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The Ballad of Joe Carter

from Me & Billy The Kid by Joe Solo

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Original version of a song which later became a mainstay of 'Music From Potter's Field'. This was the first of my war songs and I remain very fond of it. It's characters- Joe Carter, Big Jack O'Donnelly and Matthew Duffy- have gone on to become the central part of 'Stories From Potter's Field' by Andy Wilson and it's worth hearing this version again as it starts and ends slightly differently to the latter.

lyrics

My name is Joe Carter 6473
I'm all that's left now of my Pal's Company
The rest all went west in the last big advance
Their blood runs like rivers through trenches in France

To make it out here you need dry socks and luck
When most shells come over men don't even duck
You get tuned to the sound of 'em soon you can tell
The wild ones from them that'll blow you to hell

Now Big Jack O'Donnelly got me alone
He said: "Joe, the real fight begins if we get home.
All men are born equal, I'm sure you'll agree.
But Field Marshall Haig seems more equal than me".

So I sat there and thought of my life back in Hull
My brothers and sisters their bellies half full
My Da down the docks working 18 hour days
Blood, sweat and tears for that pittance of pay

Then Big Jack says: "Joe, on this next big attack
I've just got this feeling I ain't coming back
So remember this hard-bitten tale that I tell
Remember my words and remember 'em well

There's a fight in the factories and fields that I'll miss
And if they're so almighty Joe, answer me this
What problem has ever been solved by their wars?
And I won't kill my brother for another man's cause".

We lay there in wait for the barrage to stop
And when that whistle blew we went over the top
"I'll see you in Berlin" young Matt Duffy said
Just as he copped for one, straight through his head

Then Big Jack and me got caught in No Man's Land
When a big bloody shell blew my gun from my hand
I looked down at my legs, I saw gashes and cuts
But when I looked back for Jack there was just bone and guts

So I lay there all day in that mud, blood and slime
And I waited for dark then crawled back to the line
But it's "Where is your rifle son? What have we here?"
I was branded a traitor and sent to the rear

Where I've been court martialled and tied to a chair
I've been beaten and blindfolded there in the square
"Your last words you coward, you Commie, you queer"
But the ghost of Big Jack whispered right in my ear:

"There's a fight in the factories and fields that I'll miss
And if they're so almighty Joe, answer me this
What problem has ever been solved by their wars?
And I won't kill my brother for another man's cause".

There's a fight in the factories and fields that I'll miss
And if you're so almighty then answer me this
What problem has ever been solved by your wars?
And I won't kill my brother for another man's cause".


WORDS AND MUSIC
BY
JOE SOLO

credits

from Me & Billy The Kid, released January 3, 2008
Joe Solo

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Joe Solo Scarborough, UK

Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer from Scarborough.

Live he has an ever growing reputation as both a performer and raconteur, being thought-provoking, comical and punch-the-air political often in the same breath.

He is not an artist you forget in a hurry. ... more

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