Well I think the new version has a little more snap in it.
https://soundcloud.com/alan-whittle-658826502/a-poor-mad-boy-in-the-state-of-delaware

Thankyou for listening Joe. Perhaps Ewan was right we should all stick to our native accents! Though I was 75 last week so its a bit too late to worry about that!

The story the song tells (or tries to tell) is about a man who yearns for adventure. He is better acquainted with Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Boudre (members of the Billy the Kid gang) than he is with his own neighbours. One night he has a dream that he is in shoot out with the Kid and his gang. However he wakes up to find in actual fact he has been shooting people at random in his local shopping mall. Doubtless he had bought guns quite legally to feel he was part of the adventurous life he wanted.


       The poor mad boy in the State of Delaware.

I had this dream. I'd rode to town.
Looking for Billy the Kid?
The Kid had done me grievous wrong.
Now he’d pay for what he did.
Tethered my pony at the hitching rail,
In the Old Town square.
The whole town was full of bad men.
There was bad men everywhere.

Tom O’Foliard and Charlie Boudre
They were standing in my way.
I thought, it's now or never,
So I blew them both away.
I shouted. ‘I've ridden in this town.
Looking for Billy the Kid?
Him and his pals, they hurt me bad.
And now they’re paying for what they did!’

But then the doors of the saloon flew open
.And out stepped the Kid himself.
Young and handsome and defiant.
He shouted, ‘What is your beef, pray tell?’
I looked at the boy, I was thinking,
‘Damn your soul to hell!’
He fired first, but I’d lined up my shot
And it was the Kid that fell.

Then suddenly, the dream was gone.
The bad town faded away
I was standing in the mall where I did all my shopping
Someone gently took my gun away
Suddenly a policeman cuffed me.
And the crowd started to shove.
Someone asked me, ‘Why was it you just killed
The only person that I loved?’

‘You're lucky we don't hang folk now!’
Then suddenly, I was aware.
I was just a poor mad boy in the state of Delaware.

Words and music by Alan Whittle©02/01/2024 09:32:43