A Song about Judas Iscariot

Subject: A song about Judas Iscariot
From:
Date: 28 Sep 98 - 09:11 AM

Can anyone help me identify this song:

Now, Judas Iscariot had a friend in the Roman guard,
And they sat down to a checker game, one day in the courthouse yard.
Said the soldier unto Judas, "I'd like to make a bet,
That your gypsy sidekick, Jesus Christ, is soon gonna meet his death."

Well, Judas flew in anger, and hollered at his friend,
"You must be crazy to think his life could end.
Why, he's the Lord's own chosen one, and the Lord won't let him die."
"I'd like to bet," said the soldier, "that you just told a lie."

"Ahhh, you ain't got no faith!" cried Judas, "but, just to show you where it's at,
For 30 dollars I'll take you up to Jesus by myself."
"It's a deal," said the soldier, "tonight at 2 o'clock," and they shook hands.
And Judas left rather hurriedly, just to find his beloved friend.

Now, Jesus he was with some friends, up in some garret room,
And they was drinkin' wine and dancin' to a Gallilean tune.
Judas stepped up to his friend and said, "Hey, let's step outside.
We got a chance to show these people that you won't never die."

Well, Jesus he let go his jug, and grabbed Iscariot's hand.
"This wine sure is wicked stuff. Why, I can't hardly stand.
And I swear I thought I heard you say that I won't never die."
"That's what I said," cried Judas. And Jesus heaved a sigh.


I could go on, but I reckon if you've heard it you'd recognize it by now.

Thanks for any tips,
David Greene
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From:
Date: 28 Sep 98 - 09:20 AM

My brother used to do this song-----we played together in a folk trio and it was orginally done by Bob Frank, if memory serves. Bob did one album.....If you wanta copy, drop my brother a note at [e-mail]. His name is Rick Renardson and I am sure he can help you. He used to sing it and would go on for what seemed liked 48 verses :)

Wayne Renardson Nashville, TN

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From:
Date: 28 Sep 98 - 09:23 AM

Hmmmmm-----my brother's e-mail address did not make it... Try Rick Renardson and [e-mail]

Wayne

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Sep 98 - 05:20 PM

Hi, Wayne - gotta be careful how you use angle brackets here. This forum is set up so we can do HTML fancy stuff if we want to. anything you put inside angle brackets is interpreted as an HTML command and is not visible to the human eye. As has been discussed in another thread, I may or may not be human. Whatever the case may be, I can see things here that are not visible to the ordinary human eye, and I fixed your goofs - but I can't help with the Judas song. Can you contact your brother and ask if he can help - or aren't you two speaking to each other?
I was wondering - could that Bob Frank you speak of be Bob Franke?
-Joe Offer, running the MAX98 Operating System-

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: The Shambles
Date: 28 Sep 98 - 06:16 PM

See also the Leon Rosselson song 'Stand up for Judas'.

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: David Greene
Date: 29 Sep 98 - 08:06 AM

Funny you should ask. Just this weekend I attended a live performance by Bob Franke, and I asked him about this song. Imagine my embarrassment when he had never heard of it. That's when I hopped on the web and found, lo and behold, there are two men who have been singing folk songs for 30 years - one is named Bob Frank, the other Bob Franke. Ha!

David Greene [e-mail]

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 15 - 06:16 PM

Mike Pohl, Omaha, NE
I attended college in Helena, MT from 1973-1977. A fellow student and guitar player wrote down those words by hand and signed it....
B. Frank
I still have the words and the yellow paper he gave me. Could this be the original?

Let me know @ [e-mail]

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: GUEST,#
Date: 21 Apr 15 - 06:30 PM

Try Reaching Bob Frank through Evangeline Records in the SF bay area.

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 21 Apr 15 - 10:28 PM

There's also Roy Harper's song, Baby don't you Grieve after Me about Judas. Always liked it.

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Apr 15 - 04:46 AM

... & Peter Bellamy's Ballad Of Judas on the Tell It Like It Was album (1975):

https://mainlynorfolk.info/peter.bellamy/songs/theballadofjudas.html

≈M≈

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 22 Apr 15 - 08:21 AM

...and Sydney Carter's "Said Judas To Mary."

