Bobby Bare – Brian Hennessey (Guitar)

E                                      A
Brian Hennessey sat back and let the gypsy read his palm

         B                                    E
When he saw her eyes grow wide and wild and dark

                                                   A
And she whispered through her toothless gums and clutched him by the arm

             B                             E
She said, ''Boy, I fear I see the devil's mark.''

E        B                                   E   
Brian Hennessey just laughed and pealed the ten-spot from his roll

                                           B
'Cause he'd never ever known the taste of fear

         E                                      A
But he wondered why the summer nights should suddenly turn cold

        B                                 E
As the gypsy's words come ringing in his ear.

E          A                           E
''You can run, you can hide, Brian Hennessey.'', she cried

                                                B
''But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand.

     E                             A
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal?

       B                             E
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.''

E                                                 A           
Brian Hennessey walked through the doors of the Dining Dog Saloon

            B                                  E
Where he stopped to have his nightly glass of gin

                                                 A
And the one-eyed scar-faced stranger a dealing blackjack in the gloom

             B                                  E  
Winked his ghastly grey glass eye and dealt him in.

E       B                              E
Brian watched in fascination as the stranger's fingers flew

                                         B
Why he'd never seen such cheatin' done before

         E                                 A
And his hand closed round a handle of his snub-nose 32

           B                               E
When the gypsy's warning come to him once more.

E          A                           E
''You can run, you can hide, Brian Hennessey.'', she cried

                                                B
''But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand.

     E                             A
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal?

       B                             E
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.''

E                                    A
Brian Hennessey just folded up his cards and walked away

         B                             E
Holding back the rage that burned his soul

                                            A 
And he stopped to have some coffee at the Mockingbird Cafe

            B                                E
But that slender blue eyed waitress was his goal.

       B                                                   E
And a few words from his silver tongue soon turned her flighty head

                                                    B
She said, ''My husband's out of town, you need not fear.''

            E                                  A
But as he pressed her to the softness of her flutty-feathered bed

         B                                 E
On her pillows he saw written bright and clear.

E            A                           E
Oh, you can run, you can hide, daring letters clear and wide

                                               B
Said you can't escape the fate that's in your hand

     E                             A
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal

       B                             E
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.

E                                      A
Brian Hennessey he stumbled down the stairs into the street

          B                                 E
And from that day on he changed his wicked life

                                             A
And he never drunk or gambled and he never dealt no doop

         B                              E
And he never touched another fellow's wife.

      B                                                     E
And years later he met the gypsy when his days were almost done

                                                B
He said, ''Ha, ha, I beat your curse don't you know.''

     E                                         A
But when she saw the frightened, trembling, withered wretch that he'd become

              B                           E
She said, ''Brian, you died twenty years ago.''

               A                       E
''Because you ran and you hid that's exactly what you did

                                               B
But you didn't escape the fate that's in your hand.

                                  A  
And say how did it feel to have dealt your final deal?

       B                             E
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man...''