Best Songs About The Executioner

The Lyrics:

In Heaven His throne is made of gold

The ark of His Testament is stowed

I am told from a throne

All history unfolds

Down here, it is wood and wire

My body is on fire

God is never far away

The Story: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds recorded "The Mercy Seat" in 1988 for the album Tender Prey. Critics theorize that the lyrics use rhetoric from the Old and New Testaments as Cave tells a story of a man waiting for execution. The phrase "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" in the third verse and later in the song echoes Old Testament law. The convict questions if he deserves the punishment. He sings that he is not scared to face his end.

As the song moves forward and the convict nears death, he questions his beliefs. He wonders about the forgiveness from the "ragged stranger" who "died upon the cross." At the song's end, he admits he "told a lie."

The Lyrics:

The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom

I stood up to say good-bye like all the rest

He told the warden just before he reached my cell

"Let my guitar-playing friend do my request"

The Story: Merle Haggard spent years in and out of jail for petty crimes, starting with juvenile detention at age 11. He got a 15-year sentence in San Quentin State Prison for burglary, though he only served some of that time. In 1958, he heard Johnny Cash play at the prison, which made him focus on his music career.

Haggard also became friends with Caryl Chessman and James Rabbit during his time at San Quentin. Chessman and Rabbit were later executed. "Sing Me Back Home" tells the story of an inmate asking the warden to let his friend sing his final song as he moves to the chamber.

The Lyrics:

Wait for the sign

To flick the switch of death

It is the beginning of the end

Sweat, chilling cold

I watch death unfold

Consciousness is my only friend

The Story: Metallica recorded Ride the Lightning in 1984 while they struggled to stay afloat. This is their second full-length album, and it became a key part of their discography. The title song shows someone in an electric chair waiting for the end.

Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett told Rolling Stone he was reading Stephen King's The Stand while they worked on the album. A passage refers to death row as waiting to "ride the lightning." Hammett thought, "Wow, what a great song title," and the rest is history.

The Lyrics:

Your brother brought me silver

Your sister warmed my soul

Now I laugh and pull so hard

I see you swinging on the gallows pole

The Story: Led Zeppelin adapted their haunting songThis discusses a maiden asking someone to free her from the gallows pole in a traditional tune recorded by blues guitarist Leadbelly as "Gallis Pole." The song's earliest version is centuries old and has this title.The Maid Freed from the Gallows"

The Lyrics:

It is hard to imagine the times have changed.

A brutal and strange murder happens in the kitchen.

Killing anybody is a terrible crime.

Why does this bloodthirsty chorus come around sometimes?

Let him dangle

The StoryElvis Costellowrote "Let Him Dangle"in response to a 19-year-oldDerek Bentley's trial and death.This happened as a result of his 1952 crime.

Bentley had epilepsy and reportedly had an IQ of only 66. He and Chris Craig tried to rob a warehouse. Police caught them. Police accounts state Bentley yelled, "Let him have it, Chris," and Craig then shot the officers, wounding one and killing another. Bentley later denied saying those words, but both Bentley and Craig were convicted.

Craig, who was only 16 when the crime happened, was eventually released from prison because he was too young for a capital sentence. Bentley was hanged in 1953 despite public protests. In 1993, Bentley received a posthumous pardon.

The Lyrics:

Singing down death row

To each separate human cell - one billion, two, or three

If you'd only stick together, you'd not be here

If you could love another's child

If you could love another's life like your own, you'd not be here

And if only this you could believe

You still might, you might still be reprieved

The StoryPete Seeger was awell-known civil rights activistthroughout much of his life. He adapted the song that became the civil rights movement's anthem, "We Shall Overcome." Seeger also has some tough folk ballads, like1966's "Walking Down Death Row."

The song follows a singer walking down death row. He laments what happened to the prisoners but also tries to give a message of hope.

The Lyrics:

Bye bye, and I got no place to go

Where you find me? 16 on Death Row

Dear mama, they sentenced me to death

Today's my final day, I'm countin' every breath

The Story: Tupac "2Pac" Shakur's "16 On Death Row" was released after his death as part of the albumR U Still Down?This album featured much of the late rapper's work after his death. His mother released the album in 1997.

"16 On Death Row" warns kids about what happens when "glamorous young thugs live the high life in a mean world that they'll never admit to their part in making," according toRolling Stone. 2Pac's lyrics warn that the narrator "turned to a life of crime" because he came from "a broken family," telling the sad story of a teen ruined by unfair events.

The Lyrics:

Now the courtroom is quiet, but who will confess

Is it true you betrayed us? The answer is "yes"

Then read me the list of the crimes that are mine

I will ask for the mercy you love to decline.

All the ladies get moist, and the judge has no choice.

A singer must die for the lie in his voice.

