| These old bones will tell your story
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| These old bones will never lie
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| These old bones will tell you surely
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| What you can’t see with your eye
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| These old bones, I shake and rattle
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| These old bones, I toss and roll
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| And it’s all in where they scatter
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| Tells you what the future holds
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| Oh, she lived up on the mountain
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| Eleven miles or so from town
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| With a one-eyed cat named Wink,
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| A billy goat and a blue tick hound
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| Her graying hair was braided
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| And wrapped around her head
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| And her dress was long and faded
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| And her home a rusty shed
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| In a little pouch of burlap
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| Tied with a piece of twine
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| There were bones all shapes and sizes
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| Gathered through the course of time
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| She’d throw them out before you
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| She swore that she could see
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| The present, past and future
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| She could ready your destiny
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| Everybody knew about her
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| Came to get their fortune read
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| Concerning health and wealth and power
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| Who to love and when to wed
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| Well, I just like helpin' people
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| I’m just glad that I could help
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| Why, I know everybody’s secrets
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| But I keep it to myself
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| These old bones will tell your story
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| These old bones will never lie
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| These old bones will tell you surely
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| What you can’t see with your eye
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| These old bones, I shake and rattle
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| These old bones, I toss and roll
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| And it’s all in where they scatter
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| Tells you what the future holds
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| Some called her witchy woman
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| Some said she was insane
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| Some said she was a prophet
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| Still everybody came
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| Just because a body’s different
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| Well, that don’t make ‘em mad
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| Well, they’ve crucified a many
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| For the special gifts they’ve had
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| I had often heard about her,
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| Dreamed about her now and then
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| For I, too, was clairvoyant,
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| Came about when I was ten
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| I was fascinated with her
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| And the things I’d heard about
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| And I knew some day I’d meet her,
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| And one day it came about
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| Well, I know’d that you ‘uz a’comin'
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| I could feel it in my bones
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| These old bones have also told me That I won’t be here for long
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| Did you know that you ‘uz adopted?
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| Did you know you once’t was mine?
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| But the county took you from me,
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| Said I wasn’t right in mind
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| But I just know’d I had to see you
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| ‘Fore these bones was laid to rest
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| So I conjured up a message
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| It must’a worked, I guess
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| This gift runs in the family
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| I know you also know
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| And I passed this gift on to you
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| These old bones, they’re just for show
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| These old bones will tell your story
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| These old bones will never lie
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| These old bones will tell you surely
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| How to live and when you’ll die
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| These old bones, I shake and rattle
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| These old bones, I toss and roll
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| And it’s all in where they scatter
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| Tells you what the future holds
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| I held her hand while she was dyin'
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| And with the funeral through
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| I headed on back up the mountain
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| For Billy, Wink and Blue
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| And that little pouch of burlap
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| With those bones so worn and old
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| She give me somethin' special
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| Now every time I throw
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| These old bones will tell your story
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| These old bones will never lie
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| These old bones will tell you surely
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| What you can’t see with your eye
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| These old bones, I shake and rattle
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| These old bones, I toss and roll
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| And it’s all in how they scatter
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| Tells you what the future holds
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| Now I can’t tell you what you want to hear
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| I just tell you what I see
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| It’s these old bones a’talkin'
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| Blame it on them; |
| don’t pack it on me
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| It’s just like that time that there boy died
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| Up at the sawmill
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| Well, I know’d who done it, but I never said
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| And I know’d when somebody is a cheatin'
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| Or when somebody’s baby was gonna be born dead
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| But unless somebody just plain out and asked me Well, I just figured there ain’t no point goin' around actin' like you know
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| everything, just ‘cause you might.
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| Ah, you know girl I w |