Favorite Badman Ballads II

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jun 17 - 02:12 PM

Billy The Kid By Ry Cooder is one of my favourites.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Jun 17 - 02:01 PM

this a song i wrote many years ago about George Joseph Smith, the brides in the bath murderer hanged in 1916


https://soundcloud.com/denise_whittle/george-joseph-smith

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST,Rick
Date: 22 Jun 17 - 12:15 PM

I saw Ry Cooder live many years ago and he did a song with a line about Bat Masterson, that said "he bit another notch in his gun". Anyone familiar with it?

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Iona
Date: 12 Apr 12 - 08:55 PM

How about the Lilies Grow High? That's a ballad about a feller who is a gunslinger....but I'm not sure if he's supposed to be bad or not......
Clicky

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Azizi
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 01:36 PM

His songs may not be ballads, but "Wild Nigger Bill"* deserves a place on the list of favorite badmen.

Here's a rhymes that was included in Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection "Negro Folk Rhymes"

WILD NEGRO BILL
I'se wild Nigger Bill
From Redpepper Hill.
I never did wo'k, and I never will.

I'se done killed de Boss.
I'se knocked down de hoss.
I eats up raw goose widout apple sauce!

I'se Run-a-way Bill,
I knows dey mought kill;
But old Mosser hain't coutch me, an' he never will!

-snip-

* The N word is spelled out here with great reluctance because it is part of the folkloric record.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Midchuck
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 01:08 PM

A Note on Cole Younger, (sang it at old songs ballad ws a few years ago, the only American contribution).
    I like it because he SURVIVED! He got a Presidential pardon and joined a wild west show Aknowledge great lines therein as well.

What I like about Cole was that, at one point after he got out, he was a Life insurance salesman. That tells us something...I'm thankful he wasn't a lawyer. We have a bad enough rep already.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Roberto
Date: 10 Dec 06 - 01:01 PM

Bold Lovell (sung by Roy Harris)
Whiskey in the Jar
Turpin Hero
Captain Kidd
Henry Martin (sung by Phil Tanner; Sam Larner)
Captain Ward
Billy the Kid (sung by Vernon Dalhart)
Jesse James / Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yea (Leadbelly)
Jesse James
Dupree Blues (Willie Walker)
Gangster's Blues (Peetie Wheatstraw)
Outlaws (by Bob Nolan)
Corrido de Durango
Der Lindenschmied (sung by Liederjan)
Mack the Knife

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: DeeRod
Date: 09 Dec 06 - 02:05 PM

Just a word on McFee's confession: As I recall V.Randolph says McFee was hanged in Dayton O in 1838
    Obviously justified homocide. Any woman with wild fits is fair game.
    A Note on Cole Younger, (sang it at old songs ballad ws a few years ago, the only American contribution).
    I like it because he SURVIVED! He got a Presidential pardon and joined a wild west show Aknowledge great lines therein as well.

Rumor has it that his pardon came because at the time he was the only living Democrat in Minnesota.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Scoville
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 10:33 AM

(Formerly Ely)

I still like the one about Jesse James that has the verse "Bob Ford fired the ball/that pulled Jesse from the wall" even though the story itself is hokey. That's a damned good line.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 07:37 AM

love the Sherwood Ross song. who he...?

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: eddie1
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 05:57 AM

McPherson's Lament (in the DT)

Eddie

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 05:37 AM

The Streets of Forbes

Come all you Lachlan men and a sorrowful tale I'll tell
Concerning of a hero bold who through misfortune fell
His name it was Ben Hall a man of good renown
Who was hunted from his station and like a dog shot down

Three years he roamed the roads and he showed the traps some fun
A thousand pound was on his head with Gilbert and John Dunn
Ben parted from his comrades the outlaws did agree
To give away bushranging and cross the briney sea

Ben went to Goobang Creek and that was his downfall
For riddled like a sieve was valiant Ben Hall
Twas early in the morning upon the fifth of May
When the seven police surrounded him as fast asleep he lay