The Story: Leonard Cohen's sorrowful lament appears on his fourth studio album.New Skin for the Old CeremonyThis album came out in 1974. An interview on an Irish TV show in 1988 showed him explaining his motivation.He revealed the song's story of trial and possible execution is a metaphor.behind the song.

I listen for truth in a singer's voice. This could be the truth of deception, the truth of a scam, or the truth of the hustle in the singer's presentation. Something true comes across, or the song dies. The singer deserves to die too, and will, eventually.

The Lyrics:

Every lift of my hand.

Coffee cup and back.

The things I've done magnify this.

The things I've seen.

The things I've caused.

I'm a dead man walking.

The hammer that I once brought down now hovers over me.

Cast a shadow across, onto me.

The Story: "Dead Man" seems to be sung from an inmate's view facing capital punishment. He laments being confronted by the hammer he "once brought down."

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder is an anti-capital punishment advocate. He played at a 1998 benefit.1998 benefit, "Not In Our Name: Dead Man Walking - The Concert", "This concert raised funds to fight capital punishment. Vedder recorded another anti-capital punishment song.He recorded "The Long Road" with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for the 1995 film.Another anti-capital punishment song, "The Long Road," features Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for the 1995 film.Dead Man Walking.

The Lyrics:

In Saint James' Parish.

I was born and christened.

Now I've got my story.

Mister, there's no need for you to listen.

It's just a dead man talking.

The Story: Bruce Springsteen wrote and performed the title track for the 1995 film.Dead Man Walking., featuring Susan Sarandon as Sister Helen Prejean, a nun who corresponds with Sean Penn's character Matthew Poncelet, a convicted felon awaiting lethal injection.

PitchforkPitchfork describes Springsteen's track as "a summary of crime and punishment." The song got nominated for an Academy Award in 1996.Academy Award in 1996.

The Lyrics:

On the day he was tried, no witness testified.

Nothing but evidence, not hard to fake.

His own confession became a prosecutor's prize.

It was made up of fear, rage, and outright lies.

But I'm not the man.

He goes free.

As the candle vigil glows.

As they burn my clothes.

As the crowd cries, "hang him slow!"

I feel my blood go cold.

The Story: 10,000 Maniacs closes theirfifth studio album.It features "I'm Not the Man," which shows a wrongfully incarcerated Black man awaiting execution.

The album itself, Our Time in Eden., Slate described the album byas the band's masterpiece.The same review called "I'm Not the Man" "foreboding" with a "sense of helplessness and despair."

The Lyrics:

Somebody please tell me that I'm dreaming.

It is not easy to stop screaming.

The words escape me when I try to speak.

Tears flow, but why am I crying?

After all, I am not afraid of dying.

I believe there is no end.

The Story: "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is one of Iron Maiden's most notable songs.most notable songsA man recounts his fear of facing death because he thinks his immortal soul survives. This is the final track on the band's third studio album.The Number of the Beast.

In 2017, rock manager Barry Mckay sued Iron Maiden.Barry MckayMckay sued on behalf of Brian Quinn and Robert Barton of the band Beckett. He claimed the metal superstars used lyrics Quinn wrote for a Beckett song called "Life's Shadow" in 1969. Quinn told MetalTalk.MetalTalkQuinn stated the original song was "part of a series of songs about the last surviving dragon and the last dragon slayer." As he reflected on losing his father, his memory infused the words and music.

The Lyrics:

We have all been detained.

For the crimes we have committed.

They stayed execution.

But we will never get acquitted.

We wait for the day they strap us in.

And when they pull the lever.

Hear the goddamn screams.

Shake with fear.

Electric chair.

The Story: "Death Row" appears on Judas Priest's 13th studio album.Jugulator, which is the first album with vocalist Tim Owens in 1997. Owens joined the metal superstars. "Burn in Hell" and "Death Row" were already written. "Death Row" tells the story of a man waiting for the chamber, lamenting he made one mistake and that is all it takes to send him to meet his maker.

The Lyrics:

Oh Mama, I have been on the run for years and have a high price on my head.

The lawman said, "Get him dead or alive." I am sure he will see me dead.

Dear Mama, I can hear you crying; you are so scared and alone.

The hangman comes down from the gallows, and I do not have much time.

The Story: Styx's 1979 rock track shows the first-person view of a "wanted man" captured for a bounty, lamenting his trip to the gallows.Tommy ShawTommy Shaw wrote and performed lead vocals on the song; it became a staple in pop culture.

The Lyrics:

Voices like locusts keep smothering me.

Twisting and turning my senses like a cyclone at sea.

Don't touch me now; do not crucify me.

You are not a jury; you cannot pass any sentence on me.

The Story: Rock legend Dick Wagner wrote"Execution Day" for Meat Loaf, released on his 1986 album.Blind Before I Stop. The track features a condemned man lamenting his end. He uses biblical images to accuse his executioners of crucifying him and passing a sentence they do not deserve.