Grassy Knoll Blues

On the Harry Smith collection is the song "Charles Giteau," about the assassin of James A. Garfield in 1881.  Both Garfield and Kennedy were war heros who became president and were murdered before the public really got to know them.  The murder of JFK, however, was the epicenter of an historical moment, when all that came before it was cast in a certain light, and all that came after, cast in another. 

Grassy Knoll Blues

Lowdown, lowdown, lowdown,
Down as low as low can be.
Lowdown, lowdown, lowdown,
Just as low as low can be.
Just a low down dirty killer,
That's what I was trained to be.

Day I get a phone call,
Day I never will forget.
Phone call in a phonebooth,
God, I never will forget.
Who you got me doin' this time?
Says, "You do the president.

You never heard this from me,
Go up on the grassy knoll.
You never heard it from me,
Be on that grassy knoll.
Get behind the picket fence,
pull the trigger nice and slow."  

Now I'm deep in the dungeon,
Down in dyin's darkest hole.
Deep in the dungeon,
Down in dyin's darkest hole.
Ain't nobody down here's real,
Nothin'  left that's got a soul.

Copyright © 2010, 2014 by David Larstein, all rights reserved.

« Back