Tag: death penalty songs

The Killing of “Two Good Men”

Sacco and VanzettiOn August 23, 1927, Massachusetts executed Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolemeo Vanzetti. The two admitted anarchists were Italian immigrants executed for the 1921 murder of a person during an armed robbery of a shoe company paymaster.

The Trial and Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti

The fish-peddler and shoemaker had no prior criminal record when they were arrested for the murder.  But they were prosecuted during a period of anti-immigrant and anti-radical sentiment, and many aspects of their trial were unfair.

The judge overseeing the proceedings saw the two men as “anarchist bastards,” but others rallied in support of the accused. At the time of their execution, protests were held at many places around the U.S.

Many still believe to this day that the two men were innocent of the crime.  Also, there have been recent arguments that only Vanzetti was innocent. There is a Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society that works to keep the case in the public eye, and there is an exhibit about the case at the courthouse in Massachusetts.

Woody Guthrie and “Two Good Men”

Many years after the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, folk-singer Woody Guthrie found some kinship in the plight of the two men. In the mid-1940s, he worked on a project of several songs about Sacco and Vanzetti to tell their story.

One of the songs in the cycle is “Two Good Men.”

Like Guthrie’s song about “Tom Joad,” which we discussed previously, “Two Good Men” is a story song.  “Two Good Men” focuses on the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Although the song is not as complete and detailed as “Tom Joad,” it contains many details.

Some of the details in the song include the names of the judge (Webster Thayer) and the people who prosecuted the two men: “I’ll tell you the prosecutors’ names,/ Katsman, Adams, Williams, Kane.”

In addition to the details of the case, in “Two God Men” Guthrie also focuses on connecting the execution to the labor movement of his day:

All you people ought to be like me,
And work like Sacco and Vanzetti;
And every day find some ways to fight
On the union side for workers’ rights.

Supposedly, Guthrie was unsatisfied with his cycle of songs about Sacco and Vanzetti. Eventually, he gave up on the project.

Fortunately Guthrie’s songs about Sacco and Vanzetti were not lost.  The founder of Folkway Records Moe Asch, who had commissioned the songs, went ahead and released the unfinished product.

Guthrie was probably right that “Two Good Men” and the other songs did not live up to his best work. I prefer folksinger Charlie King’s song about Sacco and Vanzetti with a similar name, “Two Good Arms.” But Guthrie also was right that we should continue to remember and fight against injustices.

{Woody at 100 is our continuing series celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie on July 14, 1912. Check out our other posts on Guthrie and the Woody Guthrie Centennial too. }

Photo via public domain.

What do you think of “Two Good Men”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty
  • The Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti: Two Good Arms
  • Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle

    • (Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle

    The Quare Fellow Bono recently joined Glen Hansard, who was taping for Sirius/XM’s The Loft at The Living Room in New York. Together, the U2 frontman and the Once film star sang “The Auld Triangle.” The 1960’s song was written by the brothers Brendan and Dominic Behan for the play The Quare Fellow.

    Hansard often plays “The Auld Triangle” on his own and with his band The Frames. Several Irish music artists like The Pogues, The Dubliners, and Dropkick Murphys have played the song. Bob Dylan and the Band also played the song during their recording of “The Basement Tapes” in 1967. Here is the latest take on this Irish classic from Hansard and Bono:

    “The Auld Triangle,” which has gone on to a life of its own outside the play, opened the play set in a prison the day that a prisoner is set to be executed. The triangle in the song refers to a metal triangle that was banged to wake the inmates every morning at Mountjoy Prison in Ireland: “And that auld triangle went jingle-jangle / All along the banks of the Royal Canal.”

    The play The Quare Fellow, which was loosely made into a 1962 movie with Patrick McGoohan, grapples with a number of social issues, including Ireland’s use of the death penalty at the time. Ireland has since abolished capital punishment.

    2014 Bonus Version Update: “The Auld Triangle” appeared in the movie Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). In the movie, the song is performed by The Punch Brothers, Marcus Mumford, and Justin Timberlake. Below is a concert inspired by the movie, featuring The Punch Brothers and Marcus Mumford.

