Cynthia Ann (words and music by Gordon McLeod )
Oh Cynthia Ann, You’ve been stolen twice again
From your Mama’s hands and from Quanah’s lands Now you can’t go home again
Parker County Edge of the Range, your happy childhood up in flames
Restless ponies, desperate braves, kill what they can’t carry
To Palo Duro they took you home, they fed you well, put meat on bone
You learned to love strong as stone, Nocona you did marry
Sul Ross and Charlie Goodnight ride, along the cold Pease riverside,
Stole you from Nocona’s side, from Quanah and from Pecos
Oh Cynthia Ann, you’ve been stolen twice again
From your Mama’s hands and Nocona’s lands now you can’t go home again
Comanche moon on a summer night, Quanah’s set to ride all night
Mama’s gone, gotta set things right but there’s no right way to set them
The Llano’s wide and deep and strange, buffalo gone, time has changed
But it won’t go backward, that’s the game, you can lose more than you bet them
Oh Cynthia Ann, you’ve been stolen twice again
From your Mama ’s hands and your husband’s lands now you can’t go home again
Prairie Flower, gone too soon, Agonizing afternoon’s
You sit in grief in your Uncle’s room and wish for time’s reversal
In spite of all of our affections, time only moves in one direction,
Be it choice or predilection, this is real life, not rehearsal
The Taibo never fail to fail to see that good intentions
Don’t justify a cruel lie, and your freedom’s just detention
Oh Cynthia Ann, You’ve been stolen twice again
From your Mama’s hands, and from Quanah’s lands
Now you can’t go home again
Cynthia Ann Parker (also known by her Comanche name, Nadua meaning "someone found") was abducted by a group of Comanche and Kiowa in 1836 when she was 9 or 10 years old. The raiding party came to the Parker family compound near Mexia Texas and sacked the fort, killing several family members and kidnapping Cynthia Ann and five other members of the compound.
Cynthia Ann was taken into the Comanche band of one of the raiding party and was integrated into their life and culture. She completely forgot the way of life that she had been born into and adopted the Comanche customs and language. She was quite happy with her new life by all accounts and lived as a Comanche for approximately 24 years. She married a respected Comanche war chief, Peta Nacona, and they had three children, two sons, Quanah (who later became a famed warrior himself) and Pecos, and a daughter, Topsannah (Prairie Flower). On at least one occasion Nadua (Cynthia Ann) was approached by whites which she encountered during a trading visit to a Texas frontier town, and asked if she would like to return to white society. She adamantly refused stating that she was very happy in her Comanche life.
In 1860 a group of Texas Rangers led by Sul Ross and including Charlie Goodnight, attacked Cynthia Ann's Comanche camp on the banks of the Pease River, killing many of the men and others and, recognizing Nadua as a white woman, took her and her infant daughter back to North Texas. Cynthia Ann's uncle, Colonel Isaac Parker , took her to his home near Birdville, Texas. She was taken on a tour of some of the larger cities in Texas including Austin and was presented as a living curiosity, the white woman who had become a savage. She later went to live with her brother, Silas Parker Jr. in Van Zandt County, Texas.
Cynthia never adjusted to her new life and was very unhappy in white society. She never ceased attempting to return to the Comanche and she worried incessantly over her two sons, whose fate she had no way of ascertaining. After four years , her daughter Topsannah, died of influenza which plunged Cynthia Ann deeper into despair. She died in 1870 after a long period of grief.
Cynthia Ann's story is undoubtedly one of the saddest of the American frontier. Numerous other stories of Comanche and Kiowa captives have been recorded and nearly all of the captives preferred their native life to their original lives in the white world.
I wrote this song after reading the book "Empire Of The Summer Moon" by S.C Gwynne. This fine book has a wealth of information on the Comanche, Quannah Parker, Cynthia Ann Parker and many other important people in the history of the southern plains.
