By Nicko
Silence in Court, and all attention lend
Behold your Judge!
In due submission bend! – Gilbert & Sullivan (Trial By Jury)
I’ve been charged but never tried (charges dropped). For the crime of wanting to protect trees. I’ve never been asked to do jury duty. My cousin is doing it now – she won’t say what the case is, following the rules, but I think it is a deadly dull fraud trial.
Nothing deadly dull about the music put up this week. Real judges, real cases, fanciful ones, unjust and corrupted trials, metaphorical trials, mock trials, dispensing with trials. It’s all been suggested, and more.
Popular crimes? Murder, of course. The crime of loving someone is clogging up (imaginary) courts. Historical examples. Injustices. Divorce, although that isn’t a crime.
What is a crime the number of great tunes left off these lists. I found it a hard topic, but not from want of great evidence noms – quite the contrary in fact.
That’s about the assize of it. The verdict is passed, for better or worse. There is some covering of themes in the picks, in no thematic order.
Wynonie Harris – Good Morning Judge (severin, then Jamesowen475 again later)
I am a Wynonie fan. One fully in my mind beforehand. How to deal with a fun song in an often-serious topic? Stick it at the beginning! I’m not sanctioning the verse about taking the police chief’s daughter out for a ride.
Lead Belly – On A Monday (TarquinSpodd)
Let’s get more serious. This one has the process. Arrest, trial, conviction. All in 3 days! A much-covered song under different names but this is the original version. An intro after the intro.
Blyth Power – Bind The King In Chains (ShivSidecar)
Carisbrooke's bolted and locked from within
His Majesty's ill at ease
Closeted with his advisors
Stir up the land with the root and the branch if His Majesty is displeased
We'll put him before the assizes
He's never been here before, my Lord
Silence in court.
An historically-based song. Assizes mentioned in two noms. A take on Charles I and his trial for treason. “Orf with 'is 'ead” said Shiv in nominating this one and that is what happened. I’m a republican but think that is a little extreme.
Trivia: My paternal grandmother was born on the Isle Of Wight where Chas was incarcerated. Grandma’s father made Queen Victoria’s first coffin to be carried back to London in. Didn’t stick around though, as they hit the high seas for Australia.
The Fall – Oswald Defense Lawyer (happyclapper)
How do you think that jury made up of putrid mass
Embraced theory of triangle bullet lines
Turning in circles twice
Then incredible, marvellous, exiting back of mind?
A mock trial song. Here on television trying Lee Harvey Oswald for the murder of JFK as that never happened in real life. As the TV event is being described by The Fall, it means the lyrics are all over the shop. Info here.
O.V. Wright – Eight Men, Four Women (Fred Erickson)
Eight men and four women, lord
They found me guilty of loving you.
A found guilty of the crime of love song. A common theme this week, but this one is a favourite soul tune of mine. How could they be so blind in calling true love a crime, emotes O.V.?
Atoms For Peace – Judge, Jury And Executioner (swawilg)
I went for my usual walk
Just tell it like it is
Tell it like it was
Judge and jury, executioner
Judge and jury, executioner
Judge and jury.
A dispensing with the courtroom song. In the commonplace phrase. Can be nasty if literal, or just a way to make a point. It was a literal executioner in the Charles Bronson revenge flick ‘Death Wish’ with a Herbie Hancock soundtrack that is the source of the bass line here. Flea on that, plus Thom Yorke et al.
There’s an earlier Radiohead song ‘Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury And Executioner)’ but Thom says he forgot having used the phrase before with this song. On myxo, maybe in England it is bad, but here it was necessary (and the later calicivirus) in controlling out of control rabbit plagues.
Common – Testify (Uncleben)
Before you lock my love away
Please let me testify.
A courtroom drama song. And a falsely accused song, of which there are a good few. Here is seemingly a desperate woman wanting to help her man. She wants to testify as he is facing murder and gun charges. But there is a sting in the tail… There is a longer mini-movie video too.
And go see Honey Cone on the Guru’s Pick list.
Marvin Gaye – You Can Leave, But It’s Going To Cost You (pejepeine)
You used to say that I was a gorgeous hunk of man
That didn't help me baby when you was on the stand.
A divorce song. A bitter divorce that ended in the courts. Went on for two years. Marvin had to pay Anna, and thought a quickie album would do it, but he got into ‘Here, My Dear’ and said he gave it his best as it became complex and so personal Anna contemplated a suit for invasion of privacy.
