A5      C5      G5      A5      G5      A5       E5      G5

A5      C5      G5      A5

I went down to Taneytown, I went down to Taneytown

      A5      G5      A5      E5 G5

To see what I could see

      A5      C5      G5      A5

My mama told me never go, I?m damned near twenty-two years old

      A5      G5      A5      E5 G5

Some times I feel this hollow swallowing me.

Ma went off to Gettysburg, her and that new beau of hers, I snuck off after dark.

It?s a long way down the Canny Road, the stars were bright & the moon was low,

Down where the blacktop highway starts.

Chorus:

I went down to Taneytown, I went down to Taneytown,

I went down to see what I could see.

Now everybody stared at me, you?d think that they ain?t never seen,

A colored boy before.

Well, they jumped at me and they called me names, 

they?d a whupped me sure, but the sheriff came,

I slipped off and ran through the drygoods store.

I ran down Division Street, but some of them boys followed me,

Down to the railroad track.

There was four of them & I came five, but I got my old Randall knife,

I cut that boy & I never did look back.

Chorus

Across the fields & woods I run, like a bullet from a rabbit gun, 

Back home to my bed.

Ma came back from Gettysburg, her and that new beau of hers,

Boy you look like hell, was all she said.

A month went by without a word, till someone down in the hollow heard,

About that boy they hung.

He begged those men to spare his life, but I dropped my bloody Randall knife,

He picked it up, so they thought he was the one.

Repeat chorus twice, second time insert last line, "I ain?t going back there anymore."