Drive-By Truckers

[fox69]

"Uncle Frank"

"Uncle Frank"


They powered up the city with hydro-electric juice.
Now we got more electricity than we canever use.
They flooded out the hollow and all the folks down there moved out, but they
got paid so there ain't nothin' else to think about.

Some of them made their living cutting the timber down, snaking it one log at
a time up the hill and into town. T.V.A. had a way to clear it off real fast.
Lots of men and machinary, build a dam and drown the rest.

Uncle Frank lived in a cabin down on Cedar Creek, bought fifteen acres when he
got back home from overseas. Fifteen rocky acres, figured noone else would
want, till all that backed up water had to have some place to go.

Uncle Frank couldn't read or write. Never held down a job, or needed one in
his life. They assured him there'd be work for him in town building cars. It's
already going down.

The cars never came to town and the roads never got built and the price of all
that power kept on going straight uphill. The banks around the hollow sold for
lake-front property where Doctors, Lawyers, and Musicians teach their kids to waterski.

Uncle Frank couldn't read or write so there was no note or letter found where he died.
Just a rope around his neck and the kitchen table turned on it's side

 

[fox69]

"Used To Be A Cop"

"Used To Be A Cop"


Used to be a cop, but I got to be too jumpy.
I used to like to party till I coughed up half a lung.
Sometimes late at night I hear the beat a-bumping
I reach for my holster and I wake up all alone.

Used to have a wife but she told me I was crazy.
Said she couldn't stand the way I fidget all the time.
Sometimes late at night I circle round the house.
I look through the windows and I dream that she's still mine.

I got scars on my back from the way my Daddy raised me.
I used to have a family until I got divorced.
I've gone too far from the things that could save me.
I used to be a cop, but they kicked me off the force.
I used to be a cop, till they kicked me off the force.

Used to have a car, but the bank came and took it.
Paying for a house that that bitch lives in now.
Children that we had won't even look at me.
Guess there's nothing left to lose, nothing matters anyhow.

Got a scar on my arm from the bullet that once grazed me.
I keep it in a box to remind me where I've been.
That thin blue line was the only thing that could save me.
I used to have a badge but they made me turn it in.

And I used to play football, but I wasn't big enough for college.
But I passed the entrance exam first try, and on my way.
Police Academy gave me the only thing I was ever good at,
but my temper and the shakes, and they took that thing away.

Used to have a wife, but she just couldn't deal
with the anger and the tension that was welling inside of me.
Sometimes late at night, I circle round the house
I look through the window and I remember how it used to be.
I look through the windows and I remember how it used to be.

 

[fox69]

"Wallace"

"Wallace"


Throw another log on the fire, boys, George Wallace is coming to stay
When he met St. Peter at the pearly gates, I'd like to think that a black man stood in the way.
I know "All should be forgiven", but he did what he done so well
So throw another log on the fire boys,
George Wallace is a coming

Now, he said he was the best friend a black man from Alabama ever had,
And I have to admit, compared to Fob James, George Wallace don't seem that bad
And if it's true that he wasn't a racist and he just did all them things for the votes
I guess Hell's just the place for "kiss ass politicians" who pander to assholes.

So throw another log on the fire, boys, George Wallace is coming to stay
I know, in the end, he got the black people's votes, but I bet they'd still vote him this way.
And Hell's just a little bit hotter cuz He played his hand so well
He had what it took to take it so far

Now the Devil's got a Wallace sticker on the back of his car

 

[fox69]

"Wednesday"

"Wednesday"


There was something in the envelope she passed him
That weighed more to him than paper and some ink
It had a hint of something darker and a hint of something sweet
And a little extra glue right on the tip
There was something in the pain that shot right through him
As he climbed up to the place he called his home
They say every man's house should be his palace
But his castle stank of cat shit and alone

So he opened it and found a faded picture
Of a girl he's never met, but somehow seen
Like a memory of a dream from early childhood
Like a virgin's idea of release

She said "I can bend my arms until they're backward
But you can't bend your will to take in mine
And I could hold my breath until next Wednesday
And still be doing fine"

He was sad in ways he couldn't tell her
Though she could make his sadness all her own
He couldn't see the use in spreading sadness
So he took his dark depression and went home
She saw things in him he never bargained
But it wasn't enough to save either one of them
Because she took that sadness one step further
And left him all alone to face the end

 

[fox69]

"When He's Gone"

"When He's Gone"


She sits alone and stares out the window, the thoughts pour out
the morning sun pours in
She paints a smile on her lips and looks at herself in the mirror
As her day begins
She scrubs in basins never clean, it won’t wash off
the smell of compromise
He opens the door for her, there’s kindness in his smile
but she loathes the need in his eyes

She can’t stand to have him around
but she always misses him when he’s gone

She burns like an effigy when he’s gone it makes her mad
how attached she’s become
and if it were up to me, I’d prove her wrong, but it’s too bad
it’s someone else’s song
He might come home, after she’s sleeping and quietly admire
the smile on her lips
He crawls up beside her, she presses it all up against him
and dreams

She can’t stand to have him around
but she always misses him when he’s gone...

 

[fox69]

"When The Pin Hits The Shell"

"When The Pin Hits The Shell"


You can lie to your Mama, you can lie to your race
But you cant lie to nobody with that cold steel in your face.
And the same God that youre so afraid of
Is gonna send you to hell
Is the same one you're gonna answer
To when the pin hits the shell.

