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An Outlaw Preserved In Arsenic

by Misk Hills Mountain Rambler III

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about

The author SC Maxfield wrote a fantastic book about the true story of an outlaw 'Oklahoma Bill'. It was called "The consequences of preserving outlaws in arsenic" . . . I couldn't get the imagery out of my mind . . . It simply demanded a song . . . ENJOY!

lyrics

An Outlaw Preserved In Arsenic

Never trust a man with a wandering eye
Robbing a bank beneath a Kansas sky
Dodgy dynamite and a little bad karma
Fled to Henry's Farm in Oklahoma

I robbed a freight train down in Pawhuska
Stole the heart of an Injun's daughter
They called me the legend Oklahoma Bill
But Elmer McReady had the bitterest pill

Chorus
I'm an outlaw preserved in arsenic
I feel like an old has been
Snapped my arm off in the ghost train
Then they painted me luminous green

The freight train it carried no gold
I'd fallen for a trick like hills so old
Sheriff T Stringer well he shot me down
Thirteen bullets in a one horse town

Died face first in the chicken shit
My body got preserved in arsenic
They say that a legend never dies
Well Oklahoma Bill got mummified

Chorus

Put me in a circus with the phantoms and freaks
The locals paid dollar to take a peek
The human condition truly is sick
Now I'm just a corpse preserved in arsenic

With the circus I rode the prairie and the plain
The spirit of a legend now gone insane
Then they hung me up inside that little ghost train
Snapped off my arm and made me luminous green

Chorus

credits

released August 3, 2012
(c) Taylorsongsmithery

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Misk Hills Mountain Rambler III image

Misk Hills Mountain Rambler III Nottingham, UK

An absurdist 'Skiffle Poet' with a banjolele and a washboard . . . Bagthorpe's only 'Skiffle/Folk' protest singer . . . Adversely influenced by Ivor Cutler, Tom Waits and Johnny Dowd . . . chain sawing his way through the madness of life . . . this is NOT X-factor . . . Don't ask for a cover unless you want one thats 100 years old! There are songs about tractors, hangings, the Devil, We ... more

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