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Songs about capital punishment.
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Subject: Lyr Add: DEAD MAN WALKING BLUES (Roger Gall)^^ From: The Shambles Date: 19 Dec 98 - 08:02 AM There has been some discussion in various threads lately about capital punishment, rather than respond in those, I thought I would start a new thread for songs on this emotive subject. Not very seasonal but with the current situation in Iraq, I for one do not feel very seasonal. It begs the question, would it be right to kill an individual like Saddam and others, if you knew that by doing so you could prevent the pain and suffering that people like that cause? This song is strange, the first time I heard the title of the book/film, Dead Man Walking and before I knew what it was about, I knew I would write a song with that title. About six months later and some time after I had seen the film (which is a great film) I wrote the song. It's a blues, on the lines of 'Hootchie Cootchie Man'.
My lips are dry, I can't talk
You may say, all my life I've been no good
My performance may make the news
The good book may say it but it don't mean it's the truth
My deed was in the heat of that hour
Dead man walking, the star of the show Roger Gall 1998 |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Dani Date: 19 Dec 98 - 08:25 AM I would love to hear you do that song. I suffer from not being able to translate lyrics into songs. But your words are powerful. They're not in the DT, but check out two songs of Pete's: Walking Down Death Row and Sacco's Letter to his Son. Let me know if you don't find them surfing. I'll post them next week. Dani |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Liam's Brother Date: 19 Dec 98 - 10:28 AM I remember that Ewan MacColl wrote a very powerful song, "Go Down You Murderers," (was the chorous if not the title) on an early Topic lp. I have the record in storage. It was, as I recall, about the execution of Tim Evans... seems it was later proved that he was not the killer. Then there is always Kipling's "Danny Deever," brilliantly record by Peter Bellamy on Barrack Room Ballads. In addition to this serious subject, the finality of capital punishment, there is here now an unrelated but very serious issue - Capitol Punishment. Should God (or public opion and history) punish adulturers or should fellow sinners do the job?
All the best, |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Shambles Date: 19 Dec 98 - 10:47 AM I always thought that Capitol punishment was listening to early Kingston Trio Records?
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Liam's Brother Date: 19 Dec 98 - 12:34 PM Well done, Sir Shambles, but I'm sure many of our fellow Mudcats would not agree with you. (God! did I really make that many typos?) All the best. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Shambles Date: 19 Dec 98 - 01:49 PM Sorry Dan, it was just an excuse for a cheap joke, I couldn't think of anyone else who recorded on the Capitol label. I liked them too. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: rich r Date: 19 Dec 98 - 06:38 PM Tom Paxton's "Bring Back The Chair" rich r |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME^^ From: BSeed Date: 19 Dec 98 - 10:41 PM One of my favorite songs to sing is the very unjudgemental country song (by Curley Putnam, I believe), recorded by Johnny Cash and others, "THE GREEN, GREEN GRASS OF HOME," which, surprisingly, seems not to be in the DT. The old home town looks the same As I step down from the train, And there to greet me are my momma and my daddy. Down the road I look and there runs Mary, Hair of gold and lips like cherries, It's good to touch the green, green grass of home. (chorus) Yes, they'll all come to see me, Arms a-reachin', smilin' sweetly, It's so good to touch the green, green grass of home.
The old house is still a-standin', (chorus)
Then I awake and look around me,
(final chorus) |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: rich r Date: 19 Dec 98 - 10:45 PM Strange form of capital punishment rich r |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Sandy Paton Date: 19 Dec 98 - 11:29 PM Speaking of the Kingston Trio, remember the capital verse in "Tom Dooley" (dula): This time tomorrow, Reckon where I'll be, Down in some lonesome valley, Hangin' from a white oak tree. Then there's "MacPherson's Rant," sometimes called "MacPherson's Lament." Another execution song is sometimes called "Been All Around this World." Hang me, oh, hang me, And I'll be dead and gone. Hang me, oh, hang me, And I'll be dead and gone. I don't mind your hangin', It's layin' in the ground so long. Been all around this world. Max Hunter, Springfield, Missouri, recorded that one for me back in the early 60s. Now available as a "custom cassette." And, finally, does anyone remember the song "Come, Oh My Love," which I think was collected on Beech Mountain in North Carolina, about thirty years before I got there? Last verse, sung by the man about to hang: Come, oh my love, and see me die. Come, oh my love, and see me die. Lift your innocent face, See me dance in the sky. Can't remember where I saw that one. Sandy (folk fogey) |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Art Thieme Date: 19 Dec 98 - 11:40 PM Never was the Kingston Trio; 'Twas N. Carolinian, Frank Proffitt, who sang the song for Frank & Ann Warner. They gave it to the Lomax father & son duo who put it into print where the Kingstons found it, filed on it, and made a million bucks---no credit to anybody. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Art Thieme Date: 19 Dec 98 - 11:53 PM Sandy---Sorry! Think we just crossed postings in the mail here! I could've sworn I saw the entire "TOM DULA" posted here with no mention of Mr. Proffitt--only the K.T. Now I can't find that posting anywhere. But folks, Sandy has wonderful recordings of Frank Proffitt on Folk Legacy! And didn't you record the one for Folkways too, Sandy? Seem to recall that you did. Of course, they're all packed away! Art |
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Subject: Lyr Add: SEND ME TO THE 'LECTRIC CHAIR^^ From: Art Thieme Date: 20 Dec 98 - 12:08 AM Bessie Smith's "ELECTRIC CHAIR BLUES"-----That's packed away too, but I'm thinkin' I might receall it...
Judge your honor, hear my plea, before you open up your court,
CHORUS)
Judge, judge, good kind judge--send me to the 'lectric chair,
Judge, judge, please Mr. judge,... I'm sure there's another verse but it's gone from m'head. Somebody else, please take over: |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Sandy Paton Date: 20 Dec 98 - 12:19 AM Right you are, Art. I did record the Folkways album of Frank Proffitt, and got Frank Warner to write the notes, since I was recording Proffitt in 1961, and Warner had recorded him in 1938(!), I thought Warner had prior rights to the glory. I'm told that Smithsonian-Folkways will burn a special issue CD for anyone willing to pay a premium for it. Does anyone know whether or not this is true? If it is, one could get Frank Proffitt on CD. My own two albums of his music on Folk-Legacy are only available as "custom cassettes," until we can afford to assemble a CD. How's the move going, Art? Unpack the joke file first! Sandy |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Jon W. Date: 20 Dec 98 - 12:43 AM Probably it is Barlow not bottle, Art. Barlow is a type of knife (I believe I learned that factoid right here on the forum). How about the traditional song Gallows Pole (Hangman, hangman, wait a little while/I think I see my father coming, riding many a mile...) |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Charlie Baum Date: 20 Dec 98 - 01:48 AM Sandy--the Smithsonian/Folkways folk will make custom cassettes and/or CDs similar to your Folk Legacy custom cassettes. I got one of Dock Boggs last year. (Its's just this fall that they've released all the Dock Boggs on non-custom CDs.) And the cassette comes in a handsome little box and photocopies of the original material accompany it, but of course, all the photocopied materials won;t fit into the box, no matter how carefully you fold them.
And on the subject: |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: BSeed Date: 20 Dec 98 - 03:29 AM rich r., strange form of capital punishment? where do you suppose the guard and the sad old padre are headed as they walk arm in arm with the speaker in the song at daybreak, a wedding? unless I'm misinterpreting your post. --seed |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Tim Jaques tjaques@netcom.ca Date: 20 Dec 98 - 02:38 PM "Sing Me Back Home" by -- Merle Haggard & The Strangers? I think I have heard a wealth of capital punishment songs on rural tavern jukeboxes over the years, but this is the only one that comes to mind at the moment. Also the trad song "Geordie", sometimes sung as "Georgie". It's a Child ballad, IIRC. Gets hanged for stealing deer. "Bold Lovell" -- see "Whiskey In The Jar" thread, where in this variant he thinks it "bloody hard to swing for liftin' a bit of money." I think there are others about highwaymen getting hanged. One about Dick Turpin, I think. There should be a wealth of trad songs about people getting hanged -- even that little Irish ditty about the consequences of sticking knives in babies' heads -- but I assume that you mean anti-capital punishment songs. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Shambles Date: 20 Dec 98 - 03:52 PM Not anti-capital punishment songs but ones about the process of the state coldly setting about taking life. It's when I see the hoops we go through to make execution clean and/or painless and the elevation from nowhere to the front pages, of sad people and their crimes and the pain of temporary reprieves, that I wonder if it is not a self-defeating process. But again I can see some justification in removing people like Saddam, Stalin and Hitler.
