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Artist/Band: Hank Snow
Lyrics for Song: Ballad of One Eyed Mike
Lyrics for Album: The Singing Ranger, Vol. 3 [Bear Family (Germany)] [1994]



(Robert W. Service)



This is the tale that was told to me

By the man with the crystal eye

As I smoked my pipe in the camp-fire light

And the Glories swept the sky

As the Northlights gleamed and curved and streamed

And the bottle of hooch was dry.



A man once aimed that my life be shamed

And wrought me a deathly wrong

I vowed one day I would well repay

But the heft of his hate was strong.



He thonged me East and he thonged me West

He harried me back and forth

Till I fled in fright from his peerless spite

To the bleak bald-headed North.



And there I lay and for many a day

I hatched plan after plan

For a golden haul of the wherewithal

To crush and to kill my man.



And there I strove and there I clove

Through the drift of icy streams

And there I fought and there I sought

For the pay-streak of my dreams.



So twenty years with their hopes and fears

And smiles and tears and such

Went by and left me long bereft

Of hope of the Midas touch.



About as fat as a chancel rat

And lo despite my will

In the weary fight I had clean lost sight

Of the man I sought to kill.



Twas so far away that evil day

When I prayed to the Prince of Gloom

For the savage strength and the sullen length

Of life to work his doom.



Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard

And it happed so long ago

My youth was gone and my memory wan

And I willed it even so.



It fell one night in the waning light

By the Yukon's oily flow

I smoked and sat as I marvelled at

The sky's port-winey glow.



Till it paled away to an absinthe gray

And the river seemed to shrink

All wobbly flakes and wriggling snakes

And goblin eyes a-wink.



'Twas weird to see and it wildered me

In a queer hypnotic dream

Till I saw a spot like an inky blot

Come floating down the stream.



It bobbed and swung it sheered and hung

It romped round in a ring

It seemed to play in a tricksome way

It sure was a merry thing.



In freakish flights strange oily lights

Came fluttering round it's head

Like butterflies of a monster size

Then I knew it for the Dead.



Its face was rubbed and slicked and scrubbed

As smooth as a shaven pate

In the silver snakes that the water makes

It gleamed like a dinner-plate.



It gurgled near and clear and clear

And large and large it grew

It stood upright in a ring of light

And it looked me through and through.



It weltered round with a woozy sound

And ere I could retreat

With the witless roll of a sodden soul

It wantoned to my feet.



And here I swear by this Cross I wear

I heard that floater say

I am the man from whom you ran

The man you sought to slay.



That you may note and gaze and gloat

And say revenge is sweet

In the grit and grime of the river's slime

I am rotting at your feet.



The ill we rue we must e'en undo

Though it rive us bone from bone

So it came about that I sought you out

For I prayed I might atone.



I did you wrong and for long and long

I sought where you might live

And now you're found though I'm dead and drowned

I beg you to forgive.



So sad it seemed and its cheek-bones gleamed

And its fingers flicked the shore

And it lapped and lay in a weary way

And its hands met to implore.



That I gently said poor restless dead

I would never work you woe

Though the wrong you rue you can ne'er undo

I forgave you long ago.



Then wonder-wise I rubbed my eyes

And I woke from a horrid dream

The moon rode high in the naked sky

And something bobbed in the stream.



It held my sight in a patch of light

And then it sheered from the shore

It dipped and sank by a hollow bank

And I never saw it more.



This was the tale he told to me

That man so warped and gray

Ere he slept and dreamed and the camp-fire gleamed

In his eye in a wolfish way.



That crystal eye that raked the sky

In the weird Auroral ray.


Album Lyrics: The Singing Ranger, Vol. 3 [Bear Family (Germany)] [1994]


Hank Snow
"The Singing Ranger, Vol. 3 [Bear Family (Germany)] [1994]"


