Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail

Well, it was way high up in the Sierry Petes

Where the yellow pines grow tall

Rusty Diggs and Sandy Sam

Had a round-up camp last fall

They had their ponies and their running irons

And maybe a dog or two

And they 'lowed they'd brand every lop-eared calf

That came within their view

Well many a lop-eared dogie

If he didn't hush up by day

Had his long ears whittled and his old hide scorched

In a most artistic way

Then says Rusty Diggs to Sandy Sam

As he throwed his seago down

"I'm tired of cowbiography

"And I figures I'll go to town"

They starts her in at the Kentucky Bar

At the head of the Whisky Row

And they ends her up at the Depot House

And forty drinks below

Then he winds her up and they turns her 'round

And they goes her the other way

Tell you the Lord-forsaken truth

Them boys got drunk that day

Well, they was a-headin' back to camp

And a-packin' a mighty good load

Who should they meet but the Devil himself

Come prancin' down the road?

And the Devil he said, "You cowboy skunks

"You better go hunt your hole

"'Cause I've come up from the Hell's rim rock

"To gather in your souls"

Says Rusty Jiggs to the Devil

"Though I know we're tight

"No devil ever took no cowpunch

"Without one kind of a fight"

So Rusty Jiggs punched a hole in his rope

He swang it straight and true

He lassoed it onto the devil's horns

And he's takin' his dallies true

Now Sandy Sam was a reata man

With his gut line coiled up neat

So he shakes her out and he builds him a loop

And he lassoed the Devil's hind feet

They stretched him out, they tailed him down

While the irons was a-gettin' hot

They cropped and swallow-forked his ears

And they branded him up a lot

Well they pruned him up with a dehorning saw

Tied knots in his tail for a joke

Then they rode off and left him there

Necked up to a black-jack oak

So if you're ever up in the Sierry Petes

And you hear one hell of a wail

Know it's that Devil a-bellowin' 'round

About them knots in his tail

You'll know it's that Devil a-bellowin' around

About them knots in his tail