American Murder Song - July (Official Lyrics Video)
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
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American Murder Song is a collection of original murder ballads by Terrance Zdunich and Saar Hendelman, the star of Repo! The Genetic Opera & songwriters of The Devil's Carnival.
"July" is mixed by Cedrick Courtois.
Full Credits List: americanmurder...
Listened to it once, looked up 'Ohio Fever' and listened again with a whole different perspective. I thought it was about a man committing a deranged mercy killing because his family had gone sick and mad. But it turns out Ohio Fever was just the name of a trend of people leaving for Ohio to escape the harsh weather. So really it was about a family begging to leave for Ohio, but the father refusing to the point where he'd rather kill them than leave his farm. All in all, great song!
While you're at it, look up the year 1816. It was literally a Year Without A Summer. Very interesting read, because it didn't just effect America. It effected the entire world. Struck as far as China. People were moving westward because the western states had massive granaries.
Ya, it's so crazy how much one eruption can affect the planet!
ADragonAmongRoses I think that he thought good weather would be there soon, and they'd make it by, but others in the town convinced his wife that this was not the case, if they were going to survive, they needed to leave. She "rattled nonsense", shared the information with the family, the "children believed her", but the man is too stubborn, and believes she's going hysterical, along with the rest of their neighbors. In a fit of desperation after still being a useless farm that isn't producing food, she smothers the children in their beds. The man hears them screaming and grabs his gun, to find her with blood spilling from her mouth, she's either poisoned herself or a different illness has taken her due to lack of nutrition. "You ain't going nowhere", he's not going to let her get away with murdering their children, and he shoots her as she tries to attack him. Stunned and traumatized he buries his family, he prays for their souls, but doesn't grieve his wife, and hangs himself as punishment for killing her, and possibly due to regret of not leaving with everyone else, believing if he had listened, they'd all be alive.
Where are you getting that she killed her kids? The way I interpreted it, he stuffed rags in her mouth to shut her up and then smothered the kids himself before shooting her because they were "full of sickness" and he "couldn't save her" I think HE was the one who killed the whole family and then hanged himself because he went bonkers
@@Lovesickobsession19 I haven't heard the theory that the wife killed the children before, but it makes so much sense! Especially since it goes from the children being smothered to him shooting a gun (which he wouldn't have to do if the kids were suffocated) to not grieving her, not 'not greiving them'.
Two things I love about this song: One, the progression in the repeated refrain from "We ain't going nowhere" to "You ain't going nowhere" and finally "I ain't going nowhere", and two, that little pause for breath after the narrator smothers his children - like for a brief second he looks at what he's done and it's almost enough to snap him out of his madness...but not quite, and he has to double down on it
I saw American Murder Song live last week, and among all of the songs that were played, this was possibly one of the most fun to listen to in a crowd. Everyone was singing along, everyone was clapping and stomping their feet- it was just such a fun atmosphere and really unlike that of any other concert I've ever been to in a way I can't explain.
Hilariously enough, after the song had ended, Saar said something along the lines of, "Wow, I've never heard people clapping so joyously to the murder of children." It was priceless.
Chromaggia I want to make an eye reference but I'm not sure you'll be able to see it xD
In all seriousness ...have a question about the American murder songs events .....is there a dress code ...im getting conflicting information ....
I love the "waggon, wheels, west" part. It makes me imagine an unending row of waggon, all desperate to find somewhere to survive the year.
the chorus of “wagons, wagons, wheels, wheels, west, west, west” is SO haunting i love it
For others who like to sing along, but find 0:58 disagreeable:
Another commentor suggested using "shadows" in place of it. I find that "like *rabbits* they ran" replaces the word nicely, capturing most of the emotions while still maintaining the flow of the song. Hope this helps someone.
I love the raw emotion in this song. You can feel the anger and frustration the man feels, and him going crazy with everyone leaving and rambling about moving west (the “wagons wagons, wheels wheels, west west west west” part)
The drum beats are loud and heavy, and Saar sounds like he’s yelling while singing. The song is just the pure emotions of rage and the insanity came from his stubbornness
This is easily one of my favorite AMS songs!
This song makes so emotional. You can feel the desperation and urgency.
