Oh my, oh my, what a wretched life
I was born on the day that my poor mama died
I was cut from her belly with a Stanley knife
My daddy did a jig with the drunk midwife
Who's that yonder all in flames
Dragging behind him a sack of chains
Who's that yonder all in flames
Well, up jumped the Devil and he staked his claim on me
Oh, poor heart, I was doomed from the start
Doomed to play the villain's part
I was the baddest Johnny in the apple cart
My blood was blacker than the chambers of a dead nun's heart
Oh, who's that milling on the courthouse steps
Nailing my face to the hitching fence
Who's that milling 'round the courthouse steps
Up jumped the Devil and off he crept
Oh no, oh no, where could I go?
With my hump of trouble and my sack of woe
To the digs and the deserts of Mexico
Where my neck was safer from the lynching rope
Who's that yonder laughing at me
Like I was the brunt of some hilarity
Who's that yonder laughing at me
Well up jumped the Devil, one, two, three
H-h-h-h-h-how lucky we were
We hit the cat-houses and we sampled their wares
We got as drunk as a couple of Czars
That night I swallowed my lucky stars
Who's that dancing on the jailhouse roof
Stamping on the ramping with a cloven hoof
Who's that dancing on the jailhouse roof
Up jumped the Devil and said "Here is your man and I got a proof"
Oh no, oh no, don't go, oh, slow down Joe
The righteous path is straight as an arrow
Take a walk and you'll find it's too narrow
Too narrow for the likes of me
Who's that hanging from the gallows tree
His eyes are plucked but he looks like me
Now who's that swinging from the gallows tree
Up jumped the Devil and he took my soul from me