Music, like poetry, can be interpreted on many different levels. We hear what the words say and the tunes evoke memories of different times and places. But when you have murder on your mind, some songs have interesting undertones. Can you guess the songs based on my hints below? (I'm giving you an example to get you started. I'll let you know as you guess a correct answer, but I'll supply answers for the ones you haven't guessed on Friday, October 21.)
Example: A song by a well-known crooner I like to call The Control Freak Song that may have been heard when the eagle was landing. (Answer: Frank Sinatra, My Way)
1. The Stalker Song. A song you could say had law enforcement assistance even though the law was busy with other things during the Reagan years.
2. The Lustful Song might spring into your mind when you are watching a soap opera or the wedding of Charles and Diana.
3. The Adulterer’s Song may make you feel ripped apart, perhaps like Britain was feeling 200 years ago.
4. The Murderer’s Song. There weren't any peeps after the burial so early in the turn of the century.
5. The Hitman Song. Has your current beau got a secret extra job? Working holidays, Sundays for special rates in the '70s could get you down under.
6. Victim’s POV. It's a dog's life in the nineties unless you know some tricks.
7. Crime of Passion. Desperate acts of young men in cantinas became ballads while most eyes were on Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution.
8. Assassination. Woodstock memories are only part of the history of this decade.
9. Mass Murder. Jim's knife was not involved, I swear. But there were guns, bombs and more in the Nixon era.
10. Spousal Abuse. I am crying freedom! The Berlin Wall came down around the time this song was released.
11. Blackmail Song. Hot off the presses is this tune of a blackmailing black male.
12. The Eternal Mystery. What was it that was thrown off the bridge that day? It had nothing to do with Jimmy Hoffa going to jail around that time.
I will eat my hat if #12 isn't Bobbie Gentry's Ode to Billie Joe. If somebody knows the answer to what happened to Jimmy Hoffa now is a good time to say. Kev
ReplyDeleteKev, I'm from New Jersey. We all know where Hoffa is buried, just as everyone in Louisville knows what happened to the gold in Fort Knox. They're both State Secrets, ya know?
ReplyDeleteI would go with you on #12, but haven't one clue about the others - don't listen to much pop music.
Don't ask me why I know this because I haven't watched many soap operas, but Number 2 must be Jessie's Girl by Rick Springfield of General Hospital fame. It's a song about lusting after his friend's girlfriend. Vickie S.
ReplyDeleteSince MC doesn't seem to be around at the moment, I can't resist congratulating Kev and Vickie on their correct answers. So forget about that fedora for dinner, Kev.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a different era so whenever I hear Mariah Carey's "you'll always be my baby" I think doesn't she know the lyrics are creepy and stalker like. That is the only song I know of as the stalker song. I know what went off the bridge but I won't say so to avoid offending sensitive ears.
ReplyDeletePs my theory on 5) is dirty deeds done dirt cheap.
Rhiannon,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. The song at #5 is from the Australian group AC/DC and is Dirty Deeds Done Cheap released in 1976. George looks expensive though, don't you think?
No. 9: Jim's knife means it's a song by David Bowie. Running Gun Blues is about mass murder.
ReplyDeleteA guess for No. 1 after reading what Rhiannon said about Mariah Carey's song: The law enforcement angle might mean a song by The Police. Every Breath You Take? Some people think it's a love song but I find it creepy crawlie.
Is No. 4 Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads? The word peeps made me think of them but it doesn't fit the turn of the century part of the hint.
Hannah
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteYou are right on two counts. # 1 is Every Breath You Take by the Police and released in the eighties. Sting in an interview was asked why he always looked so angry while singing this song and his response was that it was about some one being watched in an obsessive manner.
#9 is in deed by David Bowie, and I am glad you picked up on the knife clue. Running Gun Blues was released in 1971 during the Vietnam War.
Keep thinking about number four, there are two clues in the description.
Is the Assassination song "In the Summer of His Years" recorded by Connie Francis? It was written about the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy. --Tom
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteYou are warm, but not quite there.
Could the Assassination song be Abraham, Martin and John? It has been recorded by various singers.
ReplyDeleteBob
Bob,
ReplyDeleteYou have it right. The song came out in late 1968 after two assassinations that year, that of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. The version I am most familiar with is Dion's.
Is #4 goodbye earl by the dixie chicks?
ReplyDeleteAnd #6 has to be by snoop dogg. Maybe murder is the case.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous1 & 2,
ReplyDeleteI am guessing you are the same anonymous. You know your music. You are correct on both counts. Goodbye Earl came out in the year 2000 sung by the Dixie Chicks about the murder of an abusive spouse. Murder Was The Case was released in the mid-nineties by Snoop Dogg AKA Snoop Doggy Dogg who also made a short film about his own killing and subsequent resurrection aided by a pact with the devil. Dr Dre was involved in it's making as well.
I am soooo impressed by everyone! I thought I knew my Pop culture. I hang my head in embarrassment and shame!
ReplyDeleteKathy
Read an article about a natural gas co. and it came to me. #7's got to be about Rosa's cantina in El Paso by Marty Robbins. And now that we're in country land maybe Independence Day by Martina McBride is the answer to #10. The Berlin Wall came down in 1989 and Martina's song was from the early 90's. Close enough? Kev
ReplyDeleteKev,
ReplyDeleteYou have hit it on the head with El Paso, the song about the lovely Felina, the Mexican beauty who drove a young man to kill a another who dared to dance with the girl he loved.
On the other hand Martina McBride did not sing # 10. But I will give you a clue.The word South is part of the group's name.