Whenever I sing along to it, I always end up snarling when saying "You ain't goin' nowhere, you ain't goin' goin' nowhere."
Funny, I always snarl when I sing "I ain't goin' nowhere"!
The driving beat is reminiscence of wagon wheels, or horses galloping, running. I imagine trying to escape something, running through a deep forest.
I just discovered this band and I am LIVING for their style of storytelling. The song’s so good you almost miss how horrific the lyrics are.
Saw this live about a month ago, and this song plus Mary, Edward and Unwed Henry were the most fun. But the audience were the chorus for this and pretty lavinia and we tried our damnedest to stomp down the house.
You know, I wasn't sure about Saar's voice when I first heard it, but honestly his voice is so beautiful. His voice and Terrance's voice compliment each other so well. They were amazing live, I will never forget it.
Out of all the songs, this one is my all time favourite hands down
One of the best in the EP.
Agreed.
Took me a few listens to understand what was happening. I knew what Ohio fever was but I didn’t realize a part of the story was a murder suicide and that took a dark turn. I know people literally lost their minds but I didn’t expect that.
I think the discussion happening about the slur is interesting. There’s merits to both arguments honestly, which prompts the question; when doing period pieces, is it better to censor aspects for modern times because “there’s no need for it”, or show it but be subject to criticism.
TBH I thought “Johnny” was a way bigger offender than this, but I guess the fact people take issue with it means that it’s historical uses wasn’t lost on us and we know it’s wrong. Plus the narrator is a literal murderer so, I don’t think we’re supposed to believe he’s a good guy. One of my favorite films is Django Unchained and they drop the hard R so damn much, but being black, obviously it made me uncomfortable but it was the damn 1840s. Like, I know it happened. It’s supposed to make us uncomfortable because now we have over 100 years of hindsight. And I’m pretty sure nobody came out of it thinking it was okay to say now. But I can also see why people can’t watch it because of the slur usage.
I dunno, still like the song a lot though. It all comes down to how it’s used, really.
Completely agree!
Yeah, it's fucked up. But he's also... A murderer. It's not a good thing and it shows how messed up the narrator is.
I absolutely adore this song.
My #2 after I'm Always Walking as Somebody Else. Just amazing.
nice!! good song. didn't there was going to be any murder till I got to the end.. easier to decipher this one.
anyone know why the lyrics are different colors
i was thinking it changed depending of the theme of the song, but i dunno
it also could be the album.
idk
Learned of the term ‘Family Annihilator’ today.
Well thank you Terrance for another song that my family is going to get sick of soon xD
I love this!! Absolutely amazing!!
This is awesome
Thank you im feeling lucky button very cool
love it
Saar's voice makes this song!
My FAVORITE song!
Wagons wagons
Wheels wheels
West west west west
Wagons wagons
Wheels wheels
>Patrick voice: Weast weast weast weast
Anna the Anon thank you so much for this
so i can get that he didn't want to leave, but why go so far as to kill his family? was it a hurt ego, that he wasn't able to provide for his family and refused to take an action that gave them a shot at survival, and he just couldn't handle that he was wrong? or was his fear of West and the unknown in the West so great that he'd rather die in the familiar with his family dead beside him than take even a single step towards the unfamiliar?
I think you're right about both, but I imagine both of these thoughts are born of cabin fever -- imagine being locked inside for almost a year, winter had its time but it hasnt left. There was no weather man, and a whole lot more superstition. It was real easy to go crazy back then!
There's also the element that the trail to the west really WAS dangerous. It's understandable for the thought of abandoning a hard-won and possibly multi -generation farm, to head for the same land everyone is heading for, across a huge continent, with tons of danger and no training to be something someone is passionate about avoiding. But between that and his understandably deep devotion to the farm, he went a little (AKA incredibly) insane. Hear how he's singing about saving them? He genuinely considers himself to be keeping them from both the West and the dishonor of abandoning their home. The use of Ohio Fever is important: he considers it to basically be a infection, something making them feverish and mad. (If you think of Ohio Fever as a actual disease and listen to it again, it'll make more sense when it comes to the man's view.)
