He rode out from Old Fort Hays alone
Thinkin
Then he was gone
James Butler Hickock was his name
He never knew just why they called him
or
The youngest son of a Baptist preacher man
His mother said
or you
and he told her that he wouldn
but they say that farther West it
So he started off across the endless plains
and he soon became a jack of every trade
But some men are born not made
Nichols came to Springfield riding high
looking for a dime-store Galahad
but Bill was all he had
Six foot three in a tall Prince Albert frock
He let his blond hair flow down behind
Two ivory-handled pistols at his side
The lies they built a legend
They stared at him like the Son of God come down
That usually meant a good night on the town
Agnes Lake was a beauty so they say
She rendezvoused with Bill in old Cheyenne
and soon he won her hand
Nearly blind he married her that spring
Their love like fragrant blossoms grew
But deep inside she knew
and he told her that he wouldn
where a reputation keeps a man alive
But she never saw that man again alive
Jack McCall was a drifter and a bum
He shot Bill in the back of the head
Aces and eights the dead man
The legend and the man are not the same
but the man died in Deadwood all alone
The legend still lives on