    What do you think of the Hansard-Bono duet? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty
  • Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”
  • Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

    Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song

    hangman With Governor Dannel Malloy’s signature in April 2012, Connecticut became the fifth state in five years to abolish the death penalty. Connecticut makes seventeen states that do not have capital punishment, along with the District of Columbia, as more states are realizing that the death penalty is expensive, unfair, arbitrary, unnecessary, and risks executing the innocent.

    Similarly, recently the man who wrote California’s death penalty law and the man who led the drive for that state to adopt capital punishment have changed their position and said that life without parole is a better option than the death penalty. For various reasons, the civilizing trend around the country is leading to more states abolishing the death penalty.

    Capital punishment is still used as a political issue, though. Even as Connecticut abolished the death penalty for future cases, it did not overturn the death sentences of the few people currently on death row in the state.

    Johnny Cash’s Last Song: “Hangman”

    Speaking of executioners, in this video, Marty Stuart tells about his final meeting with Johnny Cash.  Stuart recalls how Cash helped him write the song, “Hangman.”

    Stuart was inspired to start writing the song after visiting Folsom Prison and seeing where Cash had performed for the inmates. While working on the song, he told Cash about the song, and Cash gave Stuart some help.

    As Stuart explains before he performs the song in the video below, it was probably the last song Cash helped write.  Four days after they worked on “Hangman,” Cash passed away on September 12, 2003.

    “Hangman” later appeared on Stuart’s album, Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions (2010).

    The song begins with the singer talking about killing another man: “I’ve lost count at thirty, and I’ve grown too numb to grieve.” After he tells how alcohol and dope helps him get by, the chorus comes in to reveal the twist. The song is not about a serial killer but the hangman.

    Martyh Stuart Ghost Train Hangman Hangman, Hangman,
    That’s my stock and trade.
    Hangman, Hangman,
    Sending bad men to their grave.
    But who killed who? I ask myself,
    Time and time again.
    God have mercy on the soul,
    Of this Hangman.

    In the video, Stuart tells how Johnny Cash helped him with the chorus and the poetic line, “But who killed who? I ask myself.” The line, and the song evoke the concerns of the Connecticut legislature.

    Both the legislature and Gov. Malloy realized that the death penalty is not about what we do to convicted murderers. Capital punishment is about what it does to us when our government kills people already in prison for the rest of their lives. Connecticut is saving the hangman, not the prisoners.

    What do you think of “Hangman”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • Oregon’s Death Penalty: 25 Minutes to Go
  • “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty
  • Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)


    Oregon’s Death Penalty: 25 Minutes to Go

    Johnny Cash Folsom Prison 25 Minutes to Go Last week, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber granted a reprieve to a condemned man and announced that he would do the same for any scheduled execution during the remainder of his term in office. Gov. Kitzhaber asked state officials to consider other options besides the death penalty and explained, “I simply cannot participate once again in something that I believe to be morally wrong,” Gov. Kitzhaber further explained that as a licensed physician he had taken an oath to “do no harm.” In making his emotional announcement, Gov. Kitzhaber told how he was haunted by the fact he had allowed Oregon’s only two modern executions.

    Whether one agrees with Gov. Kitzhaber or not, one must respect someone who is willing to admit he erred in the past and who takes a moral stand. Gov. Kitzhaber recognized that the trend around the world in recent years has been toward taking a moral stand against state killings when other options, like life in prison, exist. Recognizing there are a number of problems with the American death penalty, Gov. Kitzhaber is putting a moratorium on Oregon executions to allow the state to reconsider whether or not it wishes to continue executing people.

    The immediate reprieve stopped the execution of 49-year-old Gary Haugen, who had waived his appeals and wished to be executed. Haugen’s attorney noted that the condemned man, desiring his own execution, would not be happy with the reprieve.

    Haugen was within two weeks of his scheduled execution, but Johnny Cash performed a song going further in imagining a condemned man counting down the final 25 minutes before his execution. The song, “25 Minutes to Go,” was written by Shel Silverstein, who also wrote Cash’s hit song, “A Boy Named Sue.” One may hear Silverstein’s sense of humor even in a song like “25 Minutes to Go.” The song’s author may be best known for his children’s books, including The Giving Tree.

    In the following video, someone has put together some cool illustrations to go with Johnny Cash’s performance of “25 Minutes to Go” from his famous performance at Folsom Prison on Jan. 13, 1968. (Do you know who did the animation?) Check it out.

