Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Murder Bull (from Wellman and Coltman) From: Richard Mellish Date: 18 Sep 22 - 10:27 AM Only peripherally related, but perhaps worth mentioning; a complete luxury edition of the Silver John stories has supposedly been in production for two years. I paid $100 in October 2020. The publisher haffnerpress.com emails updates occasionally but I'm still waiting for the book to appear. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Murder Bull (from Wellman and Coltman) From: GUEST Date: 15 Sep 22 - 12:37 PM The Silver John version quoted above has all but one of the verses I had from Sandy Paton. Memory fails, but I think the missing verse was the incomplete one Sandy asked me to reconstruct as best I could. It comes after "They drove him out to roam the hills ... The maverick Murder Bull." Here it is: They'd tell a tale of meeting him Up on some bald hillside, A ghost white bull in pale moonlight With MURDER on his hide. Bob |
Subject: ADD: Murder Bull (from Wellman and Coltman) From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Sep 22 - 12:15 AM And from Wellman's John the Balladeer: “Friends," I said, “let me try a song they call ‘Murder Bull.’ I learnt it from a Texas man, who said the thing truly happened in his part of the world." I struck a chord, then another chord, to make sure I was sure of the tune, and started out:
And the ghost wind moans and chills, They tell about the Murder Bull That roams the Texas hills. “It was at that big roundup In eighteen eighty-four, Two riders claimed a stray bull calf On the old Red River shore. "He wasn't much to fight for, But Jillson's hate was black; He fired a shot through Graham's chest And it came out the back. "Graham drew his bowie knife And struck in Jillson's side, And both fell down, and no one knew Which was the first that died." "The others at the roundup, They gathered round and said, "There's none of us will claim that calf, Now both of them are dead.” "A running iron they heated, The calf they roped and tied, And in big, burning letters Spelled MURDER on his hide.”
And when his time was full, He grew up big and terrible, The maverick Murder Bull. "And many a year's been born and died, But still he prowls at night With MURDER branded on his flank In letters red and bright. "If you live in East Texas, Be always on your guard, Because some night the bull may come, Walk right into your yard. "While you sit in there, watching The fire that dulls and dies, He’ll come up to your window With MURDER in his eyes. "Then turn and look the other way And hold your frightened breath, For if you face the Murder Bull His eyes will give you death.” There was dead silence all over, for while I counted about half a dozen ticks. Then they broke out with their racket. I walked off, and Brooke Altic met me as I came down the steps from the stage. He grabbed my hand in his thin, strong one and shook it. “That was magnificent, John,” he said. “Listen to them applaud.” |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Murder Bull (from Wellman and Coltman) From: Joe Offer Date: 14 Sep 22 - 12:02 AM I found this in Dark Worlds Quarterly Magazine: The MURDER Bull The MURDER Bull doesn’t appear in any of Wellman’s stories but is featured in a scary song that John sings in After Dark (1980). The song tells of two cattlemen in Texas who murdered each other in 1884 over an unbranded bull calf. The other cowboys branded the word MURDER on the animal and drove it away. The bull wanders and grows to become “big and terrible”. The last two stanzas of the song explain what happens to those who see the MURDER BULL: While you sit in there, watching The fire that dulls and dies, He’ll come up to the window With MURDER in his eyes. Then turn and look the other way And hold your frightened breath, For if you face the Murder Bull His eyes will give you death.” The Little Black Train Like the MURDER Bull, another portentous phantom is the Little Black Train, which takes the souls of the damned to Hell. I heard a voice a warning, A message from on high, “Go put your house in order For thou shalt surely die. Tell all your friends a long farewell And get your business right — The little black train is rolling in To call for you tonight. In “The Little Black Train”(F&SF, August 1954) it is Donie Carawan who must worry about the phantom express, for her sins: seducing a lover to kill her husband. Even selling the railroad she inherits cannot stop the Little Black Train for its rails are as unearthly as the train. Robert Bloch used a similar legend in his Hugo winning story “That Hell-Bound Train”(1958). |
Subject: Lyr Req: Murder Bull From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Sep 22 - 11:53 PM Anybody have lyrics to the "Murder Bull" song that Sandy Paton speaks of in this post? B.F. Rowley, the School Superintendent in Mustang OK who sang this song for Sandy, retired in 1990 and died in 1996. Also note information about the Murder Bull in the book The Longhorns Thread #85197 Message #1578634 Posted By: Sandy Paton 08-Oct-05 - 03:44 AM Thread Name: Origins: Vandy Vandy Subject: RE: Origins: Vandy Vandy
I find "Vandy, Vandy" in two of my Manly Wade Wellman short story collections, Joe. The first is in the classic "Who Fears the Devil" collection. My older copy is a Ballantine Books paperback, 1964. The other is in a later collection, "Owls Hoot in the Daytime and Other Omens; Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 5" -- Night Shade Books, San Francisco & Portland, 2003. |
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