Standard (EADGBE)

 By the banks of the river, where the willows hang down

 And the wild birds all warble with a low moaning sound

 Down in the hollow, where the waters run cold

 It was there I first listened to the lies that she told.

V2

  scale run

Now I lay on my bed and I can see her sweet face

 The past I remember, time can not erase

 The letter you wrote me, it was written in shame

 And I know that your conscience still echoes my name

V3

E A E Now the nights

so long, your sorrows run deep

 And nothing is worse, than a night without sleep

 I’ll walk out alone and look at the sky

 To empty to sing, to lonesome to cry

V4

 If the ladies were blackbirds and the ladies were Thrushes

 I’d lie there for hours, in the chilly cold marshes

 If the ladies were squirrels, with a high bushy tails

 I’d fill up my shotgun with rock salt and nails