Pretty Boy Floyd
Words and music by Woody Guthrie, as performed by Bob Dylan
Transcribed by Chris Howell (cwhowell@student.umass.edu)


Transcriber Notes:
---
This is one of Woody Guthrie's most famous songs, which Bob Dylan recorded
in 1988 for an album called Folkways: A Vision Shared (A Tribute to Woody
Guthrie and Leadbelly).  

Besides Pretty Boy Floyd, the CD has a few other great songs for acoustic
guitar: Bruce Springsteen sings I Ain't Got No Home; Arlo Guthrie does East
Texas Red; and Emmylou Harris sings Hobo's Lullaby.

Intro:
Intersperse these notes with strumming.  It's not too complicated, but it's
harder than it might seem to do it as cleanly as Dylan does, at least to me.
The riff in the first measure is played twice after each two-line verse.
Besides that, it's all just energetic strumming.

---

   G  C   G
e|-----------------|--|---------------------------------|
A|-----------------|--|---------------------------------|
D|-----------------|2x|---------------------------------|
G|-----0h2-0-------|--|-----0-------0h2-----0h2-----0---|
B|-------------2p0-|--|-------------------------------2-|
E|-3---------------|--|-3-------------------------------|
   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

       G               G         C            G
If you gather round me people, a story I will tell
      C                    D/G         D            G(riff)
About Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw; Oklahoma knew him well

It was in the town of Shawnee on a Saturday afternoon
His wife beside him in a wagon, and into town they rode

Now a deputy sheriff approached him in a manner rather rude
Using vulgar words of language, and his wife she overheard

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain and the deputy grabbed his gun
And in the fight that followed, he laid that deputy down

Now he took to the hills and timber to live a life of shame
Every crime in Oklahoma was added to his name

He took to the trees and timber on the Canadian River shore
And Pretty Boy found a welcome at every farmer's door

(harmonica for one verse)

I'll just tell you of a stranger that come to beg a meal
And underneath the napkin left a thousand dollar bill

'Twas in Oklahoma City, it was on a Christmas day
There come a whole carload of groceries and a letter that did say,

"You say that I'm an outlaw, you say that I'm a thief
Well here's a Christmas dinner for the families on relief"

(harmonica for one verse)

Well it's through this world I've rambled I've seen lots of funny men
Some'll rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen

Well it's through this world you ramble, it's through this world you roam
You won't ever see an outlaw drive a family from their home

(harmonica for two verses to end)