John Brown left a note and it did say
ain’t a jailhouse keep me more then one day
He left it in his cell at Angola State
he said he had to go, it was getting late
He’d done time from Houston up to Reno
but he never stayed long, he always had to go
He was a highway man who stole a little food
drank a little whiskey and had his bad moods

John Brown left a note and it did say
“Ain’t a jailhouse keep me more then one day”
I met him on a Kansas chaingang
he took off running while the boys sang
“John Brown’s like a ghost in the wind,
don’t know where he’s going, only where he been”
He always finds a someplace he can hide
It may be cold and it’s usually outside

John Brown left a note and it did say
“Ain’t a jail house keep me more then one day”
No one seems to know where he ever got
some say he’s still running others say he got shot
some say he got married even had a kid
I say he’s the man no matter what he did
Anyone that can beat the system is alright
he never hurt a man that didn’t want to fight.