Why I love…Murder Story.
I think it’s from the beginning. The musicality of it sounds like a galloping horse. The way Charlie’s guitar cuts through that galloping top hat cymbal sound – love it. And the blend of Mick MacNeil’s fabulous key work with Charlie’s cords is grand.
Then Jim comes in with wonderfully dark lyrics. The pace of the song is quite middling to begin with. We stick to that galloping pace. Until we get to the chorus, then we get Jim’s almost angst delivery of the “No, oh no!” With more fantastic keys from Mick.
Once all verses and chorus are delivered, we change pace through the main structure of the song. Rocking guitar from Charlie. I mean GENUINE rock n roll guitar! Not really the kind of stuff he delivers much these days.
It gets quick and Jim’s singing is glorious in this part. The lines delivered again have more angst and venom…“It’s so apparent when I walk in the door that I’m all alone, there’s no one home and no one wants me anymore”, and, my favourite line from the song “The children from the street call out my name ‘hey you!’” – I love the idea that the protagonist/antagonist of the song is called “Hey you!” Lol. Such great work from such a young man. He seems to diss his own writing ability as a young man these days but he was a FABULOUS lyricist from the off.
Then the change from “I get so scared if I don’t go out at night” to “I don’t wanna go out at night” – paranoia setting in…“It wasn’t me” – hmmm, I doth think he protests too much. As it continues getting faster and faster…ad libbing lyrics…spangly, shiny piano making it all sound so sinister…vocal fading on “It wasn’t me” to return in a loud ending crescendo of “IT WAS ME!” Bam! Confession. Cue abrupt end. Perfection!
And that is why I love Murder Story 🙂