“Duncan and Brady” is a traditional murder ballad rooted in a real killing. On October 6, 1890, police officers entered the Charles Starkes Saloon in St. Louis to break up a fight; in the confrontation that followed, officer James Brady was shot dead. The bartender, Harry Duncan, was convicted of the murder and later executed, though the case drew lasting questions about the fairness of the trial.
Local musicians were singing about the shooting within weeks, and the song spread through African American and white folk communities alike. As it traveled it mutated: Duncan’s occupation drifted from bartender to gambler to grocer to lineman, and the ballad picked up alternate titles, among them “Been on the Job Too Long” and simply “Brady.”
The song first reached records in 1929 with a version by Wilmer Watts and his Lonely Eagles, and it became widely known through Lead Belly’s recordings. It has since been sung across folk, rock, and bluegrass — by Dave Van Ronk, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Bob Dylan, among many others.