Bill Dargin he was chosen to shoot the outlaw dead
The troopers then fired madly and filled him full of lead
They rolled him in his blanket and strapped him to his prad
And they led him through the streets of Forbes to show the prize they had

(Allegedly) written by Ben Hall's brother-in-law.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Dec 06 - 04:01 AM

'Burke And Hare' - it's about time their contribution to the medical profession was acknowleged!!!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: bobad
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 10:06 PM

The Ballad of Earl Durand

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST,Art Lascaux
Date: 07 Dec 06 - 09:44 PM

What about "Mac the Knife"?

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 09:40 PM

Art Theime's "Doby Bill" is a song about a bad man and a good man---the good guy wins!

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 05:08 AM

well

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 11:17 AM

The song writer took "Poetic License" with the actions of the Lady Sheriff- Mrs. Lilly Barber. After he killed my grandfather, Will Carper, He surrendered, like a coward!

Subject: Lyr Add: TRUE BALLAD OF JESSE JAMES (Sherwood Ross
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 12:45 PM

Many folk songs, especially this type, do not let the truth get in the way of a good story. The truth about "Billy the Kid" Boney being a moron from the slums of New York is well known. Here is a factual version of "Jesse James". Don't "swing" like the usual version, but good to keep a proper perspective.




TRUE BALLAD OF JESSE JAMES
(Sherwood Ross)

Jesse James was no lad
He was grown and he was bad,
He robbed the Glendale train.
He was 34 years old
And his only god was gold
To get rich, 15 poor folks were slain.

cho1:Poor Jesse, my heart bleeds
    For his millionaire-style needs
    He killed with Quantrell's raiders for the South;
    When his side lost the war
    He just kept killin' like before
    He's a hand, a cold heart
    And quite a big mouth.

Fourteen men and a girl died
In the dust when Jesse'd ride
The girl trampled at the Kansas fair;
He blew railroad men to hell
And three Pinkertons as well
And liked to write the press
He wasn't there.

In that bloody Northfield fight
They killed two in broad daylight,
Jesse shot the teller in the head;
But the townfolk showed great heart
The shot the gang apart
'Til two of Jesse's thugs lay dead.

cho2:Poor Jesse was not poor
    That's a lot of horse manure
    He stole half a million from the till;
    He was 34 years old
    And his only god was gold
    And nary a single rich man did he kill.
To notoriety a slave
He'd write the press and rave
Hardly your poor man's saviour;
As for the dirty little coward
Who shot Mister Howard
Why Robert Ford did the world a favor.

Hurrah for Jesse? Save your breath
He left a trail of blood and death
Across a dozen Midwestern states;
Cold-blooded in his wrath
He was your common sociopath
Lyung was one of Jesse's nobler traits.

Be on your way,
Billy Gashade
Who the old James ballad made;
Historians see little truth there in it;
One thing your pack of lies
Has made me realize
There's a press agent born every minute.

cho2:

Copyright Sherwood Ross

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 11:42 PM

The Ballad of Alfred Packer is in the DT, also thread 48903: Alfred Packer

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Ely
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 10:59 PM

I think there's one about Alfred/Alferd Packer somewhere.

I loved Ramblin' Jack Elliott's "Diamond Joe"--I could easily adapt it to suit my boss but it would spoil a good cowboy song.

These have probably been mentioned, but what about "Black Jack Davey", "Wild Bill Jones", and "Harrison Town"? Or the English one about the murder of Maria Marten?

