Song of the Week: Bruce Springsteen "Highway Patrolman"

The conflict between family ties and upholding the law beautifully illustrated in this album track from The Boss. In this song, the patrolman chooses his wayward brother over his duty as a lawman, in contrast to the response of most tv detectives, who more often than not turn in their own flesh and blood.

Song of the Week: "Midnight on the Murder Mile" by Carter USM

I thought this feature had died (a natural death, it wasn't murdered) as I'd ran out of appropriate songs. Then last night the OH and I were discussing The Kills and their song "The Murder Mile", and he mentioned the Carter song of a similar title.

Most of the songs I've featured have been ones I've liked. I was never a big Carter fan myself, but I will dedicate this to my OH and revive this feature.

Song of the Week: "Theme from Ironside2 by Quincy Jones

There hasn't been a song of the week for a long time. This week is can only be one thing, the theme from Quincy.

I usually avoid just doing theme tunes, but I've pretty much ran out of other tenously connected songs, and this one is by the legendary Quincy Jones so I think deserves its place here.

It is a great dramatic opening to the show and the theme is then reprised through the episodes in different forms to indicate the mood. I do love it but ten episodes into the boxset, it is beginnign to grate on me slightly.

Song of the Week: Echo and the Bunnymen "The Killing Moon"

Another tenuous choice - nowt to do with detectives, but it has the word "killing" in the title and was used in the film "Grosse Point Blank" which is about a hitman According to Wikipedia, Ian McCulloch told Smash Hits magazine that the song was about "a moon with a machine gun".

Actually it doesn't seem quite to tenuous a choice at all now.

Also I have a bit of thing for Ian McCulloch. I think its the arrogance.

Song of the Week: Bob Marley "I Shot the Sheriff"

I was in Spain the week before last and the poolside bar played a lot of Bob Marley. Not the political stuff (I've cleared a pub in the past by putting "Redemption Song" on the jukebox) but the more poppy ones. Which reminded me that I hadn't picked this obvious choice for my Song of the Week.

According to Wikipedia, Marley had wanted the lyrics to say "I shot the Police" but feared the reaction from the Government. The song didn't attract any controversy but there is an interesting article here about why it didn't when compared to "Cop Killer", although it does focus on the Eric Clapton version rather than the Marley original.

Song of the Week: Radiohead "Karma Police"

I'll confess here and now. I don't like Radiohead as much as everyone else does. For a while I was convinced they were the most over-rated band in the world.

But then I'll here certain songs, and realise that actually they are pretty good and I can see what all the fuss is about. "Fake Plastic Trees" is my favourite Radiohead song, but even I can't pretend that it is detective related, so instead, here is my second or third favourite, "Karma Police".

Song of the Week: Gram Parsons and Emmy Lou Harris "Streets of Baltimore"

Since I've watched nothing but Homicide and The Wire this week, it seems only fitting that I pick a Baltimore song.

It isn't anything to do with detectives, but like The Wire and Homicide Life on the Streets, it is about the streets of Baltimore.

And its by Gram Parsons, the acceptable face of country music, the grandfather of alt-country, the pioneer of country/rock fusions etc etc etc. Actually the older I get the more country music I like, but Gram Parsons was one of the first country-ish artists that I liked.

Song of the Week: New Order "Thieves Like Us"

I'll confess that this song has nothing to do with crime at all. It has the word "thieves" in the title, but nowhere in the song. It is a song about love actually (aren't most songs?). But it is by New Order and its great.

Song of the Week: The Clash "Somebody Got Murdered"

If I was a fan of rap or heavy metal, it would be really easy to find songs about murder, slayings and shootings, but my tastes are more refined. This makes finding the Song of Week a bit harder, as I’m determined to stick with what is my idea of good music.

I’m not a huge fan of The Clash. I think I have trouble getting over the fact that they were mainly posh boys (son of a diplomat, anyone?) which makes it harder for me to take their political stance so serious. But this song is pretty good.

Way better than anything by bands with names like Slayer, Dismember, Razor or Cannibal Corpse!

Song of the Week: The Jam "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight"

The dangers of the London underground presented by Paul Weller. There aren't many songs about beatings that make you want to sing along loudly (Killing of a Flashboy has that effect too but that's probably just on me).

Despite what Paul Weller has become (a grumpy has-been with no musical relevance and a tragic haircut) this is undeniably great.

Enjoy!

Song of the Week: Suede "Killing of a Flashboy"

I don't know why this song didn't occur to me earlier really.

Suede aren;t a fashionable band to name drop these days, but back in the day they meant a huge amount to me. I was given free tickets to see them when they'd just released their first single, The Drowners, they played six songs for a radio show and blew me away. At 17, the songs about unsuitable love, sordid sex and drugs seemed hopelessly glamorous and they wore great shirts and had great floppy hair.

This song was originally a B side and as they say, a live favourite. It has a special place in my affections as I won a competition on the XFM breakfast show to see Suede by naming the song that the DJ was acting out and it was this one. It was only a few years ago, they were well past their prime and the OH laughed at me for still going.

The song is about someone being beaten to death, possibly for wearing a frilly shirt and having floppy hair.

Song of the Week: Bruce Springsteen "Murder Incorporated"

Yes, its back after a prolonged absense. The feature of (at times tenuous) crime related songs!

Getting us back in the saddle is Bruce Springsteen with Murder Incorporated.

This a song about how dangerous it is out there on the streets, which seems appropriate after watching all of those episodes of Homicide Life on the Street.

