Protect the Innocent

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X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x


PROTECT(ING) THE INNOCENT. AKA and see "Shaving a Dead Man." The tune's original title, according to Oscar Wright, is "Shaving a Dead N....r." The 'sanitized' title "Protecting the Innocent", comes from a story told by West Virginia musician Claude Keaton. "Mr. Keaton was listening to the tune on a cassette recorder one day at work when a co-worker, who was black, asked him it’s name. Thinking of the TV program called 'Dragnet,' he said..." (Bill Hicks, 1972). Shaving a male corpse is often done as preparation for burial.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - Oscar Wright (Princeton, W.Va., region).

Printed sources : -

Recorded sources: -Rounder 0010, Fuzzy Mountain String Band (learned from Oscar Wright). Rounder 0089, Oscar & Eugene Wright - "Old Time Fiddle and Guitar Music from West Virginia" (learned from Ambrose Dunigan).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear the tune played on banjo on youtube.com [2][3]


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