The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (430 page)

2 ‘Stan’

Eminem (2000)

Thirty years later, another watery grave came the way of Stan, his wife and their unborn child in this truly disquieting account from the pen of Marshall Mathers III. If anyone remained in doubt of Eminem’s ability, then this global million-seller hushed the naysayers - though what was most disturbing about the story was the fact that it was based on the letters of a genuine obsessive fan known to the rap superstar. (There are many who felt that the real crime, however, was that ‘Stan’ also foisted British singer Dido onto the world …)

3 ‘Cop Killer’

Body Count (1992)

Protest rap-metal at its rawest, Ice-T’s notorious tale of the victim of police brutality who goes out to exact his revenge was recorded some time before the Rodney King case that, for many, almost singlehandedly validated its release. The track caused such controversy that various law-enforcement agencies and even President George Bush pushed hard for its complete banning. Ice-T played down the situation, stating: ‘If you believe I’m a cop-killer, then you believe that David Bowie is an astronaut’, though he eventually pulled the cut from Body Count’s debut.

4 ‘Bad Man Chi Chi Man’

Beenie Man (2002)

Briefly popular in the UK, dancehall reggae artist Beenie Man hit problems when touring in Europe during 2004. The main issue appeared to be songs such as this, a rallying-call to ‘murder’ Jamaica’s gay men and women - a seemingly standard viewpoint in dancehall music (see Elephant Man, Buju Banton, etc). With Pepsi pulling their sponsorship of his tour and MTV removing him from an award show, Beenie Man attempted to claim that his lyrics were ‘anti-paedophile’ as opposed to ‘anti-gay’ - a standpoint that few detractors were prepared to accept.

5 ‘The Killing of Georgie Pts I & II’

Rod Stewart (1976)

An entirely different take on homophobic homicide came courtesy of Rod Stewart in 1976. This unlikely transatlantic smash -from the singer’s double-platinum album
A Night On the Town
– was the first major hit single to deal with homosexual prejudice in such a manner. Some years later, Stewart revealed that the lyrics had been about a real-life friend of his earlier band, The Faces.

6 ‘Dark Lady’

Cher (1974)

This was a charttopping tale of betrayal and revenge centered on the readings of a fortune teller - who just happened to be the very woman cavorting with Cher’s fictitious partner. Not many have dared cross the former Mrs Bono/Allman, perhaps as a result of studying the lyrics of this Johnny Durrell tune, which had the scorned narrator catching the ‘dark lady’ in the arms of her partner and then shooting them both to death. Cher revisited the subject area in her next single, the equally disturbing ‘Train of Thought’. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

7 ‘Murder Was the Case’

Snoop Doggy Dogg (1994)

This fantasy, in rap’s time-honored tradition, was built around the protagonist himself - Calvin Broadus, aka new-kid-on-the-block Snoop (Doggy) Dogg. Here, Snoop depicts himself as the
victim
of a murder, making a pact with the devil in order to return to the living world. The track - from the artist’s debut
Doggystyle
– then – inspired a short film, the soundtrack of which far outreached its somewhat thin plot. Unlike contemporaries Biggie and 2Pac, Snoop has managed to stay on the right side of the great divide and continues to pump out the good stuff. His music, that is.

8 ‘Folsom Prison Blues’

Johnny Cash (1955)

It is hard to believe that this song is approaching its sixtieth birthday, but The Man in Black’s heartfelt tale of penance and remorse was always likely to outlive its creator. Having ‘shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die’, Johnny is reduced to watching the trains roll by, wishing he himself were traveling somewhere else. A stonewall classic, of course - and one that proved mightily popular behind the stone walls of Folsom itself.

9 ‘Mack the Knife’

Bobby Darin (1959)

A few years later, Bobby Darin came out with surely the most upbeat paean to a murderer that ever there was. First heard via Kurt Weill’s
The Threepenny Opera,
‘Mack the Knife’ still makes ‘Delilah’ sound like a funeral dirge. The song has been recorded by many, first charting for Louis Armstrong in 1956; however, it was fresh-faced Bobby Darin’s cheerful rendition that became a global chart-topper at the end of the decade. One assumes that the crooner’s teen fanbase had no idea that the lyrics alluded to ‘MacHeath’’s victims either lying on the sidewalk or being lowered into the river. Or perhaps they did?

