I'm the man they're gonna hang for killin' Billy Joe
But there's a whole lot more to the story than they know
Listen to my side of it and I think that you will see
The reason that I killed the boy that made a fool of me

There was a girl named Mary Anne
And Mary Anne was all the world to me
We planned to get married
And we set the date the wedding was to be

But I walked up to her house one night
And out there on the front porch they sat
And I swore they'd never get away with that

Billy Joe took Mary Anne and went up to the dance hall one night
They didn't know that I was standin' back there in the shadows out of sight
They sat down at a table and she smiled as he gave her hand the pat
And I swore they'd never get away with that

I swore they would never get away with breakin' my heart
I knew that that was just one way to keep them apart

Everybody says his mother begged him not to take his guns to town
He should have listened to her because she knew that I was gonna shoot him down
I'll be hung tomorrow just because I had to kill that little rat
But I swore that he'd never get away with that
And Billy Joe didn't get away with that