C
Well, there's lots of strange men in cell-block ten,
                          G
but the strangest of them all
      F                     C
was a pal of mine who would spend his time
     Am              C    F               C
just staring at the wall, staring at the wall.

[Verse 2]
C
In his hand was a note that his gal had wrote,
                               G
which proves that crime don't pay
    F                      C
the very same gal that h'd robbed and stole for,
Am                 C    F                 C
naming her wedding day, naming her wedding day.

[Chorus]
      F                     C
As he looked at the wall so strong and tall,
  F                C        F
I heard him softly curse, "nobody at all
         C                  Am                C
has ever made that wall, but I'm gonna be the first,
F                C
I'm gonna be the first."

[Verse 3]
C
Well the Warden walked by, said "Son don't try,
                          G
cause I'd hate to see you fall
           F                           C
cause there ain't no doubt we're gonna carry you out
      Am               C            F               C
if you ever touch that wall, if you ever touch that wall."

[Verse 4]
C
But a year has gone by since he made his try;
                 G
I can still recall
   F                      C
how hard he tried and the way he died,
       Am               C        F                C
but he never topped the wall, he never topped the wall.

[Chorus]
F                   C
Many a man who has shook this can,
    F               C
and I know a man who tried.
    F                      C
The newspapers called it a jailbreak plan,
    Am                C    F                     C
but I know it was suicide; I know that it was suicide.


(Song goes to "Cotton Mouth River")

[Verse 1]
       C                         Am
Well I know that I shouldn't have done it
  F        G          C
I know it just wasn't right
                                   G           Am
Cause they got me backed up to the Cottonmouth river
      F           G       C
and I can't cross late at night.

[Chorus]
              G                             C
Yeah, there's lots of stories told about the Cottonmouth river,
F                        G
 they tell them time and again,
           C                          G        Am
 about the men who tried to cross that river by moonlight
F           G           C
 never were heard from again.

[Verse 2]
     C                        Am
Well if I had my life to live over,
     F         G         C
I'd've gone to work that day
                                G           Am
instead of going into town and shooting him down
       F            G         C
for a thing I never heard him say.

[Chorus]
              G                              C
Yeah, there's lots of stories told about the Cottonmouth river,
F                       G
they tell them time and again,
          C                           G        Am
about the men who tried to cross that river by moonlight
F          G          C
never were heard from again.

[Verse 3]
      C                            Am
Well, I'd just made it through the canebreak
    F        G          C
and got one foot in the mud.
                                       G               Am
I can hear the hounds a-bayin' but the snake around my ankle's
        F              G       C
telling me my running days are done.

[Chorus]
              G                              C
Yeah, there's lots of stories told about the Cottonmouth river,
F                       G
they tell them time and again,
          C                            G        Am
about the men who tried to cross that river by moonlight
F          G          C
never were heard from again.