I Killed Robert Johnson

On a clarksdale night, humid and hot

When your bottle and your blues are all that you've got

I didn't want to do it, but he gave me no choice

I poisoned the whiskey that coated his voice

Guitar on the floor and my girl on his lap

So I topped off the bottle with more than a cap

When you poison men with alcohol, oh, the liquor gets the blame

And I killed robert johnson, just the same

I hired that colored boy to play his guitar blues

To entertain the white folks and I'd pay him in booze

Oh but it turned sour quickly when he went for my wife

Even sonny boy williamson couldn't save his life

Don't ever knock a bottle out another man's hand

He got a slow painful ending under mississippi land

Now I'm not saying he deserved it, oh, for crossing the line

But I killed robert johnson, with strychnine

I'm lowdown, I'm lowdown, I'm lowdown

But he's dying

Oh I've kept my mouth shut awaiting my fate

It's trapped in the history of 1938

And as the men that knew robert all died of old age

My secret grew lonelier like his music on a stage

I may never tell the public the reason he's dead

Only the hell hound can pull this truth from my head

I'm not saying I regret it after all of these years

But I killed robert johnson

I'm lowdown, I'm lowdown, I'm lowdown

But he's dying