Johnny 99

[Verse 1]

Well, they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late last month

Ralph went out lookin' for a job but he couldn't find none

He came home too drunk from mixin' Tanqueray and wine

He got a gun, shot a night clerk, now they call him Johnny 99

[Verse 2]

Down in the part of town where where you hit a red light, you can't stop

Johnny's wavin' his guns around and threatenin' to blow his top

When an off-duty cop snuck up on him from behind

Out in front of the Club Tip Top, they slapped the cuffs on Johnny 99

[Bridge]

Well, the city supplied a public defender

But the judge was Mean John Brown

He came into the courtroom

And he stared poor Johnny down

"Well, the evidence is clear, gonna let the sentence, son, fit the crime

Prison for ninety-eight and a year, we'll call it even, Johnny 99"

[Instrumental Break]

[Bridge]

A fistfight broke out in the courtroom

They had to drag Johnny's girl away

His mama stood up and shouted

"Judge, don't take my boy this way"

"Well, son, you got any statement you'd like to make

Before the bailiff comes to forever take you away?"

[Verse 3]

"Now, judge, judge, I got debts no honest man can pay

The bank was holdin' my mortgage and threatenin' to take my house away

Now I ain't sayin' that makes me an innocent man

But it was more than all this that put that gun in my hand

[Verse 4]

"Well, Your Honor, I do believe I'd be better off dead

If you can take a man's life for the thoughts that are in his head

Then won't you sit back in that chair and think it over, judge, one more time?

And let 'em shave off my hair and put me on that execution line"

[Outro]

Let 'em shave off my hair and put me on that execution line