CHORUS
Ian & Sylvia (about 1964 - Northern Journey)    this posting by Rick in Macon
Song starts with the chorus

CHORUS:
F         G7
Four rode by,
F            G7
Rode through here;
        C         F        G7         C  
Three Mclean boys and that wild Alex Hare.
F          G7
They were armed,
F        G7
All were armed,
       C     F        G7         C 
It was them. I'd have known them anywhere.

1ST VERSE:
   C               G7              F             C
Oh Willie Palmer's stallion was no twenty dollar cayuse,
    C                   G7          F                  C
And when the wild ones stole him he hightailed it into town
C              G7               F             C 
Usher in those days was keeping order in the district
                       G7                 F                   C
But before he'd ridden thirty miles the McLean boys shot him down

CHORUS

2ND VERSE:
  C                 G7            F                  C    
A shepherd known as Kelly saw the wild bunch as they passed
     C               G7        F                  C
They shot him with a rifle and took his watch and chain
C              G7                    F            C
When the posse found them they were in the lonely cabin
  C                 G7              F              C
A hunger took their fight away and no one else was slain

CHORUS

3RD VERSE:
     C                G7       F              C
They hung the boys in January eighteen eighty one,
    C                   G7                   F                  C
The first time in that province that they'd strung up brothers three;
        C                   G7                 F            C
And the son killed nineteen Germans 'cross the seas back in seventeen
C                     G7                   F        C  
One thing that's for damned sure they're a wild ass family

FINAL CHORUS

Rick in Macon  (some say the last phrase is wise OLD family)