Pannonica Butterfly –words and music by Gordon McLeod © 2019
You stopped at the corner for the flashing red lights
Monk was riding shotgun, must have been round midnight
Searching in the weeds, they hit y'all with a slap
You wouldn't let them take him, you had to take the rap.
Pannonica butterfly, in a gilded cage
A prison of privilege , the end of an age
Bebop princess, patron of the bards,
Love dont need no cabaret card
Back in Manhattan, You took your stand,
Traded in your butterfly for a piece of Mr. Parker's band,
Your caged bird vanished with a thundering blast
They took his number, took it so fast.
Pannonica butterfly, in a gilded cage
A prison of privilege , the end of an age
Bebop princess, patron of the bards,
Love dont need no cabaret card
He said Nica you must feel so alone
tried to warn you , you cant get blood out of a stone
A technicality they turned you loose,
You don’t need a search warrant when you got a noose.
Bebop princess, your golden heart still beats
From that funky little corner down on 52 nd Street
Notes:
"Pannonica Butterfly" tells the story of The Baronness Kathleen Pannonica Koenigswarter (nee Rothschild), heiress to the Rothschilds and wife of Baron Koenigswarter, who left her life of privilege to be a patron to the jazz greats of New York City in the bebop era. Her beneficiaries included such greats as Charlie Parker (who died in her Manhattan apartment). Her most well known beneficiary, however, was Thelonious Monk, whom she supported for years, even taking a marijuana possession rap for him so he would not lose his cabaret card and thus his ability to perform in New York City. This track is a fine example of Gordon's writing, arranging and recording talents and features Gordon playing all instruments.
Catalpa Rescue—Song lyrics and notes
Catalpa Rescue is a song performed by McLeod Nine and written by Gordon McLeod about the true story of a daring rescue of six Fenian prisoners from Fremantle Prison in west Australia in 1876. Years earlier in 1869 the seven Irish rebels were imprisoned in Fremantle along with 55 other “Fenian” prisoners of the British who had been convicted of treason and rebellion. In 1869 John O'Reilly escaped aboard an American whaleship, The Gazelle, with the help of the prison's priest. He sailed to Boston and became a successful newspaper editor. But the fate of his fellow Fenian brothers haunted him, so he and fellow Fenian, John Devoy organized the purchase of another Yankee whaleship, The Catalpa, and organized the rescue of six of their remaining comrades from Fremantle. Here are the lyrics to the song:
Catalpa Rescue Words and music by Gordon McLeod , August, 2018
We were transported, we sixty two
Our crime rebellion, our hopes were few
I was a soldier, O’Reilly was my name
Locked up in Fremantle prison, 10,000 miles from home.
I yearned for freedom more than I feared the rope
I worked outside the walls, so had cause for hope
I swam and boarded the whaling ship Gazelle
Those Yankee whalers saved me form Fremantl’es hell
Chorus:
Catalpa Rescue from New Bedford we set sail
To free our brothers from Fremantle jail
We are all soldiers of the fearless Clan na Gael
We dare not falter, tyranny shall not prevail
I sailed to Boston, was free it seemed
But visions of my brothers in chains haunted my dreams
I met John DeVoy, a Fenian like me
We vowed we sail to Australia and set our brothers free
On Good Ship Catalpa we sailed halfway round the world
With bloody hands we rowed and dodged the cannonballs they hurled
Six Fenian captives worked outside Fremantle’s walls
We rescued them in our whaleboat rowing in the squall
Chorus:Catalpa Rescue from New Bedford we set sail
To free our brothers from Fremantle jail
We are all soldiers of the fearless Clan na Gael
We dare not falter, tyranny shall not prevail
Though pursued by Brittania on the waves
Our lust for justice gave us strength to cheat the grave
We beat the Royal Navy at her game
And slipped away across the Australian main
Chorus: Catalpa Rescue from New Bedford we set sail
To free our brothers from Fremantle jail
We are all soldiers of the fearless Clan na Gael
We dare not falter, tyranny shall not prevail