Scotty Owens
The Ballad of OJ Simpson
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...this was a footprint that hit close to home.
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. The house was torn down not long afterwards.
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 (a different house than 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 Nashville Record Productions, pressed at United Record Pressing, 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 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, mere shouting distance from where I purchased these three boxes for a total of 75 records.
Yes, I am aware that these behaviors are completely at odds with each other, that someone else's unsold records feel far more mysterious and ripe for re-discovery than my unsold records. That the unknown is more primed for mythologizing than the one that I personally felt coulda been a contender.
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
