DANGEROUS DAN MCGREW 
(Alex Kramer / Robert Whitney)

(inspired by "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" by Robert Service)

Kenny Gardner (with Guy Lombardo Orch.) - 1949 

Also recorded by:
Hank Snow

 

A bunch of the boys were whoopin’ it up
At the Malamute Café
And the ragtime kid at the music box
Was a jazzin' a tune that was gay
And back of the bar in a poker game
Sat a man that everyone knew
He was grim and cold, he was bad and bold
He was dangerous Dan McGrew

And while dangerous Dan was a-playin’ his hand
And keeping his mind on his game
You could see standing by with a gleam in her eye
And her hair just as red as a flame
A gal who was tall, with a face like a doll
And her fingernails painted blue
Oh, a gal who was tall, with a face like a doll
The lady that’s known as Lou

Then out of the night which was fifty below
And into the din and the glare
A man staggered in who was haggard and thin
And his face was filled with despair
Now he looked all around until he had found
The lady that’s known as Lou
And then the stranger turned
And his eyes they burned
On dangerous Dan McGrew

Then suddenly wham! All the lights went out
And a voice cried “Die, you must!”
And then a woman screamed and a shot rang out
And somebody bit the dust
And then the lights flashed on
And the north-west mounted police
Came a-crashin’ through
They drew their guns and they said
“Which one is dangerous Dan McGrew?”

And then somebody said “well hi there!”
And skipped across the floor
A-one, two, skip, hand on hip
Right out through the open door
Now was it the stranger a-takin’ his leave?
Or the lady that’s known as Lou?
It was nobody else in this whole wide world
But dangerous Dan McGrew