Tie A Knot In The Devil's Tail-Chris Ledoux

Way up high in the Sierra peaks where the yellow jack pines grow tall, Old Sandy Bob and Buster Jiggs had a roundup camp last fall, Oh, they'd taken the horses and the runnin' irons and may be a dog or two, And they swore they'd brand all long ear calves that came within their view, And any old doggie that flapped long ears and didn't brush up by day, Got his long ears whittled and his old hid scorched in a most artistic way, Now one fine day old Sandy Bob he throwed his easy go down, Well I'm sick of the smell of this here burnin' hair and allows I'm a goin' to town, [ harmonica ], So they saddles up and they hits 'em a lope for it weren't no sign of a ride, And them was the days when a buckaroo could oil up his insides, Oh they starts her off at Kentucky Bar at the head of a whiskey row, And they winds up down at the depot house some forty drinks below, And then sets up and turns around and goes her the other way, And to tell you the god forsaken truth them boys got stewed that day, As they was a ridin' back to camp a packin' a pretty good load, Well who should they meet but the devil himself a prancin' down the road, [ guitar ], Say he you ornery cowboy skunks you better hunt your holes, For I've come up from hells Rim Rock to gather in your souls, Says Sandy Bob old devil be damned we boys is kinda tight, And ya ain't gonna get no cowboy souls without one hell of a fight, So Snady Bob punched a hole in his rope and he swang her straight and true, And he lapped it onto the devils' horns and he taken his dallies too, Now Buster Jiggs was a reita man with his gut line coiled up neat, So he shakes her out and he built him a loop and he lassoed up the devil's hind feet, [ harmonica ], Well they stretched him out and they tailed him down while the iron was gettin' hot, And they cropped and swallow forked both his ears and they branded him up a lot, They pruned him up whit a dehorning saw and they knotted his tail for a joke, And then rode off and left him there neck to a blackjack oak, So if your ever up high in the Sierra peaks and you hear one hell of a wail, You'll know it's that devil a bellerin' about them knots tied in his tail