Spanish Johnny Lyrics

(Paul Siebel)
Those other years, the dusty years We drove the big hers through I tried to forget the miles we rode And Spanish Johnny too He'd sit beside a water ditch when all this herd was in And he'd never harm a child but sing to his mandolin
The old talk, the old ways, and the dealin' of our game But Spanish Johnny never spoke, but sing a song of Spain And his talk with men was vicious talk When he was drunk on gin [ From: http://www.metrolyrics.com/spanish-johnny-lyrics-emmylou-harris.html ] Ah, but those were golden things he said to his mandolin
We had to stand, we tried to judge, we had to stop him then For the hand so gentle to a child had killed so many men He died a hard death long ago before the road come in And the night before he swung he sung to his mandolin
Well, we carried him out in the mornin' sun A man that done no good And we lowered him down in the cold clay Stuck in a cross of wood And a letter we wrote to his kinfolk To tell them where he'd been And we shipped it out to Mexico, along with his mandolin