Tennessee Stud

Ramblin' Jack Elliot

Along about eighteen and twenty-five

I left Tennessee very much alive

I never would have made it through the Arkansas mud

If I hadn't been a-riding on the Tennessee Stud



chorus

The Tennessee Stud was long and lean

The color of the sun and his eyes were green

He had the nerve and he had the blood

And there never was a horse like the Tennessee Stud



I had some trouble with my sweetheart's pa

One of her brothers was a bad outlaw

I sent her a letter by my Uncle Thud

And I rode away on the Tennessee Stud



One day I was riding in a beautiful land

I run smack into an Indian band

They jumped their nags with a whoop and a yell

And away we rode like a bat out of Hell



I circled their camp for a time or two

Just to show what a Tennessee horse can do

The redskin boys couldn't get my blood

'Cause I was a-riding on the Tennessee Stud



I drifted on down into no man's land

I crossed the river called the Rio Grande

I raced my horse with the Spaniards bold

'Til I got me a skinful of silver and gold



Me and a gambler, we couldn't agree

We got in a fight over Tennessee

We jerked our guns, he fell with a thud

And I got away on the Tennessee Stud



Well I got as lonesome as a man can be

A-dreaming of my girl in Tennessee

And the Tennessee Stud's green eyes turned blue

'Cause he was a-dreaming of a sweetheart too



I loped on back across Arkansas

And I whupped her brother and I whupped her pa

I found that girl with the golden hair

And she was a-riding on a Tennessee Mare



Stirrup to stirrup and side by side

We crossed the mountains and the valleys wide

We came to Big Muddy and we forded the flood

On the Tennessee Mare and the Tennessee Stud



Pretty little baby on the cabin floor

And a little horse colt playing 'round the door

I love the girl with the golden hair

And the Tennessee Stud loves the Tennessee Mare.