I'm quite partial to a bit of The Boss actually. My mum likes him too and its rare that our musical tastes coincide and or a time (when I was still at home) whenever we went anywhere in the car together I'd insist on listening to Bruce.

Song of the Week: Donovan "Hurdy Gurdy Man"

Its been a while since I posted a Song of the Week and I feared that the well may have run dry. But here it makes a return with 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' by sixties singer Donovan.

You may well wonder of the relevance of this song. Well, it is here because it is the title music to the film Zodiac, which I re-watched at the weekend. And how menacing did it sound over the film? Now I find it terrifying. Its so creepy.

My OH claims he always thought it was, but then he agreed with Shaun Ryder who said of Donovan 'anyone that happy has got to be evil'.

Song of the Week: Jane's Addiction "Been Caught Stealing"

Another song about theft! In fact a veritable 'How To' guide to stealing if you what you want to steal is a razor. It doesn't really cover grand larceny.



Completely unrelated to detectives, but the pub I used to frequent in my youth, someone had written 'Perry Farrell is lush' on the door of the ladies' toilet. Was he lush? I'm not sure, but this is a great song nonetheless. Actually if I'd been a better detective, I'd have found out who wrote it but I never did.

Song of the Week: Johnny Cash "Folsom Prison Blues"

The anti-hero narrator of Johnny Cash's song wishes he wasn't in prison, but unlike Michael Schofield (Prison Break), he hasn't come up with a madcap scheme involving tattoos and cyptic clues. Instead he's singing about the state he's in, which is a pretty miserable one, but a marvellous song.

Song of the Week: The Kills "Murdermile"

I will confess I was purposefully looking through our CD collection for possible Songs of the Week. At first when I spotted The Kills' CD, I thought I could just use 'Love is a Deserter' the one song of theirs I really know, but really love, because you know the band name has the word Kill in it. But on closer inspection, I found this song Murdermile and luckily enough someone had made a little video to go with it on YouTube. And its pretty damn good - I must give their CD another listen.

Living in London, the Murdermile to me is somewhere in Hackney. Not sure if it is this one to which the song refers (Jamie Hince is London-based and currently 'stepping out with' Kate Moss) or if it is just an allergorical murdermile.

Song of the Week: The Smiths "Shoplifters of the World Unite"

Very low level crime here. Shoplifting isn't the plot of many crime shows - at least not these days. It may have been the crime every week in Dixon of Dock Green (a show that ran for a generation but way before my time and not, to my knowledge, repeated recently).

According to IMDB, shoplifting features in the plot of a couple of episodes of Heartbeat - the Sunday night police comedy/drama set in the 1960s. Again, this isn't a show I've watched properly - I've had it on in the background a few times as they do play good music in it. It also features in an episode of Juliet Bravo and Rumpole of the Bailey.



I doubt Morrissey had any of these shows in mind when he penned this and actually the lyrics do hint at a list of crimes - littering and jay walking perhaps?

Song of the Week: Public Enemy "911's Joke in Your Town'

I've really no business liking Public Enemy. What do they really have to say about my life - a white middle-class woman from northern England? Not alot. But still I love a few of their songs, including this one. The less said about the Duran Duran cover version the better - although I suspect a group of middle-aged millionaire ex-New Romantics from the Midlands know as little as I do about the problems of getting the cops to answer your calls in the ghetto.





The reason I love this song is undoubtedly for the beats behind the lyrics, but its being featured here for its lyrics - in particular it makes me think American shows like The Shield and The Wire where often the police have lost control or are out of control.

Song of the Week: Nancy Sinatra "Bang Bang"

I've been working at a film festival for the last couple of weeks, so it seems fitting that this week's choice is best known these days for its use in a film, namely as the theme tune to Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill'.

I love Nancy Sinatra, controversially probably liking her more than I do her father. 'Some Velvet Morning' her duet with Lee Hazlewood is one of my all time favourite songs, but this is pretty good too. I'm featuring this song here because of all its talk of shooting people down, although I'm pretty sure its not a meditation on gun crime! Its still pretty eery though.

Song of the Week: The Auteurs "Housebreaker"

Hmmm, I’m struggling a little of the Song of Week. I’ve thought of several songs but none of them have been on YouTube because they either weren’t singles and/or they weren’t that popular. So this week’s Song of the Week will not be using a video, instead I will just direct you towards a site where you can listen to the track – not ideal, but the best I can do.

So this week’s selection is ‘Housebreaker’ by The Auteurs, which is from their debut album New Wave. The Auteurs are the band of singer/songwriter Luke Haines, a man who seems to have been universally hated by the music press. I love this album - it was around the same time I was listening to a lot of Suede and lyrically they cover similar ground of seedy underground life and doomed relationships. At the time, I thought there was a glamour in squalor.

They did a later album called ‘After Murder Park’ which contains a track by the same name and one called ‘Unsolved Child Murder’ but I don’t know that album at all and though a song about breaking and entering might make a nice change.

So here are the lyrics to Housebreaker and if it sounds like you sort of tune, I suggest you can probably here it at Last FM here.

When I first met you
You were not house trained
A backwoods trier
The
world's your oyster
Your time is mine
What's yours is mine all
mine
There's no honour
Amongst thieves
So we worked together
A
varied richand famous crime
You had your motivesI had mine
For a soul to
find
Little piece rub off on mine
Trinkets, memorabilia
Diamonds
for the taking
One mans treasurenever meant a thing
When I was
housebreaking
Took a buckshot landing
From my most famous
client
Must have lost it in the fall
Came away empty handed
When
I first met youI was not housetrained