JESSE JAMES

W. R. Benet

Solo 1: Jesse James was a two-gun man,

All: Roll on, Missouri.

Solo 1: Strong-arm chief of an outlaw clan.

All: From Kansas to Illinois.

Solo 1: He twirled an old Colt Forty-five;

All: Roll on, Missouri.

Solo 1: The never took Jesse James alive.

Solo 2: Jesse James was King of the Wes’

All: Cataracks in the Missouri.

Solo 2: He’d a di’mon’ heart in his lef’ breas’;

All: Brown Missouri rolls.

Solo 2: He’d fire in his heart no hurt could stifle;

All: Thunder, Missouri.

Solo 2: Lion eyes an’ a Winchester rifle.

All: Missouri, roll down.

All: Jesse James rode a pinto hawse;

Come at night to a water-cawse;

Tetched with the rowel that pinto’s flank;

She sprung the torrent from bank to bank.

Jesse rode through a sleepin’ town;

Looked the moonlit street both up an’ down;

Crack-crack-crack, the street ran flames

An’ a great voice cried,

Solo 3: “I’m Jesse James!”

Solo 4: Hawse an’ afoot they’re after Jess!

All: Roll on, Missouri

Solo 4: Spurrin’ an’ spurrin’---but he’s gone Wes’.

All: Brown Missouri rolls!

Solo 4: He was ten foot tall when he stood in his boots

All: Lightnin’ light the Missouri!

Solo 3: More’n a match fer sich galoots,--Ha! Ha! Ha!

All: Roll, Missouri, roll!

All: Jesse James rode outa the sage;

Roun’ the rocks come the swayin’ stage;

Straddlin’ the road a giant stan’s

An’ a great voice bellers,

Solo 3: “Throw up yer han’s!”

All: Jesse raked in the di’ mon’ rings,

The big gold watches an’ the yuther things;

Jesse dvvied ‘em then and thar

With a crying child had lost her mar.

Solo 5: The U. S. troopers is after Jess;

All: Roll on, Missouri!

Solo 5: Their hawses sweat foam, but he’s gone Wes’;

All: Hear Missouri roar!

Solo 5: He was broad as a b’ar, He’d a ches’ like a drum,

All: Wind an’ rain through Missouri!

Solo 5: An’ his red hair flamed like Kingdom come.

All: Roll, Missouri, roll!

All: Jesse James all alone in the rain,

Stopped an’ stuck up the eas’-boun’ train;

Swayed through the coaches with horns an’ a tail,

Lit out with the bullion an’ the registered mail.

Jess made ‘em all turn green with fright

Quakin’ in the aisles in the pitch-black night;

Solo 5: An’ he give all the bullion to a pore ole tramp

All: Campin’ nigh the cuttin’ in the dirt an’ damp.

Solo 6: The whole U. S. is after Jess;

All: Roll on, Missouri!

Solo 6: The son-of-a-gun, if he ain’t gone Wes’;

All: Missouri to the sea!

Solo 6: He could chaw cold iron an’ spit blue flame;

All: Cataracks down the Missouri!

Solo 6: He rode on a catamount he’d larned to tame.

All: Hear that Missouri roll!

All: Jesse James rode into a bank;

Give his pinto a tetch on the flank;

Jumped the teller’s window with an awful crash;

Heaved up the safe an’ twirled his mustache;

All: He said,

Solo 3: “So long, boys!”

All: he yelped,

Solo 3: “So long!

Feelin’ porley today—I ain’t feelin’ strong!”
All: Rode right through the wall-a-goin’ crack-crack-crack

Solo 7: Took the safe home to mother in a gunny-sack.

Solo 8: They’re creepin’, they’re crawlin’, they’re

stalkin’ Jess

All: Roll on, Missouri!

Solo 8: They’s a rumor he’s gone much further Wes’;

All: Roll on, Missouri, roll!

Solo 8: They’s a word of a cayuse hitched to the bars

All: Ruddy clouds on Missouri!

Solo 8: Of a golden sunset that busts into stars.

All: Missouri, roll down!

All: Jesse James rode hell for leather;

He was a hawse an’ an man together;

In a cave in a mountain high up in air

He lived with a rattlesnake, a wolf, an’ a bear.

Solo 9: Jess’s heart was as sof’ as a woman;

Solo 10: Fer guts an’ stren’th he was sooper-human;

All: He could put six shots through a woodpecker’s eye

Solo 3: And take in one swaller a gallon o’ rye.

Solo 11: The sought him here an’ they sought him there,

All: Roll on, Missouri!

Solo 11: But he strides by night through the ways of the air;

All: Brown Missouri rolls!

Solo 11: They say he took an’ they say he is dead,

All: Thunder, Missouri!

Solo 11: But he ain’t—He’s a sunset overhead!

All: Missouri down to the sea!

All: Jesse James was a Hercules.

When he went through the woods he tore up the trees.

When he went on the plains he smoked the groun’

An’ the hull lan’ shuddered for miles around’.

Jesse James wore a red bandanner

That waved on the breeze like the Star Spangled Banner

Solo 3: In seven states I cut up daodoes.

All: He’s gone with the buffler an’ the desperadoes.

Solo 12: Yes, Jesse James was a two-gun man

All: Roll on, Missouri!

Solo 12: The same as when this song began,

All: From Kansas to Illinois!

Solo 12: And when you see a sunset bust into flames

All: Lightnin’ light the Missouri!

Solo 12: Or a thunderstorm blaze—

Solo 3: That’s Jesse James!

All: Hear the Missouri roll!