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: rich r Date: 20 Dec 98 - 07:14 PM Seed, Sometimes I don't speak meself so clearly as I think. I guess my problem with that song is that it is altogether too saccharine and nostalgic to be considered a legitimate attempt to grapple with seriousness of capital punishment. The guy in the song might as well be going in for some surgery that has a finite non-zero possibility of being fatal. rich r |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Date: 20 Dec 98 - 07:41 PM "East Texas Red" by Woody Guthrie---on my LP (Folk Leacy) __That's The Ticket"__(now on cassette only) -- as well as by Arlo Guthrie on a recording--is about hobos who, harrassed by a sadistic brakeman by "kicking over their stew" at their hobo jungle camp, tell hi that they'll be back in a year to make him pay. Is this a version of "Sir Gawain and The Green Knight??? Sure might be. (More o' my vascilating!)But that'd be amazing. When they do come back and "Red comes down the line", with their warm clothes, now, and money in their pockets, he begs for mercy. But they kill him. As John Steinbeck said, and I paraphrase, 'In these sub-stratas of folks who have fallen through the safety net and inhabit a world outside the mainstream, there are only a few options---ostracism or a quick, decisive fight that instantly settles the problem one way or the other. No good or evil here! Just what is--depending on your beliefs---once again! Still, no offense intended, good people. Just am stating a point of view---a way to see this other than absolutely evil. There's always shades o' gray. Art |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: harpgirl Date: 20 Dec 98 - 07:57 PM Art, I remember a verse like this... .judge, judge, good, kind judge send me to the lectric chair, judge, judge Mr. Siricca please burn me cause I don't care I have to take a journey to the devil down below , I sliced up my sweet patootie lawd I hate to see her go..... harp |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: BSeed Date: 20 Dec 98 - 08:04 PM rich--true, the condemned man doesn't dwell on the mechanics of his coming death or on his possible afterlife, or on any remorse he might have for his crime--but the song's structure, message, and imagery are a bit more complex, I think, than you give it credit for: we first see the condemned man as human, connected to his family and his girlfriend, dreaming about returning to the innocent pleasures of his youth (the oak tree, the walk with Mary), yet aware of the changes time brings--the paint on the old house is now cracked and worn, and the greeting is perhaps one he received on an earlier return home. On first hearing, the first two verses are simple nostalgia for family and home and sweetheart. But when the third verse comes, the condemned man awakes surrounded by the cold grey walls, thinking of the walk to the gallows and his return home, not to be greeted but mourned, the tree of his childhood now his burial site, the green, green grass no longer a symbol of home and youth, but a grave covering. Anyway, that's the way I try to sing it (avoiding all memory of Tom Jones' overblown version). --seed |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Pete M Date: 20 Dec 98 - 08:32 PM Actually Seed, I liked Rich's comment, just got a twisted mind I suppose, but I got an instant vision of someone being put to death by being made to touch grass! Alternatively you could constue it as being buried alive I suppose, either way I have difficulty in taking the song seriously for the reasons Rich gives. Your interpretation may make all the difference of course, but I'm afraid I'll probably never get to hear it. Eiher way, I suppose I've always felt that the song did nothing to bring out the horror of institutionalized murder, but again that may be down to interpretation, and my, and probably most peoples, have been conditioned by the extant recordings. On Shambles original question, I don't think political assasination can be justified on moral grounds, and suspect it would be far less effective than may be thought. There are very few cases where the removal of an individual would make that much change to a complex situation. To digress into jargon: the stability of a given system is directly related to both its internal complexity and richness of its links to its environment, not as most people imagine, inversely related. Pete M |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Greg F. Date: 20 Dec 98 - 08:39 PM Then there's Phil Ochs' "The Iron Lady"- Regards- |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Roger in Baltimore Date: 20 Dec 98 - 08:46 PM Art, I think you are recalling David Bromberg's version of "Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair." Not that that is bad, just giving you the information. Of course, circa 1974. Roger in Baltimore |
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Subject: Lyr Add: SEND ME TO THE 'LECTRIC CHAIR From: harpgirl Date: 20 Dec 98 - 09:41 PM No Roger, David's is different: So Judge, your honor, hear my plea before you open up your court. I don't crave no sympathy, for what I have to report. I caught her with a gamblin' Joe I had warned her about once before. I pulled my knife and I went insane. The rest you already know. He said, "Judge, judge, good kind judge, send me to the 'lectric chair." He said, "Judge, judge, hear me, judge: I wanta get outa here. I want to take a journey to the devil down below. I sliced up my sweet patootie. I gotta reap just what I sow. So judge, judge, hear me, judge, and send me to the 'lectric chair." He said, "Judge, ah, listen to me, judge: please now send me to the 'lectric chair." He said, "Judge, your honor, mister, sir, I love that girl so dear. I don't want no bondsman to go my bail And I don't wanta spend no 99 years stuck in your stinkin' jail. Judge, ah, judge, hear me, judge: send me to the 'lectric chair. He said, "Judge, ah, judge, Mr. Sirica, please, send me to the 'lectric chair. Ah, judge, now judge, meister judge, burn me cause I don't care. First I cut her with my Barlow, then I kicked her in the side, Then I stood there laughin' o'er her while she buckled up and died." I said, "Judge, judge, hear me, judge, and send me to the 'lectric chair." The breaks aren't quite right but those are his words...harp |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Barry Finn Date: 20 Dec 98 - 09:46 PM As Dan mentions above "Danny Deever" is one of the great capital punishment songs along side of "The Night That Poor Larry Was Stretched". A few more well known 'Goodnight Songs' are Captain Kidd & Jack Hall. Not a death penatly song but surely one of the more haunting of all the hanging songs, from Billy Holiday ( & from those that brought us lynching) "Strange Fruit".
I believe I recently saw mention in a thread that this is the only instance where the criminal recieves the same treatment for which they had been convicted of. This form of an eye for an eye justice is supposed to be above us. We don't steal from the thief of force drugs into/onto the dealer (maybe Bill Clinton would perfer this form of reform). Here's a true story about one of our fellow Mudcatter's, John Nolan. John used to be a cop in Glasgow before coming to the US (see his posting in the thread 'Hamish Imlach' Oct 3, 98 for a little backround) maybe 20 yrs ago when I first met him. He's been thorn to some & a relief to others by his use of the pen for the papers he writes for in southeastern New Hampshire. His writing brought him to sitting in on a criminal case where a death row inmate was trying to get his case reheard. I'm not sure on the little details, dates & how John got involved but he thought something wasn't right in the way the process had or was presently working. What was, is that an innocent man sat on death row & without John's investigating & getting to expose the way the case was originally handled, the man's fate would still remain sealed. The man was released & John is the hero. Now the crime here is that an innocent was forced to lay on death row until a stroke of luck brought about a miracle. Death row is mostly made up of the poor, the undereducated & the Blacks, those that have never seen a miracle or couldn't afford one (ask O.J. if it doesn't cost much to get away with murder). Anyway, it seems as if this death penalty system is to faulty & flawed & does not dish out justice on an equal basis, is definitly blinded to the poorer & is not a determent. If one innocent life is taken, there is no recourse. Does the victim sue the judge, the jury, the DA, the police & the court appointed attorney to regain their life? In these cases there's no room for error & if it exists then there should be no room for this form of reform. Don't hang me for going on so long, sorry. Barry |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Barry Finn Date: 20 Dec 98 - 11:42 PM I should've added to the above a version of the "Newry Highwayman" called "Allen Tyne Of Harrow" (not in the DT) & the hanging of the Earl of Derwentwater for treason during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715 called Derwentwater's Farewell" (in the DT). One more for the lighter side, "Hanging Johnny". Barry |
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Subject: Lyr Add: JAMES CONNOLLY ^^^ From: O'Boyle Date: 21 Dec 98 - 02:18 AM I've always enjoyed the song "James Connolly" and was going to link to it in the database when I found that the "James Connolly" in the database was the OTHER "James Connolly". So I had to type this thing out. I hope you find it as powerful a song as I do. JAMES CONNOLLY
A great crowd had gathered outside of Kilmainham
He went to his death like a true son of Ireland,
The black flag was hoisted the cruel deed was over
Gods curse on you England. you cruel-hearted monster,
Many years have gone by since the Irish rebellion
The Four Courts of Dublin the English bombarded, |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: carverconroy@beaufort.com Date: 01 Apr 99 - 12:28 PM I've always like Tim Evans that was sung by Judy Collins back in the early 60's. Tim Evans was the last person executed in Great Britain (he also happened to be innocent-a now undisputed fact but a little late for him). cc |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Bert Date: 01 Apr 99 - 01:18 PM There's Anne Boleyn. With her 'ead tucked underneath her arm. Didn't Jimmie Rodgers do one about I will go the gallows at sunrise? Then there's Robert Emmet & Roddy McCorley Bert |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: DonMeixner Date: 01 Apr 99 - 03:24 PM I too would recomend The Iron Lady by Phil Ochs, Sam Hall andm/or Tallow Candles. Hang on The Bell Nellie and Long Black Veil are favorites. Don Meixner |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Den Date: 01 Apr 99 - 05:22 PM There's no lights on the Christmas Tree Momma They're burning big Louie tonight. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Bob Schwarer Date: 01 Apr 99 - 06:14 PM How about "Burke & Hare", a couple who get hung for their quaint way of supporting themselves. Bob S. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Susan A-R Date: 01 Apr 99 - 09:41 PM There are a bunch of songs about both Joe Hill and Sacco and Vanzetti (my spelling is supect here, I know) I particularly remember "Two Good Arms" believe it's on a Holly Near/Ronnie Gilbert album called Lifelines. Also Is it Andy Irvine who does Vanzetti's Farewell? There's also an entire compendium of Joe Hill songs out. Its interesting in these instances because the judges in question (and the "State") decided that although it wasn't clear that the fellows had committed the crimes in question, the politics of the criminals were out of line enough with society to warrant their deaths. Then there's Annathea (not trad, although it sounds it) Also, did Leadbelly do any of these? It seems that he must have. Also, there's the one verse in "We Who Believe in Freedom" "Until the Killing of a black man, black mother's son Is as important as the killing of a white man, white mother's son, we who believe in freedom shall not rest. . ." Not sure if it partains to the death penalty (the statistiics here are interesting) or not. Ah well, running out of steam. Susan |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Jerry Friedman Date: 02 Apr 99 - 04:05 PM There's the Irish song about "Shoot me like a soldier,/ Do not hang me like a dog,/ For I fought for Ireland's [memory fading out here]..." Also the one to "Greensleeves" about Tyburn Tree--surely the musical and poetic high point of The Beggar's Opera. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Jerry Friedman Date: 02 Apr 99 - 04:38 PM ...neither one of which is in the DT. Here's the one from The Beggar's Opera (1765), by John Gay. I may have thought the poetry was good because I liked the music. This is sung by MacHeath when he's about to be hanged on the gallows at Tyburn. Air LXVII.--Green Sleeves.
Since Laws were made for ev'ry Degree, |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: MAG (inactive) Date: 02 Apr 99 - 05:46 PM Barbara Dane used to do an old blues number where the narrator is a woman whose man is about to hang. I'll see if it's on the one piece of vinyl I still own by her. Mary Ann |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Bruce O. Date: 02 Apr 99 - 06:08 PM For some old ones see my broadside ballad index, Babington & Ballard, Luke Hutton, Earl of Essex, Walter Raleigh, William Grismond (William Guisman in traditional versions). Stafford, Russell, Johnson, Golden Farmer. The bloody Miller. King Charles-I, and numerous other ones (search on 'execute' and 'murder/murther' and 'traitor/traytor') www.erols.com/olsonw |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Date: 02 Apr 99 - 06:20 PM Add Gilderoy, MacPherson's Farewell, John Felton, The Cutpurse, Ann Askew, Arabella Stuart, John Careless. There's one "Behold our Saviour Crucified" in Rollins' 'Old English Ballads', and another on Anne Saunders. There's also the three part one on George Sanders,and others involved in a murder. Bannister. Faux, Catesby, and Garnet involeved in the Gunpowder Plot. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: skw@worldmusic.de Date: 13 Apr 99 - 05:01 AM What about Bonnie Susie Clelland (Child #65), burned at the stake for being in love with an Englishman? And Eric Bogle wrote a moving song about South Africa, Singing the Spirit Home, from the album of the same title. Incidentally, Tim Evans was not the last man by a long way to be hanged in Britain. He was hanged in 1950. However, MacColl's song is credited with helping towards clearing Evans' name - which was finally done in 1966. One of the last to be hanged must have been James Hanratty, the alleged A6 murderer, in 1962. I've just read he is about to be pardoned - strange word! - 37 years after. Another irreparable miscarriage of justice. Derek Bentley is another that comes to mind. C. P. must have been abolished about 1964, for I remember Hamish Imlach introducing 'Tim Evans' in 1989 with the words 'It was twenty-five years last month since they last hanged someone in Britain. Mrs. Thatcher wanted to celebrate by hanging several people again.' Hamish DID have a strange sense of humour. He used to introduce 'MacPherson's Lament' by saying that there was a time when simply being a gypsy was a capital crime in Scotland. Unfortunately, this was nothing but the truth! Who's to decide? I don't believe in C.P., especially if, as in the US, people wait for years and change greatly in the process, and if, as Barry Finn points out, the law favours better-off and better-educated people and leaves the burden to be borne by the poor and uneducated. On the other hand, reading about what sexual offenders and paedophiles do to their victims and learning that a great number of these people are considered mentally ill but untreatable - what are we to do with them? Wait till they strike again? Lock them up for life? Also, what do you do to stop the Milosevic's of this world? I don't know. - Susanne
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Subject: Lyr Add: Clûn Malla^^^ From: AlistairUK Date: 13 Apr 99 - 07:11 AM There's the beautiful Irish ballad "Clûn Malla" (sic) which goes:
CLÛN MALLA
How hard is my fortune
No boy in the village
At my bedfoot decaying
Next sunday the pattern
Repeat First Verse.
