Ray Stevens - Knock Him Out John lyrics

Way down south in Mississippi just
Outside of Yazoo City
Jerry Clower and all his
Friends would go out and hunt raccoon
They'd 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
Don't y'all go shootin' no coon now"
He'd warn 'em in advance
"I'll knock him down to the ground
Let him fight it out with that pack of hounds
It'll be slim but at least
He'll 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'
Jerry's 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 trail's end
And it looked like the dogs had run
A coon up a big ol' tree

The dogs had a big'un 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 blood-curdlin' 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 ain't no danged raccoon
It's a lynx, a big ol' bobtailed cat!"
He said "shoot this thang for heaven's sake
I've had about all that I can take"
We said "shouldn't 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 can't get
Of‌f a clean shot, John
Y'all 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 wasn't 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 aren't 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