From the recording Rootless Seed
Lyrics
Dead Bear in the Barranca
M. Litton
On the ridge there runs an outlaw silhouetted by the sky
Guided by the Northern Star, he hears a wild cougar’s hungry cry
As he stands upon a high cliff, he recalls the day his father died
There’s a dead bear in the barranca, an old ghost on the trail tonight...
In the mountains of Nevada he went prospecting for gold
In the deserts of Arizona, cold nights in New Mexico
He found a dead bear in the barranca, dead bear in the barranca
Dead bear in the barranca
Felt an old ghost on his trail
The outlaw loved a lady, the lady loved money, jewels, and gowns
Bright lights and music, nights out dancing on the town
But the city laid a trap for him, he had to run or rot away in jail
He found a dead bear in the barranca, felt the old ghost on his trail...
There’s a roadblock on the highway, a spotlight in the mesquite
As he runs he hears the bullets screaming through the same air he breathes
There’s a dead bear in the barranca, dead bear in the barranca
Dead bear in the barranca, and an old ghost on his trail
When the outlaw was yet a little boy, his father said to him one night
“What if a big bear trapped you out on a high cliff?
“Now quick, you must decide
“To jump from there or be eatin’
“I pray you’ll never know...”
He sees the dead bear in the barranca, he hears his father’s ghost...
With Orion the Hunter he sees his father in the sky
As the bullets cut into him, he reaches, falls, and dies
There’s a dead bear in the barranca, dead bear in the barranca
A dead bear in the barranca, and new ghost on the trail tonight.