Dangerous Dan Mcgrew Lyrics - Hank Snow

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon 

The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune 

Back at the bar in a solo game sat Dangerous Dan McGrew 

And watching his luck was his light of love the lady that's known as Lou 

When out of the night which was fifty below and into the din and the glare 

There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks dog dirty and loaded for bear 

He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse 

Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar and he called for drinks on the house 

There was none could place the stranger's face though we searched ourselves for a clue 

But we drank his health and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew 

There's men that somehow just grip your eyes and hold them hard like a spell 

And such was he and he looked to me like a man who had lived in hell 

With a face most hair and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done 

As he watered the green stuff in his glass and the drops fell one by one 

Then I got to figgering who he was and wondering what he'd do 

And I turned my head and there watching him was the lady that's known as Lou 

His eyes went rubbering round the room and he seemed in a kind of daze 

Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wondering gaze 

The rag-time kid was having a drink there was no one else on the stool 

So the stranger stumbles across the room and flops down there like a fool 

In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat and I saw him sway 

Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands my God but that man could play 

Were you ever out in the great alone when the moon was awful clear 

And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear 

With only the howl of a timber wolf and you camped there in the cold 

A half-dead thing in the stark dead world clean mad for the muck called gold 

While high overhead green yellow and red the North Lights swept in bars 

Then you've got a hunch what the music meant hunger and night and the stars 

And hunger not of the belly kind that's banished with bacon and beans 

But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means 

For a fireside far from the cares that are four walls and a roof above 

But oh! so cramful of cosy joy and crowned with a woman's love 

A woman dearer than all the world and true as Heaven is true 

God how ghastly she looks through her rouge the lady that's known as Lou 

Then all of a sudden the music changed so soft that you scarce could hear 

But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dear 

That someone had stolen the woman you loved that her love was a devil's lie 

That your guts were gone and the best of you was to crawl away and die 

Twas the crowning cry of a heart's despair and it thrilled you through and through 

I guess I'll make it a spread misere said Dangerous Dan McGrew 

The music almost died away then it burst like a pent-up flood 

And it seemed to say repay repay and my eyes were blind with blood 

The thought came back of an ancient wrong and it stung like a frozen lash 

And the lust awoke to kill to kill then the music stopped with a crash 

And the stranger turned and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way 

In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat and I saw him sway 

Then his lips went in in a kind of a grin and he spoke and his voice was calm 

And boys says he you don't know me and none of you care a damn 

But I want to state and my words are straight and I'll bet my poke they're true 

That one of you is a hound of hell and that one is Dan McGrew 

Then I ducked my head and the lights went out and two guns blazed in the dark 

And a woman screamed and the lights went up and two men lay stiff and stark 

Pitched on his head and pumped full of lead was Dangerous Dan McGrew 

While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of the Lady that's known as Lou 

These are the simple facts of the case and I guess I ought to know 

They say that the stranger was crazed with hooch and I'm not denying it's so 

I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys but strictly between us two 

The woman that kissed him and pinched his poke was the lady that's known as Lou