Favorite Badman Ballads

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Ely
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 05:29 PM

Thank you, Midchuck!

Gotta agree so far: "Dehlia"; "Billy Gray"; "Jesse James" (esp. Golden Ring version); "Wild Bill Jones"; "Ella Speed"; "Staggerlee" (actually, I like the 1950's R&B version a lot).

Must add "Little Sadie", "Captain Kidd", "Tom Dooley", "Duncan and Brady" and Robert Earl Keen's "Tom Ames' Prayer". Would "Frankie and Johnny" and "Betty and Dupree" count? And there are lots of good European ones: "Brennan on the Moor" and such.

Subject: Lyr Add: JIM JONES (Bob Dylan)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 09:07 PM

"Jim Jones" - recorded by Bob Dylan on the album "Good As I Been To You":

Jim Jones

Come and listen for a moment lads, And hear me tell my tale
How across the seas from England I was condemned to sail
Oh, the jury found me guilty, lads, then says the judge, says he
"For life Jim Jones I'm sending you across that stormy sea
So take a trip before you ship to join the iron gang
Don't get too gay in Botany Bay or else you'll surely hang
Or else you'll surely hang, says he, and after that, Jim Jones
It's high upon the gallows tree the crows will pick your bones"

Now our ship was sailing on the sea when pirates came along
But the soldiers on that convict ship they were full 500 strong
And they opened fire and soon they drove that pirate ship away
But I'd rather have joined that pirate ship than gone to Botany Bay
With the storms all raging round us and the wind a blowing gale
I'd rather have drowned in misery than gone to New South Wales
There's no time for mischief there, they say, "Remember that," says they
For they'll flog the flesh right off your bones down there in Botany Bay

Now it's day and night the irons clang, and like poor galley slaves
We toil and toil and when we die must fill dishonoured graves
But it's by and by I'll slip my chains, into the bush I'll go
And I'll join the brave bush rangers there, Jack Donohue and all
And some dark night when all is still and silent in the town
I'll shoot those tyrants one by one, I'll gun the floggers down
Yes, I'll give the lot a little shot, remember what I say
And they'll yet regret they sent Jim Jones in chains to Botany Bay

The words vary a bit here and there, but that's basically it, and that's how I sing it these days...great song!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Midchuck
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 09:11 PM

I agree it's a great song.

But Ian Robb sings it so much better...IMNSHO.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Fortunato
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 09:14 PM

Damn it Lonesome EJ I read this whole damn thread just in case ya'll missed "Me and My Uncle" and all the way at the end, I mean right down to the end, and I'm getting excited, and there you go -- quote and all.

Oh well, great minds think alike. damn good song.

regards, Chance

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Aug 00 - 10:47 PM

Earl - many thanks for the lyrics! Now I'm gonna sing that song a whole lot.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: GUEST,Hutzul
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 03:42 AM

We're drifting in and out of "Folk" but

"Mack the Knife"

"In the Jailhouse Now" Doc Watson

"Red Headed Stranger" ...he screamed like a panther... gives me shivers.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Jon W.
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 12:36 PM

Sorry midchuck Peter, I haven't had the opportunity to hear Tony Rice or Norman Blake nearly enough to know which is which. All I know is they did a great version of "New River Train" together but of course that's not a baddie song. I recognized the writer of "Billy Gray" as being the same Norman Blake but didn't have the CD nearby to double check the credits - thus my moment of doubt. Don't blame Planxty for my mistakes.

Jon W.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: GUEST,Patrick Shields
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 01:02 PM

that ole Otto Wood...'cause it's so much fun to sing, Leroy Brown cause he so bad, he think, and Ranger's Command,an old Woody Guthrie song about about a "bad" woman who would never run "as long as there's bullets in both of your guns"

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Midchuck
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 02:07 PM

I'm not mad at anyone. I just think it's much more fun to carry on a discussion in HTML than in plain old text!

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:20 PM

A couple of my favorites haven't yet been mentioned: "Betty and Dupree,' which I learned from Art Thieme's CD, "The Older I Get the Better I Was," and "Railroad Bill," a great pickin' tune which is a bit short of verses to make a complete narrative. --seed

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Sep 00 - 10:38 PM

How about "Last Night" by the traveling Wilbury's...

I asked her if she'd marry me, she pulled out a knife. "The party's just beginning", she said, "your money or your life."

Now I'm back at the bar, she went a little too far. She done me wrong, all I've got is a song. Last night...talkin' 'bout last night...

Now that's what I call a BA-A-A-A-D girl!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 04:00 PM

Ha! Got you again Fortunato! Requiescat in pace!

LEJ

by the way...how the Hell did you escape from the catacombs?

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 04:14 PM

Your chain was rusty and your mortar was crap, Montressor. Mason, indeed.

--seed

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 05:16 PM

Ah,Seed,my wizened cohort,I see you have returned to the scene of your former crimes.I suppose I'll have to keep a close eye on my grammar and syntax while you're in the house.

