Woody Guthrie Billy the Kid Lyrics

---> by a__o <---

I'll sing you a true song of Billy the Kid,I'll sing of the desperate deeds that he did,Way out in New Mexico, long long agoWhen a man's only chance was his own 44.When Billy the Kid was a very young ladIn the old Silver City he went to the badWay out in the West with a gun in his handAt the age of twelve years he first killed his man.Fair Mexican maidens play guitars and singA song about Billy, the boy bandit kingHow ere his young manhood had reached its sad endHe'd a notch on his pistol for twenty-one men.'Twas on the same night when poor Billy diedHe said to his friends: "I am not satisfied.There are twenty-one men I have put bullets throughAnd sheriff Pat Garrett must make twenty-two."Now this is how Billy the Kid met his fate,The bright moon was shining, the hour was lateShot down by Pat Garrett, who once was his friendThe young outlaw's life had now come to its end.There's many a man with a face fine and fairWho starts out in life with a chance to be square,But just like poor Billy he wanders astrayAnd loses his life in the very same way.Note: This song -- a pretty good one, I think -- is rememberedmainly because Woody Guthrie used the tune for the verse of SoLong, It's Been Good to Know You.From Lomax-Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads