Bill Rhoads

Lyrics

7. THE LEGEND OF BOOGER COUNTY
Words by Bill Rhoads & Rodney O’Connor
Music by Bill Rhoads

Down in Booger County,Texas, there is a legend that won't fade
And so many of the people only go out in the day
In the year of eighteen forty, way back in the hills and trees
In a cave with twenty panthers lived a man named J.D. Leeds

He loved his cats more than he did man, they were the family that he raised
When the town folk heard about it, they all swore J.D. was crazed
They hung him in the square that winter with his neck tight in a noose
But when they tried to kill the panthers, they found they all had been turned loose

Chorus
Don't go out at night in BOOGER COUNTY
The night belongs to the black cats of J.D.
Some folks might try to tell you that I'm lyin'
But I have heard them like a woman screams
And I have felt their fire hot breath on me
They're prowlin' through the night in Booger County
Seekin' vengeance for the ghost of J.D. Leeds

A stranger there in Booger County, I had not learned to fear the night
And I wandered out into the backwoods to see the sights by full moonlight
In a stand of trees by the Brazos River I stopped to rest on a little rise
I woke with J.D. Leeds before me and aware of circlin' eyes.

He said, "Men have and will die here, son tonight it's not your turn
They let one live each thirteenth full moon to remind man what he must learn
Not all sin will be forgiven, not every fate can be controlled
My cats will prowl this night forever, seekin' vengeance for my soul"

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