god said don t give me your tin horn prayers don t buy roses off the street down there took it all and took the dirt road home dreaming of jenny with the light brown hair night is falling like a bloody axe lies and rumors and the wind at my back hand on the wheel and gravel on the road will the pawn shop sell me back what i sold i m gonna take the sins of my father i m gonna take the sins of my mother i m gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond birds cry warning from a hidden branch carving out a future with a gun and an axe i m way beyond the gavel and the laws of man still living in the palm of the grace of your hand the world s not easy the blind man said turns on nothing but money and dread dogs been scratching at the door all night long neck birds flying out of the moonlight i m gonna take the sins of my father i m gonna take the sins of my mother i m gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond down to the pond smack dab in the middle of a dirty lie the star spangled glitter of his one good eye everybody knows that the game was rigged justice wears suspenders and a powdered wig darktown alleys been hiding you long bell tolling is your waterloo oh baby what can you do does the light of god blind you or lead the way home for you i m gonna take the sins of my father i m gonna take the sins of my mother i m gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond down to the pond i m gonna take the sins of my father i m gonna take the sins of my mother i m gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond down to the pond god almighty for righteousness sake humiliation of our fallen state written in the book of tubal cain a long black overcoat will show no stain feel the heat and the burn on your back the rip and the moan and the stretch of the rack all my belongings in a flour sack will the place i come from take me back i m gonna take the sins of my father i m gonna take the sins of my mother i m gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond down to the pond they ll hang me in the morning on a scaffold yea big to dance upon nothing to the tyburn jig treats you like a puppet when you re under its spell oh the heart is heaven but the mind is hell jesus of nazareth told mike of the weeds i was born at this time for a reason you see when i m dead i ll be dead a long time but the wine s so pleasing and so sublime i m gonna take the sins of my father i m gonna take the sins of my mother i m gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond down to the pond kissed my sweetheart by the chinaball tree everything i done is between god and me only he will judge how my time was spent twenty nine days of sinning and forty to repent the horse is steady but the horse is blind wicked are the branches on the tree of mankind the roots grow upward and the branches grow down it s much too late to throw the dice again i ve found i m gonna take the sins of my father i m gonna take the sins of my mother i m gonna take the sins of my brother down to the pond i m gonna wash them i m gonna wash them i m gonna wash the sins of my father i m gonna wash the sins of my mother i m gonna wash the sins of my brother till the water runs clear till the water runs clear till the water runs clear