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Artist/Band: Johnny Cash
Lyrics for Song: Sweet Betsy From Pike
Lyrics for Album: Sings The Ballads Of The True West/life [2006]



The devil in hell, we're told was chained


A thousand years he there remained


He neither complain nor did he groan but


Was determined to start a hell of his own





Where he could torment the souls of men


Without being chained in a prison pen


So he asked the lord if he had on hand


Anything left when he made this land





The Lord said yes, there's a plenty on hand


But I left it down by the Rio Grande


The fact is ol' boy, the stuff is so poor


I don't think you could use it as the hell anymore





But the devil went down to look at the truck


And said if he took it as a gift he was stuck


For after lookin' that over carefully and well


He said this place is too dry for hell





But in order to get it off his hands


The Lord promised the devil to water the land


So trade was closed and deed was given


And the Lord went back to his home in heaven





And the devil said, now I got all what's needed


To make a good hell and he succeeded


He began by putting thorns all over the trees


He mixed up the sand with millions of fleas





He scattered tarantulas along the road


Put thorns on cactus and horns on toads


Lengthened the horns of the Texas steer


Put an addition to the rabbit's ear





Put a little devil in the bronco steed


And poisoned the feet of the centipede


The rattlesnake bites you, the scorpion stings


The mosquito delights you with his buzzing wings





The sunbursts are there and so the ants


And if you sit down


You'll need to have soles on your pants


The wild boar rooms on a high chapparel





It's a hell of a place that he has for hell


The heat in the summers are hundred and ten


Too hot for the devil, too hot for men


The red pepper grows upon the banks of the brook





The Mexican use it in all that he cook


Just dine in with one of 'em and you're bound to shout


I've hell on the inside as well as it out


My hands are calloused July to July





I use a Big Dipper to navigate by


Fight off the wolves who drink from my well


So I have to be mean as hell


A sheep-herder came and put up the fence





I saw him one day but I ain't seen him since


But if you need a mutton we got mutton to sell


We're cowpunchers and we're mean as hell


Neither me nor my pony's got a pedigree





But he takes me where I'm wantin' to be


I'll ride him to death and when he has fell


I'll get me another one mean as hell


I shot me a calf and I cut off her head





'Cause the boys in the bunkhouse are waitin' to be fed


They rise in chime with the five thirty bell


And the best one of any of 'em is mean as hell


Album Lyrics: Sings The Ballads Of The True West/life [2006]


Johnny Cash
"Sings The Ballads Of The True West/life [2006]"


1. Country Trash
2. Sam Hall
3. Hiawatha's Vision
4. The Road To Kaintuck
5. I Ride an Old Paint
6. A Letter From Home
7. Mean As Hell
8. Green Grow The Lilacs
9. I'm Alright Now
10. Reflections
11. Sweet Betsy From Pike
12. The Shifting, Whispering Sands, Pt. 2