My transcription from the recording at Spotify. It's really not all that different from other versions.


BUFFALO SKINNERS
As sung by John Renbourn on "Faro Annie" (1972)

'Twas in the town of Jacksboro in the year of sixty-three
When a man by the name of Crego came stepping up to me.
"Say, how'd you do, young fellow, and how'd you like to go
To spend the summer pleasant on the plains of the buffalo?"

Well I bein' out of work right then, to the drover I did say:
"Goin' out on the buffalo road depends upon your pay,
But if you pay good wages, transportation to and fro,
I think I might go with you to the plains of the buffalo."

"Oh, yes, I pay good wages and transportation too,
If you'll agree to work for me until the season's through,
And if you get dissatisfied and head back for your home,
Most likely you will starve to death on the plains of the buffalo."

With all this flattering talking, he signed up quite the train:
With Navy Six and Needle Gun, seven able-bodied men.
Our way it was a pleasant one as we hit the westward road,
And on across old Boggy Creek into New Mexico.

There our pleasures ended and our troubles all began.
The hardships of those summer months would break the strongest man.
While skinning the herd of buffalo, our lives they were so low,
With outlaws watching to pick us off in the hills of Mexico.

When the working season ended, then Crego he did say
We all had drunk too much, they'd owe we no more pay.
For the cowboys never had heard such a thing as bankrupt law,
So we left that drover's bones to bleach on the plains of the buffalo.