“I saw her standin on her front lawn just twirlin her baton / Me and her went for a ride, sir, and ten innocent people died.” — Bruce Springsteen, “Nebraska”Throughout the history of popular music, singers and songwriters have been drawn to the macabre, taking the song form as an opportunity to reflect on the vanquished and their assailants. Some describe it with sobering detail, as Snoop Dogg did when envisioning his own murder in “Murder Was The Case” (“Pumping on my chest and I’m screaming/ I stop breathing, damn, I see demons”). Others reflect on death with despair, such as Tom Waits (“Why wasn’t God watching?/ Why wasn’t God listening?/ Why wasn’t God there/ For Georgia Lee?”). Some approach it coldly, as a mere narrative like any other, while some give it a satirical dimension. One of the all-time best meditations on murder and its consequences is Tupac’s “Hit ‘Em Up,” which turns his failed assassination into an epic tome on urban warfare (“Grab your glocks when you see Tupac Call the cops when you see Tupac, oh/ Who shot me, but you punks didn’t finish/ Now you ‘bout to feel the wrath of a menace”). These collected tracks, whose topics range from mass murders to harrowing crimes of passion, contain some of the more chilling stories committed to record. -- Adam Rothbarth
