365 Days #217 - Johnny Legend - True Murders (mp3s)

MP3:
01 Bugsy Siegel (2:06)
02 Black Dahlia (2:28)
03 Carole Tregoff (2:18)
04 Manchester Moor (2:18)
05 Bonnie and Clyde (3:35)
06 The Tower (3:58)
07 Alfred E. Packer (2:06)
08 Boston Strangler (4:01)
09 Smitty (2:53)
10 Che Guevera (1:54)
11 Nat Turner (1:55)
12 Tall Eucalypyus (3:52)

Song-Poem record? Or something else?

- Contributed by: Marty Mossy

Images: Cover

Media: LP
Album: True Murders
Label: Anthology Records
Catalog: AR-623

Comments

[Michael Farris]

I like this a lot (I've only listed to about half so far) and it doesn't sound like song poems at all.
The arrangements are not exactly ... lavish, but they're individualized and not the tuneless improvisation usually found with song poems.

I'm thinking either a better-than-average vanity product and/or fringe performer who wanted something to sell at live gigs (or maybe a performer in a macabre tourist attraction?) Or a combination? My best guess is a performer who travelled with some kind of death/crime themed exhibition.

My favorite so far is Manchester Moors, the most uptempo, sprightly song about child murderers probably ever.

[Kip W]

"Alferd" Packer, not "Alfred."

[365]

From Marty:

"On the back cover the title is spelled as 'Alfred', but very strange for under the title it reads that 'Albert' was hanged - And at top it reads 'True Murders Authenticated and Documented' -- Now that's some right true documentation!"

[Ticklemouse]

Sounds like a vanity project to me, I have to say.

Being a Mancunian by birth I have to say that 'Manchester Moor' is pretty inaccurate; There is no Manchester Moor it's Saddleworth Moor where the grisly deeds were (mainly) done which is near Oldham, it wasn't 3 graves but 4, Saddleworth isn't covered in heather (to rhyme with leather), I could go on.....Mancunian's have long memories and the case is still fresh in people's minds here despite it being c45 years ago, remember not all the bodies have been discovered ...and if you try to make money or gain fame from the matter, you won't be popular round Manchester.

That said, it is a jaunty little number!

[MrFab]

I'm surprised no-one here has heard of Johnny Legend. A prominant figure in the rockabilly & strange film revivals:

http://www.rockabillyhall.com/JohnnyLegend1.html

[King Daevid MacKenzie, KPHX Phoenix]

...the correct spelling of Mr. Packer's name *is* Alferd. Phil Ochs wrote something called "The Ballad of Alferd Packer" that appears on one of the Folkways compilations made up of his tapes for Broadside Magazine, and the dining room in one of the Congressional (I think) buildings in Washington was deviously named for Mr. Packer circa '76 (interestingly, just after Ochs died IIRC)...