Love it, my favorite from the EP so far. I am still not convinced to buy it though. I need at least two songs that I like. All a family left for dead, and Saar had to kill his wife to save her the suffering of illness, and his children to save them from the devil... but he couldn't deal with the guilt.
I don't think that's what happens. Ohio fever isn't a sickness, it's the need to move west to get away from the dying east. That's why they keep chanting "wagons wagons wheels wheels west west west west".
The story is: a family lives on a farm dying from the year without a summer but the father refuses to leave it (farm took to fits but I couldn't leave her). The wife believes they should leave as well and convinces the children to leave (wife rattled nonsense the children believed her). The neighbors pack up and go, but the father refuses to let them leave (we ain't going nowhere). One night, they get into an argument (wife lashed her tongue), he binds and gags her, goes up and smothers the children, then shoots the wife. After, he hangs himself
MrMrMrprofessor "rags in her mouth" means her mouth was full of bleeding sores. He hears the children upstairs screaming from under their pillows, but can still hear their cries, and shoots their murderer only to find it was his wife. He prays for their souls, but doesn't grieve her after her crime, and kills himself for the murder he too has committed.
BoundbyCronus I highly doubt that's what I means
It’s a story about a man being driven mad and brutally slaughtering his wife and kids. How could you possibly get the idea he was ‘saving’ them into your head
Maybe you guys could do a song on Donald "PeeWee" Gaskins (probably spelled the last name wrong). He's from South Carolina and known as "The Meanest Man in America". His body count was pretty high for a guy working alone while also disposing them in the swamps of SC.
Oh hey, finally, an actual song. I was worried by the previous tracks that this EP would just be narration and noise.
Saw you guys in Indy live and was it was as great as expected! fyi, your intro show is horrid, but worth pushing through.
Instrumental would be nice.
Love the song (one of my favourites actually) but I must say that I'm not a fan of the use of a derogatory term for Native Americans
sydnisan to be fair, it's set in 1816. Quite literally right after the revolution.
I think you’re right to be cautious about how we use such words, but I think it is used here with a great deal of intentionality. The narrator is fearful and hateful of change and difference, and his xenophobia is a clue to that. Does make it hard to sing along to though
When??
@@ienzio7795 injen is a slur
I'm not sure that's always a slur? I could be remembering it wrong, but I think I've heard that used in perfectly respectful contexts.
...Also, he's a stark raving mad killer, so.
what th FUCK i thought it said hay fever im distraught
I thought it said "all of your fever" 💀💀💀
*instantly thinks of Kris Wu's July*
Relatable now considering the fact we’re dealing with a pandemic.
I want to love this song, I really do, but the use of the word inj*n makes it so uncomfortable every time. I understand the arguments about it being a period piece, and that the narrator isn't supposed to be likeable, but I just can't get behind it, especially because this song was written in the 21st century, not the 19th. It's really a shame, since everything else is gorgeously written, the tempo makes the song infectiously catchy, the sound of the violin is fantastic, and Saar's voice really does this song justice. I can't tell you how many times I've mumbled "wagons, wagons, wheels, wheels, west, west, west, west" to myself. The derogatory term just feels forced into the song. It being left out entirely would easily make this one of my favorite songs. Ever. It's a bit of a shame to me.
Honestly, I feel like the insult gives it more personality.
The guy is nuts. He starts lashing out. The heavy insult could partially seen as a wanted shock moment. Like, if you haven't noticed now; the guy's not really well in the head and this shit is serious
I hear ya. But a part if ne doesn't think they were trying to use it as an insult.
Not cus it a pireod piece but maybe it just sounded better, or (on an off chance) that's just how it came out while singing and rather than fight it they found a way to work with it
yeahh i agree :[ this and that part in johnny that’s like “feathers as red as an indian’s skin, savage and painted and warring” are kind of uh. yikes. and it also confuses me because, especially in this song, they could have just. not put that in there?? like it truly was not necessary
Only in ohio
Ok, you know I don't remember saying anything about the "savage" line from Quiet Jonny, even though that was WAY WORSE, but regarding your decision to use the derogatory term Injun, well, I'll refer you to what Linkara said while reviewing Holy Terror: being a period piece is not a loophole to modern racial sensibilities.
