Alan Lomax - Sam Ba** lyrics

Sam Ba** was born in Indiana It was his native home And at the age of seventeen Young Sam began to roam He first came out to Texas A cowboy for to be A kinder-hearted fella You'd seldom ever see Sam used to deal in race stock One called the Denton mare He matched her in scrub races And took her to the fair Sam used to coin the money, boys And spent it just as free He always drank good whiskey Wherever he might be Sam left the Collins' ranch In the merry month of May With a herd of Texas cattle The Black Hills for to see Sold out in Custer City And then got on a spree A harder set of cowboys You'd seldom ever see On their way back to Texas They robbed the N. P. train Then split up in couples And started out again Joe Collins and his partner Were overtaken soon With all their hard earned money, boys They had to meet their doom Sam made it back to Texas All right-side up with care Rode into the town of Denton With all his friends to share Sam's life was short in Texas Three robberies did he do He robbed all the pa**enger mail And express cars too Sam met his fate in Round Rock July the twenty-first They pierced poor Sam with rifle balls And emptied out his purse Poor Sam he is a corpse And six foot under clay And Jackson's in the bushes, boys Tryin' to get away Jim had borrowed Sam's good gold And didn't want to pay The only shot he saw Was to give poor Sam away He sold out Sam and Barnes And left their friends to mourn Oh what a scorchin' Jim will get When Gabriel blows his horn Yes, he sold out Sam and Barnes And left their friends to mourn Oh what a scorchin' Jim will get When Gabriel blows his horn Perhaps he's got to heaven There's none of us can say But if I'm right in my surmise He's gone the other way