Duncan & Brady
Steve Senderoff
bl...@freenet.HSC.Colorado.EDU (Mike Gammill) wrote:
> Can anyone out there post the complete lyrics to "Duncan & Brady"?
> I heard it recently on CD by Greg Brown and Bill Morrissey.
>
> thx,
> Mike
> --
Tom Rush version, off of an old Prestiege Recording, open G on guitar,
goes well using a slide:
DUNCAN AND BRADY (trad)
Twinkle, Twinkle...Little Star
There goes Brady in his electric car
Got a mean look...Right in his eyes
Gonna shoot somebody just to watch him die.
Been on the job too long
And there stands Duncan...tendin' the bar
And in walks Brady with his shiny star
He says "Hey there Duncan, ya under arrest"
Duncan shoots a hole right in Old Brady's chest
Been on the job too long
Brady, Brady Brady...Seems like you done wrong
Just a'bustin' in here with my game goin' on
Knockin down my windows, smashin' down my doors
Now you lyin' dead on my barroom floor
Been on the job too long
Old King Brady...was a big fat man
Doctor reach out, grab a hold of his hand
Felt for his pulse, doctor he said
I believe to my soul that King Brady's dead
Been on the job too long
When all of them whores heard that King Brady's dead
They all come to town...real raggin' red
Just a'slippin' and a'shufflin' and a walkin' down the street
In they old Mother Hubbard and they stockin' feet
Been on the job too long
(repeat verse 3)
Been on the job too long
As other folks noted, it has been done in great versions by Johnson Mt.
Boys, Gordon Bok, also Tom Akstens (adds Mole's Moan into the middle,
works fine!!)
I also think there is a recording of Furry Lewis doing it...
This is my favorite Afro American ballad!!!! I always put it first song,
first set and use a national duolian and harp on a rack...Another great
song like this to check out is a synthesis of Long John and Another Man
Done Gone that Tom Rush sings on his first Elektra album....
regards, steve
--
=====================================================================
Steve Senderoff Trisha Vierling
st...@marlin.ssnet.com
"...ya run your E string down, oh I don't know, about three frets....anyway, it corresponds to the third note on the A string..."
....Tommy Jarrell
Neil Berkowitz
Senderoff) writes:
>
>Tom Rush version, off of an old Prestiege Recording, open G on guitar,
>goes well using a slide:
>
[lyrics deleted]
>
>As other folks noted, it has been done in great versions by Johnson Mt.
>Boys, Gordon Bok, also Tom Akstens (adds Mole's Moan into the middle,
>works fine!!)
>I also think there is a recording of Furry Lewis doing it...
>
Let's not forget Dave Van Ronk's version from _Dave Van Ronk Sings
Ballads, Blues & a Spiritual_ (Folkways Records, 1959). The Tom Rush
lyrics are very similar but Van Ronk adds a staza in between Rush's
fourth and fifth:
High tailed carriages standing around,
Waiting to take King Brady to the burying ground;
High tailed carriages, rubber tired hack,
Well they took him to the graveyard but they didn't bring him back.
Yes, he been on the job too long.
The notes credit Furry Lewis as a source of Van Ronk's version.
Neil Berkowitz
neil...@ix.netcom.com
Loren Joseph MacGregor
bl...@freenet.HSC.Colorado.EDU (Mike Gammill) wrote as follows:
>
> Can anyone out there post the complete lyrics to "Duncan & Brady"?
> I heard it recently on CD by Greg Brown and Bill Morrissey.
Don't know if I can or not, but here's what I recall from an old Dave
van Ronk album:
Well, twinkle, twinkle, little star,
and up comes Brady in his 'lectric car
He's got a mean look right in his eyes,
gonna shoot some body just to see him die.
He's been on his job too long.
Duncan, Duncan was a tending the bar
when up comes Brady with his shinin' star
Brady says, "Duncan, you're under arrest";
Duncan shot a hole right in Brady's chest.
He's been on his job too long.
"Well, Brady, Brady, Brady, you know you done wrong,
Comin' in here while my game's goin' on.
Come bustin' through my window,
Knockin' down my door,
And now you're lying dead on my barroom floor.
You've been on your job too long."
