Tie A Knot In The Devil's Tail Lyrics - Chris Ledoux

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 hat 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 

So they saddles up and they hits 'em a lope 

For it weren't no sign of a ride 

And then 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 by 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 

Says he, "You ornery cowboy skunks 

You better hunt your holes 

For I've come up from Hell's 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 Reata 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 

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 with a dehorning saw 

And they knotted his tail for a joke 

They 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