Lyrics

The Open Road

Shrunken head and Mardi Gras beads
Hanging on a rearview mirror that bleeds
Keepin’ her eyes on the open road
No tellin’ where that son-a bitch goes

Got her doors locked doin’ 75
Don’t care to be caught now, dead or alive
Seen enough to kill anyone’s soul
Keepin’ her eyes on the open road
Keepin’ her eyes on the open road

The open road where the hopeless come
To see if hope still runs
One by one they bring their broke down loads
And leave ‘em where the hobo dreams are stowed
Out on the open road
Out on the open road

Midnight fallin’ like a bag of bones
Weighted down now the rest with stones
Bouncin’ off a river the moon made steel
Cracking off the chrome of a steering wheel

Anything back there is burned and dead
Any love they made any words they said
Nothing to do now but drop it and roll
Into the lights of the open road
Into the lights of the open road

The open road where the hopeless come
To see if hope still runs
One by one they bring their broke down loads
And leave ‘em where the hobo dreams are stowed
Out on the open road
Out on the open road

Shrunken head and Mardi Gras beads
Hanging on a rearview mirror on the beach
Keepin’ their eyes on the open road
No tellin’ where that son-a bitch goes

The open road where the hopeless come
To see if hope still runs
One by one they bring their broke down loads
And leave ‘em where the hobo dreams are stowed
Out on the open road
Out on the open road

Haulin’

Haulin’, I’m haulin’
Fort Smith to Louisville
I’m gonna see my baby
See my baby with time to kill

Well, I’m flyin’, flyin’
No one on the road tonight
My radar detector’s not buzzin’
No eighteen wheeler, not a cop in sight

Got a little gig in Nashville
Beat it back to Arkansas
Followed me all the way to Little Rock
Sayin’ something I done was against the law

So I’m haulin’, haulin’
Fort Smith to Louisville
Gonna see my baby
Gonna see my baby with time to kill

So I’m haulin’, haulin’
I’m gonna get there
Rollin’ in the bluegrass of Kentucky
I’m gonna get there

V-8 slappin out real time
Deeper than a 808
Leakin’red eye gravy from my manifold
Spoutin’ hot coffee from the boiler plate

I’m chewin’ up the road like biscuits
Makin’ all the time in the world
Sun comes up and I’m crossin’
Kentucky state line gonna see my girl

She likes it early in the mornin’
Like it in the evening too
In between she don’t mind it
Just about any old time will do

So I’m haulin’, haulin’
Fort Smith to Louisville
I’m gonna see my baby
See my baby with time to kill

And I’m haulin’, haulin’
I’m gonna get there
Rollin’ in the green grass of Kentucky
Yeah I’m gonna get there

I tell her not to worry
They couldn’t pin nothin’ on me
Club owner short a hundred dollars
I do it for fun, but I still gotta eat

I cut him and I coasted through Conway
Put him by the side of the road
Made Fort Smith that evening
Packed me a bag now I’m ready to go

And I’m haulin’, haulin’
Fort Smith to Louisville
I’m gonna see my baby
Gonna see my baby with time to kill

Flyin’, flyin’
I’m gonna get there
Rolling in the green grass of Kentucky
Oh, I’m gonna get there

Flyin’, flyin’
I’m gonna get there
Rolling in the green grass of Kentucky
Oh, I’m gonna get there

Yeah

Go Down Swingin’

Kickin’ and a-screamin’
Only way I learn
I’m afraid of my own shadow
Not the bridge around the turn

Well I lost myself and found myself
While you were kissin’ ass
And I know it’s not your nature
Just to let me pass

I’m gonna go down swingin’
Singin’ till the end
I’m gonna go down swingin’
You and me and your best friend
I’m gonna go down swingin’
Upper cut and two left jabs
I’m gonna go down swingin’ with everything I have

Sometimes I am a predator
Prowlin’ for my life
Other times I am a field mouse
Running for the sides
Of the biggest, flattest corn field
Bigger than my Indiana home
‘Til the harvest comes along
And I leave my tiny bones

I’m gonna go down swingin’
Singin’ till the end
I’m gonna go down swingin’
Like the Duke recommends
I’m gonna go down swingin’
For the bleachers in left field
I’m gonna go down swingin’ like a blade of steel

There’s a scarecrow scarin’ nothin’
Trumpet player in the barn
And he’s puffin’ both his cheeks out
And he’s liftin’ both his arms

As he blows his notes to heaven
As the preacher dunks you in
And all along the river
The air is sweet as sin

I wanna go down singin’
Hallelujah Gabriel
I wanna go down singin’
Oh, you play the blues so well
I wanna go down swingin’
Three sheets to the wind
I wanna go down swingin’, punch drunk to the end

Like A Freight Train

Keep an eye on my blind spots
There’s too many
Keep lookin’ for some light
But there isn’t any
Was top dead center baby
Now my motor’s gone soft
I used to roll through here like a freight train
But my wheels come off

Got the ring my sister gave me
Said it was my mom’s
The day she died of cancer
I stole her morphine and gone
Oh, I lived like a lion in Nashville
For a couple more years
I used to roll through here like a freight train
But I slipped my gears

I paid a price for everything
You can’t play it down
They’ll kick you off an empty boxcar
And leave you in this town
I only want the best for you
I passed it somewhere along the way
I used to roll through here like a freight train
Baby what can I say?

