1. |
The Midnight Oil
03:23
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I keep strumming the words, slurring the chords
The price you pay for 40 days on the road
Up all night, drive all day
Looking like the dead and smelling like the grave
I’ve got a bad, bad feeling
It’s taking it its toll
Burning the midnight oil
The churning Choctaw skies over Tulsa tonight
Are letting loose on the leaky roof of some shithole dive
Seven miles to where the rooms are cheap
Towers in the distance like the city’s sharpened teeth
It’s a bad, bad omen
City’s gonna swallow me whole
Burning the midnight oil
Wish I had a woman in this fifty dollar room
Under the influence and over the moon
I’m sick of pacing up and down the crooked hallways of my skull
Carpet’s a jealous shade of green, your picture’s tilted on the wall
Hide in the day, howl in the dark
Got me a 60 watt head but a 40 watt heart
And a bad hangover, crooked soul that won’t surrender
Till I lose control
Burning the midnight oil
Roll into town, try to wring out a dollar
Only business booming here is the funeral parlor
The destination I’m heading ain’t on a map
The ringing in my ears is a sharp E flat
Rise above before I sink below
My past in my rearview but my eyes on the road
And it’s time to burn rubber
Before my blood starts to boil
Burning the midnight oil
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2. |
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The coffee and the waitress are hot
She caught me looking at her, singing “Hi-ho Silver”
I’ve been coming here about six months
My favorite stool at the counter, singing “Hi-ho Silver”
Ain’t got nothing but I’ve got everything to lose
Your pretty checkerboard dress, your pruney dishwater hands
And a nametag that says “Ramona”
My eggs and my speech pattern are scrambled
My corny jokes do not amuse her, little cream and sugar
Watch her lips as she recites the daily specials
Got me hot under the collar, little cream and sugar
Ain’t got nothing but I’ve got everything to lose
You’re the last dream pulling shifts of this man the wind blew in
On a bus from Minnesota
I’m hanging drywall for ten bucks an hour
I spend it all at this diner, singing “Hi-ho Silver”
Daydreaming about a life together
As she’s bitching about the weather, singing “Hi-ho Silver”
Ain’t got nothing but I’ve got everything to lose
These heartstrings you’re tugging on, Ramona you left the burner on
It’s 9:59 in the morning
I’m breathing Freon and smelling mop bucket water
Indigestion just to see her, little cream and sugar
I’m in love with a line cook’s daughter
Tip her a dollar and a quarter, little cream and sugar
Ain’t got nothing but I’ve got everything to lose
I could give you a ring but I couldn’t give you anything
So I’ll just give you my order
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3. |
Elvira
02:40
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Woke in a motel bed with my head hurting
Cigarette burns in the rubber curtains
Rolling papers, bag of shake
A pretty Mexican girl I don’t wanna wake
Because she looks so good but she’s on the rag
Maid’s got enough on her hands without them white sheets red
As the wine that went straight to my head
Elvira, why you gotta play it cool?
Hold on tighter, I think I’m slipping through
I’m high as the heavens but I’m low as hell
I’m a welterweight contender waiting for the bell
To ring her up again and again
To peel them clothes off like sunburned skin
She says come on up to see me, a hungry man’s gotta eat
Just bring a bottle of heat and an eighth of weed
Meet me by the laundromat on Second Street
Elvira, why you gotta play it cool?
Hold on tighter, I think I’m slipping through
Before she up and split, she up and split my lip
Said you won’t keep me down just cause you can’t keep it up
I’m getting tired of that shit
Elvira, why you gotta be so cruel?
