Hangknot, Slipknot

(Slipknot)

Woody Guthrie © 1963 (renewed) Ludlow Music Inc

Indian Neck Folk Festival, Branford CT - 6 May 1961  

Did you ever see a hangman tie a slipknot?
Did you ever see a hangman tie a slipknot?
Yes I've seen it many times
And he winds and he winds
After thirteen times there's a slipknot.

Tell me will that slipknot slip, no it will not
Tell me will that slipknot slip, no it will not
It'll slip around your neck
But it won't slip back again
Slipknot, lord, lord, slip not.

Tell me did you lose your father on that slipknot?
Tell me did you lose your father on that slipknot?
Yes my father was a slave
Well he tried to escape
And they took him to his grave on that slipknot.

Tell me did you lose your brother on that slipknot?
Tell me did you lose your brother on that slipknot?
Yes they hung him on a pole
Then they shot him full of holes
Then they left him there to rot on that slipknot.

Tell me who makes those laws for the slipknot?
Tell me who makes the laws for the slipknot?
Tell me who says who
Is going to the calaboose
Get the hangman's noose on that slipknot.

I don't know who makes the laws for that slipknot.
I don't know who makes the laws for that slipknot.
But the bones of many men
Have been whistling in the wind
'Cause they tied their laws with that slipknot.