I had sunshine in my kitchen
Butter on my toast
Coffee brewed up in a lovin’ cup
In the presence of the Holy Ghost
But I just kept comin’ and goin’
You couldn’t stop crying
Used to roll through here like a freight train
Must’ve been outta my mind

Don’t think you never got to me
Oh, baby you really did
Your love is all I ever think of
Hurts to keep it hid
But I’m not foolin’ anybody
Only myself for a while
I used to roll through here like a freight train
I used to make you smile

My Baby

My baby puts her hairspray on
With a lit cigarette in her mouth
Takes her fingernail polish off
Speedin’ down some rural route
Got a carburetor so leaned out
I think she’s burnin’ Pam
I’m the son of a locker salesman
She calls me her lover man

Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my baby, my baby, my baby, my baby, my …

Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my baby, my baby, my baby, my baby

She once trained a horse to do cartwheels
Put a coyote in a sleeper hold
Her heart’s been pierced by love repeatedly
But her mind is magnetic and bold
All she ever got outta women’s college
Was some kind of fifth degree
Seems she couldn’t keep her skirts
Far enough down below her knee

Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my baby, my baby, my baby, my baby, my …

Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my baby, my baby, my baby, my baby

When that sun comes up
She’ll be deadheadin’ all alone
She’s been up all night
Just tryin’ to beat that red guy home

She brings me coffee in her careless panties
Hickory cane and an old straw hat
Fringe velcro’d to a buckskin jacket
Cause daddy never let her leave the house lookin’ like that

She’s so beautiful it hurts my feelings
I think she’s been around once or twice
A thousand years of hearts she’s been stealin’
I’m happy to pay love’s sacrifice

Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my
Don’t you talk about my baby, my baby, my baby, my baby, my …

Homeland

Well, I jumped so high
Knocked the table over
Thought I saw a ghost
Come out of the clover
She lived in this house
Forty odd years or so

She was buried in the back
With the English and the natives
Slaughtered like sheep
Women and babies
A lot of blood and tears
Three hundred years ago

It’s like they’re caught up in the trees
In the webs of spiders
Spun out of leaves
Ghostly riders
Lookin’ for a trail
To find their way back home

But there’s nothing back there or tomorrow
No place they can put their sorrow
Heavy as death
Cold as a broken stone

And I call this place my homeland
And I claim this land I own
But it belongs to another people
They possess it in their bones

Well, I can hear them in the night
Like a hundred televisions
Hummin’ down low beneath the subdivisions
All they really want is if we can hear ‘em now

They been troublin’ this plain
Looking for attention
Making crazy tracks
They need an intervention
All they really want
Is to get back home somehow

So build up a fire
Say a little prayer
Cook a little meat
Pull ‘em up a chair
And offer them a plate
Maybe we can all find peace

You can’t bury anything, men or nations
Old memories, old vibrations
The pain doesn’t stop just because the killing ceased

And I call this place my homeland
And I claim this land I own
It belongs to another people
They possess it in their bones

Well, I jumped so high
Straight up off the bedsheet
Nightmare sky
Bloody with the red heat
Started to shake
Cause I couldn’t find my way back home

Well, I landed in the ditch
Landed in the gutter
Landed in arms of my long lost mother
Cryin’ like a child
While the Bayou Pierre groaned

And I call this place my homeland
And I love this land I own
It belongs to another people
They possess it in their bones

Yeah, I call this place my homeland
And I claim this land I own
But it belongs to another people
They possess it in their bones

Wonder Of Love

Other half of last night’s cigar
A couple of Pop Tarts
Cold cup of coffee
There’s a fine new start
I’m gonna find you
If it breaks my heart
Tail wind and God willing

I don’t even know anymore
If anything’s true
Don’t even know what love can do
I still wonder though
If love can pull us thru
All this time we been killin’

It’s a wonder of love
Keeps me up above ground
The wonder of love
Keeps me looking all around
The wonder of love
Doesn’t know when it’s down
That’s the wonder of love

I’m not even gonna ask you
Where you been
I’m afraid if I go with you
Won’t come back again
What would we be leaving
This breakfast of champions
Sometimes I just can’t get goin’

