Verse
E A
Brian Hennessey sat back and let the gypsy read his palm
B E
When he saw her eyes grow wide and wild and dark
A
And she whispered through her toothless gums and clutched him by the arm
B E
She said, ''Boy, I fear I see the devil's mark.''
E B E
Brian Hennessey just laughed and pealed the ten-spot from his roll
B
'Cause he'd never ever known the taste of fear
E A
But he wondered why the summer nights should suddenly turn cold
B E
As the gypsy's words come ringing in his ear.
E A E
''You can run, you can hide, Brian Hennessey.'', she cried
B
''But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand.
E A
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal?
B E
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.''
Verse
E A
Brian Hennessey walked through the doors of the Dining Dog Saloon
B E
Where he stopped to have his nightly glass of gin
A
And the one-eyed scar-faced stranger a dealing blackjack in the gloom
B E
Winked his ghastly grey glass eye and dealt him in.
E B E
Brian watched in fascination as the stranger's fingers flew
B
Why he'd never seen such cheatin' done before
E A
And his hand closed round a handle of his snub-nose 32
B E
When the gypsy's warning come to him once more.
E A E
''You can run, you can hide, Brian Hennessey.'', she cried
B
''But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand.
E A
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal?
B E
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.''
Verse
E A
Brian Hennessey just folded up his cards and walked away
B E
Holding back the rage that burned his soul
A
And he stopped to have some coffee at the Mockingbird Cafe
B E
But that slender blue eyed waitress was his goal.
B E
And a few words from his silver tongue soon turned her flighty head
B
She said, ''My husband's out of town, you need not fear.''
E A
But as he pressed her to the softness of her flutty-feathered bed
B E
On her pillows he saw written bright and clear.
E A E
Oh, you can run, you can hide, daring letters clear and wide
B
Said you can't escape the fate that's in your hand
E A
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal
B E
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.
Verse
E A
Brian Hennessey he stumbled down the stairs into the street
B E
And from that day on he changed his wicked life
A
And he never drunk or gambled and he never dealt no doop
B E
And he never touched another fellow's wife.
B E
And years later he met the gypsy when his days were almost done
B
He said, ''Ha, ha, I beat your curse don't you know.''
E A
But when she saw the frightened, trembling, withered wretch that he'd become
B E
She said, ''Brian, you died twenty years ago.''
A E
''Because you ran and you hid that's exactly what you did
B
But you didn't escape the fate that's in your hand.
A
And say how did it feel to have dealt your final deal?
B E
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man...''