Way down south in Mississippi just outside of Yazoo City Jerry Clower and all his friends would go out and hunt raccoon Theyd take along a man named John, one tree climbin son of a gun John would shinny up a tree and a coon would be comin down soon Now John was a sportin man who said give every coon a chance if you can Dont yall go shootin no coon now, hed warn em in advance Ill knock him down to the ground, let him fight it out with that pack of hounds Itll be slim but at least hell have a chance I can still hear ol Jerry call, haw Knock him out John, knock him out John Knock that coon right out of that sweetgum tree Knock him out John, knock him out John Knock him down to Marcel, Clovis, the dogs and me One night they heard ol Jerrys dog Brumy with a bark from down in his tummy Jerry answered him and said Haw, Brumy talk to me! Then all the other dogs joined in and pretty soon they were at trails end And it looked like the dogs had run a coon up a big ol tree The dogs had a bigun and wanted em some and the base of that tree was pandemonium And before we knew it, John had shinnied right up that tree He disappeared up among the leaves and then we heard a bloodcurdlin scream Lord, have mercy, get this thing off me Jerry yelled, haw! Knock him out John, knock him out John Knock that coon right out of that sweetgum tree Knock him out John, knock him out John Knock him down to Marcel, Clovis, the dogs and me Then John yelled Hush, you crazy fools, this thang aint no danged raccoon Its a lynx, a big ol bobtailed cat! He said shoot this thang for heavens sake, Ive had about all that I can take We said shouldnt we give him a chance, John?, and John said Shoot this cat! Well, John was screamin and the dogs were bayin The limbs were shakin and the tree was swayin And Jerry said we cant get off a clean shot, John, yall are hidden by the leaves Then right in the midst of all the ruckus we heard John say Just shoot up in here among us Cause one of us is got to have some relief! Haw, knock him out, John Then somethin fell out of the tree with a big ol thud right at our feet And the dogs were on it like it was red meat All of a sudden, we saw it was John, and he wasnt havin a lick of fun And in the middle of the mayhem, that cat made his retreat John still goes huntin every now and then, but things arent like they were back when Cause now he packs a pistol, a chainsaw and a bowie knife But I can still hear ol Jerry yell and tell us all his famous tale of Knock him out John, the funniest story I ever heard in my life
john, knock, jerry, coon, dog