{"id":22794,"date":"2025-05-25T22:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T22:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/?p=22794"},"modified":"2026-04-16T19:44:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T19:44:31","slug":"coward-of-the-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/coward-of-the-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Coward of the County"},"content":{"rendered":"
{artist:Kenny Rogers}\r\n{key:D}\r\n Kenny Rogers: \r\n\r\n[C] Ev'ryone considered him the [F] coward of the [C] county,\r\nhe'd never stood one single time to prove the county [G] wrong.\r\nHis [C] mama named him Tommy, the [F] folks just called him \u201c[C] Yellow\u201d,  but something always told me they were [G] reading Tommy [C] wrong.\r\n\r\n[C] He was only ten years old when his [F] daddy died in [C] prison,\r\nI looked after Tommy 'cause he was my brother's [G] son.\r\nI [C] still recall the final words my [F] brother said to [C] Tommy:\r\n\"Son, my life is over, but [G] your's has just be[C]gun.\r\n\r\n[C] \"Promise me, son, not to [F] do the things I've [C] done,\r\n[F] walk away from [C] trouble if you [G] can.\r\n[C] It won't mean you're weak if you [F] turn the other [C] cheek,\r\nI hope you're old e[F]nough to under[G]stand :\r\nSon, you don't have to [G7] fight to be a [C] man.\"\r\n\r\nMODULATE\r\n\r\n[D] There's someone for ev'ryone and [G] Tommy's love was [D] Becky,\r\nin her arms he didn't have to prove he was a [A] man.\r\nOne [D] day while he was workin' the [G] Gatlin boys came [D] callin',\r\nthey took turns at Becky, [A] there was three of [D] them!\r\n\r\n[D] Tommy opened up the door and [G] saw his Becky [D] cryin',\r\nthe torn dress, the shattered look was more than he could [A] stand.\r\nHe [D] reached above the fireplace and took [G] down his daddy's [D] picture, as his tears fell on his daddy's face, he [A] heard these words a-[D]gain :\r\n\r\n[D] \"Promise me, son, not to [G] do the things I've [D] done,\r\n[G] walk away from [D] trouble if you [A] can.\r\n[D] It won't mean you're weak if you [G] turn the other [D] cheek,\r\nI hope you're old e[G]nough to under[A]stand :\r\nSon, you don't have to [A7] fight to be a [D] man.\"\r\n\r\nMODULATE\r\n\r\nThe [E] Gatlin boys just laughed at him when he [A] walked into the [E] barroom, one of them got up and met him halfway 'cross the [B7] floor.\r\nWhen [E] Tommy turned around they said, \"Hey [A] look! Ol' Yellow's [E] leavin'.\" [NC] But you coulda heard a pin drop, when Tommy [B7] stopped and blocked the [E] door.\r\n\r\n[E] Twenty years of crawlin' was [A] bottled up in[E]side him,\r\nhe wasn't holdin' nothin' back, he let 'em have it [B7] all.\r\nWhen [E] Tommy left the barroom not a [A] Gatlin boy was [E] standin',\r\nhe said, \"This one's for Becky,\" as he [B7] watched the last one [E] fall.\r\n[NC] And I heard him say :\r\n\r\n\"I [E] promised you, Dad, not to [A] do the things you [E] done,\r\nI [A] walk away from [E] trouble when I [B7] can.\r\nNow [E] please don't think I'm weak, I didn't [A] turn the other [E] cheek, and Papa, I sure [A] hope you under[B7]stand :\r\nSometimes you gotta [B7] fight when you're a [E] man.\"\r\n[E] Ev'ryone considered him the [A] coward of the county [E]<\/span><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{artist:Kenny Rogers} {key:D} Kenny Rogers: [C] Ev’ryone considered him the [F] coward of the [C] county, he’d never stood one single time to prove the county [G] wrong. His [C] mama named him Tommy, the [F] folks just called him \u201c[C] Yellow\u201d, but something always told me they were [G] … CLICK TO VIEW SONGCoward of the County<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,120,133,126,265,56,116,117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-filter","category-perflive","category-baritone-bill","category-bass-guitar-night","category-best-songs","category-country-western","category-live-baritone","category-live-piano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30142,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22794\/revisions\/30142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertandrews.net\/songs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}