Subject: Lyr Add: BIG IRON
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 10:27 PM

BIG IRON
Am...Em...Am

       |C                                        |Am
To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day
       |C                                                |Am
Hardly spoke to folks around him didn't have too much to say
       |F                               |C
No one dared to ask his business no one dared to make a slip
                                          |Am
for the stranger there amongst them had a big iron on his hip
|F             |C
Big iron on his hip


       |C                                        |Am
It was early in the morning when he rode into the town
       |C                                           |Am
He came riding from the south side slowly lookin' all around
       |F                               |C
He's an outlaw loose and running came the whisper from each lip
                                           |Am
And he's here to do some business with the big iron on his hip
|F             |C
big iron on his hip


       |C                                              |Am
In this town there lived an outlaw by the name of Texas Red
    |C                                              |Am
Many men had tried to take him and that many men were dead
       |F                            |C
He was vicious and a killer though a youth of twenty four
                                       |Am
And the notches on his pistol numbered one an nineteen more
|F               |C
One and nineteen more


       |C                                              |Am
Now the stranger started talking made it plain to folks around
       |C                                     |Am
Was an Arizona ranger wouldn't be too long in town
       |F                         |C
He came here to take an outlaw back alive or maybe dead
                                    |Am
And he said it didn't matter he was after Texas Red
|F          |C
After Texas Red
       |C                                        |Am
Wasn't long before the story was relayed to Texas Red
       |C                                             |Am
But the outlaw didn't worry men that tried before were dead
       |F                           |C
Twenty men had tried to take twenty men had made a slip
                                        |Am
Twenty one would be the ranger with the big iron on his hip
|F             |C
Big iron on his hip


    |C                                                |Am
The morning passed so quickly it was time for them to meet
       |C                                             |Am
It was twenty past eleven when they walked out in the street
          |F                               |C
Folks were watching from their windows every-body held their breath
                                  |Am
They knew this handsome ranger was about to meet his death
|F                |C
About to meet his death


          |C                                                      
There was forty feet between them when they stopped to make their
|Am
play
       |C                                              |Am
And the swiftness of the ranger is still talked about to-day
      |F                                 |C
Texas Red had not cleared leather when a bullet fairly ripped
                                        |Am
And the rangers aim was deadly with the big iron on his hip
|F             |C
Big iron on his hip


       |C                                          |Am
It was over in a moment and the folks had gathered round
      |C                                           |Am
There before them lay the body of the outlaw on the ground
      |F                               |C
Oh he might have gone on living but he made one fatal slip
                                           |Am
When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip
|F             |C
Big iron on his hip



Big iron Big iron
       |C                                 |Am
When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 09:28 PM

"Big Iron", especially the version by Bob Weir and Kingfish!

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: masato sakurai
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 08:55 PM

I have a 2-disc LP set (with a 69-page booklet) titled The Badmen: Songs, Stories and Pictures of the Western Outlaws from Backhills to Border 1865-1900 (Columbia Records Legacy Collection L2S 1012, 1963), edited by Goddard Lieberman. The contents are:

THE SONGS
SIDE ONE
Band 1 QUANTRELL, sung by Ed McCurdy, accompanied by Pete Seeger and Sandy Bull.
Band 2 THE STREETS OF LAREDO, sung by Harry Jackson, accompanied by Charlie Byrd.
Band 3 BILLY THE KID, sung by Pete Seeger and Jack Elliott, self-accompanied.
Band 4 SAM BASS, sung by Pete Seeger, Ed McCurdy and Harry Jackson with intermitted accompaniment by Pete Seeger and Ed McCurdy.
Band 5 TWENTY-ONE YEARS, sung by Harry Jackson, accompanied by Pete Seeger.
Band 6 THE BUFFALO SKINNERS, sung by Jack Elliott, self-accompanied.
Band 7 MY LOVE IS A RIDER, sung by Carolyn Hester; accompaniment by Miss Hester and Jacques Menahem.
Band 8 CRYDERVILLE JAIL, sung by Pete Seeger; accompaniment by Mr. Seeger and Sandy Bull.

