Alabama home and the dirt where Daddy broke his back in labor,
Working for the man, white folks they all live high on the hog.
Oh Willie’s seventeen and people shake their heads when he goes by,
Act just like a man and the only friend he’s got a one-eyed dog.
Look out Willie boy, don’t raise your head so high, big man gonna get
you by and by.

Go lock him in the jail, oh the way he walks it makes the blood run
angry,
He’s a living with a girl, skin is white as snowfall on the hill.
So the sheriff come around, when he kicked the dog, well Willie’s mind
went crazy.
Left him on the ground, white man that he didn’t mean to kill.
Oh Look out Willie boy, done laid a white man down, big man gonna get
you by and by.

Oh, third day on the road, Willie heard the hounddogs all a calling,
Made him think of home and he clear forgot what he was running for.
Kneeled down by the road just like he was somewhere years ago,
One shot brought him down, just as he was reaching for the dog.
Oh Look out Willie boy, don’t raise your head so low, big man gonna get
you by and by.

They laid him in the ground, just a muddy hole, the boy don’t get no
preacher.
No stone marked the grave, no man come on Sunday there to mourn.
Well the story’s back in town how Willie boy he wouldn’t run no more.
And there where Willie lies a one-eyed dog he cries to nearly dawn.
Hey Look out Willie boy, don’t raise your head so high, big man gonna
get you by and by.
Big man gonna get you by and by.

Submitted by Angela M. Ruley

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