Standard (EADGBE)

My name is Joe Roberts I work for the state

 I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number eight

 I always done an honest job as honest as I could

 I got a brother named Frankie and Frankie ain't no good

Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down

 I get a call on the shortwave Frankie's in trouble downtown

 Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away

 But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way

Yeah me and Frankie laughin' and drinkin'

 Nothin' feels better than blood on blood

Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band

 Played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"

I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would

  (or )

Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good

Well Frankie went in the army back in 1965

I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife

But them wheat prices kept on droppin'

till it was like we were gettin' robbed

Frankie came home in `68, and me, I took this job

Yeah we're laughin' and drinkin'

Nothin' feels better than blood on blood

Takin' turns dancin' with Maria

as the band Played "Night of the Johnstown Flood"

I catch him when he's strayin'

teach him how to walk that line

Man turns his back on his family he ain't no friend of mine

Well the night was like any other, I got a call `bout quarter to nine

There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line

There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad bleedin' hard from his head

There was a girl cry'n' at a table and it was Frank, they said

Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights

Well I musta done one hundred and ten through Michigan county that night

It was out at the crossroads, down `round Willow bank

Seen a Buick with Ohio plates. Behind the wheel was Frank

Well I chased him through them county roads

Till a sign said "Canadian border five miles from here"

I pulled over the side of the highway and watched his tail-lights disappear