Here are the lyrics to songs i did with John Fenn in our roots band.

Leon Czolgozs

 

McKinley went to the Rainbow City

Where the lights shown bright as the sun

And Buffalo never shined so bright

As it did in nineteen-o-one

But he never took The Trip to the Moon

Where midgets served green cheese

Or saw the happy slaves at The Cotton Plantation

Busy as honeybees

Because at The Temple of Music lurked Leon Czolgosz

And Anarchy was his creed

He had a 38 revolver under his hanky

And assassination was his deed

 

Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley

“Why should so many people serve just one?”

Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley

For the poor-tired-huddled masses served by none

 

McKinley walked among the people

Didn’t think he had an enemy

Comfortable in his privileged position

He would never see

That a tenement dwelling sweat-shop worker

Would come out for more than fun

Or that someone besides the US army

Knew power comes from the barrel of a gun

 

Leon Czolgosz was born and raised

In a Detroit tenement

But he had a foreign name and a funny beard

And this is how the politics went

Congress banned immigration

Anarchy became a crime

Revolution increases state repression

Damn near every time

 

 

I Shot Jesse James

 

Jesse James was just a boy

When he followed his brother Frank

Into Quantrill’s irregulars

Where they robbed many a bank

They murdered and they pillaged

In the name of the Confederacy

And left a path of terror

Across the state of Missouri

When the war was over

Jesse’s killing was not done

He passed up peace with the Union

And set out on the run

Robbing banks and robbing trains

And killing just for fun

Seventeen men went to Boothill

Beneath his blazing gun

 

And reputation is everything

When you play the gunfighter game

And killing a famous killer

Is the quickest way to get a name

He was trailed by every two-bit wanna-be

Whose goals were all the same

To be the man who shot Jesse James

 

I shot Jesse James

I shot Jesse James

“If you see me coming better step aside

A lot of men didn’t a lot of men died”

I’m as much of a killer as cyanide

Cuz I shot Jesse James

 

Charles Ford was meek and mild

But his sister was pretty wild

She fell for the famous gunfighter

Cuz she liked the way he smiled

She liked the cold glint in his eye

The way he didn’t give a damn

She took him back to Charles’s house

When they set out on the lam

They lived together for several months

Like a happy family

Till Charles thought about the reward

And the chance to make history

He asked Jesse to hang a picture

Cuz he didn’t have the knack

And he grabbed up his six-shooter

And shot him in the back

 

 

 

The Ballad of Cherokee Bill

 

“I came here to die not to make a speech”

I’ve killed many men in my life

I’ve shot them down in gunfights boy

And I’ve cut them down with my knife

My skin is dark my momma’s of the tribes

We were never given a choice

My Cherokee people drive from our homelands

Denied an honest living and a voice

And the blood of slaves runs through my veins

But I’d rather die than to serve

To slave my life with no hope of gain

I’d rather live by my gun and my nerve

So I’ve robbed your banks and killed your lawmen

I’ve never lost in a fight

I’ve filled my pockets with banker’s gold

And your towns live in fear of my might

I shot so many that my legend grew

And there were none brave enough to call me out

So you plied me with your cards and whiskey

And a blow from behind laid me out

So now I will hang for what you call my crimes

Live by the gun face the noose

But so do my brother’s who till their land

While their white murderers wander loose

So bring on the rope you hypocrites

Now that I’ve fallen into your reach

And I’ll keep these words to myself

“I came here to die not make a speech”

 

Kewpie Doll Love

 

Down in Moline at The County Fair

There was a Kewpie Doll and a Teddy Bear

They had sat on the shelf for nigh on three years

They made kewpie doll love and shed teddy bear tears

 

Kewpie doll love and teddy bear tears

They’ll ease your sorrows and calm your fears

Life has its up and downs o’er the many years

But I’ll keep my kewpie doll love and teddy bear tears

 

Well one day there was the unthinkable

A boy knocked down the milk-bottles with just one throw

The little boy picked the Bear as his prize

He never saw the tears in the Kewpie Doll’s eyes

Bear never again saw his Kewpie Doll bride

His heart was broken and soon he died

Kewpie Doll met with a similar fate

Believe it or not it was the very same date

 

Doll went to Heaven cuz she said her prayers

And who did she see but the Teddy Bear

God picked them up and put them on a shelf

No one can see them except Herself

And sometimes God will watch the two

When Her days are hard or She is blue

I think of them when bedtime’s near

And dream of kewpie doll love and teddy bear tears

 

Cowboys ain’t much like they used to be

 

Cowboys used to work hard every day

At night around the campfire they’d listen to the fiddle play

A song about the range where they belong

And all the cowboys would sing along

 

But cowboys ain’t much like they used to be

Got gun-racks on their pick-up trucks and SUVs

They listen to the radio quite passively

While someone else sings about the range

 

In days of old men would dare to behold

Sights that had never before been seen

They’d grab their horse and grab a saddle

Or grab a canoe and start to paddle

And travel to where the air is clean

 

But cowboys ain’t much like they used to be

Got exhaust fumes from their pick-up trucks and SUVs

They pollute the earth most aggressively

While someone else sings about the range

 

Magic

 

Ain’t no magic in a Caddy

Ain’t no magic in a yacht

Ain’t no magic left in money

Cuz you know its gonna rot

 

Ain’t no magic in a harsh word

Ain’t no magic left in hate

Ain’t no magic in despair

To sit and curse your fate

 

But there’s magic in forgiveness

There’s magic left in love

There’s magic in the Mother Earth

And in the Sky Above

 

And there’s magic in introspection

Best magic that I know

And there’s magic in the wild places

But few that ever go

 

And there’s magic in a child’s smile

And there’s magic around the bend

So lets walk another mile child

Where there’s magic without end

 

And there’s magic in a clothes dryer

When in years its not been run

It means the magic of the winter wind

Clothes dry in the summer sun

 

Ye Are Gods

 

Ye are gods the bible says and I it

Every word in the bible is true

And I believe King David when he says it

And I believe when Jesus says it too

 

I believe that Elisha the prophet

Was teased by some kids for being bald

And God sent down a killer bear

And forty-two kids were mauled

 

I believe that the poor should drink wine

Vodka or forty ounce beers

So they can forget their troubles

And not have to shed more tears

 

I believe it is wrong to masturbate

Even if no one else is around

Cuz God struck dead poor Onan

For spilling his seed upon the ground

 

I believe that ye shall judge not

It is much better to forgive

Unless it is a woman using magic

Than suffer not a witch to live