One Man Band
Music and Vocals: J Gale Kilgore
Lyrics: G.M.Stevenson
Story behind the song
Executions without DNA testing
Lyrics
Johnny’s Bad Trip
Long low wail at the break of day
he heard the 5:15 as it tracked it’s way
heard the sputter of eggs in the frying pan
he’ll take a trip when he’s a man
he took that journey from then to now
and as he lay on his cot he heard the low
mournful sound of a 5:15---
he’s bound to take a trip again
Heard the soft low hush of his slippered feet
the measured tread of the guard’s retreat
the whisper of cloth on his young scared eyes
the soft metal click as they buckled his thighs
heard his mother’s low wail as he left again
heard the voltage shot in his sputtering brain......
“Goodbye Johnny dear, I love you son
now you take care and hurry home”
So the bell had tolled, the deed was done
that ended a life that had barely begun
he was laid to rest in a freezing rain
to the lonesome sound of a distant train
The man in charge was heard to say
“no innocent man’s been condemned to die"
but an evidence room proved the words a lie
the semen and blood, the DNA
wasn’t a match for the boy who lay
in a muddy field across the state
from the rich oil man who had sealed his fate....
“Goodbye Johnny dear, I love you son
now you take care and hurry home.”
he was laid to rest in a freezing rain
to the lonesome sound of a distant train.
Copyright © 2002 by G. M. Stevenson
