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Battle of Bunker Hill

from AMERICAN TALES by Johnny Bee

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    Johnny Bee, a New York-born singer/songwriter now living in London, takes a proud look at his American roots with these tales of swamp voodoo, punk New York, brave soldiers, barefoot summers, subway love, no-hope bars, shootin' Redcoats, families at war, a prayer for Dixie and the ever-hazardous pursuit of happiness. Genre: Americana/Alt Country/Blues

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about

Back when Britain was the big, bad superpower and the USA was still just an idea, two of my ancestors were at this battle. This is their story.
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lyrics

King George and his
army were tempting fate
They turned our home
into a police state
My dad and I left our
farm in the spring of ‘75,
We took our rifles to fight
the biggest force alive.

A couple months later
on a hill by Boston Bay,
digging trenches all night
with our pickaxes
and spades,
Their cannon
couldn’t reach us
Try though they might
So in the morning
They sent the army
to fight.

And it’s one, two,
three, four Redcoat
lines a-comin’,
five, six, seven
hundred more,
Boys, don’t shoot until
you see the whites
of their eyes,
It’s King George
we despise.

They came up that hill
in formation so neat,
sweatin’ in red wool
in that sweltering
June heat.
We waited ‘til
the last minute
to give them a blast
You never seen anyone
go down so fast.

And it’s one, two, three...

Oh, they kept on comin’,
and oh,
we shot them down
On the third charge
we realised to our shock
‒ we were out of powder
and shot.

When the sound of our
muskets began to fade,
They came into that
trench,
There was hell
to be paid
A Redcoat stuck
my father with his
bayonet blade
So I stove his head in
with my old
rusty spade.

And it’s one, two, three...

credits

from AMERICAN TALES, track released March 15, 2015
Vocals and guitar: Johnny Bee.Recorded by Sean Read at Famous Times Studio, Hackney, London. Photographs: Michael Donald. Design: Johnny Bee. Songs copyright 2015 John Rogers Belknap aka Johnny Bee, PRS, PPL, all rights reserved.

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Johnny Bee London, UK

Johnny Bee is a newspaperman and songwriter. His New York band played at CBGBs in the 1970s, supporting the Ramones, Blondie, and Talking Heads while he worked for the Village Voice. He moved to London, worked on Fleet St, and played with psychobilly band the Highliners at Glastonbury and Endorse-It-In-Dorset. He later formed Johnny and the Bees (also on Bandcamp). This is his first solo album. ... more

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