WBTV-LP

Timoclea Kills the Captain of Alexander the Great by Elisabetta Sirani, 1659. Image source

Franklin D. Roosevelt said “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on," and I suggest that you follow his advice. The protagonists in these songs about crime, murder and insanity (the theme of this episode) are all hanging on to the last of their rope, so swing along with it. Instead of making two separate playlists, each dealing with one of the two separate topics, I figured it would be nice to add some variety and combine both the songs that deal with the varied theme of crime with the ones that deal with the theme of madness. Putting a playlist together week after week can itself become maddening due to how much is involved, it may not ultimately seem like a whole lot but there is much that happens behind the scenes to put all the pieces together and on a tight schedule. All of us DJs do it and it just speaks to our dedication to the music and whoever may be listening. Often artists see themselves in the work they produce (and I'm not pretending that putting together playlists is art - but it does have some craft quality to it) and maybe I see some madness in making this playlist just as those who wrote these songs felt. I worked in some long songs, including three that top ten minutes, this actually makes it easier to create a playlist since longer songs equal fewer songs, but I would never do that just to cheat you out of a good playlist, I believe in all the songs I play no matter the length (except maybe that time I played Foreigner Suite by Cat Stevens, that was likely laziness). But anyway, a stump into insanity, delirium, murder and petty theft awaits.

25 different acts in this show, here is some information about some of them:

Shirley Collins:

Shirley Collins was involved in the early folk revival, releasing albums of her performing traditional English folk tunes. In 1959, she worked with Alan Lomax as he toured the American South to collect field recordings to preserve folk and blues traditions. Collins was known for the innovation she brought to folk music. Her 1964 record Folk Roots, New Routes (with accompaniment by guitarist Davy Graham) introduced elements of jazz and Indian raga to folk music, which at the time ruffled the feathers of folk purists but ultimately influenced folk-rock and psych-folk in the coming decades. She collaborated with her sister Dolly Collins on the 1969 album Anthems Of Eden where they combined folk music with early music with such amazingly-named instruments as crumhorns and sackbuts. She had this to say reflecting on her song repertoire: “Singing English folk songs is as crucial to me as walking the Sussex landscape, where the footprints of our ancestors are everywhere. When I sing, I feel past generations standing behind me – and I hope I’m a conduit for them – those farm labourers and their wives who kept the songs going for us. The songs are social history and their beauty and power undeniable.”

Countries represented: USA, England, Netherlands, Canada, France, Germany.