MySongbook

Andrew McCrew

Who are you, who are you?
Where have you been, where are you going to?
Andrew McCrew must have lost his way
Though he died long ago he was buried today

• There was a mummy at the fair
  All crumpled in a folding chair
  People passed, but didn't care
  That the mummy was a man
  So tell me if you can

• Now down on Nightmare Alley, where the shady people sway
  A hobo came a-hiking on a sunny summer day
  He hopped a freight in Dallas, and he rode it out of sight
  But on a bend he slipped, and he lost his grip
  And he fell into the night

• Andrew had one leg of wood, the other leg, it was whole
  But when he fell from the train that night he found he had no legs at all
  They found him in a thicket, and the undertakers came
  And they mummified his body for the relatives to claim

• But no one came to claim him till a carnival passed through
  The carnies took him to their tent, they decided what to do
  They dressed him in a worn-out tux, put him on a stand
  And millions saw the legend of the famous mummy man

• What a way to live a life, what a way to die
  Left to live a living death but no one left to cry
  A petrified amazement, a wonder beyond worth
  A man who found more life in death that life gave him at birth

  So what about the folks who live and wish that they could go
  Whose lives are lost to living and performing for the show
  At least you got the best of life - till it got the best of you
  So from all of us to what's left of you
  Farewell, Andrew McCrew

  (as sung by Iain MacKintosh)
  

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

[1989:] He was a black man, a hobo, and had a wooden leg. He jumped on a train one night, fell off and his other leg was cut off. He bled to death and was found lying beside the railroad track in the morning. Then he was taken to the undertaker's in this small town. They didn't know what to do with this man, they didn't know who he was - all they found in his pocket was his name, Andrew McCrew. They said, "Well, we're not going to pay to bury this guy," and just wrapped his body up in bandages, turning him into a kind of mummy. His body lay in a corner of the funeral parlour for a long time until a carnival came through the town. They heard about this 'mummy', went along to have a look and took the body away with them. They dressed him up in a tuxedo with a bow-tie, and sat this mummy in a wheelchair. For thirty years people paid money to look at this dead man.

This happened in America - I think this could only happen in America.