SLIP KNOT, a.k.a. HANGKNOT, SLIPKNOT
As recorded by Woody Guthrie

1. Did you ever see a hangman tie a slipknot?
Did you ever see a hangman tie a slipknot?
Yes, I've seen it many a time, and he winds, and he winds.
After thirteen times, he's got a slipknot.

2. Tell me: will that slipknot slip? No, it will not.
Will that slipknot slip? No, it will not.
It'll slip around your neck, but it won't slip back again,
That slipknot, Lord God, that slipknot.

3. Did you ever lose a brother on that slipknot?
Did you ever lose a brother on that slipknot?
Yes, my brother was a slave; he tried to escape.
They drug him to his grave with a slipknot.

4. Did you ever lose your father on that slipknot?
Did you ever lose your father on that slipknot?
Yes, they hung him from a pole, and they shot him full of holes.
They left him there to rot in that slipknot.

5. Tell me: who makes the laws for that slipknot?
Who makes the laws for that slipknot?
Who says who is goin' to the calaboose,
Or get the hangman's noose or the slipknot?

6. I don't know who makes the law for that slipknot.
I don't know who makes the law for that slipknot,
But the bones of a many a men are a-whistling in the wind
Because they tied their laws with a slipknot.

7. I don't know who makes the laws of that slipknot.
I don't know who makes the laws of that slipknot,
But the bones of many a men are whistling in the wind
Because they made their laws with a slipknot,
And because they tied their laws with a slipknot.