Verse
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The / festival was over, and
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The / boys were all plannin' for a / fall.
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The / cabaret was quiet,
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Ex - / cept for the drillin' in the / wall.
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The / curfew had been lifted and
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The / gamblin' wheel shut down,
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Anyone with any sense,
/ F# - F#
Had / a - ready left town.
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He was / standin' in the doorway
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Lookin' like the Jack of Hear - / arts. / /
Verse 2
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He / moved across the mirrored room,
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"Set em up for everyone," he / said,
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Then / everyone commenced to do,
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What / they'd been doin',
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Be - fore he moved their / heads.
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Then he / walked up to a stranger, and
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He / asked him with a grin,
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"Could you / kindly tell me, mister,
/F# F#
What / time the show be - gins?"
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He / moved into the corner,
E - F# / B / /
Face down like the Jack of Hear - / arts
Verse 3
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Back - stage the girls were playin'
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Five-card stud by the / stairs,
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Lily had two queens,
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She was / hopin' for a third,
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To match her / pair.
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Out - / side the streets were fillin' up, and
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F# / window was open wide,
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F# / gentle breeze was blowin',
F# F#
You could / feel it from in - side.
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Lily called a - nother bet, and
E - F# / B / /
Drew up the Jack of Hear - / arts.
Verse 4
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Big Jim was no one's fool,
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He owned the town's only diamond / mine,
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He / made his usual entrance,
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Lookin' all so dandy and so / fine.
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With his / bodyguards and silver cane, and
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Every hair in place,
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He / took whatever he wanted to, and
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He / laid it all to waste,.
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But his / bodyguards and his silver cane,
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They were / no match for the Jack of Hear - / arts
Verse 5
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Rose - / mary co - ombed her hair, and
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Took the carriage into / town,
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She / slipped into the side door,
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Lookin' like a queen without a / crown.
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She / fluttered her false eyelashes and
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Whispered in his ear,
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"I'm / sorry, darlin', that I'm late,"
/ F# - F#
But he / didn't seem to hear.
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He was / starin' into space,
E - F# / B / /
Over at the Jack of Hear - / arts.
Verse 6
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"Well I / know I've seen that face somewhere,"
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Big Jim was thinkin' to him - / self,
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"Maybe down in Mexico or
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F# / picture up - on some - body's / shelf."
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But then the / crowd began to stamp their feet, and
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The / house lights did dim, and
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In the darkness of the room,
/ F# - F#
There was / only Jim and him,
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Starin' at the butterfly,
E - F# / B / /
Who / just up drew up the Jack of Hear - / arts
Verse 7
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Lily was a princess,
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She was / fair-skinned and precious as a / child,
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She / had that certain something
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Was a kind of a flash,,
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Every time she / smiled.
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She'd / come away from a broken home,
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Had / lots of strange af - fairs,
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With / men in every walk of life,
/F# F#
Who / took her every - where.
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But she'd / never met any - one
E - F# / B / /
Quite like the Jack of Hear - / arts.
Verse 8
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The / hangin' judge came in un - / noticed, and
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Was being wined and / dined,
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The / drillin' in the wall kept up,
/ E / B
But / no one seemed to pay it any / mind.
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It was / known all a - round,
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That / Lily had Jim's ring, and
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Nothing would ever come,
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Between / Lily and the king.
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No, / nothin' ever could,
E - F# / B / /
Ex - / cept maybe the Jack of Hear - / arts.
Verse 9
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Rosemary started drinkin' hard and
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Seein' her re - flection in the / knife,
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She was / tired of the at - tention,
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Tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's / wife.
/ E - B
She had / done a lot of bad things,
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Even / once tried sui - cide,
/E - /F#
Was / lookin' to do just one good / deed
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Before she died.
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She was / gazin' to the future,
E - F# / B / /
Riding on the Jack of Hear - / arts
Verse 10
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Lily took her dress off,
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Buried it a - / way.
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"Has your / luck run out?" she laughed at him,
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"I / guess you must have known it would some - / day.
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Be/careful not to touch the wall’
/ F# B
There’s a /brand-new coat of paint,
/E - B
I'm / glad to see you're still alive, and
/ F# - F#
You're / lookin' like a saint."
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Down the hallway footsteps
/E - F# / B / /
Were / comin' for the Jack of Hear - / arts
Verse 11
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The / Backstage manager was / pacin',
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All a - round by his / chair.
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"There's / somethin' funny going on,
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" I / know, I can just feel it in the / air."
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He / went to get the hangin' judge,
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But the / hangin' judge was drunk, and
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The / leading actor hurried by
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In the / costume of a monk.
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But there was no / actor any - where,
E - F# / B / /
Better than the Jack of Hear - / arts.
Verse 12
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Lili had her arms a - round the / man
/ E / B
She dearly loved to / touch,
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She for - / got all a - bout the man,
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She / hated who hounded her so / much,
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I / missed you so she said to him, and
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He / thought she was sincere
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But / in the hallway he fou - ound
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Jealousy and fear
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Just another night in the /
E - F# / B / /
life of the Jack of Hear - / arts
Verse 13
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No one knew the circumstance
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But / they say that it happened pretty / quick,
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The / door to the dressing room burst / open and
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F# cold revolver / clicked, and
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Big Jim was standin' there,
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You / couldn't say sur - prised,
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Rose - / mary right be - side him,
/F# - F#
Steady in her eyes.
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She was / with Big Jim,
E - /F# / B / /
But she was / leanin' to the Jack of Hear - / arts
Verse 14
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Two doors down and the / boys,
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Finally made it through the / wall, and
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They / cleaned out the bank safe,
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Said they got off with quite a / haul, and
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In the / darkness of the riverbed,
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They / waited on the ground,
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For / one more member,
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Who had / business back in town.
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But they / couldn't go no further,
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With - out the Jack of Hear - / arts.
Verse 15
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Well the / next day was hangin' day,
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The / sky was overcast and / black,
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Big Jim lay covered up,
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Killed by a penknife in the / back, and
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Rose - / mary on the gallows,
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Lord she / didn't even blink,
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The / hangin' judge was sober,
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Lord, he / hadn't had a drink and,
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The / only person on the scene
E - F# / B / /
Missing was the Jack of Hear - / arts
Verse 16
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Well the / cabaret was quiet now, and
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F# / sign said, "Closed for re - / pair,"
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Lily had already taken / all of the dye
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Out of her / hair.
/ E - B
She was / thinkin' about her father,
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Who she / very rarely saw,
E - B
Thinkin' about Rosemary, and
/F# - F#
Thinkin' about the law.
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But, / most of a - all she was / thinkin'
- F# / B / /
About the Jack of Hear - / arts.