From the town of lincoln nebraska with a sawed-off .410 on my lap
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path

I cant say that Im sorry for the things that we done
At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some fun

The jury brought in a guilty verdict and the judge he sentenced me to death
Midnight in a prison storeroom with leather straps across my chest

Sheriff when the man pulls that switch sir and snaps my poor neck back
You make sure my pretty baby is sittin right there on my lap

法官問犯人緣何殺人無數，他竟然回答道﹕「我想是天地不仁吧！」(I guess there's just a meanness in this world)。

Now ever since we was young kids its been the same come down
I get a call over the radio frankies in trouble downtown
Well if it was any other man, Id put him straight away
But when its your brother sometimes you look the other way

Yeah me and frankie laughin and drinkin
Nothin feels better than blood on blood
Takin turns dancin with maria as the band
Played night of the johnstown flood

I catch him when hes strayin like any brother would
Man turns his back on his family well he just aint no good

Well frankie went in the army back in 1965
I got a farm deferment, settled down, took maria for my wife
But them wheat prices kept on droppin till it was like we were gettin
Robbed
Frankie came home in `68, and me, I took this job

Yeah were laughin and drinkin
Nothin feels better than blood on blood
Takin turns dancin with maria as the band
Played night of the johnstown flood

I catch him when hes strayin teach him how to walk that line
Man turns his back on his family he aint no friend of mine

Well the night was like any other, I got a call `bout quarter to nine
There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the michigan line
There was a kid lyin on the floor lookin bad bleedin hard from his head
There was a girl cryn at a table and it was frank, they said

Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights
Well I musta done one hundred and ten through michigan county that night
It was out at the crossroads, down `round willow bank
Seen a buick with ohio plates. behind the wheel was frank

Well I chased him through them county roads
Till a sign said canadian border five miles from here
I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his tail-lights disappear

Now mary lou loved johnny with a love mean and true
She said baby Ill work for you every day and bring my money home to you
One day he up and left her and ever since that
She waits down at the end of that dirt road for young johnny to come back
Struck me kinda funny seemed kind of funny sir to me
How at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe

Take a baby to the river kyle william they called him
Wash the baby in the water take away little kyles sin
In a whitewash shotgun shack an old man passes away
Take his body to the graveyard and over him they pray
Lord wont you tell us tell us what does it mean
Still at the end of every hard earned day people find some reason to believe