SIDE TWO
Band 1 COLE YOUNGER, sung by Ed McCurdy, self-accompanied.
Band 2 THE COWBOY'S LAMENT, sung by Pete Seeger, self-accompanied.
Band 3 YAVAPAI PETE, sung by Harry Jackson, accompanied by Pete Seeger.
Band 4 JESSE JAMES, sung by Pete Seeger, Jack Elliott and Ed McCurdy with additional accompaniment by Sandy Bull
Band 5 TEN THOUSAND CATTLE, sung by Ed McCurdy, self-accompanied.
Band 6 GREGORIO CORTEZ, sung by Jacques Menahem and Carolyn Hester, self-accompanied.
Band 7 SLACK YOUR ROPE, HANGMAN, sung by Harry Jackson, accompanied by Charlie Byrd.
Band 8 BELLE STARR, sung by Pete Seeger and Jack Elliott, self-accompanied.

SPOKEN VOICES OF THE WEST
SIDE THREE
Band 1 THE TRAINING OF A WESTERNER--George Bolds describing his trip West and first days in Dodge City with Bat Masterson and that crowd.
Band 2 LAWMAN'S WIFE--Zoe Tilghman, with Phil Nolan, reminisces about the career of her husband, law officer Bill Tilghman, in Kansas and Oklahoma.

SIDE FOUR
Band 1 THE CASE FOR JESSE JAMES--Homer Croy speaks of the life and times of the James boys and the background to their careers in Missouri.
Band 2 THEY CAN'T MAKE A HERO OUT OF HIM--Sophie Poe, with Fred Mazzula and W.T. Moyers, recounts the killing of Billy the Kid by Pat Garrett and her husband, John W. Poe, and what followed after.
          Guitar interludes by Charlie Byrd.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Shane Gibbons
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 07:11 PM

Does this count?
You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BALLAD OF BILLY THE KID
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 06:24 PM

The "Ballad of Billy the Kid" in the DT and in Lomax is a shortened version of the song in Fife and Fife, Cowboy and Western Songs, no. 96A, obtained in 1927 from Chuck Haas, a one-time great stuntman in films. Supposedly Haas obtained it from Wyatt Earp. The account is mostly fictional, true of the several ballads about Billy.

THE BALLAD OF BILLY THE KID

I'll sing you a true song of Billy the Kid,
And tell of the desperate deeds tht he did,
Out here in the West, boys, in New Mexico,
When a man's best friend was his old Forty-four.

When Billy the Kid was a very young lad,
In old Silver City, he went to the bad;
At twelve years of age the Kid killed his first man,
Then blazed a wide trail with a gun in each hand.

Fair Mexican maidens played soft on guitars
And sang of Billito their king 'neath the stars;
He was a brave lover, and proud of his fame,
And no man could stand 'gainst the Kid's deadly aim.

Now Billy ranged wide, and his killings were vile,
He shot fast, and first, when his blood got a-rile,
And 'fore his young manhood did reach its sad end,
His six-guns held notches for twenty-one men.

Then Gov'ner Lew Wallace sent word to the Kid
To ride in and talk, for a pardon to bid:
But Billy said: "I ain't a-feered of the law;
Thar's no man a-living can beat me to the draw!"

The Gov'ner then sent for another fast man:
Pat Garrett, the Sheriff, and told of a plan
To catch Billy napping at his gal's; so he said:
"We'll bring him to justice, alive or plumb dead!"

"Twas on the same night, into town Billy rid,
And said, "Mis amigos, all hark to the Kid!
There's twenty-one men I have put bullets through
And Sheriff Pat Garrett must make twenty-two!"

Now this is how Billy met his fate;
The bright moon was shining, the hour was late;
To Pete Maxwell's place Billy went in all pride,
Not knowing the dark hid the Sheriff inside.

As Billy show'd plain in the moon-lighted door,
He fell in his tracks, and lay dead on the floor;
Shot down by Pat Garrett, who once was his friend,
Young Billy, the outlaw, and his life did end!

There's many a boy with a fine face and air
That starts in his life with the chances all fair;
But, like young Billito, he wanders astray
And departs his life in the same hardful way!

