The Greatest Professional Wrestling Concept Album EVER: Track By Track
6. Stabbed To Death Outside San Juan
Killer Lyrics: Sometimes you get some heat, sometimes it follows you around / When the blade hits the bone, everybody hears it sing / Shower room full of people, no-one hears a goddamned thing.
The ease in vocal delivery gives the track a sense of immediacy. It is gripping like the hype presentation of a motivational speaker pitching his $1000 course to a room of rookies. The instruments are stripped back but build into a subdued gothic menace with a Latin flair. At times, Darnielle’s delivery recalls the lyrical story telling of Frank Black.
Moving away from the ‘70s territory wrestling of Darnielle’s childhood, the track retells the infamous murder of Bruiser Brody in 1988. The lyrics are from the perspective of the murdered wrestler, who was stabbed in the shower by fellow grappler José Huertas González. This was believed to have been motivated as a warped form of payback for Brody working stiff with a young González.
Despite being one of the album’s most heavily wrestling inspired songs, large sections of the lyrics play with the idea of “heat”. As well as the heat of Puerto Rico, this alludes to Brody’s heat as a notoriously stiff worker, who was often judged for his Wildman character.