When the women all heard that King Brady was dead
[they all came down, all wearin' red]
Come a'slippin' and a'slidin'
and a'shufflin down the street,
in their big Mother Hubbards and their stockin' feet.
They've been on their jobs too long.
Well, a high-top carriage is a'comin around,
Gonna take King Brady to the buryin' ground.
High-top carriage, over-head rack,
They brung him to the graveyard,
but they didn't bring him back.
They been on their jobs too long.
The part in [brackets] is where my memory fried.
There may be another verse.
This may, in fact, not be the song you want at all!
Best,
-- LJM
-Watson,P.L.
great cover of this song by the Volo Bogtrotters.
Can't remember the name of the tape off hand, but
you can reach me by email if you're interested.
Paul Watson, plwa...@att.com
AT&T - Bell Laboratories
--------------------------------
In article <3irmut$i...@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com>,
Beverlie Robertson
also sings the "been on the job too long" chorus.
Beverlie
In article <steve-26029...@ss5.ssnet.com>, st...@marlin.ssnet.com
Beverlie Robertson
(vinyl) & is probably more like the Furry Lewis version than recordings by
other "modern" singers. Beverlie
In article <beverlie-270...@coopmac30.uwaterloo.ca>,
Steve Goldfield
recorded it on a Folkways album. I'm pretty sure that's
where the Johnson Mt. Boys learned it (Dudley Connell
worked for Smithsonian/Folkways).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Steve Goldfield :<{ {>: s...@coe.berkeley.edu
University of California at Berkeley Richmond Field Station
Ian Anderson
>
> Let's not forget Dave Van Ronk's version from _Dave Van Ronk Sings.../
Ah, but the best of all versions was the live one that Spider John
Koerner used to do. The version on record was fine, but the live one
would stretch out into a ten-plus minute stream of surreal
consciousness surrounding the main song with acres of embellished
tall story. I must have seen him do it half a dozen times in a year
back around '66, and it was never the same twice, much like his epic
Rent Party Rag versions. Hero!
Ian Anderson (Folk Roots)
Michae9305
middle that is a comedy classic. Heard him perform it at the Folkway
(Peterborough, NH) last weekend. He is still a great performer!
Yet Another Steve
Berkowitz) wrote:
> Let's not forget Dave Van Ronk's version from _Dave Van Ronk Sings
> Ballads, Blues & a Spiritual_ (Folkways Records, 1959). The Tom Rush
> lyrics are very similar but Van Ronk adds a staza in between Rush's
> fourth and fifth:
>
> High tailed carriages standing around,
> Waiting to take King Brady to the burying ground;
> High tailed carriages, rubber tired hack,
> Well they took him to the graveyard but they didn't bring him back.
> Yes, he been on the job too long.
... and do not forget the incomparable Judy Henske (!) version (on the "Judy
Henske" LP, 1963?), which also includes this verse. This was the first
tune I ever heard her do and I'm sort of, um, imprinted with her version!
-- Steve, still swooning
Ian Anderson
> Tom Rush version, off of an old Prestiege Recording,
Did you know that this has just been re-issued on Volume One of the
excellent 4 CDs "The Prestige/Folklore Years" (Prestige/Folklore
PRCD 9901-2 in the USA, and about to be on Big Beat/Ace in the UK)?
These CDs are full of lots of excellent Rush, Von Schmidt, Van Ronk,
Muldaur, Holy Modals etc etc
Ian Anderson (Folk Roots)
LAYATES
on the one album they recorded right after Guard left the Kingston Trio.
Judy Henske was a member of the group.
Yet Another Steve
By gosh that's right, I'd forgotten. Henske later re-recorded the song on
her first solo album, "Judy Henske." I liked the solo version better...
Steve
Beverlie Robertson
hero & I hear that he's become more active again, which is welcome news.
Beverlie
In article <3jg4op$i...@ns.cityscape.co.uk>, Ian Anderson
john....@trinity.dircon.co.uk
Hello Ian (and thanks for pointing me in the direction of this newsgroup),
> Did you know that this has just been re-issued on Volume One of the
> excellent 4 CDs "The Prestige/Folklore Years" (Prestige/Folklore
> PRCD 9901-2 in the USA, and about to be on Big Beat/Ace in the UK)?
folk records/CDs in the South West?
John.