What I Need Is a Good Defense: Songs About Crime

We’re listening to songs about crime this week, although I am saving songs about murder for a future episode. Along the way we’ll try to figure out why people commit crimes, though…

Michial Farmer

January 26, 2026

We’re listening to songs about crime this week, although I am saving songs about murder for a future episode. Along the way we’ll try to figure out why people commit crimes, though I wouldn’t hold out much hope that we’ll solve that particular mystery. Send your song recommendations to symposiumofsongs@gmail.com!

0:00
Mickey Calin, “Jet Song” (West Side Story OBCR, 1957)
8:20
Coolio featuring L.V., “Gangsta’s Paradise” (Gangsta’s Paradise, 1995)
12:37
Reading: Plato, Republic
16:56
Bruce Springsteen, “Atlantic City” (Nebraska, 1982)
20:49
Josh Ritter, “Henrietta, Indiana” (Sermon on the Rocks, 2015)
24:50
Reading: Plutarch, “Life of Lycurgus”
28:55
Fiona Apple, “Criminal” (Tidal, 1996)
34:37
The Clash, “I Fought the Law” (The Cost of Living, 1979)
37:14
M.I.A., “Paper Planes” (Kala, 2007)
41:38
Reading: Don DeLillo, “Hammer and Sickle”
43:36
Junior Murvin, “Police and Thieves” (single, 1976)
47:35
Carla Thomas, “Stop Thief” (The Queen Alone, 1967)
50:10
Grateful Dead, “Friend of the Devil” (American Beauty, 1970)
53:30
Fugazi, “Repeater” (Repeater, 1990)
57:28
Johnny Cash, “One Piece at a Time” (One Piece at a Time, 1976)

Michial Farmer

Michial Farmer is a poet, essayist, and history teacher. He is the author of Imagination and Idealism in John Updike’s Fiction (Camden House, 2017) and the translator of Gabriel Marcel’s Thirst (Cluny, 2021). He lives in Atlanta.