Tying Knots In The Devil's Tail

(album: Cowboy Songs - 1990)

Oh, way up high in the Sierra Peaks
Where the yellow jack pines grow tall
Sandy Bob and Buster Jiggs
Had a round-up camp last fall
They're taking their ponies and they're running irons
Maybe a dog or two
And they allowed their brand on every long-eared calf
That come within their view

Now many a long-eared doggy
That didn't hush up that day
Had his ol' ears whittled and his ol' hide sizzled
In the most artistic way
Now, Sandy Bob, he said one day
As he throwed his cigar down
I'm tired of this cowography
And all else, I'm going to town

Well, they saddled their ponies and they struck them a load
And how them boys can ride
And them was the days that an ol' cowboy
Could oil up his ol' insides
Well, it started out at the Kentucky bar
At the head of the whiskey row
And they wound up down at the depot house
About forty drinks below

Well, they set 'em up and they turned them around
And they went the other way
And I'll swear the godforsaken truth
Them boys got drunk that day
They mounted up and they headed to camp
And they's packing a pretty good load
When who should they meet, but the Devil himself
Come prancing down the road

Well, the Devil said, "You ornery skunks
You better hunt your holes
'Cause I'm the Devil from Hell's Rim Rock
Come to gather in your souls"
Sandy Bob said, "Devil be damned
It may be a little bit tight
Before you gather any cowboy souls
You gonna have a hell of a fight"

He swung his rope and he swung it straight
He also swung it true
He caught the devil by both his horns
And taken his dallies too
Now Buster Jiggs was a three hatter man
With his rawhide coiled up neat
He shook it out and built him a loop
And he latched the Devil's hind feet

Well, they stretched him out and they tailed him down
And the irons was getting hot
They cropped and swallow-forked his ears
And they branded him up a lot
And they left him there in the Sierra Peaks
Necked to a black-jack oak
But before they left, they tied some knots
In his tail just for a joke

So if you're ever up there in Sierra Peaks
And you hear one hell of a wail
It's just the Devil
A feller and a thousand knots tied in his tail