A Son of the Rock

What was it with sixties/seventies song writers and murderers?
“The Green, Green Grass Of Home” and the Bee Gees’ “Gotta Get A Message To You” both feature convicts on Death Row and R Dean Taylor’s “Indiana Wants Me,” someone on the run. Another song occupying this territory is Elton John’s “Have Mercy On The Criminal” from the Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player album but in that one it’s not clear whether the convict is a murderer or not.
(There are bound to be more examples of this sort of thing but I can’t bring them to mind at the moment.)

Is it just a cheap shot at sentimentality like the use of motor cycle accidents in Twinkle’s “Terry” and the Shangri-Las’ “Leader Of The Pack?”

“Indiana Wants Me” in particular has a shocking first line; by which I do not mean it’s a bad line – on the contrary, it’s a very good first line** – but that the sentiment it expresses is reprehensible; one which no-one ought to think, still less act on.

R Dean Taylor did go in for sound effects, though, didn’t he? There were the tyres in Gotta See Jane, and listen to the howl of the sirens in this one.

**It was the best of lines, it was the worst of lines.