Fife and Fife, Cowboy and Western Songs, p. 265-266, from Chuck Haas, 1927. With sheet music. Melody commercially recorded by Pat Patterson, from "Songs o' th' Cowboys" corraled by "Chuck" Haas.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 10:28 PM

Listen to Cole Younger as sung by William Eden in the Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, and the other two versions at that website. Click on the green "Links " at the top of the page and go to Max Hunter... in the list.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 09:42 PM

Howzabout Bandit Cole Younger? Who could possibly resist the lines:
"Hand us out your money, Sir,
and make no long delay
We are the noted Younger Boys
And spend no time in play
Jerry

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jan 02 - 08:44 PM

Another favorite, from the Mormons, "The Double Tragedy," here. Mormon Songs

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Deckman
Date: 17 Jan 02 - 07:42 PM

I've always been very fond of the traditional ballad of "Billy The Kid." It is pure poetry. And if you phrase it well, the words just flow off the tongue and it sings itself.CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Jan 02 - 06:15 PM

Not exactly a ballad. Not exactly folk. But one creepy customer. Aqualung...

And of course, the badest man who ever lived, until Leroy Brown took his title, Alley-Opp, opp, opp, opp... But I think Leroy's manager might have paid off a couple of the judges...

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Arbuthnot
Date: 17 Jan 02 - 05:57 PM

Leroy Brown - Jim Croce - that's my favourite

Subject: Lyr Add: MACAFFEE'S CONFESSION
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Jan 02 - 05:42 PM

Women have caused trouble since Adam's day, especially "the trouble and strife." I always liked this simple tale about a simple-minded man. Don't know if he was real or not. I suspect that the song originally came from Ireland. Any help on its history would be appreciated.

MACAFFEE'S CONFESSION

Now come, young men, and list to me,
A sad and mournful history;
And may you ne'er forgetful be
Of what I tell this day to thee.

Oh, I was thoughtless, young and gay
And often broke the sabbath day;
In wickedness I took delight
And sometimes done what wasn't right.

I'd scarcely passed my fifteenth year,
My mother and my father dear
Were silent in their deep, dark grave,
Their spirits gone to Him who gave.

'Twas on a pleasant summer day
When from my home I ran away,
And took unto myself a wife,
Which step was fatal to my life.

Oh. she was kind and good to me,
As ever woman ought to be,
And might this day have been alive no doubt,
Had I not met Miss Hatty Stout.

Ah, well I mind the fatal day
When Hatty stole my heart away;
'Twas love for her controlled my will
And did cause me my wife to kill.

'Twas on a brilliant summer's night,
When all was still, the stars shone bright.
My wife lay still upon the bed
And I approached to her and said:

"Dear wife, here's medicine I've brought,
For you this day, my love, I've bought.
I know it will be good for you
For those vile fits- pray take it, do."

She cast on me a loving look
And in her mouth the poison took;
Down by her infant on the bed
In her last, long sleep she laid her head.

Oh, who could tell a mother's thought
When first to her the news was brought?
The sheriff said her son was sought
And into prison must be brought.

Only a mother standing by
To hear them tell the reason why
Her son in prison, he must lie
Till on the scaffold he must die.

My father, sixty years of age,
The best council did engage,
To see if something could be done
To save his disobedient son.

So, farewell, Mother, do not weep,
Though soon with demons I will sleep;
My soul now feels in mental hell
And soon with demons I will dwell.

------

The sheriff cut the slender cord,
His soul went up to meet its Lord;
The doctor said, "The wretch is dead,
His spirit from his body's fled."

His weeping mother cried aloud,
"O God, do save this gazing crowd,
That none may ever have to pay

For gambling on the sabbath day."

