Johnny Cash

Let Him Roll

Johnny Cash


Tom: D

Intro: D G A D 
 
D                            G 
 Let him roll, boys let him roll 
   A                                D 
I bet he's gone to Dallas Rest his soul 

D 
Now He was a wino, tried and true 
G 
Done about everything there is to do 
A 
He worked on freighters, he worked in bars 
D                          
He worked on farms, 'n he worked on cars 
 
Now it was white port whine, that put that look in his eye 
That grown men get when they need to cry 
And we sat down on the curb to rest 
And his head just fell down on his chest 
 
He said "Every single day it gets 
just a little bit harder to handle and yet..." 
Then he lost the thread and his mind got cluttered 
The words just rolled off down in the gutter 
 
He was a elevator man in a cheap hotel 
In exchange for the rent on a one room cell 
And he's years old before his time 
No thanks to the world, and the white Port wine 
 
And he said "Son", he always called me son 
He said, "Life for you has just begun" 
And then he told me the story that I heard before 
How he fell in love with a Dallas whore 
 
He could cut through the years to the very night 
That it all ended, in a whore house fight 
And she turned his last proposal down 
In favor of being a girl about town 
 
Now it's been seventeen years right in line 
And he ain't been straight none of the time 
It's too many years of fightin' the weather 
And too many nights of not being together 
 
D 
So he died... 
 
D                           G 
Let him roll, boys let him roll 
A                                 D  
I bet he's gone to Dallas Rest his soul 
                            G 
Let him roll, boys let him roll 
    A                               
He always thought that heaven 
     G             D 
was just a Dallas whore 

When they went through his personal affects 
In among the stubs from the welfare checks 
Was a crumblin' picture of a girl in a door 
An address in Dallas, and nothin' more 
 
Well the welfare people provided the priest 
And a couple from the mission down the street 
Sang Amasing Grace, and nobody cried 
'Cept some lady in black way off to the side 
 
We all left and she's standing there 
The black veil covering her silver hair 
And One-Eyed John said her name was Alice 
She used to be a whore in Dallas 
 
D                           G 
Let him roll, boys let him roll 
A                                 D  
I bet he's gone to Dallas Rest his soul 
                            G 
Let him roll, boys let him roll 
    A                               
He always thought that heaven 
     G             D 
was just a Dallas whore 
 
D                           G   A   D 
Let him roll, boys let him roll