I'm a great lad for the topical songs.
I'd like to do a song that was topical about 12 years ago.
When papers had other things apart from Christine Keeler,
et cetera, to keep them, they had hanging gigs.
And a long tradition of hanging ended recently.
In fact, in the 17th and 18th century,
it was quite fashionable.
You know, you get aristocrats
insisting on Windsor knots.
Oh,
well,
you know,
sort of equivalent of Windsor knots.
And making a really big moody out of this.
They're pretty squalid scene altogether.
This is a song about,
well, you might have read in the papers
about Her Majesty the Queen graciously granting a pardon
to one Timothy Evans,
who must have been really chuffed
with the knickers, you know,
because they hung him 11 years ago.
And this is a song written at that time about him.
Tim Evans was a prisoner fast in his prison cell.
Those who read about his crimes damned his soul to hell.
Saying, go down,
you murderer, go down.
For the murder of his own true wife,
the killing of his own child.
The jury found him guilty.
The hanging judge, he smiled.
Saying, go down, you murderer, go down.
Now Evans pleaded innocent,
swore by him on high.
He never killed his own true wife,
caused his child to die.
Saying, go down,
you murderer, go down.
But they took him out at 9 o'clock to his final flowery dell.
And day and night, two screws were there.
They never left his cell.
Saying, go down,
you murderer, go down.
Tim Evans walked in the prison yard.
The screws, they walked behind.
He could see the sky above the wall,
but he knew no peace of mind.
Saying, go down, you murderer, go down.
The governor came in one day,
the chaplain by his side.
Said, your repeal has been turned down.
Prepare yourself to die.
Saying, go down,
you murderer, go down.
They came for him at 8 o'clock.
The chaplain read a prayer.
And then they took him to the place where the hangman did prepare.
Saying, go down, you murderer, go down.
They placed the noose around his neck,
the buckle behind his ear.
The prison bell was tolling.
Tim Evans could not hear.
Saying, go down,
you murderer, go down.
A thousand lads were cursing,
banging on their door.
Tim Evans could not hear them.
He was deaf forevermore.
Saying, go down,
you murderer,
go down.
They sent Tim Evans to the draw,
but a crime he did not do.
It was Christy was the murderer,
and the judge and the jury too.
Saying, go down,
you murderers, go down.
Go down,
you murderers, go down.