GD Songs & Covers Death Count

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Over the weekend, I found myself wondering how many people were killed in GD songs and covers, and I thought the zone would be a good place to do some preliminary research. Candyman got me thinking about this; should Mr. Benson be counted as a kill?

Three dead from "Me and My Uncle"

Can't even begin to speculate about "Morning Dew"

"When I get back to Memphis, there will be one less man alive."

"If I had me a shotgun, I'd blow you straight to hell."

One line sys someone is dead. The other infers that the guy didn't have a gun to do it.

Beats me.

Bobby's uncle

Narrator in El Paso. 
 

Baby in morning Dew? 
 

Not sure if Stagger Lee does after being shot in balls

Shannon killed the watchman. Jack killed Shannon. 

Mr. Benson still doing well... "if I had" denotes he ain't got no shotgun.

Sweet William

 

Delilah Jones

when a dragon with matches is loose on the town, you'd think there would be some collateral damage,  before they could  get their hands on a pail of water. 

unless it's the kinda town where a city ordinance requires pails of water to be at the ready

Stagger Lee lived

Billy Delyon died

Gomorrah definitely died

The stranger who hadn't heard the news also gets it

St. stephen was stoned to death

The stranger who didn't even draw in Mexicali Blues, "'Cause I shot first and killed him".

Edit: Beat me to it, Bss.

He's gone

Black Peter was in pretty rough shape, but I think he made it out of the song alive

Mason dies right off the bat

all who could not sink or swim

Brother Esau killed a (Meredith?) hunter, back in 1969

west LA Fadeaway


this is really racking my brain mike

All that and "Me And My Uncle" is actually a John Phillips song... you did say cover's, my bad.

 

Carry on.

"Gommorah"- Lott's wife. Boom.

Pistol shot at 5 o' clock
The Belles of Heaven Ring...

Someone died there,  but it's not spelled out...

Sampson & Delilah, we got 10,000 + 1, and the lion:

He stretched out his arm, God knows, chains broke like thread,
When he got to moving, ten thousand was dead.

and

You read about this lion, he killed a man with his paws,
But Samson got his hands around that lion's jaws.

He ripped the beast till he killed him dead.
The bees made honey in the lion's head

 

 

Standing on the Moon

 

Abel

Brother Esau killed a hunter.

Box of Rain 

El Paso.  One little kiss, and Feleena, goodbye 

Phil sang box of rain to his dying father, but nobody actually dies in the song.

I suppose similar reasoning could be given about he's gone or the belushi song, though very technically speaking belushi was killed by another.

 

mike i think we need a ruling here. Is this a total death count or confirmed kills only?

The protagonist is killed in El Paso, but that's not until the last verse.

 the handsome young stranger was killed first.

the jewelry man is taken out by Dupree

Good one ^ 

settled his tab in lead

> mike i think we need a ruling here

Bss, it's way too early for a ruling; we're just collecting data right now. But I would say that what I had in mind is explicit kills, so Mr. Benson doesn't make the cut, nor would Ken's post about Morning Dew, where it's implied that legions have died.

I also have to mention here that your line--"this is really racking my brain mike"--has cracked me up a couple of times already today.

Stagger Lee probably wished he was dead.

Maybe someday I will dance on your grave, unable to dance I'll crawl across it

seems like somebody should have died in Loser and Dire Wolf

 

 

my hopes of an epic encore died when they played dayjob

grandpa died last week

RIP Mrs. Jones

Sugaree:

"When they come to take you down
When they bring that wagon around
When they come to call on you
And drag your poor body down"

"One last voice is calling you
And I guess it's time you go"

 

Kind of oblique, but seems like Sugaree is meeting her maker for her 'crime'.

The goat from US Blues got skinned. I'd say that's a kill

Wasn't Dire Wolf about the Zodiac Killer? How many did he off.

Bird Song + 1

 

Cryptical Envelopment - you know he had to die...

Death Don't Have No Mercy, and whatever did become of the baby??

Jack-A-Roe - ten thousand fell and among the dead and wounded, her boy she found. So we'll say at least half were killed.

Valerie - he shot his dog because he barked (probably dead)

Werewolves of London - little old lady got mutilated

I'll file this line from Sing Me Back Home under Close, but no cigar: "The warden led the prisoner down the hallway to his doom."

 

Dead and Company killed the tempos

 

He was a Friend of Mine.

