When the leaves start falling and the pumpkin spice lattes start selling, a switch inside of me turns on and the side of my mind that loves the darker things in life goes into overdrive. Horror movies? Bring ‘em on. Scary stories? The more the merrier. Haunted houses? Can’t get enough. Autumn brings out a craving for oddity and the ominous, and with America’s love of Halloween, there is no shortage of macabre material to look to when the days get shorter while the nights yawn overhead like exhausted college kids. However, there’s one square on the proverbial fall bingo card that I always have had trouble filling: music.
Yes, before you say anything, I enjoy the soundtracks of The Nightmare Before Christmas and can jam out to the Ghostbusters theme song any day of the week, but the kind of music I look for around harvest time isn’t nearly as whimsical. Screamo or songs with bloodstained lyrics and entrails abound don’t do it for me either. What I want is music that haunts me, that sends a chill down my spine with how beautiful it sounds despite the horrors being described. I want my heart to ache and my pulse to rise, to feel a pull towards something unnamable and unnatural. I want to be scared and seduced. Unfortunately, not a lot of mainstream music can produce those kinds of feelings in me. That’s where murder ballads come in.
Murder ballads, as the name implies, are songs about someone’s life being taken by another. While death and music have always been intrinsically linked, what makes murder ballads so interesting are the real-life connections to actual crimes many of them are about. Take for instance American Murder Song’s “Pretty Lavinia”, an upbeat little ditty about Lavinia Fisher, America’s first female serial killer. Or, if your in the mood for something a bit more modern, try Sufjan Stevens’ “John Wayne Gacy Jr.”, a chilling song about the real-life inspiration for Stephen King’s IT.
I’d be lying if I said all murder ballads are based in fact though. Some of the best are those rooted in the horrors of the imagination. “The Twa Sisters”, by far one of the oldest murder ballads and one with numerous variants and versions, is clearly a work of fiction. Harps made out of the bones of the dead don’t generally sing, now do they? But when they do, man do they provide a story worth setting music to. The Steeldrivers’ “If It Hadn’t Been For Love” and Aurora’s “Murder Song (5 4 3 2 1)” also have no actual recorded crimes for inspiration, but their heart-wrenching first-person perspectives of both murderer and victim respectively serve to provide eerie insight into the minds of the two most impacted by the heinous act.
While murder ballads aren’t the most cheery or optimistic, they do serve an incredibly important purpose. Art imitates life, with the inversion being true as well. Murder ballads reflect the darker side of humanity, and by giving them a listen we can try to understand those shadowy bits of our nature we try to hide. I’m in no way suggesting anyone takes a stab at becoming a killer (pun fully intended). No, I just think autumn is the perfect time to think on what monsters exist beyond the typical ghosts and ghouls, and music provides an especially powerful medium. So next time you open up Spotify and decide to make a fall playlist, think about adding a murder ballad or two to the queue. They might just add a bit of spice to your life that, for once, isn’t pumpkin.