Bm
I stand before at the gallows here an honest man
D
I took another life, killed by my own hand
F#m Bm
and I knew I had it coming from the moment I first saw her


Bm
I'm looking all around me but i cannot see
D
a single friendly face looking back at me
F#m
as they lead me to the wagon
Bm
and they tie up the rope that'll hang me

[chorus]
Em
I didn't really mean for it to end this way
Bm
with my body left a hanging till the light of day
Em
but the devil made me do it, made me use my gun
Bm Em Em DD | Bm x16|
and so the possie came a-hunting me, the bodie 601

[verse]
I was working dealing faro at the gypsy queen
when she came into the room looking like a dream
and I saw upon her finger
that she had the ring, said her vows with another man

but then again I sure could use some company
and I knew that she'd be mine the way she looked at me
and soon she was my lover
and I just couldn't wait to be back in my lover's arms

[chorus]
I used to go down to her cabin when her man was gone
and she told me how he'd done her, how he'd treated her wrong
and I said that we'd be together when the marrage was done
but the thing I didn't reckon was the bodie 601

(guitar solo on verse, banjo solo on chorus)
[verse]
We were dancing close together at the union hall
she said her man was working doubles at the syndicate mill
then I looked up and I saw him, I could tell from his face
that he knew about our love

he walked accross the ballroom said sir we have to fight
I said that it would suit me, we stepped into the night
and then i drew out my revolver, pulled the trigger
and I took the life of another man

[chorus]
I started out to running didn't stop until
I'd gotten to my cousins then I thought I was swell
but my hideout was uncovered by the voice of someone
"come out we got the place surrounded"
were the bodie 601

(fiddle solo on verse. drum solo w/stops on chorus)
[verse]
when they took me from the jailhouse then I knew my fate
i knew there'd be no jury, be no magistrate
there was gonna be a hanging
and my body was gonna be cold before the dawn

they asked me if i had some words to tell my tale
but the name of my Lolita i could never reveal
so i told them i had nothing
and I fell to my grave with stone inside my heart

[chorus]
i didn't see it coming, made me miscalculate
that my crime was of a nature that they couldn't tolerate
and the people formed a possie and that I was the one
victim of vigilantie justice from the bodie 601
Bm EE DD Bm
you know I didn't see 'em coming they're the bodie 601
[stops]
they said let no one cut him down we're the bodie 601