Joe Bean

Last time we were here at Folsom 
Prison,
they were hanging Joe Bean. Is Joe 
still here...Joe Bean?
Hang the son of a bitch anyways, 
right?

Well, they're hanging Joe Bean this 
morning,
for killing a man in Arkansas. Funny
 thing about it,
Joe Bean has never been to Arkansas.
 On top of that,
Joe Bean never heard of the man. In 
fact, today is
Joe Bean's twentieth birthday.

     C
    See through the prison bars, Joe
 Bean,
                            G
    see where the gallows stand,
           C           C7         
    just twenty short years from 
    F
the day you were born,
         C           G         C
    you died by the hangman's hand.

Continúa después del anuncio
                  C
    Yes, they're hanging Joe Bean 
this morning,
    for a shooting that he never 
 G
did,
        C         C7          F
    he killed 20 men, by the time he
 was 10,
        C     G       C
    he was an unruly kid.
                  F              
    Yes, they're hanging Joe Bean 
          C
for the one shooting
           G              C
     that Joe Bean never did.

           C
    Well, Joe, your mother is at the
 Capitol,
                               G
    asking the governor for a stay.
              C               
    and it's hard on her,       
C7              F
'cause she knows where you were,
         C     G        C
    on that particular day.
              F                    
    You were working Joe Bean, hard
  C
 working,
     G                C
    robbing the Santa Fe.

               C
    Well, the telegraph wires are 
humming,
    here, the governor's words come 
   G
through.
                C             C7  
    He said, "I can't set you 
       F
free, it's not up to me,
                 C         G      
    but there's much, Joe Bean, 
   C
I'll do.
          F                 
    I'll join your mother in 
    C       G                     
extending birthday greetings to you,
C
 Happy Birthday, Joe Bean."