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: GUEST,CupOfTea, no cookies
Date: 22 Apr 15 - 01:24 PM

Judas also gets a pair of verses in Sydney Carter's "Bitter Was the Night" (about the eve of Good Friday)

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Apr 15 - 02:37 PM

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: GUEST,RBerman
Date: 22 Apr 15 - 07:59 PM

Then there's the British "Bonfire Carol," aka "Judas Was a Red-Headed Man."

https://mainlynorfolk.info/june.tabor/songs/judaswasaredheadedman.html

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: GUEST,Martin Duffy
Date: 07 Nov 15 - 05:36 AM

You can hear Ruth Tongue, who collected the Bonfire Carol, singing it here:

http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Bob-and-Jacqueline-Patten-Collection/025M-C1033X0012XX-2500V0

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 Nov 15 - 02:14 PM

Judas also turns up, disguised as a secondhand chariot seller, in Con Fada O Driscoll's epic Ben Hur, of course.

Regards

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: dick.hamlet
Date: 07 Nov 15 - 05:59 PM

Perhaps it belongs in another thread (about Jesus, or Woody's parody)
but I learned this god-knows-where:

JESUS CHRIST (Parody of Jesse James, from the Communist viewpoint)

Jesus Christ was a man, an honest working man, a carpenter by trade,
He said to the rich, "Give your goods to the poor!", so the laid Jesus Christ in his grave.                  
                                                                                                            
(Chorus)                                                                                                   
Jesus had no wife to mourn for his life, he needed a bath and a shave.                                       
But that foe of the proletariat, Judas Iscariot, laid Jesus Christ in his grave.                           
                                                                                                            
Born in 29 B.C. in a barn in Galilee, and bathed in his unwed mother's tears.                              
He fought the ruling classes and preached gospel to the masses, and he dated Marx by 1800 years.            
                                                                                                            
Yes Judas was the guy, the lousy labor spy, a stoolie for the Roman boss.                                    
He ate of Jesus body and he drank Jesus blood, then he nailed Jesus Christ to the cross.                     
                                                                                                            
With thieves on either side, Jesus Christ was crucified, and tears filled Mary's eyes.                     
But his words to you and me from that hill on Calvary, were, "Don't pray for me -- organize!".               
                                                                                                            
So they laid him in the ground, and his followers gathered round, to spread the gospel by the sword and cannon.
                                                                                                         
But his following today is corrupt in every way, as the party of Khrushchev and Bulganin.

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Sep 18 - 02:21 AM

I first learned this version in high school, around 1971, from a collection of bawdy and otherwise naughty songs called Roll Me Over.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BALLAD OF JUDAS ISCARIOT (R Buchanan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Jun 25 - 09:40 AM

I first found this poem in The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW: Sat 28 Jan 1893) Page 7, where it comes with the following introductory note:

Robert Williams Buchanan was born in August, 1841, and was educated at the University of Glasgow. He is better known in dramatic than in poetic literature; among his poems, however, "London Poems," translations from the Danish, and other short poems, are popular.

The following text comes from The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan, Vol. 1 (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1874), page 7.


THE BALLAD OF JUDAS ISCARIOT
By Robert Buchanan.

'Twas the body of Judas Iscariot
Lay in the Field of Blood;
'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Beside the body stood.

Black was the earth by night,
And black was the sky;
Black, black were the broken clouds,
Tho' the red Moon went by.

'Twas the body of Judas Iscariot
Strangled and dead lay there;
'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Look'd on it in despair.

The breath of the World came and went
Like a sick man's in rest;
Drop by drop on the World's eyes
The dews fell cool and blest.

Then the soul of Judas Iscariot
Did make a gentle moan—
'I will bury underneath the ground
My flesh and blood and bone.

'I will bury deep beneath the soil,
Lest mortals look thereon,
And when the wolf and raven come
The body will be gone!

'The stones of the field are sharp as steel,
And hard and cold, God wot;
And I must bear my body hence
Until I find a spot!'

'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot,
So grim, and gaunt, and gray,
Raised the body of Judas Iscariot,
And carried it away.

And as he bare it from the field
Its touch was cold as ice,
And the ivory teeth within the jaw
Rattled aloud, like dice.

As the soul of Judas Iscariot
Carried its load with pain,
The Eye of Heaven, like a lanthorn's eye,
Open'd and shut again.

Half he walk'd, and half he seemed
Lifted on the cold wind;
He did not turn, for chilly hands
Were pushing from behind.

The first place that he came unto
It was the open wold,
And underneath were prickly whins,
And a wind that blew so cold.

The next place that he came unto
It was a stagnant pool,
And when he threw the body in
It floated light as wool.

He drew the body on his back,
And it was dripping chill,
And the next place he came unto
Was a Cross upon a hill.

