Michael Martin Murphey – Ballad Of Cole Younger (Guitar)

Dm              Am               C       G     Dm
  I'm a highway bandit man, Cole Younger is my name;

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And many a depredation,   brought my life to shame

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The robbing of the Northfield bank is a crime I'll never deny

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  I'm a lonesome prisoner, in the Stillwater jail I lie

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When the Younger boys left Texas, that good old lone star state

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Out on the Nebraska prairies, the James boys, we did meet

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With knives, guns, and revolvers, we all sit down to play

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  A good old game of poker, just to pass the time away

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Out on the Nebraska prairie, a Denver train came along

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Says I to Bob, "Let's rob her as she goes rollin' on"

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Killed the engineer and the fire men, the conductor escaped alive

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But his body now lies moldy, underneath the Nebraska sky

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We saddled up our horses, and northward we did go

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To the god-forsaken country they called   Minnie-soh-tee-oh

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I had my eye upon the Northfield bank when my brother Bob did say

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"Cole,   if you undertake this job, you'll always curse the day"

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  The cashier of the Northfield bank, refused our robber band

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It was Frank James who   pulled the trigger, and killed that faithful man

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In vain we searched for the money, while the battle raged outside

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'Til we found our only safety, was a quick and a desperate ride

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Come boys let's ride for life and death, there's a hundred on our trail

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  The Younger boys were wounded, and were landed right in jail

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They've taken us to the Stillwater prison, to worry our lives away

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But the James boys live to tell the tale, of that eventful day

Dm N.C.         Am N.C.          C N.C.  G N.C.   Dm N.C.
  I'm a highway bandit man, Cole Younger is my name