From HISCAP@LUSTA.LATROBE.EDU.AU (PERRETT,Andrew) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1993 15:18:27 GMT X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS v1.25 (This is a copy, with very minor corrections, of this)
From the album Spike - Elvis Costello, 1989, Warner Bros 925 848-2. Song is ©Plangent Visions Music Inc ASCAP.
Here is a .WAV file (367 kb) of the first verse.
Em
Bentley said to Craig "Let him have it Chris"
C B7
They still don't know today just what he meant by this
Em
Craig fired the pistol, but was to young to swing
C B7
So the police took Bentley and the very next thing
Chorus:
Em C B7
Let him dangle, Let him dangle Do do do do do do do do do
Bently had surrended, he was under arrest
when he gave Chris Craig that fatal request
Craig shot Sidney Miles, he took Bentley's word
The prosecution claimed as they charged him with murder...
They said Derek Bentley was easily led
Well what's that to the woman that Sidney Miles wed
Though guilty was the verdict, and Craig had shot him dead
The gallows were for Bentley and still she never said...
Bridge
G D Am7
Well its hard to imagine it's the times that have changed
G D
When there's a murder in the kitchen that is brutal and strange
G D Am7
If killing anybody is a terrible crime
D
Why does this bloodthirsty chorus
B7 Em C B7
come round from time to time Let him dangle do do do do do do do do do
Not many people thought that Bentley would hang
But the word never came, the phone never rang
Outside Wandsworth prison there was horror and hate
As the hangman shook Bentley's hand to calculate his weight....
From a welfare state to society murder
"Bring back the noose" is always heard
Whenever thos swine are under attack
But it won't make you even
It won't bring him back
Let him dangle
Let him dangle (String him up)
Em C B7