Head Hung
I found the music of Colorado-based songwriter and recording artist Rorey Carroll, when she “liked” our Facebook page. I looked up her web site, and gave “Head Hung” a listen, and heard something I recognized in this original murder ballad. A few e-mails later, and we had a plan for a new and different kind of week at Murder Ballad Monday.
First, we start our discussion with an on-line video of the song created specifically for the blog, and then later we’ll post a two-part interview with Carroll about her creative process and the murder ballad genre. We may be sacrificing a little bit of breadth for depth this week, but will be more than compensated by a few hidden gems and the benefit of an extended conversation about an artist’s complex engagement with and elaboration of the murder ballad tradition.
I’m very pleased to present the Rorey Carroll Band’s recording of “Head Hung,” This recording was made specifically for this post and is only available on YouTube at the moment through this link.
“Head Hung,” by Rorey Carroll (also on Spotify)
Head Hung
And I’ve been thinking what these hands of mine had done.
And I said, “oh, you better up and run.”
I never knew that I could kill a man until the deed was done.
Well I worked my body till I could not stand.
Walking home with whiskey bottle in my hand.
He came around sneakin’ [creepin’] like a snake,
but my body was a lion’s den and looking was his first mistake.
Well he told me that I got some pretty eyes,
as his hand went slowly creepin’ up my thigh.
He said, “Girl, the devil lies in you.
Won’t you come around the corner, let daddy make a good girl out of you.”
Well my knife went in him quick as he went down,
and I stabbed for every dirty man in that town.
His blood was warm, the cleanest thing on that street.
And I felt the earth below me as my soul went away from me.
Now I’ve been sitting here with my head I had hung.
And I’ve been thinking what these dirty hands had done.
And I said, “oh, you better up and run.”
I never knew that I could kill a man until the dead was done.
I’ve been thinking what these hands of mine have done
Finally, there’s at least a little ambiguity to just how justified the killer feels she is–before, during, and after killing her antagonist. Whether the listener agrees with her depends a great deal on how he or she fills in the rest of the details of the scene.
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| Still from “Thelma & Louise” (1991) |
Just as reader comments to the blog often help me get to things straight expository writing won’t, it seemed helpful for me to bounce “Head Hung” off a few other songs for the purposes of contrast. We’ll start with Johnny Cash’s performance of a similarly-titled, but otherwise unrelated murder ballad.
“I Hung My Head” was written by Sting. In it, the shooting is accidental, but the repentance is clear. The killer in Carroll’s song is not as overtly remorseful, but she is equally stunned at what she has done. Life is suddenly very different, and there are consequences both internal and external (punishment, at least potentially). Another part of the contrast, I think, has something to do with the fact that the killing in “Head Hung” is not entirely incidental (as distinct from accidental). However much our protagonist acts to defend herself, she also is owning up to having been ready for a fight, at some level. The decedent pays for more sins than just his own.
You might also be curious, for instance, why our protagonist has a knife.
Self-defense or vengeance?
Now, give a listen to this pair of songs, and let me know where you think the protagonists’ acts fall in a continuum from self-defense to justified killing to murder.
Many of you have probably already been thinking about this one. It was the song I first thought of after hearing “Head Hung.” We’ll definitely have to come back to it in a later week. Welch’s achievement in crafting this contemporary, yet old, murder ballad is great.
“Caleb Meyer” by Gillian Welch (Spotify) (Lyrics [and chords])
Now, try this one on for size:
With no disrespect intended to either the Mission Mountain Express or the Kenny and Amanda Smith Band, I had trouble finding a version of “Cruel Willie” that was wholly satisfactory. The first version I ever heard was performed by The Bing Brothers, from West Virginia, who introduced it in a way similar to the singer in the YouTube clip above. I can’t find their recording, but I’m not sure now that it would help.
I’ve come to suspect that one of the reasons that “Cruel Willie” no longer works for me is that it’s a bit more contrived–a set piece to prove more of a political point than to make an artistic one. It is clever in its own way, but it’s more of a gag piece. Maybe it’s just that it doesn’t take this gender issue in particular, or the murder ballad generally, with enough nuance and seriousness.
Carroll’s song, like Gillian Welch’s, is more successful artistically because there is more of an edge. The characters are haunted, each in their own way, despite the justification they feel for what they did. That being said, I think there’s still a helpful contrast to be drawn between Carroll’s song and Welch’s. Carroll’s protagonist has more agency within the song, and so the grappling with death, life, and responsibility for each is much more involved. She defends herself, but discovers that there was more to it than that. The situation is not just an accident that happens to her, but a tragedy, in the sense that what transpires is as much a function of the protagonist’s character as it is her circumstances. This is not to blame this character for being in that situation, or necessarily to say that she isn’t justified in what she does, but it is to say that there appears to be greater intent for violence there to begin with, and the subsequent moral reckoning is far more complicated.
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| Zeb Bowles, Rorey Carroll, Brad Murphey |
Next up
We begin a two-part interview with Rorey Carroll, where she discusses the creative context of “Head Hung” and the issues that are involved in crafting and performing the song. She also introduces us to a few other excellent murder ballads that you may not have heard. Stay tuned.