> Martin Carthy > Songs > Duncan and Brady

Duncan and Brady

[ Roud 4177 ; Laws I9 ; Ballad Index LI09 ; Huddie Ledbetter]

Martin Carthy, Rory McEwen and Lisa Turner sang two Lead Belly songs, this one, i.e. Duncan and Brady, and My Girl, on the 1963 Hullabaloo ABC Television programme. Both tracks were released in 2001 on The Carthy Chronicles.

Martin Simpson sang Duncan and Brady in 2007 on his Topic album Prodigal Son.

Rattle on the Stovepipe sang Duncan and Brady in 2014 on their WildGoose CD Old Virginia. They noted:

Officer James Brady was fatally shot on 6 October 1890 when police entered Charles Starkes’s Saloon in downtown St Louis, Missouri, to break up a fight. Tried for murder, bartender Harry Duncan protested his innocence but, despite an appeal to the US Supreme Court, was hanged in 1894. There were rumours of a deathbed confession by Charles Starkes himself. The song was first recorded by Wilmer Watts and his Lonely Eagles in 1929.

Lyrics

Martin Carthy sings Duncan and Brady

Duncan Jarvis was tendin’ the bar
In walked Brady with a shinin’ star
Brady said to Duncan, “You are under arrest”
Duncan shot a hole in Brady’s breast

Brady fell down on the barroom floor
“Now, please, Mr Duncan, don’t you shoot me no more”
Women all cryin’, ain’t it a shame
Shot King Brady, gonna shoot him again

“Brady, Brady, Brady, you know you done wrong
You broke in my grocery when the game was goin’ on
Knockin’ down the window and tearin’ down the door
And now you’re lyin’ dead on the grocery floor”

Brady, Brady carried a forty-five
Said it would shoot a half a mile
Duncan, he carried a forty-four
That’s what laid Mr Brady so low

“Brady, Brady, Brady, why didn’t you run?
You oughta replace that forty-four gun
Brady, Brady, Brady, why didn’t you run?
You oughta replace that Gatling gun”

Mrs Brady was at home in bed
Got a telegram King Brady was dead
“Now, children, children, put your hats on your head
Well, let’s go out see if King Brady is dead”

Children was at home in Red Clime
Mother said, “Children, your daddy is dying.
Go to bed, children, take your rest,
You’re gonna get a pension if your daddy’s dead”

When all heard that Brady was dead
Went back home and dressed in red
Come a-slippin’ and a-slidin’ down the street
In their big mother hubbard and their stockin’ feet

“Brady, Brady, Brady, you know you’ve done wrong
You broke in my grocery when the game was goin’ on
Knockin’ down the window and tearin’ down the door
Now you’re lyin’ dead on the grocery floor”

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by José Antonio Torres Almodóvar. Muchas gracias from Garry Gillard.