I understand what you're TRYING to do, but when you voice old-fashioned racism through your character, without using it to comment on the racism of the character (preferably to proximately critique the racial biases of your audience) it just sounds like you just wanted to say something incredibly racist, which makes the racism of your character translate to your racism. Either the choice to use a slur was expected to alienate the audience against the character, which seems like a poor writing choice because this does not fit with the empathy the rest of the narrative is trying to elicit, OR the line is expected to be inconsequential to or even build on the audience's empathy for the character, which means the artist is at least briefly playing to appeal to a racist audience.
You guys are very talented, but don't let your comitment to your aesthetic cause you to forget where (or when) you actually are. Especially when these clumsy references to Native Americans are completely unnessesary to your songs.
I admit the term makes for a jarring moment, but I think the empathy is never supposed to be with the narrator. The wife and kids wanted to leave but the husband wouldn't abandon the farm. He becomes violently stubborn as time goes on and "didn't grieve her" when he shot his wife, showing his pride was more important. He takes his life at the end but the consequences in the song are of his own making.
I understand your point, but I am sure they thought long and hard about the term before using it. They don't seem to use things lightly. Think of this as an HBO series song not a children's song for overly sensitive people.
Dead wood the TV series anyone.
I never thought we were supposed to sympathize/empathize with the narrator. I certainly didn't do so, anyway.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really love these guys, and I would like to be able to share this with all my friends like "This is a great song!" but I suspect I'd get some weird looks if I sent this to my Native American friend, and that's not right. The responses I got to this comment are fair, but I'm not about to look my friend in the eye and tell him why this shouldn't make him uncomfortable. A lot of times white supremacy manifests as just making content that's going to be more palatable for other white people than the group you're discussing.
Honestly for the time that these songs are meant to be for it makes sense to me based on how the song goes. He looks down on his neighbors for leaving just like many looked down on native americans at the time. Made perfect sense to me even though it is a term that is racist. Many people who are to prideful to lose what they have made their own will look down upon others willing to give up so easily as being below them, useless and stupid. It is unfortunately how some unwell people perceive things. Even so this is one of my favorite songs... Saar's voice is just amazing.
I have to say, I echo Annie Trinity's statements. This song is racist, and just because it's supposed to represent another period, that doesn't justify the blatant racism; using a racial slur against Native Americans is never okay. Music about other time periods is not an excuse for racism.
Given the fact that the narrator of this song is a racist, insane, murderer...I don't think you're supposed to sympathize with his use of the word. The song is not advocating for the use of the term 'injun', which was not considered a pejorative term during 1816. If anything, it puts the narrator in an even more negative light from our own modern lenses. As i mentioned in Annie's post, there's a reason that the Villains of period pieces are the ones that end up using racial slurs...because you're not supposed to sympathize with them. Saar and Terrance did not put the word in here for the sake of taking a random shot at Native Americans. It's to help show the reprehensibility of the narrator, who is a child murdering, racist, mad man. :/ The creators are not automatically racist because they used a period appropriate slur for their racist character in a song set in the early 19th century...I don't know if i stand by the idea of "if a period piece uses a racial slur, then it's a racist piece". That just seems like an easy way of writing it off without actually examining WHY the word is used.
For example: I'm a professional actor and I worked in an outdoor drama this past summer. The story is about the Native American Moravian Missionaries who lived in Schoenbrunn and Gnaddenhutten in the Ohio territory in the late 18th century and early 19th century. I played the main villain of the piece, an American colonel who massacres the innocent Native Americans (look up 'Gnaddenhutten Massacre', it doesn't get talked about as much as it should.) He is portrayed as an unhinged, tempermental, and murderous MONSTER. He is also the only character who uses a racial slur against the Native Americans (the word squ*w), and it's used to show how disgusting he is. The word is not used "just cause". It's used to show the reprehensibility of the character. Same here with July. Again, the creators are not automatically making a racist piece just because the word pops up. Look at WHY it's there before you make your judgement.
How is it racist? A character used a possibly racist, possibly not, term. This character has KILLED HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN. He is clearly not a author stand-in? It's his POV rant, after all, if they want the guy to be crazy and racist then I don't see what's wrong with that.
super cool song! wish it wasn’t racist though :(
The “Injuns” part is just characterisation of the time