Furry Lewis – Judge Harsh Blues (TarquinSpodd, then severin)
Good morning, judge
What may be my fine?
$50 and 11/29.
A scale of justice tilted against minorities song. And an unfair charge one too. Poor black people in the late ‘20s in the south of the USA. What chance did they have? Maybe more than black people in Australia then, but not much. Even fictional songs ring true.
First up a misdemeanour - $50 fine and 11/29, evidently 11 months and 29 days in prison was the maximum sentence. Then it gets worse with unfair arrest for murder – in other versions he adds arrested for forgery when he can’t even write his name, but not here.
Furry recorded this at least three times under different names. Two independently nommed. I’m going with the ‘Judge Harsh Blues’ variant (Tarquin), rather than ‘Good Morning Judge’ (severin) as it is tighter and keeps more on topic. He doesn’t complain about his woman in this version, in fact she runs around trying to get enough money for bail.
AKA ‘Judge Boushay Blues’. There’s a great version as ‘Good Morning Judge’ on YT with his guitar nice and clear and a great live one too. Check ‘em all out.
The Cruel Sea – Better Get A Lawyer (ajostu)
Better get a lawyer, son
Better get a real good one.
An implied courtroom song. The advice from the cop is to get a lawyer, a suit, a tie and a haircut.
Crooked Still – Little Sadie (Loud Atlas)
The judge and the jury they took their stand
The judge had the papers in his right hand
Forty one days, forty one nights
Forty one years to wear the ball and stripes.
A guilty plea song. Sometimes the accused isn’t repentant – the killer goes home to sleep with the gun under the pillow. At least they pleaded guilty. A well-covered 20th American folk song about the murder of Little Sadie. A very crisp take.
Roky Erickson – Dear Judge (TarquinSpodd)
Please judge
Don't send or keep that boy away
In society I wish you'd let him stay
Please don't give him time
Please don't him confine.
A personal song. Rough, but Roky’s own battles with mental illness and incarceration make this one moving. Incarceration can be brutal on the vulnerable. Doesn’t stop them though.
June Tabor & Oysterband – Seven Curses (Suzi)
When the judge he saw Reilly’s daughter
His old eyes deepened in his head
Saying, “Gold will never free your father
The price, my dear, is you instead”.
A ‘judges can be corrupted’ song. And don’t trust them. This Dylan song is akin to the ‘Gallows Pole’ theme for a hangman, but here it is the judge. It’s not money he wants. The price is paid by Old Reilly’s daughter, but he hangs anyway. Resulting in seven curses on the judge.
Woody Guthrie - Two Good Men (Sacco And Vanzetti) (@tincanman2010)
Judge Thayer told his friends around
He would cut the radicals down
“Anarchist bastards" was the name
Judge Thayer called these two good men.
A rigged trial song. Immigrants can be denied justice too. Especially if political antagonists. The infamous trial and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in 1927. Uproar then. Whether they were in fact involved is another story but still a travesty of a trial. Woody had no doubt though.
Derrick Morgan – Tougher Than Tough (Rudie In Court) (George Boyland)
A courtroom bravado and a getting off song. There were a few rudies in court songs nommed. All great. But in the end, it’s Derrick’s 1967 rocksteady classic.
Charges? Gun shooting, ratchet using and bomb throwing. The bravado – rudies don’t fear no boys – works it seems. They walk.
Bunny Wailer – Battering Down Sentence (Uncleben)
Battering down sentence
Fighting against conviction.
A counterpoint to the rudie gangsters, but you can’t grow crops in the concrete jungle, so what chance is there but to break the law by thieving? He must stay free from the angry judge and jury without mercy so his kids can be fed.
