Johnny Cash Album: Ride This Train Track: Slow Rider
Slow Rider Lyrics
Ride this train to any little trail in the West you may find me riding alone late at night My poor old horse don't understand why I ride at night and sleep in the daytime Or why we ride in the bushes and hide every time I hear a noise Well that's all I've done for months now running and hiding You see my name is John Wesley Hardin no I'm not proud of the name anymore They say I've killed forty men they tell a lot of different stories about me Of course I guess I'm to blame for a lot of it I killed the first time when I was fifteen to save my life but then I had to do it again Then every bum in the country that was fast with the gun started lookin' for me They called me the fastest gun alive and I guess I was fast or I wouldn't be alive now I got to where I couldn't walk down a street or in a saloon Without some trigger-happy cowpoke Wantin' to prove he could outdraw old John Wesley Hardin Maybe I got a little bitter and didn't care whether I killed or not for a while And I never quite forgot when the authorities in Huntsville prison Dragged me up in the snow naked and horsewhipped me Well that's why I'm ridin' at night I want to go where no one has ever seen me Where I won't even have to wear a gun Maybe I'll settle down in a quiet little town somewhere Even get a job on the right side of the law who knows Maybe in a new town the people will let me forget
I ride an old paint he's on the worryside And I'm a saddle tramp about to cross the great divide Where there's grass in the coolies and water in the drawl And the forty pound saddle won't make us both raw
Slow rider slow rider move on a little more The sky boss is waitin' at the big ranch house door
I can't help but missin' the daughters that I had One went to Denver the other went bad My young wife died in a poolroom fight But I try to keep singin' from morning till night
Slow rider slow rider... [ guitar ] Whenever I die take my saddle from the wall Strap it on snuffy lead him out of the stall Throw me on his back and turn him toward the west He knows how to take me to the spot I love best
