TRACK TALK #37 John Brown

JOHN BROWN
ALBUM : Broadside Ballads, Vol.1 (1963)
Recorded : Février 1963
Released : Mars 1963



Lyrics
John Brown went off to war, to fight on a foreign shore,
His mother, sure was proud of him!
He stood so straight and tall, in his uniform and all,
His mother’s face broke out into a grin.

She said, "Son, you look so fine, I'm so glad you're a son of mine—
Make me proud to know you wear a gun.
Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get,
We'll hang them on the wall when you get home."

As that train pulled out, John's ma began to shout,
Telling everybody in the neighborhood:
"That's my son who's 'bout to go, he's a soldier now, you know,"
She made well sure her neighbors understood.

She got a letter once in a while, her face broke into a smile,
She showed them to the people from next door,
She bragged about her son, with his uniform and gun,
In this thing she called “a good old-fashioned war.”

Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come,
Ceased to come for about ten months or more.
Then a letter finally came saying: "Go down and meet the train—
Your son is coming home from the war."

Oh, she smiled and went right down, she looked up and all around,
But she could not find her soldier son in sight.
But as all the people passed, she saw her son at last
And when she did, she could not believe her eyes.

Oh his face was all shot off, and his hands were blown away,
And he wore a metal brace around his waist.
He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she did not know,
And she didn't even recognize his face.

She said, "Oh, my darling son, Lord, tell me what they’ve done.
How is it that you came to be this way?"
He tried his best to talk, but his mouth could hardly move,
And his mother had to turn her face away.

"Don't you remember, Ma, when I went off to war,
You thought it was the best thing I could do?
I was on the battleground, you were home acting proud.
You weren’t there standing in my shoes.

And I thought when I was there, ‘Lord, what am I doing here?
Tryin’ to kill somebody or DIE tryin'.’
But the thing that scared me most, when my enemy came close,
I saw that his face looked just like mine.

Then I couldn't help but think, through the thunder roar and stink,
That I was just a puppet in a play.
And through the roar and smoke, that string, it finally broke,
And a cannonball it blew my ass away

When he turned away to go, his mother acting slow,
As she saw that metal brace that helped him stand.
But as they turned to leave, he pulled his mother close,
And he dropped his medals down into her hand.

***

Première performance live : New York (1er octobre 1962)
Dernière performance live : Genève (15 novembre 2011)
Total : 162 fois.
Jouée dans les clubs folk de New York au début des années soixantes, "John Brown" ne reviendra qu'en 1987 à la demande du Grateful Dead.
Depuis, elle est une récurrente du NET, jouée par exemple une vingtaine de fois en 2005.

***

- Une chanson écrite en 1962 et enregistré début 1963 sous le pseudonyme "Blind Boy Grunt" pour la compilation "Broadside Ballads, Vol.1". Il faudra attendre 2010 et la publication du "Bootleg Series Vol.9" pour une publication officielle. On retrouve également deux version live, la première sur "Gaslight Tape" (concert de 62 publié en 2005) et la seconde sur le "MTV Unplugged" publié en 1995.
- La chanson parle d'une mère qui envoie son fils, John Brown, à une guerre dont il reviendra aveugle et blessé. Par son thème, le texte est proche de la vieille ballade irlandaise "Mrs McGrath".

Tiens je ne savais pas que ce titre était paru avant 1991 sur l'album Broadside Ballads, Vol.1

Live at Town Hall (1963)


MTV Unplugged (1994)

Comme beaucoup de monde je pense, je l'ai découverte grâce à MTV Unplugged. Mélodie et phrasé sympa, je l'aime bien cette chanson.

Voici mes 5 versions live favorites :

- NYC 12/04/63
- turin 13/09/87
- NYC 94 (MTV UNPLUGGED)
- london 22/11/05
- nice 22/06/10