Unprepared To Die: America's Greatest Murder Ballads And The True Crime Stories That Inspired Them
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.49 (583 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 099294807X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 336 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-02-03 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
CSACHB said Great read. This is a great book. Very well written. Very educated authors and collaboration. I bought this book as a gift for my father who always saying Knoxville Girl to me when I was growing up. He also used to seeing Tom Dooley some of the others. He and my mom were thrilled to get this book. Living in a small town when something as horrific as a murder occur. "Very pleased with this book" according to Judy Williams. Very pleased with this book. I had seen it before I ordered it as it contains information on one of my long ago family members. Hope to read the rest of the book soon. Very, very pleased with purchase.
"I thought I'd have a quick dip in and ended up reading it from beginning to end: compulsive stuff." -- Ian Anderson, Roots“Great work.” – Kristin Hersh, Throwing Muses.“Fantastic.” – Dave Henderson, Mojo."A dauntingly complete and fascinating piece of work.” -- Greil Marcus
Victims are bludgeoned, stabbed or shot in every verse and killers often hanged, but the songs themselves never die. Stagger Lee’s “biographers” alone include Duke Ellington, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Dr John, The Clash and Nick Cave. Billy Bragg, The Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey, Laura Cantrell, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family and a host of other leading musicians add their own insights.. Covering eight classic murder ballads, including “Knoxville Girl”, “Tom Dooley” and “Frankie & Johnny”, Slade investigates the real-life murder which inspired each song and traces its musical development down the decades. Paul Slade traces this fascinating genre’s history through eight of its greatest songs. Cheerfully vulgar, revelling in gore, and always with an eye on the main chance, murder ballads are tabloid newspapers set to music, carrying word of the latest ‘orrible murders to an insatiable public. No two tell his story in quite the same way. Instead, they mutat
This is his first book. This morphed into planetslade where he discusses murder ballads in depth. He has also made documentaries for BBC Radio 4, covering subjects like a forgotten radio hoax of 1926 and the craze for "dirty blues" lyrics in pre-war America. Paul Slade is a London based journalist who has written for The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Guardian, The Times, The O