On the banks of the Missouri
Annie washed up in the clay
And they took her to her father
Told him it was John McCrae
Now I'm running through the badlands
Covering my tracks
Northward toward Dakota
With the devil on my back
Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
(To our immortal home, it flows to our home)
Oh Annie, oh my soul
Well I took her down by the stream side
For to make that girl my bride
And in the folds of her pretty white dress
Lay her father's bowie knife
Well she pulled that steel blade on me
Told me she would take my life
So I pushed her into the river
She went under with the tide
Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
(To our immortal home, it flows to our home)
Oh Annie, oh my soul
Well the hound dogs they overtook me
40 miles past Harding town
And I told that young Douglas sheriff
"Boy, you'd better shoot me now."
He said "Poor Johnny, by my orders
Your life I cannot take
But I'll be smiling at your hanging
When they lay you in the grave."
Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
(To our immortal home, it flows to our home)
Oh Annie, oh my soul
I am standing at the gallows
And the scaffold it is high
And the hangman, he asked my last words
Before I'm condemned to die
And I begged God, "Don't forgive me
For the troubles I have sown
For I'll soon see my pretty Annie
In the hell fire down below."
Oh, the river flows
To our immortal home
(To our immortal home, it flows to our home)
Oh Annie, oh my soul
Oh Annie, oh my soul
Oh Annie, oh my soul