Seems like Lomax has put together two versions. The mother and father are raised from the grave to help him, and at the end the mother rues his gambling, not the murder. Lomax, 1910, Cowboy Songs, pp. 164-166, and Lomax and Lomax, 1938, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, (this time with music), pp. 201-203.
@cowboy @Badman

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Rolfyboy6
Date: 16 Jan 02 - 01:08 AM

I like 'Ella Speed', 'Duncan and Brady', 'Stagolee' (several versions), and "Betty and Dupree". I haven't seen "Little Sadie" or 'Diamond Joe' mentioned, nor 'Poor Lazarus' (both traditional and Guthrie versions) and 'Becky Dean, She Was A Gamblin' Gal'. And 'The Hills of Roan County'. And 'Buffalo Skinners' qualifies 'cause they leave old Crego's bones to bleach on the Range of the Buffalo.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: masato sakurai
Date: 16 Jan 02 - 12:26 AM

I saw Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), but don't remember the details.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jan 02 - 12:10 AM

Mention of a soundtrack sent me looking at my LPs. There was a movie, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, which I have never seen. Bob Dylan did the soundtrack music. Not one of Dylan's best efforts at composition. On the LP jacket, Dylan is listed as having played the part of Alias, whoever that is.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: 53
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 11:28 PM

blaze of glory by bon jovi, it was a movie soundtrack, and i can't even remember the movie. BOB

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 10:46 PM

I'm with you with both Pritty Boy Floid and Billy the Kid. I think Ry Cooder's version of the latter is one of his earlest Masterpieces... I was learning stage craft when I was learning Pritty Boy Floid so it always brings back some great memories.. Vigilanty Man dose not fit this catagory but I do think of it in the same breath.. All the best , Guy
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Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 09:48 PM

A favorite: "Big Iron" and of course "El Paso" currently being whored to push tacos.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: AliUK
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 07:03 PM

For modern Badman Ballads I would like to offer up Bruce Springsteens little numbers "Johnny 99" and "Nebraska" both from the album of the same name. Surely based on true stories? Can anyone give me the lowdown? The Wild Colonial Boy has always been a favourite of mine, as well as ""The Ballad of Pretty Boy Flofd" by Woody...even after I found out the true story of Pretty Boy Floyd.

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Kenny B (inactive)
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 05:52 PM

Current favorit "Me and Billy the Kid" by Pat Green a.s.b Ramblin Jack Elliott
Previous favorits Mote Stanley from "Monongaheela Sal" a.s.b. Pete Seeger
Wild Colonial Boy a.s.b anybody even me! Not exactly a badman, but in the extremely naughty category *Gr* are "The Dundee Ghost" by Matt McGinn
and The "Portree Kid" by JW Hill ( Tune - Ghost Riders in the Sky)

Subject: Lyr Add: JACK DONAHOO
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 02:43 PM

Jack Donahoe (Donahoo), the Australian bushranger, came to the western states- not in person or as a ghost, but in a song. Lomax and Lomax say that the song was probably brought over by Australian cowboys (Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, 1938). Young Australians from the outback still come, especially to western Canada, trying their hand at rodeo, attempting to find work on the ranches (who use many fewer workers nowadays), and end up working in building trades, etc., or returning to Australia.
In the older edition of Cowboy Songs (1910), John A. Lomax printed the ballad "Jack Donahoo." In 1938 and later editions, the Lomaxes fleshed out the ballad, probably using sources other than western cowboys, into a long story that would have been at home in Australia, but one very doubtfully sung by cowboys in America. Even so, I have my doubts about words in the first two verses of the version I give here, to wit, verily, undaunted and associates. The form of some other verbiage is also questionable.
For the story of Donahoe, see Here and two songs in the DT: Bold Jack Donahoe, and Wild Young Irish Boy.
Here is the older version from the 1910 edition.

JACK DONAHOO

Come, all you bold, undaunted men,
You outlaws of the day,
It's time to beware of the ball and chain
And also slavery.
Attention pay to what I say,
And verily if you do,
I will relate you the actual fate
Of bold Jack Donahoo.

He had scarcely landed, as I tell you,
Upon Australia's shore,
Then he became a real highwayman,
As he had been before.
There was Underwood and Mackerman,
And Wade and Wesley too,
These were the four associates
Of bold Jack Donahoo.

