The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5180   Message #29597
Posted By: Nathan Sarvis (nsarvis@iglobal.net)
28-May-98 - 10:11 PM
Thread Name: Lyr/Tune Req: Sleepy Eyed John
Subject: Lyr Add: SLEEPY-EYED JOHN
I've heard the bluegrass duo Jim & Jesse McReynolds do it on one of their albums. The words I recall are:

(chorus)
Sleepy Eyed John, You better get your britches on
Sleepy Eyed John, Better tie your shoe
Sleepy Eyed John, You better get your britches on
Trying to get to heaven 'fore the devil gets to you

Sleepy Eyed John, He had a wooden leg
The leg weren't nothing but a little wooden peg.
With one shoe off and one shoe oh
He could do the double shuffle till the cows come home

There's another verse with a line
"carved out a fiddle from a wagon seat"
but I can't remember the rest.
The tune is close to the fiddle tune "Sandy River Belle"