The riff just repeats, very simple:

Riff: C C G G D D G :

I lay my head on the railroad tracks
Waiting for the double E
The rail-road don't run no more
Poor, poor pitiful me

Chorus 
C     G    D       G
Poor, poor, pitiful me
C     G    D       G
Poor, poor, pitiful me
C           G           D      G
These young girls won't let me be
C                  D
Lord have mercy on me 
D
Woe is me

Well I met a girl in West Hollywood
And I anin't namin' names
But she really worked me over good
She was just like Jesse James 
She really worked me over good
She was a credit to her gender
She put me through some changes, lord
Sort of like a Waring blender

Chorus
C     G    D       G
Poor, poor, pitiful me
C     G    D       G
Poor, poor, pitiful me
C           G           D      G
These young girls won't let me be
C                  D
Lord have mercy on me 
D
Woe is me

Solo (12 bars)

These young girls won't let me be
C                  D
Lord have mercy on me 
D
Woe is me

Solo (12 bars)

C                  D
Lord have mercy on me 
D
Woe is me

break (4 bars)

I met a girl at the Rainbow Bar
She asked me if I'd beat her
She took me back to the Hyatt House
I don't want to talk about it


Poor, poor pitiful me, poor, poor pitiful me...repeat, What, never mind; whoo hoos...fade

Linda Ronstadt version is in F# with some lyric changes.