Southern Belle

SOUTHERN BELLE
written by Doug Moreland, ASCAP (composer/author and publisher)

Just another story I try to tell
What’s wrong what’s right what’s heaven what is hell
When the chips fall which’ll prevail
Or which’ll fail
It’s swinging doors worn bar room floors
And the stale air holds the whisper of a tale

Of, young Jimmy Van Dine
And his daddy’s forty five
And a **** named Annie LaValle
They all called her the Southern Belle

Crazy Dan was a man with a plan his hand in an empty pocket
The other held the picture of a beautiful creature framed in a golden locket
That he stole from a kid standing outside Van Dine’s General Store
He killed the boy’s daddy for just a dollar or more
With his daddy gone no parents at home a young lady took him in
She tried to hide his eyes from the sin
And the way she made her livin’
They all called her the Southern Belle

Young Jimmy Van Dine
And his daddy’s forty five
And a **** named Annie LaValle
They all called her the Southern Belle

On a moonless night Jimmy sits alone thinking of revenge
But he promised Annie he’d wait ‘till he’s 18 to look for Crazy Dan
Little did he know at the Yellow House Saloon just down the hill
Crazy Dan walked in with a locket in his hand callin’
for the southern Belle

Word spread quick to young Jimmy
Grabbed his Daddy’s gun and ran down the hill
Through the swinging doors across that ol’ bar room floor
They said Dan just took your Southern Belle

On the outskirts of town he saw a figure
in a coat and a hat runnin’ he fired and
didn’t miss then he looked down as he tripped
over something and there lay Crazy Dan
clutching a woman’s dress and Annie’s knife
was buried deep in his back and his stomach
turned to knots and he thought, if this is
Crazy Dan, “Who the hell have I just shot?”

Just another story I try to tell
What’s wrong what’s right what’s heaven what is hell
When the chips fall which’ll prevail
Or which’ll fail
It’s swinging doors worn bar room floors
And the stale air holds the whisper of a tale

Of, young Jimmy Van Dine
And his daddy’s forty five
And a **** named Annie LaValle
They all called her the Southern Belle
Young Jimmy Van Dine
And his daddy’s forty five
And a **** named Annie LaValle
They all called her the Southern Belle
Young Jimmy Van Dine
Reflecting on his life
Thinking of Annie LaValle
Guess he’ll use that 45 one last time.