I love singing this song, I think I got it from a Dubliners Album many years ago, the name of the album I can't remember. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: AlistairUK Date: 13 Apr 99 - 07:12 AM It doesn't seem to be in the DT can someone add it. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Sandy Paton Date: 13 Apr 99 - 01:34 PM Has no one mentioned "Captain Kidd" or "Maid Freed from the Gallows," or "Mary Hamilton" (The Four Marys)or "The Cruel Mother?" I may have overlooked them in the thread. If so, sorrry! Sandy |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Gene Date: 13 Apr 99 - 08:44 PM Marty Robbins recorded 'THE CHAIR' |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Susan A-R Date: 13 Apr 99 - 11:02 PM I also remember Margaret McArthur doing one about a man who kills his sweetheart, and is caught. Something lke this (dredged out of 15 year storage in an increasingly leaky memory)
Come all you wicked young men and hear what I do tell The last line of the verse repeats, and some of the images are pretty chilling. Anyone else have it so I can fill in the gaps in my poror memory? |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: reggie miles Date: 13 Apr 99 - 11:24 PM Don't know if this was mentioned previously but there's a book that I have collecting dust here called "American Murder Ballads And Their Stories". This edition is from 1958 by Olive Woolley Burt, Oxford University Press. It seems to touch on some of this. Reggie |
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Subject: Lyr Add: I'm On My Way^^ From: Mark Clark Date: 13 Apr 99 - 11:54 PM Logan English recorded a song with a chorus that went: Hang me oh hang me I'll be dead and gone,
An old friend, Dwight Saunders, once taught me a song he learned in an Alabama jail called "I'm On My Way." The verses are:
I'm on my way, and I won't be long (three times) I killed a man, beat in his head (three times) Sheriff Colson come, throw'd me in jail (thrice) This Durant jail, no jail at all, (thrice) That ofay judge, gonna see me fry, (thrice) But I'm on my way... (repeat first verse)
I've never run across it anywhere else and thought some of you might be interested. - Mark |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: northfolk/al cholger Date: 14 Apr 99 - 12:08 AM I appreciate all of the history of Capital Punishment songs...to put it into perspective, the ILWU, International Longshore Workers Union has pledged to shut down all shipping on the West Coast, to bring awareness to the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, on April 24...demanding a new/fair trial....the good part of the music we all love is that it doesn't happen in a vacuum, but is rooted in the issues of the times. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Nancy Blevins Date: 15 Feb 00 - 12:28 AM The song Long Black Veil by the org. Jimmie Rodgers. It's from the 30's I think. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Sorcha Date: 15 Feb 00 - 12:37 AM Nancy Blevins, Where ARE you>? Are you in Wyo? |
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Subject: Lyr Add: Strange Fruit^^^ From: Joe Offer Date: 15 Feb 00 - 01:23 AM Boiy, I'm glad somebody resurrected this thread. My daughter introduced me to Billie Holiday's powerful song, "Strange Fruit": Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant south, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop, Here is a strange and bitter cry. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Callie Date: 15 Feb 00 - 01:51 AM What about "The Night Before Larry Got Stretched" and Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets"? Callie |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Metchosin Date: 15 Feb 00 - 04:07 AM MacPherson's Lament |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: AKS Date: 15 Feb 00 - 04:23 AM Sam Hall, chimney sweep, if I'm not mistaking, wasn't mentioned yet, and belongs to this sad category (is in the DT). AKS |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 15 Feb 00 - 06:25 AM "Send me to the 'Lectric Chair", learned mainly from performances by British blues singer George Melly,who based his on the Bessie Smith version with the sexes reversed, is one I sometimes inflict on my loved ones but I had always assumed the knife was a "Bowie", interesting that it could be a "Barlow". There's also "Frankie and Johnny" of course: "The last time I saw Frankie she was sittin' in the 'lectric chair, Waitin' to meet her maker with the sweat drippin' out of her hair RtS |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE EASTER TREE (Dave Goulder)^^^ From: GeorgeH Date: 15 Feb 00 - 06:42 AM Shambles, why ever do you see the situation in Iraq as so much worse than that in the US? The US carries out more judicial murders than most states on this earth. The US president has EVEN more innocent blood on his hands than does Saddam Hussein; far, far more. But in response to the original request, here's Dave Goulder's "The Easter Tree" (stolen from an earlier Mudcat thread; I really must learn to do those blue clicky things). Imortalised by June Tabor on her "Ashes and Diamonds" LP, now available on CD. Rain falls upon the Easter tree The squirrel shakes his head and shivers in his red and sodden fur The wind and water flatten out his ears and cause his streaming eyes to close The smell of death lies heavy in his nose The sun dries out the Easter tree The rabbit looks around, sees a shadow on the ground and runs for home The songbird finds a strange and novel perch to shout his challenge to the day The hair beneath his feet is turning grey A man hangs from the Easter tree His deathbed is a rope; four strong nails have killed his hopes of climbing down His jaws are locked in agony, are open for the flies to come and go His eyes are in the belly of the crow A dog sits by the Easter tree Beneath the naked heels his master or his meal will surely fall When the rope is broken by the wind or the rusty nails release their withered load The dog, well fed, continues down the road Bones lie beneath the Easter tree The skulls now full of sand could never understand the reason why The thread of life was broken by a hand that never cared to know their names They played and lost in someone else's game The leaves upon the Easter tree Are red with human blood since justice chose the wood to make a sword When a man was hanged at Tyburn tree or crucified along the road to Rome His blood and tears have stained the face of stone As a second offering I'd nominate "Bently and Craig", written by Ralph McTell and featured on June's Aleyn CD. . only I don't have a copy of the words to that at present. That, by the way, DOES commemorate the last execution in the UK. And the victim received his official pardon last year. These days, with our "ethical foreign policy", we simply export the victims back to Afghanistan for them to do the dirty work. G. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Shambles Date: 15 Feb 00 - 08:48 AM George. If you look at the date of the original post, you will understand that the reference to events in Iraq was a (then)topical one (we were bombing them). It was not connected to capital punishment or comparing their legal systems to the US. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird) Date: 15 Feb 00 - 09:19 AM No one has yet mentioned "Were You There?", or "Pange Lingua" or "O Sacred Head Sore Wounded." T. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Peg Date: 15 Feb 00 - 10:47 AM there is a song called "Young Waters" in which a handsome young man is put to death by a Scottish king after the queen declares him the handsomest man in the kingdom...I think June Tabor does it on Airs (is that her? I have the album but I cannot remember the singer's name for some reason...) anyway it is great song. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Charlie Baum Date: 15 Feb 00 - 11:21 AM THE STREETS OF DERRY and, of course, all versions of The Hangman, Stay Your Rope, The Briery Bush, etc. --Charlie Baum |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Willie-O Date: 15 Feb 00 - 11:27 AM Strangest thing is that in the vast majority of these songs, the writer has identified with the condemned person no matter how heinous the crime(s). Now I am firmly opposed to capital punishment on the grounds already cited, that it's carried out unevenly according to class and race considerations, and that it's irreversible despite the obvious fallibility of judicial process. (And that I figure organized killing, of someone who is already restrained from doing further harm, is just plain wrong.) Also the argument that the public shouldn't pay the expense of keeping some killer in jail for life doesn't stand up either; it's more expensive to execute someone, since the appeal process is necessary, inevitable and extremely expensive (I've heard an average of $5 million/case in the US.). A couple of years ago, though, I heard a "New Country" song on the radio in the MidWest (I'm not sure whether it was an American or Canadian station) which was explicitly pro-execution. The chorus went in part: "The Bible says, an eye for an eye... ...Billy Walker has to die." Now that was weird. Then again, anyone up for writing a plea for Timothy McVeigh's life? Maybe he'll have a change of heart and become a better person...anyone who campaigns to save him is going to be regarded with deep suspicion from both sides of the great political divide. W-O
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Okiemockbird Date: 15 Feb 00 - 12:37 PM I believe that at least one person who was bereaved by the destruction of the Murrah Building is working against putting McVeigh to death. I don't have the citation on me, though. I vaguely remember seeing it in the Oklahoma Gazzette. The Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will eventually be part of any effort to spare McVeigh's life, if they aren't already. T. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler Date: 16 Feb 00 - 06:34 AM It's been a long time ( mid 1960s I guess)since I saw a production of Brendan Behan's "The Quare Fella" which deals movingly with a prisoner in the condemned cell. I seem to remember it had songs, whether by Dominc Behan or traditional I can't now recall [surprise!]. Irish 'Catters may know if particular songs were included in the play or just varied according to local director. RtS
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Shambles Date: 16 Feb 00 - 09:58 AM Willy-O.
Some time has passed since I wrote the song and some things have (duh) dawned on me slowly.
I greatly admired the movie 'Dead Man Walking'. I considered it to be a fair treatment of the issue, for it did not 'ram home' a message but pretty much let you make up your own mind, if it wasn't already made up.
I honestly thought that my song did that too. Of course what I had overlooked is that my mind must have been pretty made up too and that also the song was written it from the point of view of the one to be executed. He was quite understandably, against the idea of being executed. I was genuinely a bit shocked when someone described it as an 'anti capital punishment song', as that was really not my intention but of course, that is exactly what it is. I am beginning to come to the conclusion that, I did not (consciously) have much to do with the creation of this song at all?…….. Cue 'Twilight Zone' type music….Doo Doo Doo Doo….. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Shambles Date: 18 Mar 00 - 11:41 AM Extract from the Daily Mail 17th March 2000.
A serial killer who sexually abused 100 boys, before strangling them and dissolving their cut-up bodies in acid has been sentenced to die in the same way. A judge in Pakistan yesterday told Javed Iqbal that he will be publicly strangled, cut into 100 pieces and dumped in a vat of acid. Prosecutor Burhan Moaazam said the sentence on Iqbal was fitting as a warning to others. 'the accused was not a man, he was a beast', he said. 'What was announced by the learned judge was right for him'. However Pakistan's interior minister said such public executions were not permitted and would be challenged in the High Court. Moinudeen Halder said 'we are signatories to the Human Rights Commission. Such punishments are not allowed'. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,The Beanster Date: 18 Mar 00 - 12:20 PM I've gotta say, barbaric as it is, I like this idea. I know there will be many who are appalled at this opinion but the reason I say that is because the survivors of the victims (from what I've heard) are all for it. And if that's true, I think they should get their wish (although I can't imagine that this sentence would actually be carried out). If this kind of execution of the criminal can assuage any amount of pain, no matter how small, these families should be allowed to have their day, if that's what they want. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 18 Mar 00 - 02:52 PM I wonder if "dead man walking" comes from The Ballad of Reading Jail by Oscar Wilde?
