Sam Bass - Michael Martin Murphey

Sam Bass was born in Indiana, it was his native home

And at the age of seventeen, Sam began to roam

Sam first came out to Texas a cowboy for to be

A kinder-hearted fellow you seldom ever see

Sam used to deal in race stock, one called the Denton mare;

He matched her in scrub races and took her to the fair

I used to coin the money and spent it just as free

He always drank good whiskey wherever he might be

Sam left the Collins ranch in the merry month of May

With a herd of Texas cattle the Black Hills for to see

Sold out in Custer City and then got on a spree-

A harder set of cowboys you seldom ever see

On their way back to Texas they robbed the U.P.

train

And then split up in couples and started out again

Joe Collins and his partner were overtaken soon

With all their hard-earned money they had to meet their doom

Sam had four companions-four bold and daring lads-

They were Richardson, Jackson, Joe Collins, and Old Dad;

Four more bold and daring cowboys the rangers never knew

They whipped the Texas Rangers and ran the boys in blue

Jim Murphy was arrested and then released on bail

He jumped his bond at Tyler and then took the train for Terrell;

But Mayor Jones had posted Jim and that was all a stall

'Twas was only a plan to capture Sam before the coming fall

Sam met his fate at Round Rock, July the twenty-first

They pierced poor Sam with rifle balls and emptied out his purse

Poor Sam he is a corpse and six foot under clay

And Jackson’s in the bushes trying to get away

Jim bad borrowed Sam’s good gold and didn’t want to pay

The only shot he saw was to give poor Sam away

He sold out Sam and Barnes and left their friends to mourn

Oh, what a scorching Jim will get when Gabriel blows his horn

And so he sold out Sam and Barnes and left their friends to mourn

Oh, what a scorching Jim will get when Gabriel blows his horn

Perhaps he’s got to heaven, there’s none of us can say

But if I’m right in my surmise he’s gone the other way