I'll have to hap a freight train
I rather rails from where I am
To the golf of Mexico
The Muscle Shoals Alabama (Name of a state )
A felon Benton (name of a village) grave
Condemned to walk a branded nam
(it means dying in war)
Thirty years of hard time
They cut you loose and set you free
There is bond to be a price for
Every promise you don't keep
And I paid mine in that hellhole
Where the Devil never sleeps
The warden said to me"Boy we
Are sympathetic to your cause"
As they majored me for my long, payne box
(it means checking his size for his coffin)
And for that ball in chain
Skin tight around the clock
(it means limited both in
Time and freedom and
Also it refers to a short life)
A prisoner sees his dreams in
The shade of a key
I saw mine from that hole
Folded hands on bended knees
(disappointment before a death that you
Know it's about to happen)
Where there is no forgiveness
Nor honor among thieves
(the execution room and the one
Who pulls the trigger)
Bad news come in threes
To no good, lying, killing thieves
Just one more branded man
With the mark of the beast
Thirty years of hard time
They cut you loose and set you free
There is bond and a price for
Every promise you don't keep
I paid mine in that hellhole
Where the Devil never sleeps
Wailing and gnashing of teeth
Where the Devil never sleeps