Appealing A-List Playlist:
Wynonie Harris – Good Morning Judge (severin, then Jamesowen475 later)
Lead Belly – On A Monday (TarquinSpodd)
Blyth Power – Bind The King In Chains (ShivSidecar)
The Fall – Oswald Defense Lawyer (happyclapper)
O.V. Wright – Eight Men, Four Women (Fred Erickson)
Atoms For Peace – Judge, Jury And Executioner (swawilg)
Common – Testify (Uncleben)
Marvin Gaye – You Can Leave, But It’s Going To Cost You (pejepeine)
Furry Lewis – Judge Harsh Blues (TarquinSpodd, then /severin)
The Cruel Sea – Better Get A Lawyer (ajostu)
Crooked Still – Little Sadie (Loud Atlas)
Roky Erickson – Dear Judge (TarquinSpodd)
June Tabor & Oysterband – Seven Curses (Suzi)
Woody Guthrie - Two Good Men (Sacco And Vanzetti) (@tincanman2010)
Derrick Morgan – Tougher Than Tough (Rudie In Court) (George Boyland)
Bunny Wailer – Battering Down Sentence (Uncleben)
The Banged-Up B-List:
Pigmeat Markham – Here Comes The Judge (George Boyland)
Judge, You Honourship, hi, sir
Did I hear you say “order in the court”
“Yes, I said ‘order’”
I’ll take two cans of beer please.
One of two 1968 novelty takes along with Shorty Long. Funky and rappin’ on a bit of older material.
Judge Winchester (AKA Winston Blake) – Public Jestering (IsabelleForshaw)
The crime is public jestering. Sentence is 152 years. The accused is Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. Judge Winchester won’t tolerate the sort of public jestering seen in Judge Pigmeat’s court room. On the classic Skylarking riddim.
Peter Tosh – Here Comes The Judge (Song Bar Landlord)
Historical figures on trial. Peter elsewhere says this is not just about the ‘colonial judicial shitstem’ as he puts it, but about the higher judgement. Still, it’s set in a court room. One I thought beforehand I would A-list, but not to be.
The Last Poets – The Courtroom (Fred Erickson)
This is the brand of justice in the court
A special brand for poor folks they exploit.
The Last Poets were never going to give glowing praise for the court system and fail to do so to a cool, jazzed backing. Covers the lot here, with a focus on the downtrodden. Very close to the A.
Clarence Carter – The Court Room (Fred Erickson)
Perfect alibi? Being physically unable to commit the crime. The good Reverend Joe Henry got injured in the war so he couldn’t have partook of Ella Mae’s lovely body.
Talking Heads – Electric Guitar (ParaMhor)
Crime of love songs? A few of them, but this is a crime of music song. Rock‘n’ roll by ‘moralists’. Not ethics, they hate them. One interpretation anyway. (Add on: look up the Church Universal and Triumphant’s ‘Invocation For The Judgement And Destruction of Rock Music’ or as electrified by Mylo).
The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Lover’s Crime (Williamsbach)
The court in session
My heart is the one on trial.
Nice guitar from Stevie Ray’s big brother Jimmie, who with his mates is waiting for a verdict on her love. Problem is her lovers are on the jury and the D.A. is a heartbreaker.
Robin Trower – Prisoner Of Love (severin)
Nice guitar from Robin – for mine, one of the very best of the Hendrix acolytes and a fair way from Procul Harum days – with a ‘love is a sentence’ song. She is the judge and jury. He’s not complaining.
Cry Mercy, Judge – Tom Verlaine (ShivSidecar)
Nice guitar from Tom. Seems it might be based on experience. He is jaundiced with the judge and a jury ‘gone to seed’, but there seems to be a turning of tables in the lyrics.
Dead Can Dance – The Trial (vanwolf2)
Dark and mysterious, of course. They are accused of 1001 crimes.
Colin Newman – & Jury (Carpgate)
Another judge and jury outside the courtroom.
Billy Bragg – Rotting On Remand (Marconious7)
This isn’t a court of justice, son
This is a court of law.
Zedded, but worthy of the B in discussing the remand system. And he didn’t do it.
Jules Shear - The Judge and Margaret Brady (BanazirGalbasi)
Unlike a lot of judges in song, Old Judge Brady says he wants to be fair. And after 30 years he finally sentences his stern assistant of 30 years Margaret to life…with him.
The Felice Brothers – Diamond Bell (Seth Miller)
Like it, but the contract killing of the judge is only part of this story. Worrying, Seth says he has had the thought in courtrooms and I didn’t want to encourage him…
Bob Dylan – Percy’s Song (Shoegazer)
Ninety-nine years for manslaughter? That’s harsh.
Lila Downs – Justicia (Maki)
I look for you as a witness
It's a case without judge or scales.
Seems Lila is imaginatively describing injustices in the first half, then trying to find justice in the second half perhaps, speaking as if to justice. Justice and the law aren’t the same, but I like this one.
