WILD BILL HICKOK
“Wild Bill” Hickok (born James Butler Hickok; May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876) was a folk character of the American Old West. He told many outlandish tales about his life and was regarded as a liar by many of his contemporaries. Some contemporary reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious but along with his own stories are the basis for much of his fame and reputation. James Butler Hickok worked as a stagecoach driver and later as a lawman, in the frontier territories of Kansas and Nebraska. He fought (and spied) for the Union Army, during the American Civil War and gained publicity after the war as a scout, marksman, actor and professional gambler. He was involved in several notable shootouts. In 1876, Hickok was shot from behind and killed while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory (now South Dakota), by an unsuccessful gambler, Jack McCall. The hand of cards which he supposedly held at the time of his death (black aces and eights) has become known as the dead man’s hand. (More from Wikipedia)
Cris Williamson grew up in Deadwood, South Dakota as the daughter of a forest ranger; their home had no electricity, so her phonograph was of the wind-up variety. The Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon in Deadwood is the place where Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down during a poker game; the cards he was holding – a pair of aces and a pair of eights – became known as the “dead man’s hand” thereafter, particularly (as in this case) when the cards are all in the black suits. My father and I each had a shot at the saloon many years ago while much of our family was on a Western tour.
(January 2014)
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Some of the very early pressings of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan that are now extremely rare included four sterling Bob Dylan songs that were later left off the album: “Rocks and Gravels”, “Let Me Die in My Footsteps”, “Gambling Willie’s Dead Man’s Hand” and “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues”. Two of these four songs, under the names “Ride Willie Ride” and “John Birch Society Blues” are included on John Birch Society Blues. The latter song is an hilarious but quite harsh take on the anti-communist group called the John Birch Society that has nice things to say about Adolf Hitler and neo-Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell. One verse goes: “Well, I investigated all the books in the library / Ninety percent of them have gotta be thrown away / I investigated all the people that I knowed / Ninety-eight percent of them have gotta go / The other two percent are fellow Birchers / Just like me.”
“Ride Willie Ride” is an entertaining if outlandish tale of the adventures of a superman gambler who is eventually shot dead while holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights – the “dead man’s hand” made famous when Wild Bill Hickok was killed while holding those cards.
(September 2017)