    You also may watch Cash in another live performance in a video on YouTube. Johnny Cash was another gutsy man like Gov. John Kitzhaber. I miss him.

    Bonus Johnny Cash-related Death Penalty News: Johnny’s daughter Roseanne Cash is reuniting with her ex-husband Rodney Crowell for an anti-death penalty concert in Nashville on December 19. John Hiatt will also perform.

    What do you think of Johnny Cash’s “25 Minutes to Go”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • Connecticut’s Hangman and Johnny Cash’s Last Song
  • “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty
  • Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

    First Use of Electric Chair & Eric Church’s “Lightning”

    Eric Church’s song “Lightning” captures a lot about the death penalty but his video gets one big thing wrong, missing the odds against Texas executing a white man for killing a black man.

    On August 6 in 1890, the State of New York executed William Kemmler in the nation’s first use of the electric chair. As explained in Richard Moran’s Executioner’s Current: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the Invention of the Electric Chair, as New York prepared to execute William Kemmler, corporate interests and profit motives affected the debate about the execution method.

    Edison vs. Westinghouse

    Electric chair

    George Westinghouse, who was working to make alternating current the U.S. standard for distributing electricity into homes, supported Kemmler in his appeals. Meanwhile, Thomas Edison, who was working to make direct current the standard, was an advocate for the electric chair.

    Edison hoped that once people saw the use of the electric chair, they would realize that Westinghouse’s AC current was dangerous and adopt his DC current. As part of his campaign, Edison even showed how electricity could kill an elephant. Edison’s promotion helped lead to the state using AC current for the execution.

    But in the long term, Edison did not win the DC-AC debate.  Today we use AC current in our homes.

    Kemmler’s Execution

    Kemmler had been sentenced to death for killing his common law wife with a hatchet.  After officials strapped him into the chair, the electricity was applied for several seconds.  During that time, Kemmler strained against the leather straps.

    When attending doctors thought Kemmler was dead, the warden had the electricity turned off. But Kemmler’s body continued to twitch, causing observers to faint.

    After doctors confirmed Kemmler was still breathing, the executioner sent 2,000 volts through Kemmler’s body.  Kemmler’s mouth foamed and blood vessels ruptured.  Witnesses smelled burning flesh as Kemmler’s body caught fire.

    After the electricity ceased, Kemmler’s body went limp.  Doctors confirmed that this time Kemmler was dead. Following the execution, about twenty newspapers in New York called for a repeal of the law that allowed execution by electrocution.

    Debates about the method of execution will continue as long as the U.S. is in the minority of countries in the world that maintain the death penalty. Recently, news stories have focused on problems with the chemicals used in lethal injection.

    Eric Church’s “Lightening”

    A slang term for being killed in the electric chair is “riding the lightning.” Country singer Eric Church incorporated the reference in his song, “Lightning,” about a death row inmate.

    There is something about the imminence of death that makes a death row inmate’s perspective compelling for a country song. Reportedly, this death penalty song earned Church his recording contract.

    Church’s song does not take a position for or against the death penalty.  But it focuses on the often overlooked families of both the condemned and the victim.

    I like the version of the song used in the video more than the version from his debut album, Sinners Like Me (2006). The video version changes the sound of the inmate’s voice at the end in a way that the album version does not, using an old microphone sound to convey a timeless voice from beyond the grave. It’s a good and haunting song and video.

    Yeah, tonight I ride the lightning
    To my final restin’ place.

    One aspect of the video, however, is somewhat inaccurate. The condemned in the video is a white man executed in Texas where the victim appears to be African-American. Although Texas leads the country in executions, that racial combination is exceedingly rare.

    In 2011, Texas executed Lee Taylor for murdering an African-American inmate while serving a life sentence. That was only the second time out of almost 500 executions during the modern death penalty era (since 1976) that Texas executed a white person for killing a black person. The rarity is not limited to Texas, as a number of studies from various states show that one is more likely to get the death penalty for killing a white person than for killing a person of any other race.

  • “Nebraska” and the Death Penalty
  • Dylan’s “Julius & Ethel”
  • The Journey of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” From the Scaffold to the Screen
  • The End of Maryland’s Death Penalty and “Green, Green Grass of Home”
  • The Killing of “Two Good Men”
  • Bono and Glen Hansard: The Auld Triangle

    • (Some Related Chimesfreedom Posts)

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