This is and probably forever will be the most intense song I have ever written. It started with me watching a news report about these murders happening in the Humboldt Co. area in California and for some reason it struck a chord with me and I jotted down some words. Many months later I was playing my guitar and the music that was coming out was a bit frightening and I ran and got the lyrics I had written and started to sing them against the music and chills went down my spine. It was a song.
Recording the vocals for the song was another scary moment in this songs existence. We were working up at In The Pocket Studios in Forestville out in the middle of nowhere and it was late into the night. We were surrounded by nothing but trees, darkness and silence. The environment really enabled me to get inside the head of the victim and it still freaks me out to listen to the bridge of this song.
The chapters of this story are long and continue to grow, I am sure, as the truth unfolds. I was watching Oprah one afternoon, long after writing this song and saw a woman talking about a situation where she nearly escaped death by a serial killer. Through her cunning way, not only did she talk the guy out of killer her, but also to turn himself into the police for the other murders he had admitted to her about. As I watched more of the story I realized it was the same guy I had written about.
So now you know the story of Murder and Mayhem.
lyrics
He lived in an Airstream
He never talked to anyone
And in all his silence he could hear the devil speak
Calling him prodigal son
He drove an 18-wheeler in the black of night
Down highway 101
There she stood on the side of the road
Just trying to get home
This will not be pretty, this is not what you want to hear,
This could be your daughter, this could be the year
For Murder & Mayhem (in Humboldt County)
Murder & Mayhem.........
As soon as the door slammed shut
She felt her body freeze and the fear came rushing in
Six years down that bloody road he rolled
And he reeked of the devil’s sin
And if she believed in God and God believed in her
Then the moment had arrived
When he reached his hands to suffocate the angel
Was God there by her side
This will not be pretty, this is not what you want to hear,
This could be your daughter, this could be the year
For Murder & Mayhem (in Humboldt County)
Murder & Mayhem (in Humboldt Co.)
Oohhh, no, nooooooo
Murder & Mayhem (in Humboldt County)
Murder & Mayhem (in Humboldt County)
Murder & Mayhem (in Humboldt County)
Murder & Mayhem (in Humboldt County)
In Humboldt, Humboldt, oh God forbid............
credits
from Under These Skies,
released January 1, 2000
NOËLLE HAMPTON: VOCALS/ ACOUSTIC GUITAR
ANDRÉ MORAN: ELECTRIC GUITARS
KEVIN T. WHITE: BASS
BOB TATUM: DRUMS
GEOFF PEARLMAN: BACK VOCALS
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