Intro:
Well I caught my wife with another man
And it cost me ninety-nine
On a prison farm in Georgia
Close to the Florida line
Well I’ve been here for two long years
I finally made the warden my friend
And so he sentenced me to a life of ease
Taking care of Ol’ Red
Now Ol’ Red he’s the damndest dog
That I’ve ever seen
Got a nose that can smell a two day trail
He’s a four legged tracking machine
You can consider yourself mighty lucky to get past
The gators and the quicksand beds
But all these years that I been here
Ain’t nobody got past Red
Chorus:
And the warden sang,
Come on somebody why don’t you run
Ol’ Red’s itchin to have a little fun
Get my lantern, get my gun
Red’ll have you treed ‘fore the morning comes
Well I paid off the guard and I slipped out a letter
To my cousin up in Tennessee
Oh and he brought down a blue tick hound
She was pretty as she could be
Well the penned her up in the swampland
About a mile just south of the gate
And I’d take Ol’ Red for his evening run
I’d just drop him off and wait
And the warden sang,
Come on somebody why don’t you run
Ol’ Red’s itchin to have a little fun
Get my lantern, get my gun
Red’ll have you treed ‘fore the morning comes
Now Ol’ Red got real used to seeing
His lady every night
And so I kept him away for three or four days
And waited til the time got right
Well I made my run with the evening sun
And I smiled when I heard ‘em turn Red out
Cause I was headed north to Tennessee
And Ol’ Red was headed south
And the warden sang,
Come on somebody why don’t you run
Ol’ Red’s itchin to have a little fun
Get my lantern, get my gun
Red’ll have you treed ‘fore the morning comes
Now there’s red hair blue ticks all in the south
Love got me in here and love got me out
The END!