Hold on tighter I think I’m slipping through
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4. |
By The Throat
01:58
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Turn on the turntable
Let the needle find the groove
Play me some Clyde McPhatter
A little rhythm & blues
Something with feeling
Something with soul
Play me something good
That grabs me by the throat
By the throat
Baby, I know you know
It ain’t no joke
Play me something
That grabs me by the throat
I met Rosaline at the Rattle Inn
Going boom, boom, boom
I said I’ve got a record collection, baby
But it’s up in my room
It’s getting wet outside
I’ve got a raincoat
You’ve got looks that kill
That grab me by the throat
By the throat
Baby, I know you know
I’m going for broke
Play me something
That grabs me by the throat
Keep it rolling, baby
Like that whitewall wheel
Crank that record
Till the paint starts to peel
Make it dirty
Make it raw
Or baby we might not
Make it at all
Turn on the turntable
Let the needle find the groove
Play me some Solomon Burke
A little rhythm & blues
Something that cooks
Something real old
Play me something good
That grabs me by the throat
By the throat
Baby, I know you know
It ain’t no joke
Play me something
That grabs me by the throat
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5. |
Another Space & Time
03:25
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In another space & time
There’s another me with a different life
I went left when he went right
He played it straight and I rolled the dice
I make my way from town to town
He stuck it out and stuck around
While I was buck wild, he kept his head down
In a parallel universe
In another space & time
My other self is doing fine
Couple kids and a pretty wife
In another space & time
I’m sweating it out in this motel bed
It’ll be a while before I’m coming down
While on another plane of existence
My other self is sleeping sound
Crippled song on the radio
Bringing tears to my eyes
The same song just don’t move me
The me that’s on the other side
In another space & time
My other self is sleeping fine
His demons ain’t up all night like mine
In another space & time
I’m doing better and I’m doing worse
On the rise and on the run
Timeline scatters like buckshot
Me and him, we ain’t the only ones
In another space & time
I’m living many different lives
Every choice a detour sign
To another space & time
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6. |
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I don’t wanna join the 27 club
Still too crazy, still too goddamn young
Needle scratching on the vinyl
Needle piercing the skin
Once the varnish wears off
Shit starts wearing thin
I don’t wanna join the 27 club
Still too hungry, still too goddamn young
Bad, bad blood if my plane goes down
Fuselage and flotsam all around
I don’t wanna join the 27 club
Still too crazy, still too goddamn young
I was raised in the dirty south
Now I’m coming clean
I’ve raised hell, Cain, and the dead
Now I’m coming clean
I’ll write the songs
Won’t let em write me
Bad, bad blood if my plane goes down
Fuselage and flotsam all around
I don’t wanna join the 27 club
Still too crazy, still too young
Ain’t paid my dues to join the 27 club
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7. |
The Famous Old Singer
02:29
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The famous old singer
Stumbled out the theater
In Kansas City, Misery
It was late in the evening
He’d been thinking
Bout something greasy to eat
Went to an all-night diner
Where a waitress with angina
Hollered, “Brenda! Come look who it is
Mister, I’m your biggest fan
Hell, I lost my virginity in a van
As your song played back in ‘76”
He stuck his hand out to shake
“Thanks for the Salisbury steak
The pecan pie and the company”
And then the famous old singer
Heard something familiar
As he walked out into the street
Between the hum of the bars
Screamed a gut string guitar
And a bum that was playing for tips
The famous singer knew the song by heart
Cause it got him in the charts
When he cut it back in ‘76
All the chords were clumsy
Slurring like an old rummy
But he sang it like he’d lived every line
It was late in the evening
And there was no one to listen
Except the famous singer he did not recognize
With no need to impress
Or reveal himself
The famous singer dropped all his cash in the case
And said, “Man than was something
You sang with gumption”
And left the bum with a grin on his face
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8. |
Bordertown
04:07
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Broken Spanish and a broken nose
Moved when the bottom fell out
The kids stare from their bikes at the trailer park
At the gringo in the bordertown
I’ve been courting death and cooking meth
I sell it at a basement price
Skin and bones and open sores
Kid, take my advice
There’s a banjo moon with busted strings
Let it shine its dirty light on me
And wash me clean
I was wired and alert with donations for the church
Piled high in the van
Gutted a VHS tape of “The Great Escape”
Put in half an ounce of contraband
Traffic stop and a red-faced cop
Cold sweat on my brow
Between my nerves and the crank in “The Great Escape”
I was sure I’d be going down
I kept flapping my jaw at Johnny Law
I couldn’t seem to shut my mouth
He said to step outside, he wants to check inside
Sweating bullets in a bordertown
Beneath a banjo moon with busted strings
Let it shine its dirty light on me
And wash me clean
They searched low and high but they came up dry
Couldn’t peg me for a thing
They had to send me hauling ass back to Eagle Pass
Grinning all along the way
I’m getting old but I’m getting by
I can make it another round
I got lucky today, tomorrow who can say
When you’re living in a bordertown
Beneath a banjo moon with busted strings
Let it shine its dirty light on me
And wash me clean
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9. |
Low
02:40
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Low, darling I’m low
Where you’re sleeping these days
Who the hell knows?
I’ve been chasing a dream
That’s playing hard to get
It leaves me low
Low, low, low
No, all I hear is no
Except for the sound of the slamming doors
I’ve been so many people
You never know who’s gonna show
Or who’ll leave you low
Low, low, low
I was fractured when she hung up the phone
Leaving no melody but the dial tone
Low, darling I’m low
Won’t you pick me up
Pick me up from the floor
And I’ll sharpen my teeth
And I’ll go do the show
And I’ll leave you low
Low, low, low
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