The Ballad of the Forty Dollars - Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings

The man who preached the funeral
Said it really was a simple way to die ...
He laid down to rest one afternoon
And never opened up his eyes ...
They hired me and Fred and Joe
To dig the grave and carry up some chairs ...
It took us seven hours
And I guess we must have drunk a case of beer. ...

I guess I ought to go and watch them put 'im down
But I don't own a suit
And anyway when they start talkin' about
The fire in Hell, well, I get spooked
So, I'll just sit here in my truck
And act like I don't know 'im when they pass
Anyway, when they're all through
I've got to go to work and mow the grass.

Well, here they come and who's that
Ridin' in that big ol' shiny limousine
Mmh! look at all that chrome, I do believe
That that's the sharpest thing I've seen
That must belong to his great uncle
Someone said he owned a big ol' farm
When they get parked I'll mosey down
and look it over, that won't do no harm.

Well, that must be the widow in the car
And would you take a look at that
That sure is a pretty dress
You know some women do look good in black
Well, he's not even in the ground
And they say that his truck is up for sale
They say she took it pretty hard
But you can't tell too much behind the veil.

Well, listen ain't that pretty
When the bugler plays the Military "TAPS"
I think that when you's in the war
They always hide 'n play a song like that
Well, here I am and there they go
And I guess you'd just call it my bad luck
I hope he rests in peace, the trouble is
The fellow owes me forty bucks.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• The
• Ballad
• of
• the
• Forty
• Dollars
• Johnny
• Cash
• Waylon
• Jennings
• Heroes

[75freeman]

waylon & johnny were 2 of the greatest singers of all time & together they were perfect...

[kitki91]

hahahaha this song has some good lines in it.......love Waylon and love Johnny...two of the greatest!!!!

[mannfm11]

This was an old tom t hall song. maybe billy joe shaver wrote it

[pepsi1569]

i hope the feller rest in peace but he owes us forty bucks

[uglymoon78]

@goober1973 well, his voice was very special, and I think he sang quite a few songs very well, in fact better than most singers could, especially his own songs + some Kristofferson songs. But I guess he couldn't have sung "My way" very well...

[crimsondagger1]

You see what we have here is something long forgotten and in danger of becoming only a memory. It's called real music.

[msskipyoung]

A Tom T. Hall classic well done by Johnny and Waylon.

[krustybiker]

How much's that truck going for? Ha ha ha. Jennings and Cash together, though. It didn't get much better. And singing Tom T Hall lines? Wow!

[WaspSnG]

@gyrgrls What the hell does that whole thing got to do with what I commented and what the hell do you want me to learn? You're talking about ex girls and stuff, I don't even want to know that bullshit, I just want to listen to the song. How can you respond in such a weird way to a totaly different thing. Are you mentally ill or delusional??

[WaspSnG]

@gyrgrls I only responded to a person that said: "The man isnt even in the ground yet and they tell me the mans trucks up for sale.....lol". I already responded to that with: "If you're talking about Cash or Jennings, they're both dead" and after I heard this was a line in the song, I corrected myself. I know a lot of Cash/Jennings songs, but it was the first time I listened to this song. I don't know why you're giving me history lessons and say I should give both of them respect.

[gyrgrls]

Ik ben koesteren in het nagloeien van deze twee grote mannen,

die waren het bewijs leven, dat muziek is beter dan seks.