wonderful brand of psycho noir.
THE HANDSOME FAMILY'S Beautiful William "Was he given a package by a man
on the train? We found his car by the roadside later that day...He left
his lights burning. He left his perfect lawn, His automatic sprinklers
about to switch on."
MARK LANEGAN - Methamphetamine Blues
TOM WAITS (of course!), THE CLASH, THE SISTERS OF MERCY...I shall stop
there :o)
Donna
-- http://www.bigbeatfrombadsville.blogspot.com/
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