Gilbert Bécaud - Le Condamné (Quand Ils M'ont Jugé) [The condemned (When they judged me)] (swawilg)
Gentlemen of the jury
Don't judge me too much
Gentlemen of the jury
Put yourself in my shoes.
Gilbert is facing the guillotine. He makes his plea for mercy to the jury. They return with eyes down…Down with the death penalty!
John Reed – The Judge’s Song (Loud Atlas)
Gilbert? This is another one as in Gilbert & Sullivan. From ‘Trial By Jury’. A satire on a conniving judge.
Banged-Up B-List Playlist:
Pigmeat Markham – Here Comes The Judge (George Boyland)
Judge Winchester (AKA Winston Blake) – Public Jestering (IsabelleForshaw)
Peter Tosh – Here Comes The Judge (Song Bar Landlord)
The Last Poets – The Courtroom (Fred Erickson)
Clarence Carter – The Court Room (Fred Erickson)
Talking Heads – Electric Guitar (ParaMhor)
The Fabulous Thunderbirds – Lover’s Crime (Williamsbach)
Robin Trower – Prisoner Of Love (severin)
Tom Verlaine - Cry Mercy, Judge (ShivSidecar)
Dead Can Dance – The Trial (vanwolf2)
Colin Newman – & Jury (Carpgate)
Billy Bragg – Rotting On Remand (Marconius7)
Jules Shear - The Judge and Margaret Brady (BanazirGalbasi)
The Felice Brothers – Diamond Bell (Seth Miller)
Bob Dylan – Percy’s Song (Shoegazer)
Lila Downs – Justicia (Maki)
Gilbert Bécaud - Le Condamné (Quand ils m'ont jugé) [The Condemned (When They Judged Me)] (swawilg)
John Reed – The Judge’s Song (Loud Atlas)
Inadmissible Evidence Guru’s Picks:
Gary Shearston – Jim Jones At Botany Bay
Oh, listen for a moment, lads and hear me tell my tale
How over the sea from England's shore I was compelled to sail
The jury said he's guilty sir and sir that judge said he
“For life, Jim Jones, I'm sending you across the stormy sea”.
Being a white, mostly Anglo Australian and having the ‘convict stain’ from two convict ancestors, it seems right to include a transportation song that includes a bit of the trial. And some defiance which is certainly going to get Jim back before the law if he does kill the tyrants at Botany Bay and join the bushrangers.
Trivia: my earliest Australian ancestors arrived in 1794, six years after colonisation. In fact, they were nearly the first free settlers in the penal colony taking the effluent of the British Isles as it was put. The Admiralty in London had said yes, on the condition that John was not co-opted for a government job on arrival. He was, sent to the notorious Norfolk Island outpost as a convict overseer. Inglorious.
Sonny Boy Williamson II – Your Funeral And My Trial
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds nommed for ‘Your Funeral, My Trial’ but this is perhaps where they got the title. Murdering your partner, even if she is running that off the wall jive? You deserve to be convicted, Sonny Boy.
Eddie Cantor – Makin’ Whoopee
This song was nommed for a modern version by Seth Miller. I have taken the liberty of picking the original with a fab video featuring Eddie’s eye roll. Saucy it was for then too, all that makin’ whoopee, including when you shouldn’t. Gonna land you in the divorce court.
No justice in my doing that? Who said justice necessarily has anything to do with being a judge? Seth himself noted the same…
Sam Mangwana, Franco et Le T.P. OK Jazz – Procès
Seems there are court proceedings here by the title, but about what I don’t know. Or I could be wrong about the song. Just before Franco died in 1989.
Cornell Campbell – Gun Court Law
This gun court law
Is no camouflage
Don’t joke with Babylon.
The Gun Court was set up in Jamaica in 1974, as Babylon’s response to the gun violence of the time. Dispensing with juries and the like. Indefinite detention awaits as Cornell warns. He uses the setting up of the court for a plea to the bredren to simmer down.
Honey Cone – Innocent Til’ Proven Guilty
This one was nommed as sampled in ‘Testify’. Here is the original. Say what you like about Kanye West now (nothing good, I hope) back then he could get it right. Killer sample in ‘Testify’.
T-Connection – Do What You Wanna Do
Let nobody tell you what to do
You gotta be your judge and jury too.
A personal liberation song. But listening to advice is a good idea, isn’t it, chaps?
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations from last week's topic: Court in the act: songs about judges and trials. The next topic will launch on Thursday at 1pm UK time.
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