"Will James" lyrics - RAMBLIN' JACK ELLIOTT

When I was but a small boy, pa bought me many books
About the creatures on the river banks, and the sins of ole sea cooks

But the one I never left behind, were the old forgotten gains
Were the tale of wild and windy slopes about a man they called Will James

And his race to reach the sun set was a high and lonesome time
Like a coyote always looking back he left no tracks behind
So I memorized these pictures and it's still the very best
If whiskey was his mistress his true love was the west

I remember up on dead man creek about 30 years and more
I hired on to break in colts which I'd never done before
Just a city kid, I asked myself Now what would Will James do
And you know it was the damnedest thing but it kind of got me through

And his race to reach the sun set was a high and lonesome time
Like a coyote always looking back he left no tracks behind
So I memorized these pictures and it's still the very best
If whiskey was his mistress his true love was the west