Gertrude McAlister

6 weeks ago by @danielkelly

Liner Notes

A song for a girl murdered in the nearby town of Wee Jasper back 1914.

Lyrics

Am G C Am
Young Gertrude McAlister, a girl of 22,
Am G Am G Am
With years of life before her, so much left to do,
Am G Am G
Started working as a servant, out on the old Wee Jasper run,
Am C G Am
But Alexander McBean, he had a wayward son.

C G
Though you escaped the hangman’s rope,
Am G
By choosing your own gun,
G Am
There isn’t blood in all the land,
C G Am
To pay for what you’ve done.

Norman he was 35, 13 years older than her,
He forced himself upon the girl, violence, lust and fear,
I doubt he even listened to her lonely broken cries,
The arrogance of privilege, she was chattel in his eyes.

When Gertrude told him of the consequences of his deed,
In frightened shameful panic, Norman hatched a vile seed,
The girl would have to disappear, or risk the family name,
So he shot her in the kitchen, faked a note to hide the blame,

Then Norman asked the coppers, how the hanging it would go,
If they should catch the murderer, what would the inquest show,
When his fate became apparent, he took the cowards path,
And shot himself between the eyes, a week after Gert had breathed her last.

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