These old bones will
tell your story
These old bones will never lie
These old bones will
tell you surely
What you can’t see
with your eye
These old bones
I shake and rattle
These old bones
I toss and roll
And it’s all in
where they scatter
Tells you what the future holds
Oh, she lived up on the mountain
Eleven miles or so from town
With a one-eyed cat named Wink
A billy goat and
a blue tick hound
Her graying hair was braided
And wrapped around her head
And her dress was long and faded
And her home a rusty shed
In a little pouch of burlap
Tied with a piece of twine
There were bones
all shapes and sizes
Gathered through
the course of time
She’d throw them out before you
She swore that she could see
The present, past and future
She could ready your destiny
Everybody knew about her
Came to get their fortune read
Concerning health
and wealth and power
Who to love and when to wed
Well, I just like helping people
I’m just glad that I could help
Why, I know everybody’s secrets
But I keep it to myself
These old bones will
tell your story
These old bones will never lie
These old bones will
tell you surely
What you can’t see
with your eye
These old bones
I shake and rattle
These old bones I toss and roll
And it’s all
in where they scatter
Tells you what the future holds
Some called her witchy woman
Some said she was insane
Some said she was a prophet
Still everybody came
Just because a body’s different
Well, that don’t make ‘em mad
Well, they’ve crucified a many
For the special
gifts they’ve had
I had often heard about her
Dreamed about her now and then
For I, too, was clairvoyant
Came about when I was ten
I was fascinated with her
And the things I’d heard about
And I knew some day
I’d meet her
And one day it came about
Well, I know’d
that you ‘uz a’coming
I could feel it in my bones
These old bones
have also told me
That I won’t be here for long
Did you know
that you ‘uz adopted?
Did you know
you once’t was mine?
But the county took you from me
Said I wasn’t right in mind
But I just know’d
I had to see you
Fore these bones
was laid to rest
So I conjured up a message
It must’a worked, I guess
This gift runs in the family
I know you also know
And I passed this gift on to you
These old bones
they’re just for show
These old bones will
tell your story
These old bones will never lie
These old bones will
tell you surely
How to live and when you’ll die
These old bones
I shake and rattle
These old bones
I toss and roll
And it’s all
in where they scatter
Tells you what the future holds
I held her hand while
she was dying
And with the funeral through
I headed on back up the mountain
For Billy, Wink and Blue
And that little pouch of burlap
With those bones so worn and old
She give me something special
Now every time I throw
These old bones will
tell your story
These old bones will never lie
These old bones will
tell you surely
What you can’t see
with your eye
These old bones
I shake and rattle
These old bones, I toss and roll
And it’s all
in how they scatter
Tells you what the future holds
Now I can’t tell you
what you want to hear
I just tell you what I see
It’s these old bones a’talking
Blame it on them
don’t pack it on me
It’s just like that time
that there boy died
Up at the sawmill
Well, I know’d who done it
but I never said
And I know’d when
somebody is a cheating
Or when somebody’s baby
was gonna be born dead
But unless somebody just plain
out and asked me
Well, I just figured there
aren’t no point going around
acting like you know everything
just ‘cause you might
Ah, you know girl I want you to
take these bones ‘Cause
I don’t want no young’un of
mine a’going around unprepared
You just remember
that the magic is inside you
There aren’t no crystal ball