The Ballad of John McCrae

On the banks of the Missouri
Annie Washed up in the clay
And they took her to her father
Told him it was John McCrae

Now I'm running through the badlands
Covering my tracks
Northward toward Dakota
With the devil on my back

Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
Oh Annie, oh my soul

Well I took her down by the stream side
For to make that girl my bride
But in the fold of her pretty white dress
Lay her father's bowie knife

Well she pulled that steel blade on me
Told me she would take my life
So I pushed her into the river
She went under with tide

Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
Oh Annie, oh my soul

Well the hound dogs they overtook me
40 miles past Hqarding town
and I told that young Douglas sherriff,
"Boy, you'd better shoot me now."
He said "Poor Johnny, by my orders
your life I cannot take.
But I'll be smiling at your hanging
when they lay you in the grave."

Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
Oh Annie, oh my soul

I am standing at the gallows
And the scaffold it is high
And the hangman asked my last words
before I'm condemned to die

So I begged God, "Don't forgive me
for the trouble I have sown
for I'll soon see my pretty Annie
in the hell fire down below."

Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
Oh Annie, oh my soul