Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson (VH1 Storytellers)
Don't Take your Guns to Town Lyrics:
[Nelson:] Hot chocolate.
[Cash:] You know it's O.K. if you use a, if you use a, ah...
[Nelson:] Not spiked with nothin'.
[Laughter.]
[Cash:] ...If you use a PD song, you know, a song that's in the public domain?
[Nelson:] Yeah.
[Cash:] Eve'rybody does that. You know, take a tune that, uh, has been passed down for
so many years that nobody remembers who, or knows who wrote the original version. Like,
um, I wrote a song called, "Don't Take Your Guns to Town," that, uh...
[Applause.]
[Cash:] Uh, thank you. ...that, um, was the tune to, um, part of it was the tune to an
old Irish song called, "Clancey Lowered the Boom." Remeber that song, "Clancey Lowered
the Boom"?
[Nelson:] Yeah, sure.
[Laughter.]
[Nelson:] It's one of my favorites.
[Cash laughs.]


[Cash:]
A young cowboy named Billy Joe,
[Applause.]
Grew restless on the farm.
[Applause.]
A boy filled with wonderlust,
Who really meant no harm.
He changed his clothes and shined his boots,
And combed his dark hair down.
And his mother cried as he walked out,
"Don't take your guns to town, son,
Leave your guns at home, Bill.
Don't take your guns to town."

He laughed and kissed his mom,
And said, "Your Billy Joe's a man.
I can shoot as quick and straight,
As anybody can.
But I wouldn't shoot without a cause.
I'd gun nobody down."
But she cried again as he rode away,
"Don't take your guns to town, son,
Leave your guns at home, Bill.
Don't take your guns to town."

He sang a song as on he rode,
His guns hung at his hips.
He rode into a cattle town,
A smile upon his lips.
He stopped and walked into a bar,
[ Find more Lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.org/6pvj ]
And laid his money down.
And his mother's words echoed again,
[Both:]
"Don't take your guns to town, son,
Leave your guns at home, Bill.
Don't take your guns to town."

[Cash:]
He drank his first strong liquor,
Then to calm his shaking hand,
And tried to tell himself,
At last he had become a man.
A dusty cowpoke at his side,
Began to laugh him down.
And his mother's words echoed again,
[Both:]
"Don't take your guns to town, son,
Leave your guns at home, Bill.
Don't take your guns to town."

[Instrumental break featuring Nelson on the guitar.]

[Cash:]
Filled with rage then, Billy Joe,
Reached for his gun to draw.
But the stranger drew his gun and fired,
Before he even saw.
As Billy Joe fell to the floor,
The crowd all gathered 'round.
And they wondered at his final words,
[Both:]
"Don't take your guns to town, son,
Leave your guns at home, Bill.
Don't take your guns to town."


[Appleause:]
[Nelson:] Thank you.
[Cash:] Thank you.
[Applause continues.]
[Cash:] Well, I mean the fact that, uh, the fact that I got the tune from an old Irish
folk song is really not the story of the song, is it?
[Nelson:] Well, no I didn't notice anything Irish about it that... Strictly Irish, you know.
[Cash:] (Chuckles.) You know the fast-draw craze was goin' around back in the late '50s.
There was Gunsmoke, and...
[Nelson:] I remember when the s... I remember when that song come out I was, uh, sellin'
encyclopedias in Fort Worth, I think.
[Snickers.]
[Cash:] I used to stand in front of the TV and try to approach Jim Arness.
[Nelson laughs.]
[Laughter:]
[Cash:] A grown man. You know, yeah. In my 20s.
[Cash & Nelson laugh.]
[Nelson:] He's hard to beat.
[Cash:] He's hard to beat. He's on video tape he's really hard to beat.

[DON'T TAKE YOUR GUNS TO TOWN]
[Written by: John R. Cash
Performed by: Johnny Cash
Appears on: VH1 Storytellers-1998 (Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson)]
Lyrics: Don't Take your Guns to Town, Johnny Cash &
Willie Nelson (VH1 Storytellers) [end]