down the river

I was eighteen
 My brother was twenty-one
 One saturday evening
 When all the work was done
 We went down to the river
 Had some trot lines to run
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 My brother walter
 Had a fight the week before
 Knocked a boy named wilson
 Through the pool hall door
 They said you don't mess with wilson
 Unless you want a war
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 We put the boat in the water
 I made the engine run
 Loaded the lantern
 Against the sinking sun
 And my brother walter
 Was loading his gun
 And we went down the river
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 Down past the coal docks
 We were running our lines
 Heard some drunken boaters
 Racing up behind
 It was Wilson and his cousin
 They had trouble on their minds
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 They passed on by us
 Probably going to tend their pots
 We headed up the river
 With the fish we'd caught
 But before we made the landing
 I thought I heard a shot
 Back down the river
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 My brother Walter fell over the side
 I couldn't find him no matter how I tried
 And looked along the bank
 But I couldn't find where they'd hide
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 They drug the river
 They searched it up and down
 Couldn't find his body
 So they decided that he'd drowned
 But I knew better
 And Wilson bragged around town
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 So one night I floated down
 Right above wilson's shack
 I hid in the woods
 Till I saw him walk out back
 I put a bullet in his head
 And dropped him in his tracks
 And we went down the river
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 Down below the trestle
 Where the water runs slow
 I chained him to an anvil
 And then I let him go
 And five years later
 I ain't told a soul
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 And I ain't done much fishing
 I hardly wet a line
 The death of my brother
 Is still heavy on my mind
 I've been thinking wilson's cousin
 Better find a place to hide
 'Cause I'm going down the river
 Yeah I'm going down the river