Didn't He Ramble

(album: High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project - 2009)

My mother raised three grown sons, Buster, Bill, and me
Buster was the black sheep of our little family
Mother tried to break him of his rough and rowdy ways
Finally had to get the judge to give him ninety days

And didn't he ramble, ramble
He rambled all around, in and out the town
And didn't he ramble, ramble
He rambled till the butchers cut him down

He rambled in a gambling game, he gambled on the green
The gamblers there showed him a trick that he had never seen
He lost his roll and jewelry, he like to lost his life
He lost the car that carried him there and someone stole his wife

Didn't he ramble, ramble
He rambled all around, in and out the town
And didn't he ramble, ramble
He rambled till the butchers cut him down

He rambled in a swell hotel, his appetite was stout
And when he refused to pay the bill, the landlord threw him out
He looked to smack him with a brick, but when he went to stoop
The landlord kicked him in the pants and knocked him for a loop

And didn't he ramble, ramble
He rambled all around, in and out the town
And didn't he ramble, ramble
He rambled till the butchers cut him down

He rambled to the racetrack, to make a gallery bet
He backed a horse called Hydrant, and Hydrant's running yet
And when he took his ladder out to go and paint the town
They had to run get megaphones to call that rambler down