Hank Snow Ballad of one Eyed Mike Lyrics:
This is the tale that was told to me by the man
with the crystal eye As I smoked my pipe in the
camp-fire light and the Glories swept the sky As
the Northlights gleamed and curved and streamed
and the bottle of hooch was dry

A man once aimed that my life be shamed and
wrought me a deathly wrong I vowed one day I would
well repay but the heft of his hate was strong He
thonged me East and he thonged me West he harried
me back and forth Till I fled in fright from his
peerless spite to the bleak bald-headed North

And there I lay and for many a day I hatched plan
after plan For a golden haul of the wherewithal to
crush and to kill my man And there I strove and
there I clove through the drift of icy streams And
there I fought and there I sought for the
pay-streak of my dreams

So twenty years with their hopes and fears and
smiles and tears and such Went by and left me long
bereft of hope of the Midas touch About as fat as
a chancel rat and lo! despite my will In the weary
fight I had clean lost sight of the man I sought
to kill

Twas so far away that evil day when I prayed to
the Prince of Gloom For the savage strength and
the sullen length of life to work his doom Nor
sign nor word had I seen or heard and it happed so
long ago My youth was gone and my memory wan and I
willed it even so

It fell one night in the waning light by the
Yukon's oily flow I smoked and sat as I marvelled
at the sky's port-winey glow Till it paled away to
an absinthe gray and the river seemed to shrink
All wobbly flakes and wriggling snakes and goblin
eyes a-wink

'Twas weird to see and it wildered me in a queer
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hypnotic dream Till I saw a spot like an inky blot
come floating down the stream It bobbed and swung
it sheered and hung it romped round in a ring It
seemed to play in a tricksome way it sure was a
merry thing

In freakish flights strange oily lights came
fluttering round its head Like butterflies of a
monster size then I knew it for the Dead Its face
was rubbed and slicked and scrubbed as smooth as a
shaven pate In the silver snakes that the water
makes it gleamed like a dinner-plate

It gurgled near and clear and clear and large and
large it grew It stood upright in a ring of light
and it looked me through and through It weltered
round with a woozy sound and ere I could retreat
With the witless roll of a sodden soul it wantoned
to my feet

And here I swear by this Cross I wear I heard that
floater say I am the man from whom you ran the man
you sought to slay That you may note and gaze and
gloat and say revenge is sweet In the grit and
grime of the river's slime I am rotting at your
feet

The ill we rue we must e'en undo though it rive us
bone from bone So it came about that I sought you
out for I prayed I might atone I did you wrong and
for long and long I sought where you might live
And now you're found though I'm dead and drowned I
beg you to forgive

So sad it seemed and its cheek-bones gleamed and
its fingers flicked the shore And it lapped and
lay in a weary way and its hands met to implore
That I gently said poor restless dead I would
never work you woe Though the wrong you rue you
can ne'er undo I forgave you long ago

Then wonder-wise I rubbed my eyes and I woke from
a horrid dream The moon rode high in the naked sky
and something bobbed in the stream It held my
sight in a patch of light and then it sheered from
the shore It dipped and sank by a hollow bank and
I never saw it more

This was the tale he told to me that man so warped
and gray Ere he slept and dreamed and the
camp-fire gleamed in his eye in a wolfish way That
crystal eye that raked the sky in the weird
Auroral ray
Lyrics: Ballad of one Eyed Mike, Hank Snow [end]