Dolly Parton — Bloody Bones

This is a story that I wrote And I know that all around Sevierville And around in the mountains, people have big families And it's kinda hard to get them into bed at night So, I guess I'll love you for me with bloody bones and scratch eyes And the Boogerman, right? (Yeah, I heard) But I like to do a song now that, not a song I'd like to tell my little story and it goes like this And I'll dedicate this to my mama Even though she meant well, she done this to us Now there was 12 of us kids And all day long we'd fight and we'd scratch And we'd scratch and we'd fight But mama never had any trouble getting all of us into bed at night 'Cause dear old mama, bless her heart She done the best she could But mama had the awfulest way of making us be good She'd tell us that raw head bloody bone was waiting just outside That he'd come in and get us, if he knew I was crying And he'd scare us all to death if the dogs outside get to barking, woo There where times we hear daddy cough, we'd think it's bloody bone harken Oh me And when we got up to something mean, well mama she smelled the rat She'd scratch on the wall and she'd say, "Lisa, what was that?" Then we'd all get scared, and we'd dive underneath the cover And we'd make us a little airhole and stick our nose out Just enough so we wouldn't smother And every night, one of the kids would wet in the bed But mama, she never did understand why But I wasn't about to get out of bed and take a change I wasn't about to get out of bed and take a change And step on, bone old scratch eye, oh me Well, I'll get in the bed, you see And I'll cover up my head and I put my fingers in my ears So I couldn't hear the Boogerman that was breathing under the bed 'Cause I know if I get out of that bed that the devil would get me by the hard hand, oh me! And now that we'd sleep four and five in the bed And we get scared we'd all screecher And it be below zero in our old house But we'd just be burn up And when we did drift off to sleep We'd just lay there, and we'd glut and we'd moan 'Cause we was dreaming 'bout that bloody bones And that scratch eyes and that Boogerman There was a beast in us in our home, you see And now that's been a long, long time ago And now that I'm grown You know, I still ain't sure that there's not a Boogerman And a scratch eyes and a raw head bloody bone Thank you