At last the dead man walked no more Though of course it might have been a term used in prison at the time. A bit too long to sing, but a powerful piece - more so because there is no pretence that the condemned man is innocent of killing. "Shoot me like an Irish soldier, do not hang me like a dog" is of course Kevin Barry, which is in the DT. Songs about patriots getting executed are really a separate category from songs about the death penalty in ordinary circumstances. Lots of them already in the thread - we haven't had Grace, or God Save Ireland so far. Not that there's a clear line to be drawn - for example there are several good songs about Ned Kelly, whom some (not me) would see as primarily a criminal.
And another category is about legal lynchings. For example there are versions of the Gypsy Davey in which the gypsies are all hanged.
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Pamela Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:03 PM Thanks so much. This song has been running around in my head for a month now, but the only words I remembered were "the green green grass of home." Now I can sing the whole dang thing! |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: akenaton Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:41 PM Ewan Macolls "Go down you murderers"is the most effective anti capital punishment song of all,as it shows the our culpability when an innocent person is killed.I remember the way people viewed crime in the 50s and 60s and im glad opinions have changed for the better. However I feel it would not take much to turn the clock back.Thats why we should keep these songs alive...Ake |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: SINSULL Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:27 PM Rose Connelly The Croppy Boy |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Padre Date: 30 Jul 03 - 11:21 PM There's a [Billy Edd Wheeler?] song called "The Last Public Hanging in West Virginia." The event took place (according to the song) in 1897. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,cittern Date: 31 Jul 03 - 03:53 AM Steve Earle is well known for his anti-death penalty stance. Can't name a specific song off the top of my head, but I am sure a web search can generate more than one. Hope his helps. Best regards John Robinson http://www.JulieEllison.co.uk |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST Date: 31 Jul 03 - 02:58 PM From memory, Matt McGinn had two which mentioned hanging; The Man They Couldn't Hang and The Foreman O'Rourke ( about a guy that was hanged for killing his boss my pulling the toilet plug on him. ) The latter is definitely light hearted ! Anyone got the lyrics ? |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Gareth Date: 31 Jul 03 - 03:41 PM Mmm! They man they could not hang ?? John 'Babbacombe' Lee ??? I am sure there is a ballad abot him. ??? Did 'Fairport Convention sing this ?? Gareth |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Brother Date: 31 Jul 03 - 07:20 PM Might I recommend my brother Pete Bonds Song "Circuit Eleven" I always thought it a very powerful song about this subject. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: toadfrog Date: 31 Jul 03 - 07:46 PM Green are the Woods, on the DT as The Vance Song is as good a capital punishment song as Danny Deever, say. But note, songs from earlier than 1940 or so rarely make politica points about capital punishment generally. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: HuwG Date: 01 Aug 03 - 01:14 AM From Australia, Poor Ned, about Ned Kelly. The Irish ditty mentioned by Tim Jacques, about sticking penknives into babies is Wella Wella. Both in the DT. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: RUTH ELLIS (Michael Raven) From: Red and White Rabbit Date: 01 Aug 03 - 09:24 AM re the guy in Pakistans sentence to be executed publically - I have mixed feelings - I do have personal experience but I still dont believe in that - such punishment in my opinion glorifies the crime - a public spectacle - a bit like a side show at a fair. Now let victims have them in a room with no fear of punishment - that might be a different idea! Has anyone mentioned Ruth Ellis - Michael Raven Ruth Ellis is my name Tomorrow I die For shooting my true love I cannot deny For he did betray me and brought me to shame Still no sound is sweeter than the sound of his name ch. So bury me deep neath the old willow tree And let the green grass grow, grow over me And you must not weep love and you must not cry Tomorrow they hang me Tomorrow I die I came home one evening came by the back way And there was my true love with another he lay My poor heart was broken my pistol I drew With tears overflowing my true love I slew ch. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST Date: 01 Aug 03 - 11:49 AM Tha Hot Ashphalt. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAN THEY COULD NOT HANG (Matt McGinn) From: GUEST,Mary Ann Date: 01 Aug 03 - 02:52 PM The Man They Could Not Hang TAKE ME BACK TO THE JUNGLE LP BY MATT MCGINN There was an old hangman in Exeter And a fine old hangman was he He had hanged a thousand or more But he couldn't hang John Lee John Lee ! No he couldn't hang John Lee Emma Keyes of Abercombe was rich as rich can be She had servants in her home And one was Johhny Lee John Lee ! And one was Johhny Lee Johnny Lee was a bad, bad man So the story said So they threw him in the local can When they found old Emma dead So dead ! They found old Emma dead The judge he listened to the cons Then he heard the pros And it was clear that Johnny Lee Had fewer friends than foes Than foes ! Had fewer friends than foes There was an old hangman in Exeter And a fine old hangman was he He had hanged a thousand or more But he couldn't hang John Lee John Lee ! No he couldn't hang John Lee The Judge picked up his old black cap And he looked John in the eye He said it falls on me to sentence thee To be hanged until ye die Ye die ! Hanged until ye die James Berry was the hangman's name And it filled his heart with glee When they placed into his gentle hands The prisoner Johhny Lee He led him to the scaffold high And then to John says he "One last request I'll grant to you " "Close your trap" says Johnny Lee John Lee ! "Close your trap" says Johnny Lee There was an old hangman in Exeter And a fine old hangman was he He had hanged a thousand or more But he couldn't hang John Lee John Lee ! No he couldn't hang John Lee James Berry pulled the lever down To send John Lee below Then he began to curse and frown When John Lee would not go Not go ! When John Lee would not go Again and then again he tried Again and again he failed Then word came down from London town John Lee for a life in jail In jail ! John Lee for a life in jail There was an old hangman in Exeter And a fine old hangman was he He had hanged a thousand or more But he couldn't hang John Lee John Lee ! No he couldn't hang John Lee T'was back in 1885 they tried to hang John Lee In 1917 he sailed for far Americ-ee Did he For far Americ-ee There he went and died in bed in 1933 Here lies the man they could not hang And his name was Johnny Lee John Lee ! And his name was Johnny Lee CHORUS |
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Subject: Lyr Add: FOREMAN O'ROURKE (Matt McGinn) From: GUEST,Mary Ann Date: 01 Aug 03 - 03:51 PM Foreman O'Rourke Matt McGinn Return of The Two Heided Man ( Relrecords ) Maybe I am right Maybe I am wrong Maybe I shouldn't go singing this song But the jury decided And you might as well That a fella like me should be roasting in hell Hooch aye, hooch till a fa' Hooch aye, hooch till a dae I had a gaffer His name was O'Rourke He had a terrible passion for work In miles and in turns He took all he could see Though he never was greedy; he gied it tae me Hooch aye, hooch till a fa' Hooch aye, Hooch till a dae One day in the work I went roon for a smoke The door it burst open and there stood O'Rourke He started to swear And he gied me his curse He insulted my mother and that was far worse Hooch aye, hooch till a fa Hooch aye, hooch till a dae He jumped for my throat And it gied me a fright I was quick on my feet and I stepped to the right There was nothing could stop him This terrible man Till he landed feet up, wi' his heid in the pan Hooch aye, hooch till a fa, Hooch aye, hooch till a dae I was trembling with fear As his heid gave a thud And I looked doon and saw that his clathes were all mud Yet it wasnae his clathes Was the worst o' his plight For his heid was jammed in there; a sorrowful sight Hooch aye, hooch till a fa Hooch aye, hooch till a dae In Barlinnie I wait For the man tae come roon That will open the door and let me drap doon And I'll pray for O'Rourke As they gie me the tug For the hing me the morra, for pulling the plug Hooch aye , hooch till a fa Hooch aye, hooch till a dae |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Sara Date: 01 Aug 03 - 03:55 PM The Foreman O'Rourke won the Reynold's News Folk Song competition in the 60s, but the judges ( including Peggy Seeger ) weren't allowed to print the lyrics, even though they thought it was the best song! |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Nigel Parsons Date: 01 Aug 03 - 04:12 PM An old thread, still going strong, and I have seen no mention of "Oranges & Lemons", which seems to tell the tale of a fall from grace, starting off as a debtor "You owe me five farthings say the bells of St Martins" through "Old Bailey" to "Here comes a candle to light you to bed, and here comes a chopper to chop of your head" Nigel |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Gareth Date: 01 Aug 03 - 04:33 PM Thanks Mary Ann - Your memory is better than mine ! Gareth |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Peter K (Fionn) Date: 01 Aug 03 - 07:51 PM Red & White Rabbit, the post about the Pakistan case is more than three years old, so presumably the guy's fate was long-since settled, one way or another. (If guest Pamela ever revisits this thread, I'm somewhat curious about why she revived it. I suspect she was intending to post to a different thread.) Even three years on, it's worth pointing out that the last line of the verse quoted by McGrath from the Ballad of Reading Gaol should be: "For weal or woe again." Not McG's error: the link he provided (still live) goes to a version littered with one-word errors and more than one instance of entire phrases being wrong. I've been known to recite this whole ballad from memory (it takes about 48 minutes) but much as I go along with the message, I reckon it's a fairly clumsy offering by Oscar's standards. I think it's the only time he allowed raw emotions to creep into anything he wrote for public consumption, and he doesn't seem comfortable in that mode. The poem was part of his response to being urged by a prison reformer (Haldane) to write about his experiences. The other part - two letters published in the Chronicle - was the better work. If McG finds the ballad powerful (it certainly has moments of genius) he might like to look at relevant verses from Housman's "A Shropshire Lad" which for my money are much more effective. Despite clear parallels, I always refused to accept the logic that Housman's verses influenced Wilde's. I rested my case on the fact that Housman's collection was not published until 1895, meaning Wilde was unlikely to have seen it before embarking for France. Then I discovered that Houseman had sent Wilde a pre-publication copy while Wilde was still in prison..... Incidentally someone took Wilde to task on the point that the Royal Horse Guards tunic was blue, not red. Wilde conceded that "azure" would have worked just as well as "scarlet" in the first line, but pointed out that it would have made a mess of the second line. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Shambles Date: 02 Aug 03 - 03:04 AM Interesting that in this thread we have anti capital punishment songs and songs that largely treat the reality of it as fact - but we don't seem to have many songs written in favour of capital punishment...... |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST Date: 02 Sep 03 - 02:24 AM anyone mention Bruce Springsteen's "Dead man walkin?" |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Shambles Date: 02 Sep 03 - 05:44 AM http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/deadmanwalking/deadmanwalking.htm |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Gibson Date: 19 Aug 04 - 03:46 PM "I'm Not The Man" -- 10,000 Maniacs. Excellent. