Scotty Owens
The Ballad of OJ Simpson
scum stats: this thing doesn't appear to exist anywhere
A few years back I popped into an estate sale in my East Nashville neighborhood. Looked like whomever had lived in the house had also died in it. Upstairs I was primed to find the sad remnants of an unsuccessful attempt at releasing records.
Hundreds (thousands?) of 45s, some CDs too...I sifted through it all and found three different vinyl titles. Unsure of what they sounded like, I bought one 25-count box of each. Probably ran me $10 total. I'm damn-near certain everything I left behind got chucked into a dumpster.
Upon closer inspection, the address on the label was that of a house where my dear friend Ben Swank lived, momentarily, also in that neighborhood (but not the house where the sale was). I was even more intrigued that one of the singles was titled "The Ballad of O.J. Simpson" and appeared to be done as a "ripped from the headlines" cash-in kinda thing.
Cut at NRP, pressed at URP, both of those actions happening a mere 1.3 miles from where I sit right now on the 32nd anniversary of the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman seems like as good a time as ever to let the modern world know...that this exists. And it's likely that the 25 count box on my desk is the only real world tangible evidence of such at this point. I can't imagine there were too many other (any?) OJ-related 45's getting waxed back in '94...so this feels like a weird artifact caught between two eras.
Used to be a common occurrence with a big news event...sinking of the Titanic, Kennedy assassination, the death of Elvis...that a flood of songs wouldn't be written and released in an effort to capitalize on the attention and fascination with the matter.
Even more so intriguing is that despite my decent attempts to divine otherwise, someone will probably need to be throwing out stacks of thousands of pieces of unsold vinyl that still sit in my basement, twenty some years on at this point, sheer shouting distance from where I purchased these three boxes for a total of 75 records.
Yes, I am aware of the conflicting nature of these two behaviors, that someone else's unsold records feel far more mysterious and ripe for re-discovery than mine. That the unknown is more primed for mythologizing than the one that I personally felt coulda been a contender.
Write a comment that has something to do with whatever I just wrote...OJ, cash-in records, things that fall at the unique moment between two eras, estate sales, throwing records in the trash, sitting on a record for like 3 years before you actually listen to it, Killer Records and the holes in their Discogs database, the things you keep knowing someone else will throw away and what you pile on top of them...and I will probably just give all of these things away because that seems like a great way to give presents on my birthday. Get your comments in by midnight Central time on Thursday June 18th to be considered.
(lyrics I personally transcribed)
For the love of a woman
Many a man stumbled and fell
In a moment of passion
A lover's heaven can turn into a hell
Life is reality
Not like a football game
It's an American tragedy
When OJ Simpson is your name
He was known as Mr. Football
To every football fan
And his fame was spread
Throughout all this great land
But wealth and fame cannot provide
What people want the most
Peace of mind and a love that's right
As they journey down life's road
the paper's told the story
Of how his ex-wife died
Alongside a friend of hers
Who fought hard for his life
As we watched him drive
Down a California freeway
Everybody held their breath
For OJ and we prayed
For the love of a woman
Many a man stumbled and fell
In a moment of passion
A lover's heaven can turn into a hell
Life is reality
Not like a football game
It's an american tragedy
When OJ Simpson is your name
The DA is helping to convict OJ
Although in the courtroom he must have his day
let the jury decide the case not some guy on TV
guilty or innocent, present the evidence, let us see
For the love of a woman
Many a man stumbled and fell
In a moment of passion
A lover's heaven can turn into a hell
Life is reality
Not like a football game
It's an American tragedy
when OJ Simpson is your name
Your words ring true to me- I’ve also found myself reflecting about what happens once you’re gone and someone else if trying to put together who you were from what is left behind- went so far years ago to start a playlist in itunes just in case! Have to be sure at least the music is correct! I have lost track of that list- but need to try to recover it for posterity! Happy birthday
Is there a time limit on cash-in records? Like when does it go from cashing in to just writing a song about something? American Pie and The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald are definitely songs about something. I doubt there will be cash-in songs anymore people just don’t have the attention span and the 24 hr news cycle stories just don’t grip people anymore. However I could see a celebratory song when donald tRump dies doing quite well.
I don’t even know what to really say about that, all you can really do is laugh. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
Happy birthday!
Heya, Ben. These days I find the most interesting records at estate sales. Ultra-rare Northern Soul singles to weird outsider vanity projects to acetates of unreleased commercial jingles to lots o’ chum – but, it can often be a treasure trove of the unknown person’s unedited music collection… or not, hahaha. It’s where the unimaginable is found. The dig is exhilarating, and often fortuitous. I’m always asking myself, “what’s behind the next record?” An great way to learn about new music on the cheap. I’ve done as you with the above 7" (but found a box of WLP Bo Diddley 7"s, “Husband-in-law.”) Go figure. And yes, by golly, when you get tired of collecting rekkids – making them is the next obsession… as you know. Right on.
My wife had her first time away from our newborn daughter when she and her mother went shopping while the chase was occurring.
I remember watching AC drive The Juice around while the cops held back, most of my favorite high school memories involved driving my Bronco around avoiding the police… I used to love a woman but her male friends were an issue, so I cut her loose… three months later not long after my birthday a box of my stuff showed up on my doorstep – my fancy pillow, some shirts, gym shorts that actually weren’t mine, and an envelope with The Upholsterers second record inside!!! Sometimes you eat the bar… and sometimes, ahhh you know…
I remember being at work when he heard that he was being chased in that white Bronco. My coworker who played football and idolized Simpson actually started crying because he thought they were going to kill him. Talk about a wild ride!!!
Some of my favorite moments has definitely been when I’m given a massive box of records from friends, I’ve still got a pile of cheesy ol’ 45’s to listen to at some point. That’s how you find some pretty interesting stuff!
As a car guy there is always a craze for NOS parts. lots stories of regular old guys who bought two of everything “just in case” im not sure if the passion or the economic abundance is gone but i feel like NOS stuff (car parts, records) will become harder and harder to come by in future generations
Norm MacDonald getting fired from SNL for making jokes about OJ Simpson, people in power were controlling the media narrative back in the 90s too