Bruce Springsteen

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            B
Well they closed down the auto plant
in Mahwah late that month
Ralph went out lookin' for a job
                      F#
but he couldn't find none
         B
He came home too drunk from
mixin'Tanqueray and wine
He got a gun shot a night clerk now they
 F#              B
call him Johnny 99

Down in the part of town where when
you hit a red light, you don't stop
Johnny's wavin' his gun around and
threatenin' to blow his top
When an off-duty cop snuck up on
him from behind
Out in front of the Club TipTop,
they slapped the cuffs on Johnny 99

                   E
Well the city supplied a public defender
         B
but the judge was Mean John Brown

He came into the courtroom and stared
             F#
poor Johnny down
         B
Well the evidence is clear gonna let
the sentence son fit the crime
Prison for 98 and a year and we'll call it
F#           B
even Johnny 99

A fist fight 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?"

"Now, judge, judge, I got debts no honest
man could pay
The bank was holdin' my mortgage and takin'
my house away
Now I ain't sayin' that made me an innocent man
But it was more than all this that put that
gun in my hand

Well your honor, I do believe I'd be better off dead
And if you can take a man's life for the thoughts
that's 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"