Mason Proffit: Two Hangmen

Brothers John Michael & Terry Talbot played together in several local bands around Chicago and Indianapolis. In 1969 they formed a group called Mason Proffit with its focus being based on the emerging blend of bluegrass, country, folk and rock that would later come to be called either country rock or southern rock. Older brother Terry’s composition (“Two Hangmen”) from their first album (“Wanted…Mason Proffit”) became a regional hit across the midwest and is a classic rock radio staple today (initially, due to its politically charged lyrics, it was banned by the FCC).

Some of Mason Proffit’s opening acts during that time later went on to write and sell multi-platinum singles and albums, including the likes of Mac Davis, John Denver, Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, and they also opened for acts as diverse as the Byrds, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd and Poco.

TWO HANGMEN

As I rode into Tombstone on my horse whose name was Mac
I saw what I’ll relate to you goin’ on behind my back
It seems the folks were up in arms, a man now had to die
For believin’ things that didn’t fit, the laws they’d set aside

The man’s name was “I’m A Freak”, the best that I could see
He was an executioner, a hangman just like me
I guess that he’d seen loopholes from workin’ with his rope
He’d hung the wrong man many times so now he turned to hope

He talked to all the people from his scaffold in the square
He told them of the things he found but they didn’t seem to care
He said the laws were obsolete, a change they should demand
But the people only walked away, he couldn’t understand

The Marshall’s name was Uncle Sam, he said he’d right this wrong
He’d make the hangman shut his mouth if it took him all year long
He finally arrested Freak and then he sent for me
To hang a fellow hangman from a fellow hangman’s tree

It didn’t take them long to try him in their court of law
He was guilty then of thinking, a crime much worse than all
They sentenced him to die so his seed of thought can’t spread
And infect the little children, that’s what the law had said

So the hangin’ day came ’round and he walked up to the noose
I pulled the lever but before he fell I cut him loose
They called it all conspiracy and that I had to die
So to close our mouths and kill our minds they hung us side by side

And now we’re two hangmen hangin’ from a tree
That don’t bother me at all

Two hangmen hangin’ from a tree
And that don’t bother me at all