10 Death Ballads for All Hallow’s Eve

Halloween is now upon us. As you’re digging through your record collection or shopping online to find appropriate tunes for your All Hallow’s Eve party, you needn’t look beyond a couple of genres: bluegrass and traditional country. Sure, one can find hokey pop songs like “The Monster Mash” or Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (including a campy Vincent Price introduction.) Others might look to over-the-top metal like Gwar, Rob Zombie, or Slayer. But for those looking for genuinely spooky (and sometimes terrifying) storytelling, nothing trumps a good old-fashioned death ballad. You know, the kind that go something like:

Lord, I courted her for years, she was to be my darlin’,
But now her love has disappeared, on her body I’ll be carvin’.

Or something like that…

While the victim is typically a female, often innocent of nothing more than a wayward glance, there are also examples of men getting their due for more legitimate offenses of infidelity or even assault. But, let’s face it, the persistent misogyny in this song form is profound and deep. It’s downright scary and creepy. Which is exactly the point! This is Halloween, a time to explore and exploit those deep-seated fears and bring them to the surface. This is the one day of the year where society allows us a cathartic purging of our cultural id. Halloween is a vessel in which to pour all of the anxieties and anguish we repress the other three-hundred and sixty-four days of the calendar. So, grab yourself a glass of whiskey, don your zombie costume, and enjoy some authentically creepy story-songs complete with beautiful vocal harmonies, intricate melodies, and plenty of murdered ex-lovers.

“Banks of the Ohio” (performed by Bill Monroe & Doc Watson)

Excerpt:

I asked my love to take a walk
Just a little ways with me
And as we walked and we would talk
All about our wedding day

Darling say that you’ll be mine
In our home we’ll happy be
Down beside where the waters flow
On the banks of the Ohio

I took her by her pretty white hand
I let her down that bank of sand
I pushed her in where she would drown
Lord, I saw her as she floated down

“Pretty Polly” (performed by Ralph Stanley)

Excerpt:

Oh she knelt down before him a pleading for her life
She knelt down before him a pleading for her life
Let me be a single girl if I can’t be your wife

Oh Polly, Pretty Polly that never can be
Polly, Pretty Polly that never can be
Your past recitation’s been trouble to me

Then he opened up her bosom as white as any snow
he opened up her bosom as white as any snow
he stabbed her through the heart and the blood did overflow

“Little Sadie” (performed by Crooked Still)

Excerpt:

Went out one night to make a little round
I met Little Sadie and I shot her down
Went back home, jumped into bed
44 pistol under my head

I woke up in the morning about half past nine
The hacks and the buggies standing in line
Gents and gamblers standing around
Taking little sadie to her burying ground

“Omie Wise” (performed by Doc Watson)

Excerpt:

“John Lewis, John Lewis, will you tell me your mind?
Do you intend to marry me or leave me behind?”

“Little Omie, little Omie, I’ll tell you my mind.
My mind is to drown you and leave you behind.”

“Have mercy on my baby and spare me my life,
I’ll go home as a beggar and never be your wife.”

He kissed her and hugged her and turned her around,
Then pushed her in deep waters where he knew that she would drown.

“Knoxville Girl” (performed by the Louvin Brothers)

Excerpt:

She fell down on her bended knees
For mercy she did cry
Oh, Willie dear, don’t kill me here
I’m unprepared to die

She never spoke another word
I only beat her more
Until the ground around me
With her blood did flow.

Little Glass of Wine (performed and written by the Stanley Brothers)

Excerpt:

Said Willie dear, what you want with me
Come and drink wine with the one that loves you
More than anyone else you know, said he

While they were at the bar a-drinking
That same old thought came to his mind
He killed that girl, his own true lover
He gave her poison in a glass of wine

“Caleb Meyer” (performed and written by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)

Excerpt:

He threw me in the needle bed,
across my dress he lay
then he pinned my hands above my head
and I commenced to pray.

I cried My God, I am your child
send your angels down
Then feelin’ with my fingertips,
the bottle neck I found

I drew that glass across his neck
as fine as any blade,
and I felt his blood pour fast and hot
around me where I laid.

“Frankie and Johnny” (performed by Doc Watson)

Excerpt:

Yeah Frankie looked over the transom door
And to her great surprise
There sat her lover man Johnny
Making love to Nelly Bly
He was her man, but he was doin’ her wrong.

Well Frankie jerked back her kimono
And she whipped out her .44
She shot him down
He fell on that hardwood floor
Lord she hurt him bad
But he was doin’ her wrong

(Sorry, I can’t embed the video, but you can get it from this link.)

Shankill Butchers (performed by Sarah Jarosz)

Excerpt:

They used to be just like me and you
They used to be sweet little boys
But something went horribly askew
Now killing is their only source of joy

‘Cause everybodys knows…

If you don’t mind your mother’s words
A wicked wind will blow
Your ribbons from your curls
Everybody moan, everybody shake,
The Shankill butchers wanna catch you
Awake

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