Sold Date: January 24, 2018
Start Date: December 3, 2017
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JACK KITTEL
PSYCHO


The Leon Payne tune here is a masterpiece of both gruesome excess and understatement. The song is a confession of sorts as its narrator calmly tells of dispatching his ex and her new beau, strangling a puppy, beating a little girl to death with a wrench and more hinted-at horrors. The put-away line comes in the chorus with the solemn (and rather rhetorical) question of, "Do you think I'm psycho, Mama?"

Over the years, the story of the song's origin has become as twisted as its subject matter, with many outright falsehoods spreading across the Internet. The most common story is the song was a direct reaction to the mass-shooting rampage perpetrated by Charles Whitman on the University of Texas campus in August 1966. Other sources say the song was inspired by either the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho or Robert Aldrich's 1964 Southern gothic, Hush ... Hush Sweet Charlotte.

The truth is that it was inspired in the spring of 1968 when Payne and his guitar player (Jackie White) were discussing the Richard Speck murders. It was Eddie Noack that first recorded the song in the fall of 1968, but there have been other notable versions since, including a great version by Elvis Costello.

Here’s Jack Kittel’s own version of this odd song, and it’s from May of 1974. This promo has “Psycho” on both sides, one in MONO the other in STEREO.

CONDITION: VG+

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