Well I caught my wife with another man And it cost me 99 on a prison farm In Georgia close to the Florida line Well I've been here for two long years I finally made the warden my friend And so he sentenced me to a life of ease Takin' care of ol' red now ol' red He's the damnedest dog that I've ever seen Got a nose that can smell a two day trail He's a four legged trackin' machine You can consider yourself mighty lucky To get past the gators in the quicksand fence But all these years that I've been here ain't nobody got past red And the warden sang Come on somebody why don't you run Ol' red's itchin' to have a little fun Get my lantern get my gun Red'll have you treed 'for the mornin' comes Well I payed off the guard And I sent out a letter to my cousin up in Tennessee And he brought down a blue tick hound she was pretty as she could be Well they pinned her up in the swamplands 'Bout a mile just south of the gate Well I'd take ol' red for his evenin' runs I'd just drop him off and wait And the warden sang Come on somebody why don't you run Ol' red's itchin' to have a little fun Get my lantern get my gun Red'll have you treed 'for the mornin' comes Now ol' red got real used to seein' his lady every night So I kept him away for three or four days And waited 'til the time got right Well I made my run in the evenin' sun And I smiled when I heard let red out 'Cause I was headed north to Tennessee and ol' red was headed south And the warden sang Come on somebody why don't you run Ol' red's itchin' to have a little fun Get my lantern get my gun Red'll have you treed 'for the mornin' comes Now there's red haired blue ticks All in the south Love got me in here And love got me out