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The Ballad of the General and Ansel Young

from Moonlit Missive #69 by In Gowan Ring

Moonlit Missives exclusive

about

This story was related to me by two anonymous Hilt, California residents who were living here during the time of these events. To my memory this is the first proper Topical Ballad that I’ve made. Probably also the first song of mine which uses a certain explicative long considered impolite.

lyrics

If you think you’ll chance a trip, go all out to the Hilt
There’s a story you might hear around those yellow hills
Up north around the bend, just before the pass
Where there’s fragrance of pine and juniper and all that fancy grass
Fragrance of pine and juniper and all that fancy grass

There’s them that dream of gold and moonshine
and sly ways to make a buck
They’re still poaching water up the creek when it’s dry as fuck
Now that story as I was telling you about the General and Ansel Young
Up from San Luis Obispo Bay, as partners they’d come

Under what regiment or infantry he served, nobody could say
But you can bet those five gold stars the General
was used to havin’ his way
They’d come up north prospecting where the laws were lax and cheap
Procuring land quite reasonably with titles for the deed
Securing land quite reasonably with titles for the deed

But in these yellow hills of Hilt it’s the water that you need
It’s the water gives life and opportunity
And gives some men exceptionable greed
As for Ansel and the General, they fell out over water rights
A water feud ain’t nothin’ new, some people they’re just gonna fight

At County Hall the General laid his claim with cronies in the bar
But lines are only gonna bend so far in a court of law
And just next month was Ansel’s body found,
Orange jumpsuit, reflective bands
‘Neath the General’s old clunker, blown pipe bomb in his hand
Beneath the General’s worthless junker, a blown pipe bomb in his hand

Sure there were questions, an inquiry; the fuzz came asking ‘round
But that case was never settled, no conclusion ever found
Peculiar folk up in the hills, strange ways to settle a score
Now it wasn’t me you heard it from, but it had been done before
It wasn’t me you heard it from: it had been done before

So if you think you’ll chance a trip, go on up to the Hilt
There’s a story you might hear around those yellow hills
Up north around the bend, just before the pass
There’s fragrance of pine and juniper
And all that fancy grass
Fragrance of pine and juniper and all that fancy grass

credits

from Moonlit Missive #69, released July 27, 2021

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In Gowan Ring

The Symbolist Folk Music of In Gowan Ring channels stories of stones and angels through homemade instruments and human voice.

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