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser) Date: 20 Aug 04 - 12:44 PM Someone mentioned James Hanratty. Sad case - Hanratty almost certainly had severe learning difficulties. However, recent forensic investigation has canfirmed that he did it and one of his victims has for the last 40 years had severe walking difficulties, having been confined to a wheelchair. Perhaps Steve Earle should write her a song. I've always been against the death penalty because of it's finality and the fact that you can't ever begin to rectify miscarriages of justice involving human life. However, as a parent I would have no problem seeing someone like Ian Huntley hang as long as I could be certain of his guilt. I believe in a right to life - but is it not the case that adults are capable of forfeiting rights through their actions? |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,lengeft Date: 20 Feb 05 - 06:55 PM I have been looking for the lyrics to "Come O My Love". This song haunts me from my childhood. Does anyone else remember...? |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Peace Date: 20 Feb 05 - 09:12 PM Here ya go. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: goodbar Date: 21 Feb 05 - 02:43 AM dylan's 'i shall be released'. tom robinson band did a great cover of it too. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Clifton53 Date: 21 Feb 05 - 10:06 AM Another by Marty Robbins, and also from the perspective of the hangee was called 'They're Hangin' Me Tonight'. 'Alone within my cell tonight, my heart is filled with fear, The only sound within the room is the falling of each tear, I think about the thing I've done, I know it wasn't right, They'll bury Flo tomorrow but they're hangin' me tonight, They're hangin' me tonight'. Marty's voice was perfect for it. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: pavane Date: 21 Feb 05 - 11:31 AM Just for the sake of completeness.. No-one seems to have mentioned 'The (new) Deserter' in which the deserter is sentenced to be shot (and reprieved by the King/Prince Albert/General etc). |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Big Al Whittle Date: 21 Feb 05 - 01:19 PM no I don't believe in capital punishment - not even for someone like Ian Huntley (murderer of two small children). For one thing I have never been tempted to kill children or wanted sex with children. I don't feel its a feather in my cap that I resisted a temptation that I never felt. My feeling is that we should be trying to work out why we are producing so many sociopaths and psychopaths. why for example should a young apparently handsome, employable person like Ted Bundy end up as Jack the Ripper. I can't understand it at all. How have we evolved a society where someone would choose to become a somebody by shooting John Lennon - rather than enjoy a relatively affluent life in one of the richest countries in the world. How have we got to this situation where our children perceive shooting up their high school as an alternative career opporunity - rejecting what society has to offer. I don't buy the line that George Bush is the moral inferior of Saddam Hussein - not for a minute, but I do feel this. Americans have no idea just how much our young people look up their society as a moral example. This is because your culture is everywhere on the globe. When America has recourse to capital punishment, they are letting the side down. they are doing a bad thing, and it makes it more difficult to say to OUR young children, nothing is achieved by violence. Here is my effort on the subject when I was in a duo called sacre bleu, the band didn't last much longer than the cd - if anybody wants one I'll be happy to mail them oneif they pm me. How Do They Sleep Tonight? How are they sleeping tonight along that old death row are they waiting on each dawn light as their precious minutes go Does each heart twist in a knot of fear For the darkness is coming down - coming down slow How do they sleep tonight along death row How can your heart conceive of a judge saying you must die All those salaried suits with their law degrees listing the reasons why Your heart must stop, like a broken clock You must bid the light goodbye How do they sleep tonight along death row Tell me now, tell me how, tell me now sweet Jesus How could you let this be Are your minds so closed and your hearts so cruel In the home of the brave and the free How do you feel on a day when they're taking the next man down times he spoke with you and you were glad of a voices sound Will you cry, will you scream, will you struggle, will you fight Or does it always pay to be polite How do they sleep tonight along death row Tell me now, tell me how, tell me now sweet Jesus How could you let this be Are your minds so closed and your hearts so cruel In the home of the brave and the free The crown of thorns, and the nails and the tree and its all paid for by you and me and Tell me now, tell me how, tell me now sweet Jesus How could you let this be Are your minds so closed and your hearts so cruel In the home of the brave and the free © 1999 Alan Whittle and David Forbes |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Leadfingers Date: 21 Feb 05 - 02:26 PM Strange Fruit is strictly speaking NOT a capital Punishment song as it is in fact about Lynching !! |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Leadfingers Date: 21 Feb 05 - 02:27 PM And 100 by the way ! |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Charley Noble Date: 21 Feb 05 - 03:41 PM I really did sift through this entire thread, gang, but I don't think anyone has mentioned the old sea shanty "They Calls Me Hanging Johney." Of course, he sometimes admits in the last verse that "he never hanged nobody." Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Leadfingers Date: 21 Feb 05 - 04:46 PM And of course Laszlo Feher has a rape(Forced seduction) AND a hanging for horse stealing ! |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Bonnie Date: 21 Feb 05 - 05:08 PM No one seems to have mentioned "Long Black Veil" which Johnny Cash once sang. Another one is "Black Velvet Band" which is not only about capital punishment but also betrayal by a woman. Or are those one and the same? |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Big Al Whittle Date: 22 Feb 05 - 04:00 PM no one gets topped in the version of black velvet band that I sang for many years and still do when the drunken occasion demands. and yes its a different song to the long black veil. just the black in the titles unites these two great songs - as far as I know. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: erinmaidin Date: 22 Feb 05 - 04:04 PM There was an album released shortly after the movie "Dead Man Walking" which features some very good songs pertaining to the subject of capital punishment. One that comes to mind and is very haunting is Steve Earle's "Ellis Unit One". |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Frank Date: 22 Feb 05 - 05:44 PM Roger, good song! I too would like to hear the tune. Let us know. Great thread. There is the traditional "Hangman, Slack your Rope" . Hanging is a kind of capital punishment. "Strange Fruit" would fall into that category IMHO. Frank |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: markpde Date: 28 Dec 07 - 11:59 AM Just signed up to Mudcat. This thread seems to have run out in 2005, so there may be no-one to read this, but anyway... I found Mudcat by asking Google for "The Easter Tree". I heard it on June Tabor's Ashes and Diamonds album, but the cassette tape broke years ago (halfway through the marvellous 'No Man's Land' - aargh!!! - although I've since found that on her 'Greatest Hits' CD) and I had to rewind it into a blank cassette; I've long since lost the cassette's box, so for all those years I thought it was just 'traditional', the writer being 'Anon' (I now know that it was Dave Goulder). It's an unswervingly grim song (given the subject matter, that's inevitable), but I've always thought it was one of the finest songs ever written. Just to lighten up (!), an English poet called John Cooper Clarke (aka The Bard of Salford) wrote a poem about hanging in the seventies. I recorded it off John Peel's Radio 1 Show away back then and no longer have the cassette, so this is from memory. His poems were set to music, although he never actually sang (presumably because he couldn't), so they may not even qualify as songs (I might get kicked off this forum before I've even got started). Can't quite remember all of the first verse, but the jist of it is that the writer is bored with the news in the papers and decides to "sit right down and write a letter to the Sun*, saying, "Bring back hanging... for everyone." *for those who don't know, a trashy tabloid newspaper in the UK, notorious for headlines such as, on the sinking of the Argentine warship The General Belgrano, in the Falklands War, GOTCHA! and, after a pit lane fire (horrifying but miraculously inconsequential) involving a Benneton Formula 1 car, THE IGNITED COLORS OF BENNETON... So, the second verse goes: They took my advice, they brought it back National costume was all-over black There were corpses in the avenues and cul-de-sacs Piled up neatly in six man stacks Hanging from the traffic lights in specially made racks They'd hang you for incontinence or fiddling your tax Failure to hang yourself justified the axe A-deedly-dee, a-deedly-dum Looks like they've brought back hanging... for everyone Then it turns sour... The novelty's gone; it's hell This place is a death cell The constant clang of the funeral bells Those who aren't hanging are hanging someone else The people pay, the paper sells Its plug-ugly, sub-animal yells Death is unsightly; death smells Swinging Britain? Don't put me on Looks like they've brought back the rope... for everyone At the end, the writer is heard (presumably) being dragged away to his execution, vociferously protesting his innocence: "I didn't break your window!!!..." Oh, and the poem/song (whatever) was called, "Suspended Sentence"... |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Joe_F Date: 28 Dec 07 - 08:57 PM I think my favorites are the "no regrets" songs: Sam Hall and (mentioned once above) The Night before Larry Was Stretched, which explores one advantage of capital punishment: you can be at your own wake. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Stringsinger Date: 29 Dec 07 - 12:54 PM "This time tomorrow, reckon where I'll be? Down in some lonesome valley, Hangin' from a white oak tree.....(Tom Dooley) "I saw my Molly in the crowd, in the crowd I saw my Molly in the crowd, in the crowd. I saw my Molly in the crowd, in the crowd And I hollered right out loud, Molly ain't you proud, god damn your eyes." "And the preacher he did come, he did come. And the preacher he did come, he did come. And the preacher he did come, he did come, And he looked so bloody glum, He can kiss my ruddy bum, god damn his eyes." (Sam Hall) Frank Hamilton |
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Subject: RE: ADD Lyrics: DEREK BENTLEY (Ewan McColl) From: Rog Peek Date: 29 Dec 07 - 02:25 PM DEREK BENTLEY (Ewan McColl) It's of a great adventure, to you that I will tell, Of how they hanged a half-grown lad and how it all befell. Chorus It was guns and comics, films of war that made his education. Young Craig and Derek Bentley, they went out in the night, With gun and knuckleduster just for to see them right. Chorus They climbed upon the roof so high and then looked all around And there they saw the men of law all gathered on the ground. Chorus "Look out, we're caught" young Bentley cried, "our robbin' days are done" "I'll see no prison" Craig replied, "while I've still got my gun". Chorus He stood upon the roof so high and he looked all around And shouted to them, men of law, all gathered on the ground. Chorus "Stay down and stay alive" he cried, "keep clear of me" he said. "Come up that stair another step and you'll go down it dead". Chorus He was just a half-grown frightened lad who couldn't read or write, But standing there with gun in hand he terrorised the night. Chorus The men came up to take him down, he pressed the trigger tight, He shot the first one dead and then jumped down into the night. Chorus Young Craig he was a killer, for he shot the p'liceman dead, But he was just too young to hang, the magistrates they said. Chorus At nine o'clock one Wednesday, they took young Bentley out, And made a noose of hemp and rope and put it round his throat. Chorus It's true as you have often heard, that in this land today, They hang the little criminals and let the big go free. Notes: On 28th January Derek Bentley was hanged for his part in the murder of Police constable Sidney Miles during an attempted robbery. Derek Bentley whose accomplice Chistopher Craig shot and killed PC Miles was granted a pardon by the court of appeal on 30th July 1998. At the time of the trial, Craig had been under 18 and therefore too young to be hanged. RPdec07 |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Big Al Whittle Date: 31 Dec 11 - 02:58 PM my effort http://www.bigalwhittle.co.uk/id59.html |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Owen Woodson Date: 31 Dec 11 - 03:08 PM Rog Peek's attribution of the authorship of Derek Bentley to Ewan MacColl has been on this thread for several years. However, I have only just seen it. The author was Karl Dallas, not Ewan MacColl. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Stringsinger Date: 31 Dec 11 - 03:11 PM Ewan McColl's "Go Down Ye Murderers" The Ballad of Tim Evans (Ewan MacColl) Tim Evans was a prisoner, Fast in his prison cell And those who read about his crimes, They damned his soul to hell, Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." For the murder of his own dear wife And the killing of his own child The jury found him guilty And the hangin' judge, he smiled. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." Tim Evans pleaded innocent And he swore by Him on high, That he never killed his own dear wife Nor caused his child to die. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." The governor came in one day And the chaplain by his side, Said, "Your appeal has been turned down, Prepare yourself to die." Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." They moved him out of C-block To his final flowery dell, And day and night two screws were there And they never left his cell. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." Sometimes they played draughts with him And solo and pontoon, To stop him brooding on the rope That was to be his doom. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." They brought his grub in on a tray, There was eggs and meat and ham, And all the snout that he could smoke Was there at his command. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." Tim Evans walked in the prison yard And the screws, they walked behind; And he saw the sky above the wall But he knew no peace of mind. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." They came for him at eight o'clock And the chaplain read a prayer And then they marched him to that place Where the hangman did prepare. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." The rope was fixed around his neck And a washer behind his ear. The prison bell was tolling But Tim Evans did not hear. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." A thousand lags were cursing And a-banging on the doors; But Evans couldn't hear them, He was deaf for ever more. Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down." They sent Tim Evans to the drop For a crime he did not do. It was Christy was the murderer And the judge and jury too. Sayin', "Go down, you murderers, go down." |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Mark Ross Date: 31 Dec 11 - 03:45 PM When I was in summer camp (in the Jurassic Age), one of my counselors sang a song about Caryl Chessman, to the tune of MacColl's TIM EVANS. Anyone else know it? I think I remember seeing it in SingOut! years later. Mark Ross |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Paul Slade Date: 31 Dec 11 - 06:19 PM Well, there's these. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Max Johnson Date: 01 Jan 12 - 07:37 AM Threadbare Consort recorded the 'The Scaffold' on 'Wearing Thin' album. 'Hark to the clinking of hammers, hark to the driving of nails. Men are erecting a gallows in one of Her Majesty's gaols. A life - a man's life to be taken, which the Crown and the hangman hail. And men are erecting a scaffold in one of Her Majesty's gaols.' later... 'His strong frame in agony quivers. His breast, how wildly it heaves. His arms closely are pinioned. The Hangman himself almost screams...' Phew! Strong stuff. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Jack Campin Date: 01 Jan 12 - 10:52 AM A bit of googling suggests there are possibly hundreds of Balkan ballads (mostly from Serbia) about people being impaled on stakes up the bum. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Big Al Whittle Date: 01 Jan 12 - 12:26 PM Yup and i bet Serbia's answer to Martin Carthy knows all of them. Oh I am a merry spikeman And you can call me Seamus Oh how I like, to get a spike And shove it up your anus. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Owen Woodson Date: 01 Jan 12 - 02:57 PM "A bit of googling suggests there are possibly hundreds of Balkan ballads (mostly from Serbia) about people being impaled on stakes up the bum". Can't say I've ever come across any impaling ballads, but there are quite a few Bulgarian ballads about people being interred inside walls for various misdemeanours. Then of course there's that very fine Hungarian ballad, Laszlo Thea, about a girl (Anna Theya), who agrees to sleep with a judge if he'll set her brother free. Laszlo Thea stole a stallion, Stole him from the Misty Mountain. And they sought him they caught him. And in iron chains they bound him Word was brought to Anna Thea, That her brother lay in prison. Bring me gold and six white horses. I will buy my brother's freedom. Judge, oh judge, please spare my brother. I will give you gold and silver. I don't want your gold and silver. All I want is your sweet favour. Anna Thea, oh my sister, Are you mad with grief and sorrow? He will rob you of your flower, And he'll hang me from the gallows. Anna Thea did not heed him, To that judge she came a-running. In his golden bed at midnight, There she heard the gallows groaning Anna Thea, Anna Thea. Do not go into the forest. There among the green pines standing. You will find your brother hanging. Cursed be that judge so cruel. Thirteen years may he lie bleeding. Thirteen doctors can't heal him. Thirteen shelves of drugs can't heal him. Laszlo Thea stole a stallion. Stole him from the Misty Mountains. And they sought him and they caught him And they hung him from the gallows. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Jack Campin Date: 01 Jan 12 - 05:05 PM Owen we have already had László Fehér (spelt more accurately) upthread. very long version Another Hungarian one is György Dózsa: Executed Today from a site that has a lot of execution folklore. There must be ballads about Dózsa but I haven't heard or read one. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,999 Date: 02 Jan 12 - 05:47 AM Mark Ross: I'd guess the song was Death Row. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,999 Date: 02 Jan 12 - 06:02 AM From Tom Paxton's song, 'What Did You Learn in School Today?': I learned that murderers die for their crimes Even if we make a mistake sometimes |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,AEOLA Date: 02 Jan 12 - 12:45 PM There is a light hearted song loosely connected to CP called ' ROUGH JUSTICE' by His Worship & The Pig and as someone mentioned earlier it is in support of CP!! |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Owen Woodson Date: 02 Jan 12 - 01:04 PM Jack, there is indeed a reference to László Fehér in this thread, but I can't see any text previous to the one I posted. In any event, thanks for reminding me of the Encyclopaedia of Hungarian Ethnology and Folklore. I Picked a copy up in a charity shop once for £4-00, which was amazingly cheap considering the size of the thing and the weightiness of the content. There's also Ninon Leader's book on Hungarian Folk Ballads of course, which I'm almost certain contains a study of LF. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Owen Woodson Date: 02 Jan 12 - 01:13 PM I'll check Leader for ballads of György Dózsa as soon as I get the time. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Jack Campin Date: 02 Jan 12 - 01:26 PM Okay, who wrote this? Hang 'Em High (Essential for any harmonica player's repertoire, I think). That video credits it to Dominic Frontiere. So does his Wikipedia page. Other sources credit it to Hugo Montenegro. My guess is that Montenegro just did an arrangement, is that right? |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Morgana Date: 02 Jan 12 - 06:33 PM There is a song called "Poor Boy," which deals with a fight between a woman's two lovers. At the end, the narrator kills his rival, but must hang. "And yet they call this 'justice' poor boy, then justice let it be. I only killed a man that was a-fixin' to kill me." I assume this is traditional. I think it has a couple different versions. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Felipa Date: 08 Jan 23 - 07:33 PM elsewhere on Mudcat: 25 Minutes to Go (Shel Silverstein) Roddy McCorley ----------------------------------------- lyrics of a song cited in July 2003 by "Padre" The Flatt and Scruggs recording attributes tune and lyrics to "T.Hall" (probably Tom T. Hall, a prolific and professionally successful songwriter) THE LAST PUBLIC HANGING IN WEST VIRGINIA Rock of ages cleft for me Now that could be the voice of John F Morgan in the Ripley jailhouse singin' hymns Well ol' Johnny might just be singin' hymn this mornin' Cause this is gonna be a hangin' day for him Now people say that Johnny was a bad man and that he had a aim for bein' mean He took a hatchet one cold weary morning he killed two children and the widow Green Five thousand people gathered there in Ripley invited by the sheriff Jay O Sean Havin' fun and drinking moonshine liquor and listenin' to ol' Johnny singin' hymn The day dawned cold in Ripley West Virginia the scaffold stood in silence in a field Johnny kept on singin' in the jailhouse waiting there to eat his final meal Then rumor started flying through the gathering That John F Morgan might get his reprieve The people started yelling toward the sheriff Afraid they'd miss for all they come to see But Jay O Sean the sheriff of Jackson County Afraid that such a thing could have been done Said I said there was gonna be a hangin' and I still mean it there's a gonna be one They led John Morgan from the Ripley jailhouse And he rode through the happy laughin' crowd But when John Morgan stepped upon the scaffold They grew quiet when he tip his hat and bowed They listened to the preacher say the last words They fixed the noose and tied John Morgan's hand The signal came and someone sprang the dead's trap And sent John Morgan to another land The last public hanging in old West Virginia a true story written in this song On the sixteen of December in fifteen ninety seven TabLyrics.com recording by Flatt and Scruggs performance by Dave Evans video reportage of the hanging https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-UyxBb55zU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN0iM8LaidY and associated printed educational material https://archive.wvculture.org/history/timetrl/ttdec.html#1216 |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Felipa Date: 08 Jan 23 - 07:38 PM HANG 'EM ALL Tom T. Hall There's a murderer in your town, Mister; there were seven unsolved last year There's a murderer in your town, Mister; how long has he been living here If they hang 'em all they get the guilty, if they hang 'em all they cannot miss If they hang 'em all they get the guilty, been a lot of problem solved like this There's a thief in your town, Mister; this morning my milk was gone There's a thief in your town. Mister; how long has this been going on? If they hang 'em all they get the guilty... There's a cheater in your town, Mister; last night I saw him in a bar There's a cheater in your town, Mister; is that the kind of people you are? If they hang 'em all they get the guilty... There's a hypocrite in your town, Mister; I think I caught him in a lie There's a hypocrite in your town, Mister; are you gonna let that go by If they hang 'em all they get the guilty; that's what you say we ought to do If they hang 'em all they get the guilty, but remember they're gonna hang you too If they hang 'em all they get the guilty... recording by Tom T. Hall |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Felipa Date: 08 Jan 23 - 07:56 PM correction to the lyrics of Last Hanging in West Virginia - The date, of course, should be the sixteenth of December in Eighteen ninety-seven, 1897 I need to look more carefully at what I copy and paste, to correct errors in the original before posting (can someone fix that line and then delete this post? note that the final "th" was missing from "sixteenth", as well as the year being 3 centuries premature) |
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Subject: Lyr Add: Sing Me Back Home From: Felipa Date: 08 Jan 23 - 08:05 PM cited by T.Jacques in 1998 |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 10 Jan 23 - 11:19 AM The Maid Freed from the Gallows / The Prickly Bush / The Prickle-Holly Bush / Prickle-Eye Bush / The Golden Ball https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/themaidfreedfromthegallows.html |