LEJ smiling sardonically

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Amos
Date: 02 Sep 00 - 07:00 PM

Hang Down Your Head, And Cry, Poor Boy hasn't been mentioned. Duncan and Brady ("...he's been on the joooob topo long!") is real close to the grain.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: GUEST,lohouse8
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 05:14 PM

Has anyone mentioned an old timey tune called "The Fatal Flower Garden". A very wicked gypsy lady involved here. I think it's in the DT.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 06:25 PM

Bseed, I took like Betty and Dupree, but I really don't quite see (hear) Dupree as a badman. He's weak, and will do whatever his woman wants, so he robs the jewelry store for a diamond ring, but there is nothing that indicates that's part of a bad character generally on his part.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Metchosin
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 06:33 PM

Vincent Black Lightning 1952 - Ricard Thompson!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Metchosin
Date: 03 Sep 00 - 06:57 PM

well jeez, its my birfday and I've been into the Singleton for the last couple of hours.....I love you Ricard! er.... Richard...

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Song Dog
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 09:32 PM

How about, "Bonnie and Clyde"? A bad man and woman together.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 01:39 AM

doester, he didn't merely rob a jewelry store, he "shot three policemen, wounded 'bout four or five more." Weak, yes, dumb as hell, certainly, but murder ain't nice.

Oh, here's one more: "Fall River Hoedown"--the ballad of Lizzie Borden.

--seed

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 10:10 AM

Bseed, you've seen a different, fuller version than I have. I know it from Dave Van Ronk's rendition.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: GUEST,Trae Buckner
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 04:16 AM

I've seen alot of good bad man ballads posted but nobody has mentioned my favorite.

Pretty Polly

"Polly, Pretty polly your guess is about right.
I dug on your grave the better part of last night"



"Momma Tried" by Merle Haggard is a good one too.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 08:42 AM

Yes, Willie Seton is a Tom Paxton song, and it was on his first album on the Galsight label. My favorite would be Kenny Wagner... the most ignominious of all bad men ballads... "A woman sherrif captured him, 'casue he drew his gun too late." Oh, the Shame!!!

Jerry

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Jan 03 - 09:41 PM

A song that was called THE KILLER by John Lomax. When I did it I called it DOBY BILL. His name probably came from ADOBE-----which should've made him 'DOBE BILL in my rendition.

East Texas Red too.

Both were on my first LP for Sandy.

Also, MR. GARFIELD about the killing of James A.---on my second LP for Sandy.

And THE HANGING OF CHARLIE BIRGER------from Vernon Dalhart (Marian Try Slaughter) about a notorious Southern Illinois bootlegger and crime gang leader and killer who was hanged in 1928 in Benton, Illinois for ordering the murder of used car dealer and Mayor of West City, Illinois, Joe Adams. The story of Charlie Birger is better than the song actually. I put it on my second LP for Kicking Mule (now out of print)--- Songs Of The Heartland.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: open mike
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 04:45 AM

did no one mention Rocky Racoon?
seems like there were some bad
stuff goin' on in that Beatles
tune..villains and such....

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: GUEST,Jaze
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 11:06 AM

Fairfax County by David Massengill

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Cluin
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 11:20 AM

"The Slip Jigs and Reels" by Steve Tilston (also recorded by Fairport Convention, but I like ST's version better):

Well the called him The Kid, and by twenty-one
All that he knew was the power of the gun
And by twenty three, he'd shot five men down
Who'd got in his way as he rambled around

Another Tilston song, also covered by Fairport is "The Naked Highwayman". In that one, the young highwayman is seduced by one of his female victims who steals his clothes and pistols... not to turn him in as in "Whisky in the Jar", but to practice the trade herself. And she is much better at it than he.

There's another good "failed highwayman" song by James Gordon & Tamarack: "The Old Tweed Road".

And a little known ballad of frontier justice by Archie Fisher called "The Mountain Rain" In which an old man and his son ride down out of the mountains and into the town to settle up with a gambler that killed the eldest son.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: mg
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 11:54 AM

Speaking of Bonnie and Clyde...did you know she was a balladeer? I read some verses by her in a book..one is about Suicide Sal...pretty good too.

mg

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Jim Colbert
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 12:21 PM

I grew up on Robbins's gunfighter ballad and trail songs too! To this day, one of my favorites, if not my single favorite disc. I wore out two vinyl copies of this through the years.

Art said: A song that was called THE KILLER by John Lomax. When I did it I called it DOBY BILL. His name probably came from ADOBE-----which should've made him 'DOBE BILL in my rendition.

Hey, Art, that's the guy who invented Photoshop and Illustrator, right? he he.

How bout Sonora's Death Row by Blackie Farrell (my fave version is Richard Shindell's take on it.) David Olney's Dillinger. And I'd include Tom Rusell's sky above, the mud below even though the saloonkeeper/sheriff/judge (and he owned the hearse!) is probably the focal point. Cause it sure wouldn't be much of a song without the brothers Sandoval.


jim colbert

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Kim C
Date: 24 Jan 03 - 12:41 PM

Jim, I love that Tom Russell song! It would make a great movie.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: GerryM
Date: 29 Sep 22 - 05:38 AM

I see Me and My Uncle mentioned way upthread, and attributed to The Grateful Dead. They did perform it a great many times at their concerts, but they didn't write it – John Phillips (best-known for his work with The Mamas and the Papas) wrote it. Judy Collins was first to record it.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Sep 22 - 07:48 PM

All murder ballads could count

That one I never found again about a guy who borrows a coat and someone else gets killed but coat borrower doesn't want to grass on coat owner so goes down for it, or something