Lyr Req/Add: 44 Gun (from The Wandering Ramblers)

Subject: Lyrics for '44 Gun'
From: GUEST,Vicky Bunsen
Date: 22 Apr 00 - 10:54 AM

I'd like some help with lyrics to a song that I heard on a 1991 cassette tape by the The Wandering Ramblers. The song is titled 44 Gun and here's some of the lyrics that I can understand:

Chorus:
Don't you remember on that rocky mountain side where we laid down to rest?
You promised to be my blue-eyed boy while the sun sank in the west?

Verses:
Now hand me down my old grey hat, it's a hangin' there on the nail.
By this time on tomorrow morn, I'll be gone on that long, long trail.

Now if you see me standin' on the porch, with a forty-four in my hand,
Just tell them all I killed myself, cuz you've gone to some foreign land.

There are couple more verses that I can't make sense of. Any help at all would be appreciated so that I can piece it together.

Thanks,

- Vicky

Subject: Lyr Add: MARY DON'T YOU GO
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 May 05 - 07:09 PM

The Wandering Ramblers' recording of 44 GUN is on the various-artists collection "Old-Time Music on the Air," Rounder CD (or cassette) #331, 1994. Allmusic.com has a sound sample, which happens to include one of the verses Vicky quoted (5 years ago!). I hear only a couple of words differently:

Now if you see me standin' on my porch, with a forty-four in my hand,
Just tell them all I've killed myself, 'cause you've gone to some foreign land.

…but I'm afraid even the best ears won't make those words make any more sense.

I did find another song with some similar lines in it.

Copied from here.

MARY DON'T YOU GO

Woke up last night, heard a knock on the door,
I heard a rough voice say:
"I've come here tonight. I don't want to fight.
I just come to take Mary away."

CHORUS: Oh, Mary, don't you go, don't you go.
Come back and see me once more.

Fifteen cents is all the money I've got.
Mary, don't you want some change?
All I want is a forty-four gun
To blow out some dirty man's brains. CHORUS

If you find me alive at your door tonight,
With a forty-four in my hand,
I'll tell you the reason that I killed myself
Was because you loved another man. CHORUS

Subject: Lyr Add: 44 GUN (from The Wandering Ramblers)
From: Peace
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 10:09 PM

BINGO


Forty Four Gun From Wandering Ramblers. Marimac 9033. Key on Cassette C/Bb double tonic, no thirds in C chord. Tune only has one part, but is played both high and low. From Lily May Ledford, Powell County, Kentucky, and Clarence Hay Ashford, Kentucky.

Don't you remember on that rocky mountain side
When we lay down to rest
You promised to be my blue eyed boy
While the sun sank in the west

High instrumental

Now hand me down my old grey hat
It's a hanging there on the nail
Before this time tomorrow morn
I'll be gone on that long, long, trail

Low instrumental

Now if you see me standing on my porch
With a for--ty four in my hand
Just tell them all I've killed myself
Because you've gone to some foreign land

High instrumental

Don't you remember on that rocky mountain side
When we lay down to rest
You promised to be my blue eyed boy
While the sun sank in the west

Low instrumental

I wish to the lord I'd never been born
Died when I was young
I never would have seen those two blue eyes
Or heard that lying tongue

High instrumental

I never will listen what another man says
Let his hair be black or brown
Unless that he's on some scaffold high
Saying darling I wish to come down
Straight into
Don't you remember on that rocky mountain side
When we lay down to rest
You promised to be my blue eyed boy
While the sun sank in the west

High instrumental.
End





Free A Little Bird From Dykes Magic City Trio. Old Homestead LP. Key on LP F; presumably being played in G, because all Dykes tunes seem to be tuned down at least a tone from standard.

Oh, I'm as free a little bird as I can be, I can be
I'm as free a little bird as I can be
Gonna build my nest in a weeping willow tree
Where the bad boys cannot bother me

Break x2

Oh, I'll never build my nest on the ground, on the ground
I'll never build my nest on the ground
I'll build my nest on a weeping willow tree
Where the bad boys cannot tear me down

Break x 1
Repeat verse 1

That is from

www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/old-time-music/old-time-songs/old-time-songs-F.htm

Found it with a Google of

"if you see me standing on my porch"

in the quotation marks. FYI.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 44 Gun (from The Wandering Ramblers)
From: Peace
Date: 09 Aug 06 - 10:10 PM

I may have screwed up and added a second song there. Sorry.