A Cross upon the windy hill,
And a Cross on either side,
Three skeletons that swing thereon,
Who had been crucified.

And on the middle cross-bar sat
A white Dove slumbering;
Dim it sat in the dim light,
With its head beneath its wing.

And underneath the middle Cross
A grave yawn'd wide and vast,
But the soul of Judas Iscariot
Shiver'd, and glided past.

The fourth place that he came unto
It was the Brig of Dread,
And the great torrents rushing down
Were deep, and swift, and red.

He dared not fling the body in
For fear of faces dim,
And arms were waved in the wild water
To thrust it back to him.

'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Turned from the Brig of Dread,
And the dreadful foam of the wild water
Had splashed the body red.

For days and nights he wandered on
Upon an open plain,
And the days went by like blinding mist,
And the nights like rushing rain.

For days and nights he wandered on,
All thro' the Wood of Woe;
And the nights went by like moaning wind,
And the days like drifting snow.

'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Came with a weary face—
Alone, alone, and all alone,
Alone in a lonely place!

He wandered east, he wandered west,
And heard no human sound;
For months and years, in grief and tears,
He wandered round and round.

For months and years, in grief and tears,
He walked the silent night;
Then the soul of Judas Iscariot
Perceived a far-off light.

A far-off light across the waste,
As dim as dim might be,
That came and went like the lighthouse gleam
On a black night at sea.

'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Crawl'd to the distant gleam;
And the rain came down, and the rain was blown
Against him with a scream.

For days and nights he wandered on,
Push'd on by hands behind;
And the days went by like black, black rain,
And the nights like rushing wind.

'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot,
Strange, and sad, and tall,
Stood all alone at dead of night
Before a lighted hall.

And the wold was white with snow,
And his foot-marks black and damp,
And the ghost of the silvern Moon arose,
Holding her yellow lamp.

And the icicles were on the eaves,
And the walls were deep with white,
And the shadows of the guests within
Pass'd on the window light.

The shadows of the wedding guests
Did strangely come and go,
And the body of Judas Iscariot
Lay stretch'd along the snow.

The body of Judas Iscariot
Lay stretched along the snow;
'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Ran swiftly to and fro.

To and fro, and up and down,
He ran so swiftly there,
As round and round the frozen Pole
Glideth the lean white bear.

'Twas the Bridegroom sat at the table-head,
And the lights burnt bright and clear—
'Oh, who is that,' the Bridegroom said,
'Whose weary feet I hear?'

'Twas one look'd from the lighted hall,
And answered soft and slow,
'It is a wolf runs up and down
With a black track in the snow.'

The Bridegroom in his robe of white
Sat at the table-head—
'Oh, who is that who moans without?'
The blessed Bridegroom said.

'Twas one looked from the lighted hall,
And answered fierce and low,
'Tis the soul of Judas Iscariot
Gliding to and fro.'

'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Did hush itself and stand,
And saw the Bridegroom at the door
With a light in his hand.

The Bridegroom stood in the open door,
And he was clad in white,
And far within the Lord's Supper
Was spread so broad and bright.

The Bridegroom shaded his eyes and look'd,
And his face was bright to see—
'What dost thou here at the Lord's Supper
With thy body's sins?' said he.

'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Stood black, and sad, and bare—
'I have wandered many nights and days;
There is no light elsewhere.'

'Twas the wedding guests cried out within,
And their eyes were fierce and bright—
'Scourge the soul of Judas Iscariot
Away into the night!'

The Bridegroom stood in the open door,
And he waved hands still and slow,
And the third time that he waved his hands
The air was thick with snow.

And of every flake of falling snow,
Before it touched the ground,
There came a dove, and a thousand doves
Made sweet sound.

'Twas the body of Judas Iscariot
Floated away full fleet,
And the wings of the doves that bare it off
Were like its winding-sheet.

'Twas the Bridegroom stood at the open door,
And beckon'd, smiling sweet;
'Twas the soul of Judas Iscariot
Stole in, and fell at his feet.

'The Holy Supper is spread within,
And the many candles shine,
And I have waited long for thee
Before I poured the wine!'

The supper wine is poured at last,
The lights burn bright and fair,
Iscariot washes the Bridegroom's feet,
And dries them with his hair.

Subject: RE: A Song about Judas Iscariot
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 15 Jun 25 - 11:58 AM

I remember on a couple of occasions hearing Bob Watson singing a song that would come under this category, probably one he had written, but I can't find the lyrics anywhere at the moment.
He certainly did it at Lancaster Maritime Festival at least once in a singaround.

Robin