Claude Dallas lyrics

Artist  : Ian Tyson 
Song : Claude Dallas



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In a land the Spanish once had called the
Northern Mystery,

Where rivers run and disappear the mustang still
is free.

By the Devil's wash and coyote hole in the wild
Owyhee Range

Somewhere in the sage tonight the wind calls out
his name.

Aye,aye,aye.



Come gather 'round me buckaroos and a story I
will tell

Of the  fugitive Claude Dallas who just broke out
of jail.

You might think this tale is history from before
the West was won,

But the events that I'll describe took place in
nineteen eighty-one.



He was born out in Virginia,left home when school
was through;

In the deserts of Nevada he became a
buckaroo,

And he learned the ways of cattle,and he learned
to sit a horse,

And he always packed a pistol,and he practiced
deadly force.



Then Claude he became a trapper,and he dreamed of
the bygone days,

And he studied bobcat logic and their wild and
silent ways

In the bloody runs near Paradise, in monitors
down south

Trapping cats and coyotes,living hand to
mouth.

Aye,aye,aye.



Then Claude took to livin' all alone out many
miles from town,

A friend--Jim Stevens--brought supplies and he
stayed to hang around.

That day two wardens--Pogue and Elms--rode into
check Claude out,

They were seeking violations and to see what
Claude's about.



Now Claude had hung some venison,he had a bobcat
pelt or two;

Pogue claimed they were out of season,he said
"Dallas,you're all thru."

But Dallas would not leave his camp.He refused to
go to town.

As the wind howled throught the bull-camp they
stared each other down.



Its hard to say what happend next,perhaps we'll
never know,

They were gonna take Claude in to jail,and he
vowed he'd never go.

Jim Stevens heard the gunfire,and when he turned
around

Bill Pogue was falling backwards,Conley Elms he
fell face down.

Aye,aye,aye.



Jim stevens walked on over;there was a gun near
Bill Pogue's hand.

It was hard to say who drawn his first,but Claude
had made his stand.

Claude said "I am justified Jim,they were
gonna cut me down,

And a man's got a right to hang some meat

When he's livin' this far from town."



It took eighteen men and fifteen months to
finally run Claude down.

In the sage outside of Paradise they drove him to
the ground.

Convicted up in Idaho--manslaughter by
decree--

Thirty years at maximum,but soon Claude would
break free.



There's two sides two this story,there may be no
right or wrong,

The lawman and the renegade have graced a
thousand songs.

The story is an old one.Conclusion's hard to
draw,

But Claude's out in the sage tonight he may be
the last outlaw.

Aye,aye,aye.



In a land the Spanish once had called the
Northern Mystery,

Where rivers run and disappear the mustang still
is free.

By the Devil's wash and the coyote hole in the
wild Owyhee Range

Somewhere in the sage tonight the wind calls out
his name.

Aye,aye,aye