Jack Donahoo, who was so brave,
Rode out that afternoon,
Knowing not that the pain of death
Would overtake him soon.
So quickly then the horse police
From Sidney came to view;
"Begone from here, you cowardly dogs,"
Says bold Jack Donahoo.

The captain and the sergeant
Stopped then to decide.
"Do you intend to fight us
Or unto us resign?"
"To surrender to such cowardly dogs
Is more than I will do,
This day I'll fight if I lose my life,"
Says bold Jack Donahoo.

The captain and the sergeant
The men they did divide;
They fired from behind him
And also from each side;
It's six police he did shoot down
Before the fatal ball
Did pierce the heart of Donahoo
And cause bold Jack to fall.

And when he fell, he closed his eyes,
He bid the world adieu;
Come, all you boys, and sing the song
Of bold Jack Donahoo.
@outlaw @cowboy @Australia

Subject: RE: Favorite Badman Ballads II
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 08:06 AM

My favorite is Kenny Wagner, because he suffers the ignominious fate of being captured by a WOMAN sherrif. They gotta make sure they make that point in the song. Outdrawn by a WOMAN? If they had made a movie of it, you bet that they never would have gotten John Wayne to play the role..
Jerry

Subject: Lyr Add: THE STORY OF BONNIE AND CLYDE
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Jan 02 - 01:39 AM

The thread Favorite Badman Ballads is long, so here is part II. Part I is Here
The following is copied from the Dallas Dispatch, May 24, 1934.

LYR ADD: THE STORY OF BONNIE AND CLYDE
by Bonnie Parker, 1934

You've read the story of Jessee James--
Of how he lived and died;
If you're still in need
Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow Gang.
I'm sure you all have read
How they rob and steal
And those who squeal
Are usually found dying or dead.

There's lots of untruths to these write-ups;
They're not so ruthless as that;
Their nature is raw--
They hate the law--
The stool pigeons, spotters and rats.

They call them cold-blooded killers;
They say they are heartless and mean;
But I say this with pride,
That I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.

But the laws fooled around,
Kept taking him down
And locking him up in a cell,
Till he said to me,
"I'll never be free,
So I'll meet a few of them in hell."

The road was dimly lighted;
There were no highway signs to guide;
But they made up their minds
If all roads were blind,
They wouldn't give up till they died.

The road gets dimmer and dimmer;
Sometimes you can hardly see;
But it's fight, man to man,
And do all you can,
For they know they can never be free.

From heart-break some people have suffered;
From weariness some people have died;
But take it all in all
Our troubles are small
Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.

If a policeman is killed in Dallas
And they have no clue or guide;
If they can't find a friend
They just wipe their slate clean
And hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.

There's two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow Mob;
They had no hand
In the kidnap demand
Nor the Kansas City Depot job.

A newsboy once said to his buddy:
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped;
In these awful hard times
We'd make a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped."

The police haven't got the report yet
But Clyde called me up today.
He said, "Don't start any fights--
We aren't working nights--
We're joing the NRA."

From Irving to West Dallas Viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide,
Where the women are kin,
And the men are men
And they won't stool on Bonnie and Clyde.

If they try to act like citizens
And rent them a nice little flat,
About the third night
They're invited to fight
By a sub-gun's rat-tat-tat.

They don't think that they're too smart or desperate,
They know that the law always wins;
They've been shot at before,
But they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.

Someday they'll go down together;
They'll bury them side by side;
To few it'll be grief--
To the law a relief--
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.

In an editorial entitled "The Trail's End," Thursday, May 24, 1934, The Dallas Dispatch wrote: "The Tale is ended. The story is told."
The dark days of the Great Depression, with hoboes crossing the land, and many people barely subsisting, there were many among the dispossessed who secretly wished Godspeed and gave a quiet toast to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
The DT has two ballads about Bonnie and Clyde, one anon., the other by Merle Haggard and Bonnie Owens. Bonnie Parker's poem, written shortly before she was machine-gunned along with Clyde, deserves to be printed with them. @outlaw