Ballad of Alferd Packer Phil Ochs

[Intro]
This is the Ballad of Alferd Packer
An infamous guide in the Old West

[Verse 1]
In the state of Colorado
In the year of seventy-four
They crossed the San Juan Mountains
Growing hungry to the core
Their guide was Alferd Packer
They trusted him too long
For his character was weak
And his appetite was strong

[Chorus]
They called him a murderer, a cannibal, a thief
It just doesn't pay to eat anything but government-inspected beef

[Verse 2]
Along the Gunnison River
An Indian camp they spied
An Indian chief approached them
To stop them he did try
He warned them of the danger
In the snow that lay around
But the danger was in Packer
For his hunger knew no bound