Quicksilver Messenger Service Plays the Avalon Ballroom August 17 – 20, 1967 leads to “Duncan and Brady”
Back when I started this blog way back in 2010 my yearly wall calendar r was Rock Roots: Avalon Ballroom Posters 1966-1967. The calendar has twelve classic posters advertising concerts at the Avalon Ballroom during those years. For each month it also lists how was playing at the Ballroom on the various days of the month For me it was a great calendar and I still like looking at it, which is what I did yesterday (August 19) when we came home from vacation.
There was nothing listed on that day. However, I saw that on August 17 Quicksilver Messenger Service started a four-night stand at the ballroom. So that gig saw them playing August 17-20th. Anyway, I went to Spotify and found a couple of albums of live Quicksilver Shows on various days in 1967 so I gave some of the albums a listen. While audio on the albums was not great it was good to listen to some of the songs like “Pride of Man”, “Who Do You Love”and “Mona”.
“Duncan and Brady”
I was surprised by one of the tracks “Duncan and Brady”. I knew that many times rock groups of this era cover folk songs. Still to be sure it was the same song I went back and listened to Dave Van Ronk’s cover. Then I listened to Quicksilver again. Yep, It was the same song!
When I search for the song title at Spotify I discovered that the song has covered by many artists. The list of artists who have covered the song include: New Riders of the Purple Sage and Tom Rush. I also saw that the song was covered by Lead Belly. So finally I went to Wikipedia to find out more about the song.
“Duncan and Brady”, also known as “Been on the Job Too Long”, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”,[2] or simply “Brady”,[3] is a traditional murder ballad about the shooting of a policeman, Brady, by a bartender, Duncan. The song’s lyrics stemmed from actual events, involving the shooting of James Brady in the Charles Starkes Saloon in St. Louis, Missouri. Harry Duncan was convicted of the murder, and later executed.[4] Originally recorded by Wilmer Watts & his Lonely Eagles in 1929, it has been recorded numerous times, most famously by Lead Belly, also by Judy Henske, Dave Van Ronk, The Johnson Mountain Boys, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Bob Dylan Read More
Who knew? Better yet “who remembers?” So anyway here are eight covers of “Duncan And Brady” which one is your favorite?? My favorite is Tom Rush’s version. You can also check out Quicksilver Messenger Services’s Live at the Summer of Love here
