Digital Tradition Mirror

Four Rode By

Four Rode By
(Ian Tyson)

Willie Palmer's stallion was no twenty dollar cayuse
And when the wild ones stole him he hightailed it into town
Ussher in those days was keeping order in the district
But before he'd ridden thirty miles the McLean boys shot him down

cho: Four rode by
     Rode through here
     Three Mclean boys and that wild Alex Hare
     They were armed
     All were armed
     It was them I'd have known them anywhere

A shepherd known as Kelly saw the wild one as they passed
They shot him with a rifle and took his watch and chain
When the posse found him in the lonely cabin
A hunger took their pride away and no one else was slain*

They hung the boys in January eighteen eighty three
First time in that province that they'd strung up brothers three
And their sons killed nineteen Germans cross the seas back in seventeen
One thing that's for damned sure they're a wild old family

*been trying for 20 years to figure this line out, may have been hearing it
wrong
This song is vintage Tyson, and the Instrumental bridge by Daddy Bones
(John Herald)
still gives me chills.
AS
Apr98

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!

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