He took my fam'ly away from Carolina home Had dreams about the West and started to roam Six long months on a dust covered trail They say heaven's at the end but so far it's been hell And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there We were diggin' and siftin' from five to five Sellin' everything we found just to stay alive Gold flowed free like the whiskey in the bars Sinnin' was the big thing, lord and Satan was his star And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air, Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there Dance hall girls were the evenin' treat Empty cartridges and blood lined the gutters of the street Men were shot down for the sake of fun Or just to hear the noise of their forty four guns And there's fire on the mountain, lightnin' in the air, Gold in them hills and it's waitin' for me there Now my widow she weeps by my grave Tears flow free for her man she couldn't save Shot down in cold blood by a gun that carried fame All for a useless and no good worthless claim