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Subject: Lyr Add: Sing Me Back Home From: Felipa Date: 10 Jan 23 - 02:02 PM I abandoned my post about Sing Me Back home (mentioned in this discussion by T Jacques back in 1998), but since part of it was transmitted, here are lyrics copied from https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/merle-haggard/sing-me-back-home-chords-70514 SING ME BACK HOME Merle Haggard A E D A The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom A E I stood up to say goodbye like all the rest A E D A And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell A E A 'Let my guitar playing friend do my request.' (Let him...) [Chorus] A E D A Sing me back home with a song I used to hear A E Make my old memories come alive A E D A Take me away and turn back the years A E A Sing me back home before I die [Verse] A E D A I recall last Sunday morning a choir from off the street A E Came in to sing a few old gospel songs A E D A And I heard him tell the singers 'There's a song my mama sang. A E A Could I hear it once before you move along?' (Won't you...) [Chorus] A E D A Sing me back home with a song I used to hear A E Make my old memories come alive A E D A Take me away and turn back the years A E A Sing me back home before I die A E D A Sing me back home before I die Recordings, videos: sung by Don Williams sung by Merle Haggard lyrics on screen |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Tim K Date: 18 Jan 23 - 11:53 PM Woody Guthrie's Slipknot! My notes say it was recorded in 1944, and collected on The Asch Recordings and Old Time Religion, among others. Slipknot (Hangknot) Did you ever see a hangman tie a slipknot? (x2) Yes, I've seen it many a time — he winds, and he winds After 13 times, he's got a slipknot Will that slipknot slip? No, it will not (x2) It'll slip around your neck, but it won't slip back again That slipknot, lord god, that slipknot Did you ever lose a brother on that slipknot? (x2) Yes my brother was a slave, he tried to escape They drug him to his grave with a slipknot Did you ever lose your father to a slipknot? (x2) Yes they hung him from a pole, and they shot him full of holes And they left him there to rot on that slipknot (Tell me) who makes the laws for that slipknot? (x2) Who says who is going to the calaboose To get the hangman's noose, or the slipknot? I don't know who makes the law for that slipknot (x2) But the bones of many a man are whistling in the wind Because they tied their laws with a slipknot (Repeat verse) The chords, written out Rise Up Singing style, are: C – / C G7 / CC7 F / G7 C |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 19 Jan 23 - 04:54 AM Many recording of” c MaPherson's Lament “YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=MacPherson%27s+Lament+song > |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Brian Peters Date: 19 Jan 23 - 07:49 AM As a guest called 'cittern' mentioned twenty years ago, Steve Earle has long been a vocal opponent of the death penalty and has spent time with Death Row prisoners. To 'Ellis Unit One', mentioned previously, you can add 'Over Yonder' Over Yonder (Jonathan's Song) The warden said he'd mail my letter The chaplain's waitin' by the door Tonight we'll cross the yard together Then they can't hurt me anymore. I am going over yonder Where no ghost can follow me There's another place beyond here Where I'll be free I believe. Give my radio to Johnson Thibodeaux can have my fan Send my Bible home to Mama Call her every now and then. I suppose I got it comin' I can't ever pay enough All my rippin' and a runnin' I hurt everyone I loved. The world'll turn around without me The sun'll come up in the east Shinin' down on all of them that hate me I hope my goin' brings 'em peace. You can read Steve's account of the background to the song here: Death in Texas |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Brian Peters Date: 19 Jan 23 - 08:05 AM Here is Steve Earle performing a song about a Death Row prison guard to an audience of prisoners at the Cold Creek Correctional Facility. Very powerful. Ellis Unit 1 |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Brian Peters Date: 19 Jan 23 - 08:09 AM And another one from Steve, on a similar theme: Steve Earle: Billy Austin |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Brian Peters Date: 19 Jan 23 - 08:13 AM One more suggestion: I'm surprised that no-one has yet mentioned 'John Hardy'... Leadbelly: John Hardy |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. Cat lyric link From: Felipa Date: 19 Jan 23 - 08:50 AM Brian Peters gave links to youtube.I found lyrics to Ellis Unit 1 on Mudcat. Since the relevant thread title is Steve Earl Death Row Song, I've also added Billy Austin lyrics to that thread. The link is https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=60891 and here is a link for the Origins: John Hardy discussion https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=52732 |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST Date: 26 Jan 23 - 07:38 PM SPANISH JOHNNY Many recordings of “Spanish Johnny “on YouTube /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=19540 The old West, the old time, The old wind singing through The red, red grass a thousand miles— And, Spanish Johnny, you! He'd sit beside the water ditch When all his herd was in, And never mind a child, but sing To his mandolin. The big stars, the blue night, The moon-enchanted lane; The olive man who never spoke, But sang the songs of Spain. His speech with men was wicked talk— To hear it was a sin; But those were golden things he said To his mandolin. The gold songs, the gold stars, The word so golden then; And the hand so tender to a child— Had killed so many men. He died a hard death long ago Before the Road came in— The night before he swung, he sang To his mandolin. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST Date: 26 Jan 23 - 07:44 PM Working link to recordings of “Spanish Johnny “on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E2%80%9CSpanish+Johnny+%E2%80%9C+ |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 27 Jan 23 - 07:25 PM DOWN IN THE WILLOW GARDEN aka ROSE CONNOLLY Down in The Willow Garden from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_in_the_Willow_Garden Various recordings of ” Down in the Willow Garden” on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Down+in+the+Willow+Garden++song Various recordings of ”Rose Connolly” on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Rose+Connolly++song |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 27 Jan 23 - 07:28 PM Down in The Willow Garden from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_in_the_Willow_Garden |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Felipa Date: 29 Jan 23 - 11:09 AM songs about crucifixion include Ballad of the Carpenter (Ewan MacColl) Caoineadh na dTrí Mhuire The Old Rugged Cross (George Bennard), though that song is less focussed on the actual execution than are the other two songs cited. All three links are to Mudcat discussion threads. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 29 Jan 23 - 05:22 PM Desolation Row - Bob Dylan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUvcWXTIjcU |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Sandman Date: 30 Jan 23 - 10:18 AM Sam Hal lack Hall, a real person, also known as Sam Hall - chimney sweep, chimney sweep, was sold to a chimney sweep by his parents, for a pound or thereabouts. But he quickly decided that being a thief was a much more profitable, and safer, profession, even if he did end up being hanged. While waiting in prison for his end he wrote a dictionary of cant and criminal slang, and now appears in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: The Sandman Date: 30 Jan 23 - 10:28 AM stagolee. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 06 Feb 23 - 12:30 PM Let Him Dangle – Elvis Costello https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2hA_Xjr33E |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: PHJim Date: 09 Feb 23 - 09:28 PM Joe Offer, I first heard "Strange Fruit" sung by Josh White, and though the most famous version is by Billie Holiday, the song was written by Abel Meeropol under the name Lewis Allan. Billie was a wonderful performer, but was not known as a song-writer. Composing and performing are two completely different skills, and although some folks posess both skills, there are some who should stick to what they're good at. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: RTim Date: 09 Feb 23 - 10:27 PM "Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol (under his pseudonym Lewis Allan) and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Josh White did not perform it until 1942..... It's all available online!!! Tim Radford |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 10 Feb 23 - 06:20 AM Execution Ballads Website https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/about |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Big Al Whittle Date: 12 Feb 23 - 05:49 PM Song about a Nottingham murder and the hanging of a 19 year old boy . It happenened in 1951 https://soundcloud.com/denise_whittle/the-ballad-of-herbert-leonard-mills |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 13 Feb 23 - 07:17 PM https://soundcloud.com/denise_whittle/the-ballad-of-herbert-leonard-mills |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Felipa Date: 15 Feb 23 - 05:21 PM The Laird of Warriston, Child 194 The above link is to a Mudcat thread with the lyrics. At https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk//songs/thelairdofwariston.html the following information is given: Ewan MacColl sang The Laird o' Wariston in 1982 on his and Peggy Seeger's Blackthorne album Blood & Roses Volume 2. They noted: "Jean Livingstone of Dunnipace and John Kincaid of Wariston, the two main protagonists in this prosaic domestic tragedy, were (according to contemporary accounts) married against their will at a very early age. Kincaid's consistent ill-treatment of his young wife eventually caused her to murder him. Janet Murdo, her nurse, and Robert Weir, a former servant in her father's house, helped her to carry out the deed. " No attempt was made to cover up the crime and within three days of having committed it Jean Livingstone was tried, found guilty and condemned to death. She was beheaded at the Canongate in Edinburgh on 5 July 1600 and Janet Murdo was burned at the stake on the same day. Robert Weir fled but was apprehended four years later and was executed by having his body broken on a cartwheel by the coulter of a plough." 00000 From that information, I would think that Robert Weir's execution was outside of the law (like a lynching), but that Jean Livingston faced "capital punishment" after a trial. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Big Al Whittle Date: 16 Feb 23 - 06:23 AM There was something quite horrible about the ritual of capital punishment as it existed in England. Probably everywhere, but - my memories of the years in which it existed are very vivid. My own father was a policeman, and killing a policeman was one of the offences for which hanging was applied. I can remember my father asking me, Why do care about these men? Do you think I would care about a man who killed you, or your Mum?" But the reporting of it fed the sensual delight of the ghoulish public. There was something about the chastening and stilling of young flesh that appealed to the British public, The Daily Express had a feature on page 3, called photonews. The sort of beautiful high quality black and white photograph that makes you think of Hasselblad cameras. One day I remember there was a picture of a man sitting down to eat steak and chips in a motorway cafe. It was the hangman Harry Allen on his way to kill someone. Totally chilling. It is said people are in favour of capital punishment, let's hope it never returns to our country. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,henryp Date: 19 Feb 23 - 05:28 AM We drove down the A3, the old Portsmouth Road to Hindhead, where the main road now runs through a tunnel. Remarkably, the old highway over Hindhead has become a footpath through the restored landscape. Beside the path we found the Sailor’s Stone, bearing the inscription; ERECTED In detestation of a barbarous Murder Committed here on an unknown Sailor On Sep, 24th 1786 By Edwd. Lonegon, Mich. Casey & Jas. Marshall Who were all taken the same day And hung in Chains near this place Whoso sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed. The Sailor's Stone by Henry Peacock From his home in London An Able Seaman strode Back to his ship he made his trip Upon the Portsmouth Road At the village inn in Thursley He stopped to buy a round And there three men he did befriend They too were Portsmouth bound Chorus; As you travel on life’s journey You’ll meet your fellow man But take great care, for while you share Others take what they can On the lonely climb up Hindhead Those men made their attack And with a knife they took his life And made off with his pack Now those cut-throats hang in irons On the top of Gibbet Hill To show us all what will befall Those who treat others ill Chorus A stone stands by the wayside To mark where he was killed All travellers know no grass will grow Where that red blood was spilled In quiet Thursley churchyard The unknown sailor sleeps His kin still yearn for his return From sailing on the deep Chorus A sailor leads a hard life He knows tragedy and woe He has to brave the restless wave Wherever he may go Our sailor and his shipmates Through danger daily strode He died alone, his name unknown Upon the Portsmouth Road Chorus It’s a true story! Use the tune to ‘The Calico Printer’s Clerk’ (She was very fond of dancing, and allow me to remark, That one fine day, she danced away with the calico printer’s clerk), written by Dave Moran after The Halliard (Dave Moran, Nic Jones and Nigel Paterson) found the words in the Harkness Collection of broadsides at the Harris Library, Preston. The Houghton Weavers sing - 'Calico Printer's Clerk' - Bing video |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Big Al Whittle Date: 19 Feb 23 - 08:18 AM Welll the the tune does add a sort of jaunty vigour to verses which I read initially as very gloomy. