Four Rode By

CHORUS
Ian & Sylvia (about 1964 - Northern Journey)    this posting by Rick in Macon
Song starts with the chorus

CHORUS:
         
Four rode by,
            
Rode through here;
                                    
Three Mclean boys and that wild Alex Hare.
          
They were armed,
        
All were armed,
                              
It was them. I d have known them anywhere.

1ST VERSE:
                                             
Oh Willie Palmer s stallion was no twenty dollar cayuse,
                                                   
And when the wild ones stole him he hightailed it into town
                                           
Usher in those days was keeping order in the district
                                                           
But before he d ridden thirty miles the McLean boys shot him down

CHORUS

2ND VERSE:
                                                     
A shepherd known as Kelly saw the wild bunch as they passed
                                              
They shot him with a rifle and took his watch and chain
                                              
When the posse found them they were in the lonely cabin
                                               
A hunger took their fight away and no one else was slain

CHORUS

3RD VERSE:
                                          
They hung the boys in January eighteen eighty one,
                                                            
The first time in that province that they d strung up brothers three;
                                                        
And the son killed nineteen Germans  cross the seas back in seventeen
                                                  
One thing that s for damned sure they re a wild ass family

FINAL CHORUS

Rick in Macon  (some say the last phrase is wise OLD family)