The Murder Ballads

This page is a tribute in picture form to the Masterpiece known to you and I as the  "MURDER  BALLADS "

All of the artwork on this page is original and drawn by the wonderful Brotha Lucas  of  'Karma Clowns'  fame, GOD Bless you Brotha Luc. XX Please Find more Lucas artwork in "The Philosophy of Vegetables"  go to     http://www.pov.me.uk/

REV: 

(All art on this page is the copyright of  Shrine Brotha Lucas)  The missing Ballads appear  on thee next page...

Hack! 

                             "Song of Joy"

: Have mercy on me,sir Allow me to impose on you,I have no place to stay,And my bones are cold right through.I will tell you a story,Of a man and his family,And I swear that it is true......

Ten years ago I met a girl named JOY,She was a sweet and happy thing,Her eyes were bright blue jewels.And we were married in the spring,I had no idea what happiness a little love could bring,Or what life had in store.But all things move toward their end,All things move toward their end.....On that you can be sure.

La la la la la la la .......

Then one morning I awoke to find her weeping,And for many days to follow,She grew so sad and lonely,Became JOY in name ONLY.Within her breast there launched an unnamed sorrow,And a dark and grim force set sail.Farewell,happy fields,Where joy forever dwells,HAIL horrors HAIL!!!!

Was it an act of contrition or some awful premonition,As if she saw into the heart of her final blood-soaked night,Those lunatic eyes,that hungry kitchen knife.Ah,I see,sir,that I have your attention!!!,Well,could it be? How often I've asked that question,Well,then in quick succession,We had babies,one,two,THREE......

                      " Stagger Lee "

: It was back in '32 when times were hard,He had a Colt .45 and a deck of cards,Stagger Lee.

He wore rat-drawn shoes and an ol' Stetson hat,Had a '28 Ford,had payments on that,Stagger Lee.

His woman threw him out in the ice and snow,And told him "NEVER ever come back no more",Stagger Lee.

So he walked through the rain,and he walked through the mud,Till he came to a place called "The Bucket Of Blood"...Stagger Lee.

He said "Mr. Motherfucker,you know who I am" The barkeeper said,"No,and I don't give a good  Goddamn" To Stagger Lee.

He said,"Well bartender,it's plain to see,I'm that bad Motherfucker called Stagger Lee. :

                          "Lovely Creature"

"There she stands,this Lovely Creature,There she stands,there she stands,With her hair full of ribbons,And green gloves on her hands.

 So,I asked this Lovely Creature,Yes,I asked.Yes I asked.Would she walk with me a while,Through this night so fast.

She took my hand,this Lovely Creature,"Yes" she said,"Yes" she said."Yes,I'll walk with you a while" It was a joyful man she led...."

                "The Curse Of Millhaven"

I live in a town called Millhaven,And it's small and it's mean and it's cold,But if you come around just as the sun goes down,You can watch the whole town turn to gold.It's around about then I used to go a-roamin' Singing La la la la La la la lie....All God's children they ALL gotta DIE!!!

My name is Loretta but I prefer Lottie,I'm closing in on my fifteenth year,And if you think you have seen a pair of eyes more green,Then you sure DIDN'T see them round here.My hair is yellow and I'm always a-combing,La la la la  La la la lie,Mama often told me "We all have to DIE!!"

                             "Crow Jane"

Crow Jane......Jane Crow,Crow Jane,Horrors in her head,That her tongue dare not name.Lived all alone by the river,The rolling rivers of pain.Crow Jane....Crow Jane,Crow Jane,Ah hah huh.

There is one shining eye on a hard hat,Company closed down the mine.Winking on the waters they came,Twenty hard-hats,twenty eyes.In her clapboard shack,Just six foot by five,They killed all her whisky.Poured their pistols dry.Crow Jane Crow Jane,Crow Jane,Ah hah huh.

Seems you've remembered,How to sleep,how to sleep.The house dogs are in your turnips,And your yard dogs are running all over the streets,Crow Jane Crow Jane,Crow Jane Ah hah huh.

"O Mr. Smith and Mr.Wesson,Why you close up shop so late?" "Just fitted out a girl who looked like a bird,Measured 32,.44,.38 Asked that girl which road she was taking,Said she was walkin' the road of HATE.But she hopped on a coal-trolly up to New Haven,Population 48" Crow Jane Crow Jane,Crow Jane Ah hah huh.

Your guns are drunk and smokin' They have followed you to the gate.Laughing all the way back from the new town...Population,now,28.....Crow Jane Crow Jane,Crow Jane,Ah hah huh....

                                   "O'Malley's Bar"

I am tall and I am thin,Of an enviable height,And I've been known to be quite handsome,From a certain angle and in a certain light.

Well I entered into O'Malley's,Said,"O'Malley I have a thirst!" O'Malley merely smiled at me.Said "You wouldn't be the first"

I knocked on the bar and pointed,To a bottle on the shelf,And as O'Malley poured me out a drink,I sniffed and crossed myself.

My hand decided that the time was nigh,And for a moment it slipped from view.And when it returned,it fairly burned.With confidence anew.

Well the thunder from my steely fist,Made all the glasses jangle,When I shot him,I was SO handsome,It was the light,it was the angle.

Huh!!! Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

"Neighbours!" I cried,"Friends!!" I screamed,I banged my fist upon the bar."I bear no grudge against you!!" And my dick felt long and HARD!... "I am the man for which no GOD waits,For which the whole world yearns.I'm marked by darkness and by blood.And one thousand powder-burns"

"The Kindness Of Strangers"

They found Mary Bellows cuffed to the bed,With a rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head,O poor Mary Bellows.

She'd grown up hungry,she'd grown up poor.So she left her home in Arkansas,O poor Mary Bellows.

She wanted to see the deep blue sea.She drove across Tennessee,O poor Mary Bellows.

She met a man along the way,He introduced himself as Richard Slade,O poor Mary Bellows.

Poor Mary thought that she might DIE,When she saw the ocean for the first time,O poor Mary Bellows.

She checked into a cheap little place,Richard Slade carried in her her old suitcase,O poor Mary Bellows.

"I'm a good girl,sir"she said to him,I couldn't possibly permit you in,O poor Mary Bellows.

Slade tipped his hat and winked his eye.And turned away without goodbye,O poor Mary Bellows.

She sat on her bed and thought of home,With the sea breeze whistling all alone,O poor Mary Bellows.