Your sisters been blaming everybody.
I don't blame her, man, I guess Id do the same
If you was my brother, man, Id probably stand you.
But you aint, man, so I got to go my way.

And I aint gonna crawl upon no high horse
Cause i got throuwn of one
When i was young and i aint no cowboy
So i aint going where i dont belong.
It wouldnt do you no good to let you know
That it damned near killed me too
So i aint gonna mourn for you, man,
Now that youre gone.

Me and you, we liked our pills and our whiskey.
But you dont want your head full of either one
When the house gets quiet and dark.
Feeling good used to come so damned easy,
Racing trains from 2nd Street to Avalon.
Take a trip down to Memory Lane,
You dont see no friendly faces,
All the houses have been painted
And nobody knows your name.
Its enough to make a man not want
To be nobodys Daddy,
When all he thinks hes got left to hand down
Is guilt and shame.

And i aint gonna crawl upon no high horse
Cause i got thrown of of one
When i was young and i aint no cowboy
So i aint going where i dont belong.
It wouldnt do you no good to let you know
That it damned near killed me too
So i aint gonna mourn for you, man,
Now that youre gone.

You can lie to your Mama, you can lie to your race
But you cant lie to nobody with that cold steel in your face.
And the same God that youre so afraid of
Is gonna send you to hell
Is the same one you're gonna answer
To when the pin hits the shell.

 

[fox69]

"When Walter Went Crazy"

"When Walter Went Crazy"


When Walter went crazy she was sitting on the couch
Painting her toenails and drinking a Tab
He walked out of the bedroom with a cigarette in his mouth
and he poured gasoline in a circle all around the house

When Walter went crazy he had rattlesnake in his eyes
blended whisky in his veins and murder in his heart
She watched him walk out the door and knew he was gone
Matlock on the TV and her mama on the phone

When Walter went crazy, they say he just snapped
It had gone on for so long and she wasn't coming back
She hadn't been off the couch in at least a dozen years
Deafened by silence and the grinding of the gears

Their friends could see it coming like yellow piss on snow
Like a house fire in the distance like a car crash in slow mo
Their friends could see it coming but what could someone do
When it's speeding down the runway
and the brake line's torn in two

When Walter went crazy and the house went up in flames
You could see his hands shaking from the bourbon and the shame
He never planned the ending he just rolled the credit names
When the lights came up we all went home but never quite the same

 

[fox69]

"Where The Devil Don't Stay"

"Where The Devil Don't Stay"


My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back in his younger days
Prohibition was the talk, but the rich folks walked to the woods where my Daddy stayed
Jugs and jars from shiners, these old boys here, they ain't miners
They came from the twenty-niners
It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face

Back in the thirties when the dust bowl dried
And the woods in Alabama didn't see no light
My Daddy played poker by a hard wood fire
Squeezing all his luck from a hot copper wire
Scrap like a wildcat fights till the end
Trap a wildcat and take his skin
Deal from the bottom, put the ace in the hole
One hand on the jug but you never do know

Son come running
You better come quick
This rotgut moonshine is making me sick
Your Mama called the law and they're gonna take me away
Down so far even the Devil won't stay
Where I call to the Lord with all my soul
I can hear him rattling the chains on the door
He couldn't get in I could see he tried
Through the shadows of the cage around the forty watt light

Daddy tell me another story
Tell me about the lows and the highs
Tell me how to tell the difference between what they tell me is the truth or a lie
Tell me why the ones who have so much make the ones who don't go mad
With the same skin stretched over their white bones and the same jug in their hand

My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back when the world was gray
Before black and white went and chose up sides and gave a little bit of both their way
The only blood that's any cleaner is the blood that's blue or greener
Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away

 

[fox69]

"Where's Eddie"

"Where's Eddie"


All day up and down the street, looking for him.
I know they think I'm crazy, but I'll ask them once again:
Where's Eddie? I've been all over town.
Hey Mister, has he been around?

I've been looking for him everywhere.
He don't know that I miss him so, oh where did he go?
Where's Eddie? I've been all over town.
Hey Mister, has he been around?

He don't know I love him, and I've got to run him down.
Hey Mister, he's got to be found.

Where's Eddie? Won't you tell him I'll be home, waiting and I'm ready,
to give him all the love that I've been saving.
Where's Eddie?

Wish I'd never tried to change him, I was wrong.
You don't miss your water, until he's gone.
Where's Eddie? I've been all over town.
Hey Mister, has he been around?

He don't know I love him, and I've got to run him down.
Somebody help me, he's got to be found.

Where's Eddie? Won't you tell him I'll be home, waiting and I'm ready,
to give him all the love that I've been saving.
Where's Eddie?

Oh Eddie, I'm ready, waiting on my love, my Eddie.

 

[fox69]

"Why Henry Drinks"

"Why Henry Drinks"


Them stories that you tell me are so hard to swallow
You said "Go to hell?? but I know you'd just follow
The future's closing in quicker than you think
And hanging with you I know why Henry drinks

Those obnoxious drunks downstairs are fighting and cussing
And twelve years of me and you don't add up to nothing
You say what's on your mind - tell it to your shrink
So he can know like me why Henry drinks

Just a few more hours till the sun comes back around
To tear each other down and drink another round
Lost it on the way now I'm hating what we found
Mendacity and grudge-fucks and pieces out of town

I drink half a case of beer 'fore I get home from work
Daddy needs his medicine to keep his hands off Mama's throat
Baby, push a little harder cuz you got me on the brink
Of spilling more than guts about why Henry drinks

Telling you so much about why Henry drinks