BALLAD OF THUNDER ROAD
Recorded by Robert Mitchum
Written by Don Raye and Robert Mitchum
[G] Let me tell the story, I can [Em?] tell it [G] all
A-[D] bout the mountain boy who ran [G] illegal [Em?] al-co-[G] hol
His daddy made the whiskey, son, he [Em?] drove the [G] load
[D] When his engine roared, they called the [G] highway [Em?] THUNDER
[G]
ROAD.
Don't know if the Em fits or there's a D somewhere......or what
Sometimes into Asheville, sometimes Memphis town
The revenuers chased him but they couldn't run him down
Each time they thought they had him, his engine would explode
He'd go by like they were standin' still on THUNDER ROAD.
CHORUS
(And there was) [C] Thunder, thunder
O-[G] ver [Em?] THUNDER [G] ROAD
[D] Thunder was his engine
And white [G] lightning [Em?] was his [G] load
(And there was) [C] Moonshine, moonshine
To [G] quench the [Em?] Devil's [G] thirst
The [D] law they swore they'd get 'im
But the [[G] Devil [Em?] got 'im [G] first.
On the first of April, nineteen fifty-four
A Federal man sent word he'd better make his run no more
He said two hundred agents were cover-in' the state
Which-ever road he tried to take, they'd get him sure as fate.
Son, his Daddy told him, make this run your last
Your tank is filled with hundred-proof, you're all tuned up and gassed
Now, Don't take any chances, if you can't get through
I'd rather have you back again than all that mountain dew.
CHORUS
Roarin' out of Harlan, revvin' up his mill
He shot the gap at Cumberland, and screamed by Maynardville
With T-men on his taillights, roadblocks up ahead
The mountain boy took roads that even Angels feared to tread.
Blazin' right through Knoxville, out on Kingston Pike
Then right outside of Beardon, there they made the fatal strike
He left the road at ninety, that's all there is to say
The Devil got the moonshine and the mountain boy that day.
CHORUS
Law they never got him 'cause the Devil got 'im first.
source: Rand Nowell
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