Songs about capital punishment.

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

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

Subject: Lyr Add: OVER YONDER (JONATHAN'S SONG) (S Earle)
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)
As recorded by Steve Earle on "Transcendental Blues," 2000.

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.

CHORUS: 'Cause 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
Just send my Bible home to Mama
Call her every now and then. CHORUS

I suppose I got it comin'
I can't ever pay enough
In 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. CHORUS


You can read Steve's account of the background to the song here:
Death in Texas

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 >

Subject: Lyr Add: SLIP KNOT / HANGKNOT SLIPKNOT (W Guthrie)
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

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: SING ME BACK HOME (Merle Haggard)
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

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

Subject: Lyr Add: Sing Me Back Home
From: Felipa
Date: 08 Jan 23 - 08:05 PM

cited by T.Jacques in 1998

Subject: Lyr Add: HANG THEM ALL (Tom T. Hall)
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

Subject: Lyr Add: THE LAST PUBLIC HANGING IN WEST VIRGINIA
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
As recorded by Flatt and Scruggs on “Town and Country,” 1965.

[SUNG:] “Rock of ages, cleft for me”

[SPOKEN:] Now, that could be the voice of John F. Morgan
In the Ripley jailhouse singin' hymns.
Well, ol' Johnny might just be singin' hymns this mornin',
‘Cause this is gonna be a hangin' day for him.

[SUNG:] Now, people say that Johnny was a bad man,
And that he had a name for bein' mean.
He took a hatchet one cold dreary mornin'.
He killed two childern and the widow Green.

Five thousand people gathered there in Ripley,
Invited by the sheriff, J. O. Shinn,
Havin' fun and drinkin' moonshine liquor
And listenin' to ol' Johnny singin' hymns.

The day dawned cold in Ripley, West Virginia.
The scaffold stood in silence in a field.
Johnny kep' on singin' in the jailhouse,
Waiting there to eat his final meal.

Then rumors started flyin' through the gath'ring
That John F. Morgan might get his reprieve.
The people started yellin' for the sheriff,
Afraid they'd miss what all they'd come to see.

But J. O. Shinn, 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 tipped his hat and bowed.

They listened to the preacher say the last word.
They fixed the noose and tied John Morgan's hand.
The signal came and someone sprang the death 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 sixteenth of December in eighteen ninety-seven,
Johnny Morgan paid the price for doin' wrong.


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

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment.
From: GUEST,Paul Slade
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 06:19 PM

Well, there's these.

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

Subject: Lyr Add: GO DOWN YE MURDERERS (Ewan MacColl)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 31 Dec 11 - 03:11 PM

GO DOWN YE MURDERERS
(Ewan MacColl)
As recorded by Ewan MacColl on “Chorus from the Gallows,” 1960.

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 to see him and the chaplain by his side,
Said, "Your appeal has been turned down; prepare yourself to die."
    Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down."

So 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."

They fixed the rope 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.
Tim Evans did not hear ’em; he was deaf for ever more.
    Sayin', "Go down, you murderer, go down."

It was Christie was the murderer and ev’rybody knew.
They sent Tim Evans to the drop for a crime he did not do.
    Sayin', "Go down, you murderers, go down."

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.

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

Subject: Lyr Add: DEREK BENTLEY (Ewan MacColl)
From: Rog Peek
Date: 29 Dec 07 - 02:25 PM

DEREK BENTLEY
As recorded by Ewan MacColl on “Chorus from the Gallows,” 1960.

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 hempen 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. CHORUS


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 Christopher 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

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

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.

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"...

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

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".

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.

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?

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 !

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

Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment.
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 Feb 05 - 02:27 PM

And 100 by the way !

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 !!

Subject: Lyr Add: HOW DO THEY SLEEP TONIGHT (Al Whittle)
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 it's 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 opportunity - 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 to 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 one if 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 voice's 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 it's all paid for by you and me.

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

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).

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.

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.

Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment.
From: Peace
Date: 20 Feb 05 - 09:12 PM

Here ya go.

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...?

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?

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.

Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment.
From: The Shambles
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 05:44 AM

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/deadmanwalking/deadmanwalking.htm

Subject: RE: Songs about capital punishment.
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Sep 03 - 02:24 AM

anyone mention Bruce Springsteen's "Dead man walkin?"

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......