Monday, January 03, 2011

Murder-Song Monday: the Cold Rain and Snow

Start of a new series (because every blogger needs one). I'm not sure how long this one will last, but I know there are an awful lot of great murder-songs in our musical heritage. Plus, the phrase "Murder-Song Monday" was irresistible to me.

For a murder-song, this one's fairly understated. In fact, that's the beauty of this lyric. This seems to be the rumination of a man alone with his guilt, replaying his self-justification {"she ran me out in the rain and snow"), and seeing, over and over, "her cheeks as red as the rose." This seems to be an old English ballad. It has been recorded numerous times, most famously I suppose by The Grateful Dead. Rowan's voice is plaintive and lonely, and seems to me to shiver with unspoken regret.



The Be Good Tanyas also do a nice version.

4 comments:

Mark Babikow said...

I wonder if your motive is to make fun of 'music-day blog posts' which I think is great...but 'Murder-Song Monday' is quite a lyrical phrase, so I LOVE it. And I love this haunting melody....never heard it before but found it beautiful to use the mandolin to create such a haunting tone. The song that immmediately came to my mind when I heard this was 'Down by the River' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QsSc95pPPY&feature=related

Keep the series going:)

Mark Babikow said...

Better version :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB5bGDPJakE

see what you started!

Bob Spencer said...

thanks, Mark. I've definitely had that one in mind for a future post in the series.

Anonymous said...

i like this
has depth
and lovely fingers