My name's Joe Roberts. I work for the state I'm a sergeant out of Perrineville barracks number 8 I always done an honest job, as honest as I could I got a brother named Frankie, and Frankie ain't no good
Now ever since we was young kids it's been the same come down I get a call on shortwave Frankie's in trouble downtown Well if it was any other man, I'd put him straight away But when it's your brother sometimes you look the other way
Me and Franky laughin' and drinkin' Nothin' feels better than blood on blood Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood" I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would Man turns his back on his family he just ain't no good
Well Frankie went in the army back in 1965 I got a farm deferment, settled down, took Maria for my wife But them wheat prices kept on droppin' Till it was like we were gettin' robbed Frankie came home in '68, and me, I took this job
Yea, me and Frankie laughin' and drinkin' Nothin' feels better than blood on blood Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood" I catch him when he's strayin', each night i walk that line Man turns his back on his family, he ain't no friend of mine
Well the night was like any other, I got a call 'bout quarter to nine There was trouble in a roadhouse out on the Michigan line There was a kid lyin' on the floor lookin' bad, bleedin' hard from his head Was a girl cryin' at a table, and it was Frank, they said
Well I went out and I jumped in my car and I hit the lights I must've done a hundred and ten through Michigan county that night It was out at the crossroads, down round Willow bank Seen a Buick with Ohio plates, behind the wheel was Frank
Well I chased him through those county roads till a sign said Canadian border five miles from here Pulled over the side of the highway And watched his tail lights disappear
Me and Frankie laughin' and drinkin' Nothin' feels better than blood on blood Takin' turns dancin' with Maria as the band played "Night of the Johnstown Flood" I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would Man turns his back on his family he just ain't no good