John Hardy Was A Desperate Little Man chords by The Carter Family

Chords with lyrics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDVNRJ227lU

Recorded 1928 by the original Carter family, Maybelle, Sara and AP

Introduction:
C majorC FF  C majorC  FF   C majorC   FF   C majorC   G7G7   C majorC

Verse 1:
   FF      C majorC
John Hardy was a desperate little man,
  FF           C majorC
He carried two guns every day.
  FF         C majorC
He shot a man on the West Virginia line,
        C majorC     G7G7       C majorC   G7G7 C majorC
And you oughta seen John Hardy getting away.

Verse 2:
   FF          C majorC
John Hardy, he got to the East Stone Bridge,
  FF            C majorC
He thought that he would be free.
  FF          C majorC
And up stepped a man and took him by the arm,
     C majorC       G7G7    C majorC   G7G7 C majorC
Saying, “Johnny, walk along with me !”

Verse 3:
  FF             C majorC
He sent for his poppy and his mommy, too,
  FF        C majorC
to come and go his bail.
  FF        C majorC
But money won't go a murdering case,
     C majorC      G7G7      C majorC   G7G7 C majorC
and they locked John Hardy back in jail.

Verse 4:
   FF        C majorC
John Hardy, he had a pretty little girl,
   FF            C majorC
that dress that she wore was blue,
  FF               C majorC
as she came skipping through the old jail hall,
     C majorC        G7G7   C majorC   G7G7 C majorC
saying, “Poppy, I've been true to you!”

Verse 5:
   FF        C majorC
John Hardy, he had another little girl,
   FF            C majorC
that dress that she wore was red.
  FF             C majorC
She followed John Hardy to his hanging ground,
    C majorC       G7G7    C majorC   G7G7 C majorC
saying “Poppy, I would rather be dead !”

Verse 6:
   FF             C majorC
I've been to the East, and I've been to the West ,
   FF           C majorC
I've been this wide world around,
   FF             C majorC
I've been to the river and I've been baptized,
      C majorC   G7G7   C majorC   G7G7 C majorC
and now I'm on my hanging ground.

Verse 7:
   FF            C majorC
John Hardy walked out on his scaffold high,
     FF             C majorC
with his loving little wife by his side.
    FF            C majorC
And the last word she heard poor Johnno say,
   C majorC        G7G7      C majorC   G7G7 C majorC
“I'll meet you in that sweet by-and-by. “

Outro: