"Simple Man", is a song written and recorded by the Charlie Daniels Band. It was released in August 1989 as the lead single from their album of the same name. The song is the lament of a self-proclaimed honest man, who expresses frustration at barely getting by despite making an honest living, while dishonest politicians and criminals are allowed to get away with anything. Expressing frustration at a judicial system that he believes is too lenient with drug dealers, rapists and child abusers, he suggests more severe forms of justice, such as hanging ("I'd take a big tall tree and a short piece of rope/I'd hang 'em up high and let 'em swing 'til the sun goes down") and allowing swamp animals such as alligators to eat convicted criminals ("Just take them rascals out in the swamp/Put 'em on t