Murrietta's Head - Dave Alvin

Come on and saddle up boys cause the governor said

He’ll pay three thousand dollars for Murrietta’s Head

I hear Joaquin Murrietta’s steals horses and gold

Killed a sheriff in Mariposa or so I’m told

He’s the Devil’s bloody bastard, wicked and no good

But all the Mexican’s swear that’s he’s Robin Hood

Well, with my wife and my sons I work as hard as I can

On thirteen acres of California land

But the rains never came and I got debts I can’t pay

Now the banks gonna steal my farm away

So, come on and saddle up, boys, cause the governor said

He’ll pay three thousand dollars for Murrietta’s Head

He don’t want him alive, he wants him dead

He’ll pay three thousand dollars for Murrietta’s Head

I hear Joaquin Murrietta rides to avenge

The murder of his wife by a mob of drunk men

Well, I don’t give a damn if it’s a lie of if it’s true

Cause for his family ain’t much a man won’t do

You see the fever came around and my youngest boy took ill

And I didn’t have money to pay no doctor’s bills

So I buried his body beneath that oak on the hill

But if I had some money I swear he’d be alive still

So, come on and saddle up, boys, cause the governor said

He’ll pay three thousand dollars for Murrietta’s Head

He don’t want him alive, he wants him dead

He’ll pay three thousand dollars for Murrietta’s Head

Now the Bible says, you reap what you sow

That may be right but I really don’t know

Well, if it is Murrietta will be damned to Hell

And when I kill him, I’ll be damned as well

So, come on and saddle up, boys, cause the governor said

He’ll pay three thousand dollars for Murrietta’s Head

He don’t want him alive, he wants him dead

He’ll pay three thousand dollars for Murrietta’s Head