Here's the way I sing it (stolen from Johnny Horton):


Way down yonder on the Candy Creek,
Whittled out a fiddle from my wagon seat.
Tuned my fiddle and I rosined my bow,
Now I play a little tune wherever I go.

CHORUS:
Sleepy Eyed John, better get your britches on,
Sleepy Eyed John, better tie your shoes.
Sleepy Eyed John, better get your britches on,
Try to get to heaven 'fore the devil gets to you

Got twenty dollars for to build a fence,
I took my money and I ain't worked since.
Sold my buggy and I sold my plow.
Wouldn't take a dollar for my journey now.

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 on,
He could do the double-shuffle till the cows come home.

Over the hickory and down the pine,
The old coon left with the coon dog behind.
John said, "'Sic 'em" and the racoon laughed.
He crossed Green River in a minute and a half.

Sleepy Eyed John, he stole a goose.
The goose he tried but he couldn't get loose.
Says John to the goose, "If you don't be still,"
We'll miss our supper down in Candyville."