Author/Artist: Loudon Wainwright III
Title: Samson & the Warden
Album: Album II
Transcribed by: Ramsay Wallace
Email: RamsayW1@aol.com


 Loudon Wainwright III - 'Samson & the Warden'

G			         D
Once I got locked up in a dirty old jail
	G		          D
The coffee was cold & the corn bread was stale
       C			D
But I didn't cry, no I tried to be brave
	     C				D
Till the warden tried to give me a haircut & a shave
      G				    D
Warden you can keep me for a year in your jail
          C				D      G
But don't shave my beard or cut my ponytail

All you really found was some stems & some seeds
I'll give you my earrings & I'll give you my beads
I don't mind wearing one of your prison suits
I'll give you my bell-bottoms & my cowboy boots
Don't shave off my beard don't cut my hair
It took me two years to grow it & it just isn't fair.

Listen to me warden, won't you listen to me beg
Chop off a toe or foot or take a whole leg
I'm down on my knees man, you're robbing my strength
Take it easy warden won't you leave me some length
I want a lawyer warden, I want a priest
Take it easy warden leave the moustache at least

But the warden didn't hear a single word that I said
He cut off all the hair on my face & my head
But one someone's gonna come & put up my bail
& I'm gonna walk out of this dirty old jail
& the warden whose the reason I'm shedding my tears
I'm gonna send him a snapshot in two or three years