The Long Black Veil
by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin
"I got a kick with
Burl Ives song
— those old songs—but I didn't know any, and I had no
way to find any at the time, or was too lazy to look. So
I said, 'I'll write me a folk song'—an instant folksong,
if you will. So I worked on it for months and then it
all came to me. there's three incidents I've read about
in my life that really pleased me. There was a Catholic
priest killed in New Jersey many years ago under a town
hall light and there was no less than 50 witnesses. They
never found a motive. they never found the man. Until
this day, it's an unsolved murder. That always intrigued
me, so that's 'under the town hall light.' Then Randolph
Valentino story's always impressed me—about the woman
that always used to visit his grave. She always wore a
long black veil—now there's the title for the song. And
the third component was Red Foley's 'God Walks These
Hills With Me.' I always thought that was a great song,
so I got that in there too. I just scrambled it all up
and that's what came out."
—Danny Dill
The Long Black Veil
1959 by Cedarwood Publishing Company.
Ten years ago, on a cold, dark night
There was someone killed 'neath the Town hall light
There were few at the scene, but they all agreed
That the man who ran looked a lot like me.
She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave while the night winds wail
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me.
The judge said Son, what's your alibi
If you were somewhere else, then you won't have to die
I spoke not a word thought it meant my life
For I'd been in the arms of my best friend's wife.
The scaffold was high and eternity near
She stood in the crowd and shed not a tear
But sometime at night when the cold winds moan
In a long black veil she cries over my bones.
