Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail

[Intro]
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[Verse 1]
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Well it was way high up in The Sierry Petes
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Where the yellow-jack pines grow tall
 
Rusty Diggs and Sandy Sam
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Had a round-up camp last fall
 
[Verse 2]
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They had their ponies and their running irons
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and maybe a dog or two
 
They 'lowed they'd brand every lop-eared calf
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That came within their view

 
 
[Verse 3]
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Well many a lop-eared dogie
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If he didn't hush up by day
 
Had his long ears whittled and his old hide scorched
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In a most artistic way
 
[Verse 4]
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Then say Rusty Digs to Sandy Sam
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As he throwed his seago down
 
"I'm tired of cowboyography
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And I figures I'll go to town."
 
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[Verse 6]
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They starts her in a Kentucky Bar
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At the head of Whiskey Row
 
And they ends her up at the Depot House
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Some forty drinks below
 
[Verse 7]
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Then he wind'er up and they turns her 'round
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And goes the other way
 
Tell you the Lord-forsaken truth
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Them boys got drunk that day
 
[Verse 8]
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Well they was a -headin' back to camp
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And packin' a mighty good load
 
Well who should they meet but the Devil himself
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Come a-prancin' down the road
 
[Verse 9]
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Now the Devil he said you cowboy skunks
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You'd better go hunt your hole
 
'Cause I come up from the Hells rim rock
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To gather in your souls
 
[Verse 10]
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Says Rusty Jiggs to the Devil
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Though I know We're' tight
 
No Devil ever took no cowpunch
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Without one kind of a fight."
 
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[Verse 11]
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So Rusty Jiggs punched a hole in his rope
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He swang it straight and true
 
He lapped it onto the Devils horns
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And he take his dollers too
 
[Verse 12]
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Now Sandy Sam was a reita man
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With his gut-line coiled up neat
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So he shakes her out and he builds him a loop
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And he laps the Devils hind feet
 
[Verse 13]
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Well they stretched ´im out, the tailed ´im down
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While the irons was a gettin' hot
 
They cropped and swallow-forked his ears
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And they branded him up a lot
 
[Verse 14]
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Well they pruned him up with a dehornin' saw
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Tied knots in his tail for a joke
 
Then they rode off and left him there
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Necked up to a black Jack oak
 
[Verse 15]
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So if you're up in the Sierry Petes
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And you hear one helluva wail
 
Know its that Devil a-bellowin around
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about them knots in his tail
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