Black River Killer

At the beginning of the song the narrator starts off with talk sbout a random death of a girl and goes on to say that they booked him on a whim; i think instead of him being wrongfully sentenced i think it ties into the dead girl being his lover and all he could think about was how he loved her but he couldn't help but kill her. (Possibly his lover was his first murder)So when they let him go because of the lack of evidence all he did was continue on with his wicked ways no matter how many times he says he is going to change. As he goes in and out of prison for the rest of his life.

All of this supports the Frog and The Scorpion story that walkinjingle was talking about.

I know this song is probably about someone wrongly accused, but I like thinking it's about an actual killer. Has that eerie melody, and the way he talks about the murders so unapologetically makes it sound sociopathic to me. I dont know, just my take. I like it anyhow.

If you listen to the interview he had about this song you would clearly know it was about his uncle who in and out of jail all the time, but was not in fact a killer.

i love the imagery of the river washing him clean, a symbol of baptism and rebirth, and then he... picks up a rock to sharpen his blade. you can just tell that hes never going to repent. hes going to keep taking these second and third and fourth chances and just keep doing what hes doing. haha its pretty badass. i love this ending... this song is amazing.

reminds me of a cormac mccarthy novel. the diction is swift and violent and smoky, just like blood meridian. gotta love it

I'm pretty sure the song is related to the green river killer.

"It was just a little while past the sunset strip" and "So I took the first train up to Oregon" place the murders in the pacific northwest, where the green river killer murdered.

"When the warden with his key came to set me free" he was also imprisoned and released before being later sentenced

"And I killed the first man that I came upon" he killed often, and for no real reason

"They found the girls body in an open pit" often dumped bodies into pits off of road sides

I agree with you mithgil. I think it's about an innocent man who was changed by his experience of wrongful imprisonment.

ehhhhh-xactly.

he is not a killer at first. in fact, what he thinks about when first imprisoned is the 'music of [his] lover's call.' Not usually the concern of a killer. the narration skips this bit, but it's quite likely that the lover shunned him upon his release, believing him guilty, and then what was left for him to do with himself except use the gun they gave him.

he is made a killer by circumstance and weak will--but he yearns for salvation, obviously. "when will the keys to the kingdom be mine again?" when can he again have something pure in his life?

beautiful!

Well the Sunset Strip has been around since the Prohibition days in the 20s. A bus that could take you from LA to the Rio Grande has been around since probably the late 30s to early 40s. So it nothing really rules out it being written that long ago. The 'worn out suit' seems to allude to it actually, since wearing a suit day to day would have been more expected back during those eras.

This song is awesome. When you first hear the chourus your like "O, this is a catchy diddy!" so you turn it up then you realize that it's about a friggen sociopathic killer. So then you feel a little weird because you still like it. so you look around roll up your windows and you start singin' along about how some guy goes around killen people. Ahhh nothing like a good KILLIN' song. =P ~when o when?~