The dude who turned 21 in prison doing life without parole probably offed someone.

Cream Puff War - no one died but it was still messy

Ruby turned to stone. 

 

Can that be fixed? 

Good thread.

DaBreeze, he shot the dog 'cause it growled at her....

 

The only quote I've read about Dire Wolf and the Zodiac, was when Garcia would be driving from SF back to Marin after the recording sessions,

during the Zodiac killings, and he'd stop at an intersection with a red light and would say "Don't murder me, don't murder me..." 

He sounded like he was serious about it at the time, but I don't think Hunter had that connection....

 

Of course, the final Dire Wolf was played at Deer Creek in '95 on the night of the death threat...

Garcia's gallows humor, indeed.

 

New Speedway Boogie -- In the heat of the sun a man died of cold

 

Louis Collins Angels laid him away.

Bird Song All I know is she sang a little while and then flew off.

Brown Eyed Women Tumble down shack in Big Foot county.
Snowed so hard that the roof caved in.
Delilah Jones went to meet her God,
And the old man never was the same again.

The prisoner is "Sing Me Back Home" definitely dies shortly after the song ends, I'd say.

 

I interpret 

"She came and went

 and at last went away"

as Rosemary dying but I guess it's up open for interpretation 

 

 

Okay, Dire Wolf for sure.  

I'm a little confused about counting metaphors and analogies 

In The Other One, it's not death, it's finding a new conscienceless

Cassidy Catch colt draws a coffin cart.

See that My Grave is Kept Clean.

Well death don't have no mercy in this land
Well death don't have no mercy in this land
In this land
He come to your house, he don't stay long
Look in the bed, find your mother's gone
I said death don't, death don't have no mercy in this land

Death will leave you standing and crying in this land
Death will leave you standing and crying in this land
In this land
You know he come to your house, and he don't stay long
One of these days, you know your father will be gone
Death don't, death don't have no mercy in this land

Well you know death don't take no vacation in this land
Well death don't take no vacation in this land
In this land
Well he come to your house, and he don't stay long
One of these days you know your family's gonna be gone
I said death don't, death don't have no mercy in this land

Well now death will leave you standing and crying in this land
Death will leave you standing and crying in this land
In this land
I said he come to your house, you know he don't stay long
Look in the bed, you know one of these days, your own self will be gone
I said death don't, death don't, death don't have no mercy in this land

Well now death don't have no mercy in this land
Well death don't have no mercy in this land
In this land
Well, he come to your house, you know he don't stay long
Look in the bed, your whole family's gone
I said death don't, death don't have no mercy in this land

Rev. Gary Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXPh7EbB1Tw

GD Hampton 10/09/89: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wA-cm_bo58

Then God way up in heaven one day for her did call
I lost my bride, oh how I loved her, my Rosa Lee McFall

 

 

Dark stars aren't people but they crash and pour their light into ashes which insinuates death.

^^^ based on Sloppy Joe's statement about "ashes which insinuates death," then Throwing Stones might qualify

They covered Al Green's Take Me To The River, which has the line "watching me drown" in it.

Casey Jones lyrics don't specifically mention death, but we all know how that story ends.

Eternity is focused on the afterlife.

The main guy in Long Black Veil dies and also someone 'neath the town hall light


Black Peter

All of my friends come to see me last night
I was laying in my bed and dying
Annie Beauneu from Saint Angel
Say "the weather down here so fine"

Just then the wind
Came squalling through the door
But who can
The weather command?
Just want to have
A little peace to die
And a friend or two 
I love at hand 

Fever roll up to a hundred and five
Roll on up
Gonna roll back down
One more day
I find myself alive
Tomorrow 
Maybe go
Beneath the ground

See here how everything
Lead up to this day
And it's just like
Any other day
That's ever been
Sun goin up
And then the 
Sun it goin down
Shine through my window and
My friends they come around
Come around
Come around

The people may know but
People don't care
That a man could be
As poor as me
Take a look at poor Peter
He's lying in pain
Now let's go run
And see

Run and see
Run and see
Run, run, and see
Hey, hey, run and see

What's become of the baby this cold December morning?

 

couple Dylan tunes that the boys covered:

Stuck Inside of Mobile -- Grandpa died last week, and they buried him in the rocks

Queen Jane -- Now when all the clowns that you have commissioned, have all died in battle or in vain