TRACK TALK #287 Seven Curses

SEVEN CURSES
ALBUM : The Bootleg Series Vol.2 (1991)
Recorded : 6 Août 1963
Released : 26 Mars 1991

Réécriture d'un vielle ballade folk, "The Maid Freed From The Gallows", déjà revisité par Lead Belly et Odetta.
Enregistrée lors des sessions de "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" et publié sur le "Bootleg Series Vol.2" et "Vol.9".

Première performance live : New York (12 Avril 1963)
Dernière performance live : New York (26 Octobre 1963)
Total : 2 fois.



Lyrics
Old Reilly stole a stallion
But they caught him and they brought him back
And they laid him down on the jailhouse ground
With an iron chain around his neck

Old Reilly’s daughter got a message
That her father was goin’ to hang
She rode by night and came by morning
With gold and silver in her hand

When the judge he saw Reilly’s daughter
His old eyes deepened in his head
Sayin’, “Gold will never free your father
The price, my dear, is you instead”

“Oh I’m as good as dead,” cried Reilly
“It’s only you that he does crave
And my skin will surely crawl if he touches you at all
Get on your horse and ride away”

“Oh father you will surely die
If I don’t take the chance to try
And pay the price and not take your advice
For that reason I will have to stay”

The gallows shadows shook the evening
In the night a hound dog bayed
In the night the grounds were groanin’
In the night the price was paid

The next mornin’ she had awoken
To know that the judge had never spoken
She saw that hangin’ branch a-bendin’
She saw her father’s body broken

These be seven curses on a judge so cruel:
That one doctor will not save him
That two healers will not heal him
That three eyes will not see him

That four ears will not hear him
That five walls will not hide him
That six diggers will not bury him

La version live hantée du New York Town Hall d'octobre 63 :