I was just a kid, a -roamin' around
Travelin' through a little old town
When a sheriff walked up and said,
You're broke and, that's vagrancy
Just a carefree lad who loved to roam
And how I wish I had stayed at home
For the way that I'm treated
It's no life for living on a chain gang
I dig that ditch, I chop that corn
And curse the day that I was born
I believe it's better for a man to hang
Than work like a dog on a chain gang
Change, change, change, change
Well the God stands there with a great big gun
I bet he'd love to see me run
And I guess I probably will someday
I'd rather be dead than to live this way
He looks well fed and he's six feet tall
And he's the meanest of us all
I reckon the sun must have
I dig that ditch, I chop that corn
And curse the day that I was born
I believe it's better for a man to hang
Than work like a dog on a chain gang
Ching, ching, ching, ching, ching
And she's been a -waitin' a long, long time
I wrote and told her, forget my name
For I'll never lose this ching, ching, ching
Dear heaven, deliver me from this hole
Where a man can lose his mind and soul
Where the flesh gets weak,
And there's no cause to laugh and joke
I dig that ditch, I chop that corn
And curse the day that I was born
I believe it's better for a man to hang
Than work like a dog on a chain gang
Work like a dog on a chain gang
Work like a dog on a chain gang
Work like a dog on a chain gang
Worker like a dog on a chain gang
Worker like a dog on a chain gang