I’ve been looking for you all these years
Sittin’ across this kitchen table here
You pass the sugar and suddenly it all comes clear
It’s the wonder of love that’s showin’

It’s a wonder of love
Keeps my shirt on straight
It’s a wonder I can even concentrate
I wonder why I always have to wait
That’s the wonder of love

I got down on my knees last night
And I thanked someone
For the chance for two people
To try and live together and not run
I lost ya that night
You were gone in the next day’s sun
That’s the wonder of love

What Kind Of Man

I cheated on my love
I cheated on my taxes
Burned bridges
Ground axes

I stole cars
I stole dope
Left scars
Killed hope

What kind of man do you think I am
One twist and I’d do it all again
What kind of man got these holes in his mind
Do the same thing over and over again
Expecting something different this time
What kind of man do you think I am

I’m living in your house
I’m holding your hand
Sleeping in your bed
Cooking in your pan

You see the man who loves you
You see the man you love
But I have hidden claws
Inside these gloves

What kind of man do you think I am
One twist and I’d do it all again
What kind of man got these holes in his mind
Do the same thing over and over again
Expecting it be different this time
What kind of man do you think I am

Come clean and stand tall
To thee thyne own self be true
But sometimes I don’t know
Who’s foolin’ who

It’s not my place to question
Not my place to know
Now tell me
What kind of man gonna run this kind of show

What kind of man do you think I am babe
Another thing comin’ if you think I can babe
Pick you up every chance I get
Well, I broke your heart for no other reason
Than my mind was already set
Oh, what kind of man

What kind of man do you think I am
What kind of man do you think I am
Oh, what kind of man

Movin’ On

I’ll see my mother again I know
I see her everywhere I go
Sometimes I see my father too
Pourin’ over blueprints that he drew
He made his way with sweat and brains
So I could ride this first class train
Well, he didn’t even know where to
Only knew it wouldn’t be long
Always movin’ on

Sing a song about the big ship goin’ down
Grandma cried, Grandpa too
Then we went to town to get some ice cream
See a picture show
Come back and take a swim in the lake’s moon glow
Well, I knew then there were no watery graves
Just tears and laughter and moonlight on the waves
Then the cryin’ of the mornin’ loon
Pretty soon summers’ gone
Always movin’ on

My wife’s mama lyin’ in a dyin’ bed
They’ve anointed her with oils and some words are being said
Somethin’ about the soul bein’ present eternally
Does that mean I’ll be seein’ you , babe
And will you be seein’ me

Twilight’s dimmin’ down another day
Been some moments I didn’t wanna let slip away
As if they wouldn’t, as if I could
Stay in a place where time just stood
Like wood and steel in a watery grave
No tears no laughter, no moonlight on the waves
Well there’s no place like that, it’s true
Right here’s where you and I belong
Always movin’ on
Always movin’ on

Fireball Roberts

I’m sorry babe
I was trying to leave the black dog home

Oh I’m sorry baby
I was tryin’ to leave the black dog home

Well I’m sorry baby
I was tryin’ to leave the black dog home
But he followed me to your house
And he carried his old chew bone

I gotta a 57 Ford babe
Painted Fireball Roberts white and red
Gotta a 57 Ford baby
Painted Fireball Roberts white and red

Gotta a 57 Ford baby
Painted Fireball Roberts white and red
I haven’t run my last race darlin’
But I sometimes wish I did

Don’t feel sorry for our love baby
We stuck it right down in the turn
Don’t feel sorry for our love babe
Nah, we stuck it right down in the turn

Don’t feel sorry for our love baby
Nah we stuck it right down in the turn
And it’s not everyday you can walk away
With just these few memories to burn

No, it’s not everyday you can walk away
With just these few memories to burn

Carry You Back Home

Well, I don’t need a reason that
I find your love so pleasin’
I know you can carry me back home
Been out in the wilderness
I could use a little tenderness
Baby I know you can carry me back home

And I give good as I get
This is a night you will never forget
So I’m not tellin’, I’m askin’ you
Abandon all known points of view
Honey let me carry you back home

I’ve been sailin’ a ship of fools
Past steel-eyed buildings, glass swimming pools
Baby you can carry me back home
They all said the earth was flat
But I think I can live with that
Baby you can carry me back home

Trust, that’s a word that we know
But how much does it take to let go
I would give my life for you
Do anything to pull you through
Honey let me carry you back home

And your love lingers on in my mind
Well after the fact of any moment sublime

So I’m not tellin’, I’m askin’ you
Abandon all old points of view
And honey let me carry you back home

So I’m not tellin’, I’m askin’ you
Abandon all known points of view
Honey, let me carry you back home