OFF-TOPIC (take a break from coins): Bonnie & Clyde
dorkkarl
Posts: 12,691 ✭✭✭
one of my favorite stories of all time is the legend of "bonnie and clyde" (great movie, too). for those of you needing a break from coins, here it is, as told by bonnie herself. i can't put my finger on it, but i think the story has a connection to coins somehow, some way. i think it might have something to do w/ the psychology of coin collectors that numismatics is a way to re-live history in a vicarious sort of way. it'd be fascinating to be able to go back in history and see these events, would'nt it? wish i could find something similar regarding "the outlaw jesse james". i pulled this poem off the net years ago, sorry i can't cite the source.
any-who, enjoy!
The Story of Bonnie and Clyde
- Bonnie Parker (her punctuation)
You’ve read the story of Jesse James
Of how he lived and died
If you’re still in need for something to read
Here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang,
I’m sure you all have read
how they rob and steal
And those who squeal are usually found dying or dead.
There’s lots of untruths to those write-ups
They’re not so ruthless as that
Their nature is raw, they hate all law
Stool pigeons, spotters, and rats.
They call them cold-blooded killers
They say they are heartless and mean
But I say this with pride, I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.
But the laws fooled around and taking him down
and locking him up in a cell
‘Till he said to me, "I’ll never be free
So I’ll meet a few of them in hell."
The road was so dimly lighted
There were no highway signs to guide
But they made up their minds if all roads were blind
They wouldn’t give up ‘till they died.
The road gets dimmer and dimmer
Sometimes you can hardly see
But it’s fight man to man, and do all you can
For they know they can never be free.
From heartbreak some people have suffered
From weariness some people have died
But all in all, our troubles are small
‘Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.
If a policeman is killed in Dallas
And they have no clue or guide
If they can’t find a friend, just wipe the slate clean
And hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.
There’s two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow Mob
They had no hand in the kidnap demand
Nor the Kansas City Depot job.
A newsboy once said to his buddy
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped
In these hard times we’s get a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped."
"The police haven’t got the report yet
But Clyde called me up today
He said, "Don’t start any fights, we aren’t
working nights, we’re joining the NRA."
From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide
Where the women are kin and men are men
And they won’t stool on Bonnie and Clyde.
If they try to act like citizens
And rent a nice little flat
About the third night they’re invited to fight
By a sub-gun’s rat-tat-tat.
They don’t think they’re tough or desperate
They know the law always wins
They’ve been shot at before, but they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.
Someday they’ll go down together
And they’ll bury them side by side
To few it’ll be grief, to the law a relief
But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.
any-who, enjoy!
The Story of Bonnie and Clyde
- Bonnie Parker (her punctuation)
You’ve read the story of Jesse James
Of how he lived and died
If you’re still in need for something to read
Here’s the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang,
I’m sure you all have read
how they rob and steal
And those who squeal are usually found dying or dead.
There’s lots of untruths to those write-ups
They’re not so ruthless as that
Their nature is raw, they hate all law
Stool pigeons, spotters, and rats.
They call them cold-blooded killers
They say they are heartless and mean
But I say this with pride, I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.
But the laws fooled around and taking him down
and locking him up in a cell
‘Till he said to me, "I’ll never be free
So I’ll meet a few of them in hell."
The road was so dimly lighted
There were no highway signs to guide
But they made up their minds if all roads were blind
They wouldn’t give up ‘till they died.
The road gets dimmer and dimmer
Sometimes you can hardly see
But it’s fight man to man, and do all you can
For they know they can never be free.
From heartbreak some people have suffered
From weariness some people have died
But all in all, our troubles are small
‘Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.
If a policeman is killed in Dallas
And they have no clue or guide
If they can’t find a friend, just wipe the slate clean
And hang it on Bonnie and Clyde.
There’s two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow Mob
They had no hand in the kidnap demand
Nor the Kansas City Depot job.
A newsboy once said to his buddy
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped
In these hard times we’s get a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped."
"The police haven’t got the report yet
But Clyde called me up today
He said, "Don’t start any fights, we aren’t
working nights, we’re joining the NRA."
From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide
Where the women are kin and men are men
And they won’t stool on Bonnie and Clyde.
If they try to act like citizens
And rent a nice little flat
About the third night they’re invited to fight
By a sub-gun’s rat-tat-tat.
They don’t think they’re tough or desperate
They know the law always wins
They’ve been shot at before, but they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.
Someday they’ll go down together
And they’ll bury them side by side
To few it’ll be grief, to the law a relief
But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.
0
Comments
As michael would say "yes!yes!yes!"
Bonnie wrote a hell of a piece of poetry there. I used to have a collection of American folk music that had a version of it put to music. It was by a singer named Hermes Nye, and he kind of edited the poem down and put it to music. Very, very cool, and an important musical memory from my childhood.
And yes, the movie is great. I think I was about 12 when I saw it. The final scene where they get shot to pieces stunned me back then. It was very controversial. VHI has been showing The Godfather all week long. I'd have to say the scene where Sonny gets machine-gunned at the toll-booth, and the ending of Bonnie and Clyde, were two of the most jaw-dropping moments in cinema for me.
Here's one for you by one of our best, Woody Guthrie:
Jesse James and his boys rode that Dodge City Trail,
Held up the midnight Southern mail,
And there never was a man with the law in his hand
That could keep Jesse James in a jail.
It was Frank and Jesse James that killed many a man,
But they never was outlaws at heart;
I wrote this song to tell you how it come
That Frank and Jesse James got their start.
They was living on a farm in the old Missouri hills,
With a silver-haired mother and a home;
Now the railroad bullies come to chase them off their land,
But they found that Frank and Jesse wouldn't run.
Then a railroad scab, he went and got a bomb,
And he throwed it at the door --
And it killed Mrs. James a-sleeping in her bed,
So Jesse grabbed a big forty-four.
Yes, Frank and Jesse James was men that was game
To stop that high-rolling train --
And to shoot down the rat that killed Mrs. James,
They was Two-Gun Frank and Jesse James.
Now a b------- and coward called little Robert Ford,
He claimed he was Frank and Jesse's friend,
Made love to Jesse's wife and he took Jesse's life,
And he laid poor Jesse in his grave.
The people were surprised when Jesse lost his life,
Wondered how he ever came to fall,
Robert Ford, it's a fact, shot Jesse in the back,
While Jesse hung a picture on the wall.
They dug Jesse's grave and a stone they raised,
It says, "Jesse James lies here --
Was killed by a man, a b----- and a coward,
Whose name ain't worthy to appear."
Karl,
This kind of stuff really interests me as well, especially American frontier history and the legendary gunslingers of the old west. I saw the Bonnie and Clyde "death-car" on display at Whiskey Pete's casino at the Cal- Nevada state-line, they definitely were ambushed alright. On the subject of movies, I'm sure you've seen The Long Riders, an account of the James-Younger gang, there's also American Outlaws, a little more liberal with the facts but quite entertaining. Are you familiar with the Ballad of Jesse James? Link will take you to a site with the lyrics. If only coins could talk!
Joe
Ballad
agree about the bonnie & clyde movie. i was just a pre-teen myself when it came out, & it was SHOCKING.
great memories, dudes, thanks. besides al capone & robin hood, who are some of the other infamous outlaws that made their own legends?
K S
great memories, dudes, thanks. besides al capone & robin hood, who are some of the other infamous outlaws that made their own legends?
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Billy the kid, Black Bart. The History channel is loaded with all kinds of interesting documentaries of the old west and their characters (I probably watch the history channel more then all the other channels on tv)
K S
Yeah...Iambic pentameter...common