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,henryp Date: 19 Feb 23 - 10:24 AM Hindhead is an area of myths and superstition! According to legend, the Devil would jump from hill to hill at the three ‘Devil’s Jumps’ near the village of Churt. This tormented Thor, God of Thunder, who lived at nearby Thor’s Lie (Thursley). When Thor tried to strike the Devil with thunder and lightning, the Devil retaliated by scooping up a handful of earth and hurling it at Thor. The depression that remained is the Devil's Punch Bowl. The three villainous highwaymen were tried and then hung on Gibbet Hill, near the site of the murder, as a warning to other criminals. After the hanging, many fears and superstitions arose around Gibbet Hill. In 1851 Sir William Erle, an English lawyer, judge and Whig politician, paid for a Celtic cross to be put up on Gibbet Hill to banish these fears and raise the local spirits. (National Trust) The area around the Devil’s Punchbowl, in south west Surrey, in the 1800s had a terrible reputation due to the activities of local highwaymen and robbers. They regularly robbed the stage coach as it travelled slowly up the hill on its way to Portsmouth. The murder was mentioned by Charles Dickens in “Nicholas Nickleby” (1838). It is also the theme behind another famous Victorian book, “The Broom-Squire” (1896), by Sabine Baring-Gould. (A broomsquire is someone who makes their living out of making besom brooms – a trade unique to the heathland areas of England. The bushy plant called “heather” is collected and fashioned into broom brushes). (Visit Surrey) Gilbert White of Selborne records, in his Naturalist's Journal 1768–1793, that on 23 December 1790 there was a terrible thunderstorm during which: Two men were struck dead in a wind-mill near Rooks-hill on the Sussex downs: & on Hind-head one of the bodies on the gibbet was beaten down to the ground. JMW Turner created a collection of 71 Mezzotints under the title Liber Studiorum. These were published in 1811. One of these was of Hindhead Hill with the gibbet clearly shown. (Wikipedia) |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GerryM Date: 19 Feb 23 - 11:21 PM Too Close to the Wind, written by Stuart Marson, recorded by many, is about a gang of highwaymen (fictional, I think), hung in Northamptonshire for their crimes. It contains the lines, And now I lie in a darkened dungeon, Condemned on the gallows to die. And, And the crowds will walk through the streets till sunset, When the hangman cuts us down. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,henryp Date: 20 Feb 23 - 10:19 PM There is a separate Sacco and Vanzetti thread. You can hear Woody sing Suassos Lane and his ten other Sacco and Vanzetti songs on Ballads of Sacco and Vanzetti, available from Smithsonian Folkways. The album also includes Niccola Sacco's last letter to his son, set to music and sung by Pete Seeger. Andy Irvine wrote Facing the Chair - with an echo of Woody Guthrie - about the executions. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,henryp Date: 20 Feb 23 - 10:36 PM Joe Hill’s Last Will (1915) (Written in his cell, November 18, 1915, on the eve of his execution) First published in the March 1916 edition (9th edition; “Joe Hill Memorial Edition”) of the IWW Little Red Songbook. My will is easy to decide, For there is nothing to divide. My kin don’t need to fuss and moan — “Moss does not cling to rolling stone.” My body? Oh, If I could choose, I would to ashes it reduce, And let the merry breezes blow My dust to where some flowers grow. Perhaps some fading flower then Would come to life and bloom again. This is my last and final will. Good luck to all of you. Joe Hill To which I have added a codicil; We watch as seasons come and go But hard times always stay, we know A hundred years long you've been gone Your song, Joe Hill, still carries on I can come round to sing it if you wish. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,Lang Johnnie More Date: 21 Feb 23 - 05:11 PM Apologies if these 2 have been mentioned above already - I'm not going through over 160 posts to check, : "Danny Deever" - recorded by Peter Bellamy, but it was the Scottish singer Ken Campbell whom I heard singing it first : https://youtu.be/DRgnvs3namI "The Hangman And The Papist" - Dave Cousins, of "The Strawbs" : https://youtu.be/bkVswDZxrr4 |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: robomatic Date: 21 Feb 23 - 05:30 PM "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched." Very effective when played on the ai in the dark. The version I'm familiar with was sung by Elvis Costello. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Big Al Whittle Date: 25 Feb 23 - 06:40 PM mentioned as being sung by medical students in Ulysses - The Bight Before Larry was Stretched. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,henryp Date: 28 Feb 23 - 06:56 AM I first heard "Iom Dooley" when I visited my cousin in Brigg who was continuously playing a 78 rpm record on a wind-up gramophone complete with steel needle. It must have been in the 1958 Christmas holiday, and I imagine it was the Lonnie Donegan version. The Kingston Trio recorded the most popular version of the song in 1958 for Capitol. Their record sold in excess of six million copies, and is often credited with starting the "folk music boom" of the late 1950s and 1960s. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Dave the Gnome Date: 28 Feb 23 - 07:15 AM For a bit of light hearted relief. My mate always introduced Sam Hall by saying the perpetrator got a suspended sentence - they suspended him by the neck |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: Felipa Date: 05 Mar 23 - 08:05 PM https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=43672 Ballad of Frankie Silver |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,henryp Date: 20 Mar 23 - 12:10 AM A little more on MacPherson's Rant; https://www.scotslanguage.com/articles/node/id/449 Scots Language Centre, Centre for Scots Leid A song about an injustice. The story of the song is largely true. James MacPherson was an outlaw in the North East of Scotland, one of the travelling people and the leader of a band of robbers. He was said to have been generous to and popular with the poor people, but he was the enemy of Lord Duff, the Laird of Braco. MacPherson was caught in Keith and hanged at the Cross of Banff on 16 November 1700, 300 years ago. The story tells that no-one would arrest him because he was such a fine swordsman, but as he came into Keith through a narrow street a woman sitting at a window overlooking the street threw down a thick heavy blanket which entangled him so he could not draw his sword. The court jury was packed with the dependants of Lord Duff, the Laird of Grant, who found him guilty, but a friend of MacPherson rode to the higher court in Aberdeen for a pardon. The Laird saw the rider coming with the pardon, so ordered the town clock to be put forward so they could legally hang MacPherson before it arrived. MacPherson was a fine fiddler, and he composed this tune the night before he was hanged and played it on the scaffold. Then he offered to give his fiddle to anyone who would play the tune at his wake. No-one would, so he smashed the fiddle. Anyone who had accepted it would have shown themselves to be a relative or friend of his and so liable to arrest themselves. The song is also known as 'MacPherson's Farewell'. Robert Burns rewrote the song, but these are the traditional lyrics. The tune is very popular amongst Scottish fiddlers. The pieces of MacPherson’s fiddle are displayed in the MacPherson Clan House Museum in Newtonmore. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,RJM Date: 20 Mar 23 - 03:39 AM Sam Hall,AKA Jack Hall did do something creative while waiting for execution, he wrote a book on the subject of criminal slang |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,henryp Date: 20 Mar 23 - 07:09 AM A Shropshire Lad, IX A. E. Housman - 1896 On moonlit heath and lonesome bank The sheep beside me graze; And yon the gallows used to clank Fast by the four cross ways. A careless shepherd once would keep The flock by moonlight there, And high amongst the glimmering sheep The dead man stood on air. They hang us now in Shrewsbury jail: The whistles blow forlorn, And trains all night groan on the rail To men that die at morn. From LOVELIEST OF TREES Polly Bolton Band 1996 SHEPHERD MUSIC SHEP CD 01 Settings of A.E. Housman poems by Polly Bolton, John Shepherd and Steve Dunachie; readings by Nigel Hawthorne. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST,henryp Date: 20 Mar 23 - 08:02 AM The melody of the song Sam Hall was taken from the song "Captain Kidd", aka "Robert Kidd", written shortly after the execution of William Kidd in 1701. Wikipedia Kidd had two lawyers to assist in his defence. He was shocked to learn at his trial that he was charged with murder. He was found guilty on all charges (murder and five counts of piracy) and sentenced to death. He was hanged in a public execution on 23 May 1701, at Execution Dock, Wapping, in London. He had to be hanged twice. On the first attempt, the hangman's rope broke and Kidd survived. Although some in the crowd called for Kidd's release, claiming the breaking of the rope was a sign from God, Kidd was hanged again minutes later, and died. His body was gibbeted over the River Thames at Tilbury Point – as a warning to future would-be pirates – for three years. Wikipedia Bob Roberts sings Captain Kidd (1960) from Mainly Norfolk Oh, my name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed, Oh, my name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed. Oh, my name is William Kidd, Many wicked things I did, And the law I did forbid, as I sailed, as I sailed. Oh, I murdered William Moore, as I sailed, as I sailed, Oh, I murdered William Moore, as I sailed. Oh, I murdered William Moore And I left him in his gore Forty leagues from the shore, as I sailed, as I sailed. So to Execution Dock I must go, I must go, Oh to Execution Dock I must go, So to Execution Dock, Put my head upon the block And no more the law I'll mock as I sail, as I sail. |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST Date: 20 Mar 23 - 08:24 AM Woody Guthrie's 'Slipknot' mentioned yet? |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GUEST Date: 20 Mar 23 - 12:24 PM Slipknot Woody Guthrie Did you ever see a hangman tie a slipknot? Did you ever see a hangman tie a slipknot? I've seen it many a time and he winds, he winds After thirteen times he's got a slipknot Tell me will that slipknot slip, no it will not Will that slipknot slip, no it will not Slip around your neck, but it won't slip back again Slipknot, slipknot, that slipknot Did you ever lose your father on a slipknot? Did you ever lose your father on a slipknot? They hung him from a pole, and they shot him full of holes Left him there to rot on that slipknot Tell me who makes the laws for that slipknot? Who makes the laws for that slipknot? Who says who will go to the calaboose? Get the hangman's noose on a slipknot I don't know who makes the law for that slipknot I don't know who makes the law for that slipknot But the bones of many a men are whistling in the wind Just because they tied their laws with a hangknot |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: GeoffLawes Date: 21 Mar 23 - 05:15 PM There are many here British broadsides: Song by song, from PlanetSlade.com http://www.planetslade.com/broadside-ballads-songs.html |
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Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment. From: keberoxu Date: 24 Mar 23 - 03:48 PM Corporal punishment is the subject of the little-known Flanders & Swann song, "Bring Back the Birch," which outlines forms of punishment by eras/centuries. As in this verse, dedicated to the eighteenth century: "Bring back the stocks, bring back the bridle, Hang and draw traitors and quarter them too. Brand the low thieves, transport the idle, Burn at the stake all the heretic crew . . . " and I will spare you the verse about the feudal barons in the middle ages. Not all corporal punishment is capital punishment, but it seems safe to say that all capital punishment is corporal -- what about banishment, though? |
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