Joan Baez - Seven Curses

Old Reilly stole a stallion
Caught him and they brought him back
And an laid him down on the jailhouse ground
With iron chain around his neck.

When Reilly's daughter got a message
Her father was goin' to hang.
She rode by night and came the morning
With gold and silver in her hand.

When the judge saw Reilly's daughter
His old eyes deepened in his head,
Sayin': Gold will never free your father,
No the price, my dear, is you instead.

Well I'm as good as dead: cried Reilly,
It's only you that he does crave
And my skin will surely crawl
If he touches you at all
So on your horse and ride away.

Oh father you will surely die
If I don't take the chance and try
And pay the price and not take your advice.
For that reason I have to stay.

Well the gallows shadows shook the evening,
In the night a hound dog bayed,
In the night the grounds were groanin',
And in the night the price was paid.

The next mornin' she had awoken
To fain that the judge had never spoken.
She saw that hangin' branch a-bendin',
She saw her father's body broken.

Seven curses on a judge so cruel:
One doctor can not kill him,
Two healers can not heal him,
And three eyes can not see him.

Four ears can not hear him,
Five walls can not seal him,
Six diggers can not still him
And seven deaths will never free him.