Georgia Blood [German translation]

I step across the railroad track

Climb a fence and walk out through a field

And for a while I breathe fresh air

And feel that sun, I can't believe it's real

For eighteen months I've been locked up

Iron bars is all that I could see

I ran away from prison

I've been in the Nashville penitentiary

I came up here from Georgia

Everyone said I had talent, I could write

Nashville's where the money is

And they all said my songs were out of sight

So I caught a bus in Waycross

I enjoyed the ride, a quiet winter night

Then straight to 16th avenue to show

The kind of songs that I could write

Well, the first door that I opened

Was a wrong one and it's kinda like a dream

I met a music man that shook my hand

And said we'd both make quite a team

He handed me a contract

With a lotta words I didn't understand

But he told me not to worry

I could trust him 'cause he was an honest man

He told me I should get a job

So I hired on in a restaurant here in town

Wasn’t very long 'til I heard

Some of my songs being played around

But he told me they weren’t selling

Though a ballad I wrote went to number one

He said, keep on a-writin', keep your job

And bring me songs that you have done

I kept my job, kept writin'

'Cause I really thought I’d find that pot of gold

But the story that I’m telling

Is a story that’s been told and then retold

He said he spent the money

I had made promotin' songs, he really tried

It got so I could never see him

When he saw me comin', he would hide

I waited for my money,

Why it never came I couldn’t understand

'Til one day I saw him in a car

That musta cost at least ten grand

Then finally I caught him

And he said: "I’m sorry kid, you’ve had bad luck".

And he said, "Go back to Georgia".

Then he laughed and handed me a hundred bucks

I took the hundred dollars

In a flash a thought was burning in my mind

I had a big surprise for him

And he’d regret he stole songs that were mine

My temper flared and I told myself

An hour from now he wouldn’t be alive

Then I ran to a pawn shop

Where I bought an automatic forty-five

My temper got the best of me

For a while there was no guiding star

There was no one to talk to

So I walked back and I waited by his car

It wasn’t very long until I saw

Him walking to the parking lot

Then I stepped out beside him and I said:

"Would you look here, see what I’ve got!"

His face was white as powder

And he dropped the cigarette he tried to light

He said, "Don’t pull that trigger.

Lord have mercy, please, don’t kill me here tonight!"

"I’ll give you all your money.

If you’ll wait until tomorrow, then you’ll see".

But a Georgia boy don’t like a thief

And there was too much Georgia blood in me

So I pulled the trigger

And the bullet hit him squarely in the chest

Then I shot him one more time

For every button sewed upon his vest

It was then and only then I realized

The awful wrong that I had done

In disbelief I stood there 'til somebody

Walked up and they took the gun

I wish I’d never wrote a song

Or ever heard of Nashville, Tennessee

I wish that I were home in Georgia

But I guess that I will never be

I wish that I could stay here

Forever in this field so fresh and green

But better yet I wish that I could

Wake and find this just a dream

• Artist:Marty Robbins
• Album:20th Century Drifter - The MCA Years