three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare <-- NEW! IMPROVED! see bottom

Ian Tyson is a Canadian folksinger who used to be married to Sylvia Frickert, they were Ian and Sylvia. For their photo, I will see if I can scan my Complete Collection of Vinyl Ian and Sylvia 33 1/3 rpm Long-Playing Records. I hope HELLO my crappy free image software thinks they are raw sausages.

I used to haunt and stalk them (well mostly Sylvia) when they would play a folk music club on M Street in the Georgetown section of Washington DC. I was 14, and was hoping Sylvia would leave Ian and run off with me. If she had asked me for a little favor, if she had asked me if I would kill Ian for her, Ian would be dead now and Sylvia and I would be living happily ever after, and she would sing only just for me, 'cause I did her this favor.

It wouldn't have been easy. Previously Ian Tyson was a Canadian rodeo cowboy. They are very hard to kill. Bulls are constantly trying to gore and trample them to death. But even folksinging Canadian rodeo cowboys have to sleep sometime.

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http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiFOURRODE.html
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Four Rode By

by Ian Tyson

Willie Palmer's stallion was no twenty dollar cayuse
And when the wild ones stole him he hightailed it into town
Usher in those days was keeping order in the district
But before he'd ridden thirty miles
The McLean boys shot him down

chorus:
Four rode by
Rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare
They were armed
All were armed
It was them I'd have known them anywhere

A shepherd known as Kelly saw the wild ones as they passed
They shot him with a rifle and took his watch and chain
When the posse found him in the lonely cabin
A hunger took their pride away and no one else was slain *

They hung the boys in January eighteen eighty three
First time in that Province that they'd strung up brothers three
And their sons killed nineteen Germans 'cross the seas back in seventeen
One thing that's for damned sure: They're a wild old family

Four rode by
Rode through here
Three McLean boys and that wild Alex Hare
They were armed
All were armed
It was them I'd have known them anywhere


*been trying for 20 years to figure this line out, may have been hearing it wrong

This song is vintage Tyson, and the Instrumental bridge by Daddy Bones (John Herald)

* * * * * * *

From a Canadian website of an asshat who wants to bring capital punishment back to Canada:

The last two people to be executed in Canada were Arthur Lucas and Ron Turpin. They were executed on December 11, 1962. These executions in Canada were carried out by hanging.1 The death penalty was abolished in Canada in 1976 after a debate that lasted 98 hours. Capital punishment was only defeated by 6 votes.

A VLEEPTRON JR. GEEZER MOMENT: Oh Jeez, how could I forget this? Nearly all successful federal legislation has the backing and blessing, and often is the brainchild of the Prime Minister of Canada.

The death penalty was abolished in Canada during the first Prime Ministry of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Using my amazing mystical powers (which I learned during my four years in a Himalayan monastery) to read men's souls, I can see clearly now (the rain is gone) that the above Canadian asshat not only wants to bring the death penalty back to Canada, but also hates, loathes and despises Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Just a wild guess.

What Canadian Anglophone man wouldn't?

Trudeau was a brilliant, beloved, young political science professor who parlayed that (he came from C$C$C$) through the political system to become PM for sixteen/seize years. Maybe he wasn't handsome, but beautiful young brilliant (or just real smart) women were flinging themselves at his feet, and maybe Crusader knows and will Leave a Comment about How Long Has This Been Going On for Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who died a Very Very Senior Geezer, but not a cold, lonely and abandoned Geezer in 2000.

I cried when I saw a little news coverage of his funeral, when Mounties in the Red Serge carried his casket up Parliament Hill in Ottawa. And then a day or two later, after lying in state, he would go down the Hill again for the very last of thousands of times. Now he belongs to the Ages.

Why did I cry? Well, right here I am just realizing One More Reason why I cried. Canadians chose, while he was PM, to stop killing human beings in the name of HRH Elizabeth II, which is shorthand for saying "I am a Canadian, and I agree to snuff my sister or my brother, hang him or her, and that's okay."

But the Biggest Reason out of So Many that I cried is stated in This Song, "Tell Me Why You Liked Roosevelt," an African-American call-and-response spiritual, but appended with original verses by the Canadian folksinger with the Mississippi accent, Jesse Winchester. Please read the whole song, and if you know the tune, please sing the whole song.

That's why I liked Pierre Trudeau. Good God Almighty, he was the Poor Man's Friend.