10 ‘Timothy’

The Buoys (1971)

This was almost certainly the only US Top Twenty hit touching on the not-terribly chart-friendly subject of cannibalism. ‘Timothy’ was the unfortunate odd-man-out when three trapped miners decided that they needed to eat to live. Whether his ‘disappearance’ - an apparent mystery to the two survivors when rescued -constitutes murder or manslaughter, it’s hard to say. In an attempt to assuage a radio ban, record label Scepter tried to claim that ‘Timothy’ was a mule: they failed. Arguably more terrifying still was its composer’s later, better-known hit, ‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song)’. Yes, believe it or not, ‘Timothy’ was penned by the young Rupert Holmes.

DEAD INTERESTING!

KILLING IN THE NAME

The artistically opposite worlds of black metal and gangsta rap have one thing in common, of course–an obsession with killing, resulting in a few perpetrating musicians serving time after having committed such genuine atrocities. A glance through
The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars
will already have drawn the reader to, for example, tales of murders committed by Count Grishnackh (who killed Euronymous (
August 1993))
or Young Vito (slayer of Slim Dunkin (
December 2011)).
In truth, hardened listeners have come to expect these grim occurrences within such extreme genres–but which musicians elsewhere have been convicted of murder?

The blues genre has known a fair amount of lawlessness in its long history, of course, major players such as Son House and Leadbelly serving sentences for the killing of other men. Another was guitarist R L Burnside (
Golden Oldies #29),
who was imprisoned in 1959 for the shooting of a gambling opponent, although he memorably claimed accidental death: ‘I didn’t mean to kill nobody–I just wanted to shoot the son-of-a-bitch in the head. Him dyin’ was between him and the Lord.’ A horrific crime of passion was recorded in more recent years with the murder of blues singer Juliette Valentine by musician Bruce Brooks (
May 2002).

While these incidents could all be construed as ‘manslaughter,’ ‘murder’ was undeniable in at least a couple of cases of matricide involving rock musicians. Grammy-winning drummer Jim Gordon had played for many years with Eric Clapton–most notably on the Derek & The Dominos classic ‘Layla’–before his debilitating schizophrenia caused him to attack and kill his own mother with a hammer in 1983. Gordon’s defence of mental illness was dismissed in court, however; in 1984, the musician was sentenced to sixteen years in jail. (Two years later, a similar case emerged involving since-deceased metal vocalist Kurt Struebing (
March 2005).)
Less is known about British psychedelic-rock singer Howard King Jr of acclaimed band Dr Phibes & The House of Wax Equations: in 1997, he was also jailed for the reported killing of his mother.

The murder of a partner has caused several musicians to serve time–most luridly in the case of Skatalites legend Don Drummond, the ska trombonist believed by many to have been killed in prison as retribution for the 1965 murder of Anita Mahfood (
May 1969).
While Sid Vicious died before he could be tried for the stabbing of Nancy Spungen (
February 1979),
another troubled punk musician, Sam McBride of Fang, was convicted of manslaughter following the heroin-fuelled strangulation of his girlfriend ten years later. Jealousy was apparently the motive behind Western Swing hero Spade Cooley’s intoxicated bludgeoning of his wife in 1961, as it was to be in Noir Désir singer Bertrand Cantat’s brutal 2003 killing of a lover. The same motivation cannot be offered for the death of b-movie actress Lana Clarkson, who was murdered by revered producer Phil Spector that same year, given that they’d only recently met; however, Spector’s repeated penchant for drunkenly pulling pistols on women trying to leave his home did him few favors when he was found guilty of her fatal shooting in 2007. (Another fabled producer who ‘spoke with the gun’ was Joe Meek: his landlady Violet Shenton’s murder came just moments before his suicide via the same weapon (
February 1967).)