Tom: C
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Come hear the story of Bart McGee,
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Inyo County deputy 1873
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Chavez gang was running wild, raising hell
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Bart tracked 'em but things did not go well
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Them bandits circled 'round and they caught him unaware
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Took him to their hideout, tied him to a chair
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They spent the night talking 'bout the things they could do
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To Bart McGee before they got through
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Maybe they would skin him or drag him from a horse
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Maybe they would hang him, they might shoot him of course
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Bart just sat there as if he hadn't heard,
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Through it all he never said a word
[Verse 2]
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Yeah this was desert country, all sagebrush and wind
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Beyond the Saline Valley, where hopes run mighty thin
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Them bandits drank their whiskey and just outside the door
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Was a bronco mule they'd stole the day before.
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Them bandits roped that mule and they tied to the shack
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Stripped ol' Bart naked and they stuck him on its back
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And they turned him around 'til he was pointed East
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And they tied his legs together underneath
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They untied that mule and they slapped it on the rear
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It went crackin' through the sagebrush like a wild deer
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They kept Bart's horse, his saddle and his guns
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And they figure Bart McGee's days were done.
[Verse 3]
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Well that mule tried to buck him off, and through the choya danced
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Bart knew that stayin' with him, was his only chance
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Ol' Bart had fought the Paiute and he'd killed a grizzly bear
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And he could ride anything with hair
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Well the sun burnt his naked butt and the wind chapped him dry
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And he broiled like bacon, underneath that desert sky
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He'd slap that mule upside the head to turn him left or right
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It was handlin' good when the moon come up that night
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He made fifty miles, it ended none too soon
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He topped the hill at Cerro Gordo that next afternoon
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The drunks outside the Gem Saloon could not believe their eyes
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When a naked man on a mule trotted by.
[Verse 4]
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We all asked what happened, Bart never said a word
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He yanked out the cactus thorns, put ointment on his burns.
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And he bought a horse and rifle and set out on his way
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But what he meant to do he wouldn't say
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A week went by without a word and we all feared the worst
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Had them bandits got him, had he died of thirst?
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Finally he come ridin' back leadin' his old horse
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And he also had his hat and guns of course
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And the robbin' and killin' all came to an end.
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Not one of that Chavez gang was ever seen again.
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We asked Bart about it, and when we'd asked enough
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He said "I just went back and got my stuff"
[Refrain]
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Come hear the story of Bart McGee
G
Inyo County deputy 1873
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And you know he kept that mule for the rest of its life
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And he treated it better than some men treat their wives
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Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh, a a huh, uh huh, ohh ho oh oh, oh ohho oh oh
