John Wesley Hardin lost his roll shootin' dice in the Jim Saloon in El Paso One night back in '85 For a while he sat there and watched the game broodin' mad Then he drew a pistol and said gimme my money back And the timid soul handlin' the cash for the house said Take it all Mr Hardin it belongs to you Hardin got arrested for it the next day But nobody thought to ask him to return the money He did get told not to play that way anymore
I know a man whose plow handle hand is quicker than a light Wes Hardin is his name they say he travels in the night For he might have to kill or walk around a fight And if you ever saw Wes Hardin draw you know he can skin his gun He won't say how many tried and died Up against the top hand up against the wrong man cause Hardin' wouldn't run He rode in like a Texas wind took the eastbound train Goin' goin' with Jane Bowen till the law men caught up So long Janie chin up I'll be back again Off he went to Huntsville Prison so long Janie he cried Fifteen years she waited till her heart broke and she died And she left that bad land to wait up in the sky Free at last the payin' past for all the wrong he did First free air they let him breathe since he was a kid So let him come and let him go and let him deal and bid Near the border in El Paso Lawyer reads the sign You won't find him there for business every day at nine For business is real bad one client's all he's had in quite a long long time Then sheriff Selman's boy broke in to Wes's woman's place Up she jumped and pistol whipped him kicked him in the face And John Selman demands revenge for this disgrace You could see every night by candlelight in Hardin's favorite bar She'd be hanging on his arm and very late they'd leave there Headed for the Goose Hair glad it wasn't far Right through the swinging doors John Selman came with a blazin' gun Wes Hardin chug-a-luggin' red eye got him in the back of the head John Wesley Hardin fell dead Hardin wouldn't run
