BROTHER JOHN
(Daniel Payne) with lyrics and video

Oh, first when I came in this world my troubles they began,
Because I had a brother, John, who proved to be a twin;
We looked like one another, you couldn't tell one from the other,
And often I would bear the blame for looking like my brother.

Oh, John he was a hunchback and he proved to be a crook,
One night upon the street he swiped a lady's pocketbook;
As soon as he had swiped it, sure he escaped and ran,
And when they saw me comin' up they said I was the man.

I said I wasn't the man who swiped the lady's pocketbook,
The cop he cracked me on the pole, me knees they fairly shook;
He didn't believe I had a twin, we looked like one another,
And I spent the night a jailbird for looking like my brother.

One night as I was walking with my girlie by my side,
John's wife she comes creepin', comes creepin' up behind;
Saying, John, you little filthy, you filthy little rat,
Says I, you are mistaken, you are takin' me for Jack.

Oh, she grabbed me by the hair of the head and she hauled me to her home,
She hauled me up the stairs and she barred me in the room;
She went down and got her mother, her mother I suppose,
And the both of them beat me black and blue from my head down to my toes.

Well, time went by, old John got sick and died,
He was taken to the cemetery, it was a full event;
The hearse went fast, the corpse slipped off, they did not miss him gone,
And when they saw me by the grave they said that I was John.

Well, the undertaker grabbed me and says, John, you must behave,
You know you're dead, and you must not kick, you must go in your grave;
They put me in a pine box, I hollered like a bugger,
And they buried me up in under the ground for looking like my brother.