(Neil Morris)
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I'll tell you about Jesse and Frank James
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My grandfather was personally acquainted with them
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My grandfather lived in the southern edge of Baxter County, Arkansas
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And they stayed all night with him lots of nights
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And my grandfather told me there was a lot of those robberies that was layed to Jesse and Frank James
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And he knew they didn't do it 'cause they was at his place when it happened
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But you couldn't tell the public that
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When they get their minds made up that somebody's done something
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Why the public's gonna stick to it anyway
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My grandfather, he knew them as boys
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And they could come to his place and go without anybody paying attention 'cause nobody expected them
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Down in Arkansas, see, 'cause they was from Missouri
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Now that's the story that my grandfather told me when I was just a boy
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And he said that Frank James, at that World's Fair,
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I think it was 1901 in St. Louis him and Jesse were both there
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My grandfather and Frank James were together there
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And that Frank James offered to bring Jesse there alive
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He said that the man that the Ford boys killed wasn't Jesse James at all
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But the fellow they killed was just about the size of Jesse and he was red headed
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And he wasn't any relation to the Fords
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See, Jesse James was a known cousin to Charles and Bob Ford
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That's what my grandfather said
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He said Jesse and Frank were not even in that part of the country when that fellow was killed
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And the Ford boys, why, they collected a thousand dollars for killing Jesse James!
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Now the song says that the Ford boys killed Jesse
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None of us up here in the mountains believe that, no sir!
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JESSE JAMES (Another version)
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Ry Cooder |