1. I Love You Because
2. I Care No More
3. Fraulein
4. Return to Me
5. Mansion on the Hill
6. Limbo Rock
7. Tammy
8. Wheels
9. Tiptoeing
10. Poison Love
11. Hold Me Tight
12. I Saw the Light
13. Difficult
14. Little Stranger (In a Manger)
15. Christmas Roses
16. Silent Night
17. C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s
18. White Christmas
19. Frosty the Snowman
20. God Is My Santa Claus
21. I Ain't Been Anywhere
22. Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
23. Invisible Hands
24. Sweet Hour of Prayer
25. Jesus Wept
26. These Things Shall Pass
27. His Hands
28. Farther Along
29. Gloryland March
30. I Saw a Man
31. This Train
32. I See Jesus
33. Shopworn
34. I'm Glad I'm on the Inside Looking Out
35. I'll Go Marching Into Glory
36. How Big Is God
37. Lord's Way of Saying Goodnight
38. Promised to John
39. My Adobe Hacienda
40. No Letter Today
41. I Dreamed of An Old Love Affair
42. For Sale
43. Rose of Old Monterey
44. Moonlight and Skies
45. You and My Old Guitar
46. Down the Old Road to Home
47. I'm Sorry We Met
48. Teardrops in My Heart
49. Ridin' Home
50. Heartbreak Trail
51. Cool Water
52. Tumbling Tumbleweeds
53. At the Rainbow's End
54. Chant of the Wanderer
55. On the Rhythm Range
56. Following the Sun All Day
57. Blue Side of Lonesome
58. Green, Green Grass of Home
59. Once More You're Mine Again
60. There Goes My Everything
61. All the Time
62. It Kinda Reminds Me of Me
63. Blue, Blue Day
64. He Dropped the World in My Hands
65. Call of the Wild
66. There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere
67. You're the Reason
68. It's a Little More Like Heaven
69. Galway Bay
70. Lili Marlene
71. Geisha Girl
72. Melba from Melbourne
73. Cuba Rhumba
74. Queen of Draw Poker Club
75. Now Is the Hour
76. In the Misty Moonlight
77. From a Jack to a King
78. She Wears My Ring
79. Mary Ann Regrets
80. White Silver Sands
81. Lonesome 7-7203
82. Gonna Find Me a Bluebird
83. Sweet Lies
84. Handcuffed to Love
85. Bummin' Around
86. I've Cried a Mile
87. You Take the Future (And I'll Take the Past)
88. Flying South
89. Miami Snow
90. At the First Fall of Snow
91. You're as Welcome as the Flowers in May
92. January
93. Springtime in the Rockies
94. Roses in the Snow
95. Beyond the Reef
96. Trade Winds
97. Don't Sing Aloha When I Go
98. Oahu Rose
99. The Wayward Wind
100. Walking the Last Mile
101. Old Rover
102. Put Your Arms Around Me
103. Little Joe
104. Cross the Brazos at Waco
105. Nuevo Laredo
106. Adios Amigo
107. Maria Elena
108. Senorita Rosalita
109. Dangerous Dan McGrew
110. Ballad of One Eyed Mike
111. My Friends
112. I Wish My Heart Could Talk
113. Wreck of the Old '97
114. Crazy Little Train of Love
115. Blue Yodel, No. 10
116. Father Time and Mother Love
117. Rockin' Rollin' Ocean [With Wave Effect]
118. Rockin' Rollin' Ocean [Without Wave Effect]
119. Casey's Washerwoman Boogie [Instrumental]
120. Hawaiian Sunset [Instrumental]
121. The Man Who Robbed the Bank at Santa Fe
122. The Texas Plains
123. Patanio (The Pride of the Plains)
124. A Legend in My Time
125. A Petal from a Faded Rose
126. The Change of the Tide
127. Mockin' Bird Hill
127. If It's Wrong to Love You
127. The Blue Canadian Rockies
127. Sonny Boy [Instrumental]
127. Unchained Melody [Instrumental]
127. Beautiful Dreamer [Instrumental]
127. Brahms' Lullaby [Instrumental]
127. Blue Tango [Instrumental]
127. Dark Moon [Instrumental]
127. I Can't Stop Loving You [Instrumental]
127. The Convict and the Rose [Instrumental]
127. The Waltz You Saved for Me
127. Lay My Head Beneath a Rose [Instrumental]
127. Whispering Hope [Instrumental]
127. Sentimental Journey [Instrumental]
127. Am I Losing You? [Instrumental]
127. I Get the Blues When It Rains [Instrumental]
127. Sweet Marie [Instrumental]
127. Birth of the Blues [Instrumental]
127. The Christmas Cannonball
127. A Letter to Santa Claus
127. The Face on the Barroom Floor
127. The Cremation of Sam McGee
127. The Spell of the Yukon
127. The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill
127. The Last Mile of the Way
127. Dear Lord, Remember Me
127. The Runt
127. The Prisoner's Dream
127. Mother I Thank You (For the Bible You Gave)
127. Rocking Alone in an Old Rocking Chair
127. To You Sweetheart, Aloha
127. My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii
127. On the Beach in Waikiki
127. Pearly Shells
127. The Whispering Tradewinds [Instrumental]
127. Among My Souvenirs [Instrumental]
127. The Seasons
127. All Nite Cafe
127. The Tip of My Fingers
127. A Wound Time Can't Erase
127. The Name of the Game Was Love