Old Judge Thayer

Album: Ballads Of Sacco & Vanzetti (1945)
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  • Old Judge Thayer take your shackle off of me
    Old Judge Thayer, take your shackle off of me
    Turn your key and set me free
    Old Judge Thayer take your shackle off of me

    The monkey unlocked the courthouse door
    The elephant oiled the hardwood floor;
    In did jump the kangaroo
    In did hop the rabbits, too.

    Next in come the two baboons
    Next in rolled a dusty storm
    Next in waddled the polar bear
    To keep the judge and jury warm

    Everybody knows that the mocking bird
    Wrote down every word he heard
    The lawyers all were sly
    With foxy nose and a foxy eye

    The 'possum used the big stiff broom
    Then he polished the new spittoon;
    Up did smile the crocodile
    Said, "Here comes the jury down the aisle"

    The old lady Catfish asked the Trout
    "What is this trial all about?"
    The little baby Suckerfish up and said
    "The judge has caught him a couple of Reds"

    The Rattlesnake asked the Bumble Bee
    "Whose this Sacco and' Vanzetti?
    "Are they the men," said Mammy Quail
    "That shot the clerks at the Slater Mill?"

    The Mosquito sung out with his wings
    "I was there and saw the whole blamed thing;
    I saw the robbers fire their guns
    But I didn't see these men, neither one."

    The big-eyed Owl she looked around
    "They say that Sacco's cap was found
    Down on Pearl Street on the ground
    Where the payroll guards both got shot down."

    "That cap don't fit on Sacco's head,"
    A big black Crow flapped up and said
    "They tried that cap on Sacco here
    And it fell down around both his ears."

    The Camel asked the old Giraffe
    "Did these two fellows duck the draft
    By running down below the Mexican line
    To keep from fighting on the rich man's side?"

    The limber Duck did rattle his bill
    "All the ducks and Geese are flying still
    Down toward Mexico's warm sun
    To try to dodge the rich man's gun."

    Up did waddle the Lucey Goose
    "I think these men ought to be turned loose
    But old Judge Thayer has swore to friends
    These men will get the chair or noose."

    And when the guilty verdict came
    And seven years in jail they'd laid
    And when these two men there did die
    The animals met on the earth and sky.

    "Oh see what fear and greed can do
    See how it killed these sons so true?
    Us varmints has got to get together too
    Before Judge Thayer kills me and you." Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

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