Rhymes of the Renegades

If you listen close when the hot wind blows
Down the dust filled streets of old Tombstone
You might hear an old rhyme ringin'
Of the legends who walked in their long black coats
And their high top boots and their .45 colts
Right in to this song I'm singing
That the ballad mongers made
Into the rhymes of the renegades
Way up in Dakota by the Deadwood moon
Wild Bill's ghost haunts number 10 saloon
Where a coward came to get him
Bill held a dead man's hand of aces and eights
With his back to the door he tempted fate
Poor Bill never knew what hit him
Gamblin' his life away

To the ryhmes of the renegades
And in all of the towns too tough to die
Their dancin' up on Boot Hill tonight
Laughin' at the movies that Hollywood made
Dancing to the rhymes of the renegades
And Billy the Kid is laughing right out loud
At how they turned him into a hero somehow
Who'll cast a third stone at his well known grave
While chanting these rhymes of the renegades
Way out in California by a long dark bend
With a mask and duster blowing in the wind
Black Bart still stands there waitin'
And out in El Paso the thunder cloud rolls
Like John Wesley Hardin's guns long ago
And the west still loves to hate him
For his legend will not fade
From the rhymes of the renegades
And all of the robbers who rode through hell
And danced on the rope when the gallows fell
Their demons are still with us
And the vigilantes do more evil than good
When they masquerade around like Robin Hood


And they ride at night to get us
From the Owl Hoot trails and shade
Come the rhymes of the renegades
And could it be true that some became outlaws
Holdin' on to the last to a long lost cause?
Diggin' their graves with a silver spade
Singing hymns and rhymes to the renegades
Some call it a mystery when Waco burns

From history they refuse to learn
They turn their backs 'til the movie deal's made
Deaf to the rhymes of the renegades
They'll burn down up to heaven and stay...
Cause they weed out laws on the churches and banks...
They enforce the laws that were tailor made
They won't hear the rhymes of the renegades
They ignore the dark side of humanity
They're living the illusion that we're all free
They'll never know how many could be saved
From the lessons and the rhymes of the renegades



Nag, nag, nag...