Cowboy version, from Fife and Fife

Lyr. Add: I'VE BEEN ALL AROUND THIS WORLD

Way up on the Osage mountain where the wind blows chilly and cold,
Way up on the Osage mountain where the wind blows chilly and cold,
Where I hid out last winter, starved and very nearly froze;
Lord knows I've been all around this world.

Way up on the Osage mountains, it's there I made my stand,
Way up on the Osage mountains, it's there I made my stand,
With a Winchester on my saddle and a six-shooter in each hand.
Lord knows, I've been all around this world.

They arrested me on Broadway Street and there they made me stand,
They arrested me on Broadway Street and there they made me stand,
With a six-shooter in my face and shackles on my hands.
Lord knows, I've been all around this world.

Well, I took off my overcoat and I hung it on my wall,
Well, I took off my overcoat and I hung it on my wall,
Whipped out two six-shooters, God knows I made them bawl.
Lord knows, I've been all around this world.

Oh hang me, oh hang me, oh hang me good and high,
Oh hang me, oh hang me, oh hang me good and high,
And telegraph to mother to come and see me die.
Lord knows, I've been all around this world.

There's mother and father, little sister she counts three,
There's mother and father, little sister she counts three,
To follow down to the gallows and see the last of me.
Lord knows, I've been all around this world.

The railroad is finished, the cars is on the track,
The railroad is finished, the cars is on the track,
Just telegraph to mother, her money will bring me back.
Lord knows, I've been all around this world.

Austin E. and Alta S. Fife, 1969, "Cowboy and Western Songs," pp. 251-252, with music. Collected by Bob Duncan, FAC I 368 (the 42 volumes of the Fife American Collection). No date given.

Vance Randolph collected the song, as "My Father Was a Gambler," in 1917, from Mr. Billy Laws, Argenta, Arkansas, in 1917. Laws said the song was part of a much longer one about a murderer who was hanged at Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the 1870's, and that the letter was a decoy sent by the sheriff. Randolph, 1946 (1980), "Ozark Folksongs," pp. 80-82, with music.