Tie A Knot In The Devil's Tail

Way up high in the Sierra peaks where the yellow jack pines grow tall



Old Sandy Bob and Buster Jiggs had a roundup camp last fall



Oh, they'd taken the horses and the runnin' irons and may be a dog or two



And they swore they'd brand all long ear calves that came within their view



And any old doggie that flapped long ears and didn't brush up by day



Got his long ears whittled and his old hid scorched in a most artistic way



Now one fine day old Sandy Bob he throwed his easy go down



Well I'm sick of the smell of this here burnin' hair

and allows I'm a goin' to town



[ harmonica ]



So they saddles up and they hits 'em a lope for it

weren't no sign of a ride



And them was the days when a buckaroo could oil up his insides



Oh they starts her off at Kentucky Bar at the head of a whiskey row



And they winds up down at the depot house some forty drinks below



And then sets up and turns around and goes her the other way



And to tell you the god forsaken truth them boys got stewed that day



As they was a ridin' back to camp a packin' a pretty good load



Well who should they meet but the devil himself a prancin' down the road



[ guitar ]



Say he you ornery cowboy skunks you better hunt your holes



For I've come up from hells Rim Rock to gather in your souls



Says Sandy Bob old devil be damned we boys is kinda tight



And ya ain't gonna get no cowboy souls without one hell of a fight



So Snady Bob punched a hole in his rope and he swang her straight and true



And he lapped it onto the devils' horns and he taken his dallies too



Now Buster Jiggs was a reita man with his gut line coiled up neat



So he shakes her out and he built him a loop and he

lassoed up the devil's hind feet



[ harmonica ]



Well they stretched him out and they tailed him down

while the iron was gettin' hot



And they cropped and swallow forked both his ears and

they branded him up a lot



They pruned him up whit a dehorning saw and they knotted

his tail for a joke



And then rode off and left him there neck to a blackjack oak



So if your ever up high in the Sierra peaks and you hear one hell of a wail



You'll know it's that devil a bellerin' about them knots tied in his tail