The Long Black Veil
The Band

(Mary Jane Wilken and Danny Dill)

from the album Music from Big Pink 


G
Ten years ago on a cold dark night
 D                             C         G
someone was  killed 'neath the town hall light 
      
There were few at the scene and they all did agree 
         D                    C        G
That the man who ran looked a lot like me

The judge said "Son, what is your alibi?   
If  you were somewhere else then you won't have to die" 
I spoke not a word although it meant my life
For I  had been in the arms of my best friend's wife

          C     G          C          G
She walks these hills in a long black veil 
C         G               C           G
visits my grave where the night winds wail
                      C       G  
Nobody knows, no, and nobody sees 
C      D         C  G
Nobody knows but me

The scaffold was high and eternity neared
She  stands in the crowd and sheds not a tear 
Now sometimes at night when the cold wind moans
And that long black veil whispers o'er my bones

She walks these hills in a long black veil 
Visits my grave where the night winds wail
Nobody knows, no, and nobody sees 
Nobody knows but me

--------
Lefty Frizzell put it on the country charts at # 6 in 1959. 
Sammi Smith brought it back to # 26 in 1974.
Also done by Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, and Bobby Bare.

    Source: geocities.com/hollywood/academy/3225/60s_and_70s/The_Band

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