caught my wife with another man now i m doin ninety nine at a prison down in georgia close to the florida line i ve been here for twelve long years and i finally made the warden my friend so he sentenced me to a life of ease takin care of ol red now ol red he s a dangerous dog this old boy has ever seen he s got a nose that can smell a two day trail lord he s a four legged tracking machine just consider yourself mighty lucky to get past the gators and the quicksand beds but all these years that i ve been here ain t nobody got past red hear the warden say come on somebody why don t you run ol red s a itchin to have a little fun get my lantern get my gun red ll have em treed fore the mornin come i payed off a guard and he slipped out a letter to my cousin in tennessee and he brought down me a blue tick hound lord she was pretty as she could be they penned her up in the swampland about a mile just south of the gate and when i take ol red for his evening run and i d just drop him off and wait hear the warden say come on somebody why don t you run ol red s a itchin to have a little fun get my latern get my gun red ll have em treed fore the mornin come now old red got use to seein this little lady there every night so i kept him away for three or fours days and waited till the time was right i made my run with the evening sun and i smiled when i heard em let him out cause i headed north to tennessee and ol red was a headed south  i hear the warden say come on somebody why don t you run ol red s a itchin to have a little fun get my latern get my gun red ll have em treed fore the mornin come now there s red hair blue ticks dogs in the south love got me in there and love got me out