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