A Friend of the Devil: The Glorification of Outlaw in Song, from Robin Hood to Rap

For centuries, music has had a tendency to romanticize criminals, raising them to the status of heroic figures. A Friend of the Devil examines and tracks the stories of some of these most famous legendary bandits and the songs that deify them while also looking at society's role in creating outlaws - and our perpetual need for a new hero. Featuring new interviews with dozens of contemporary songwriters and fully illustrated with photographs of the singers of these outlaw songs, this book is both fun and informative in its historical survey of songs that paint strangely positive portraits of history's most notorious criminals.

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