Old Judge Thayer - Woody Guthrie

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.»