Steve Earle

[fox69]

"The Usual Time"

"The Usual Time"



Late in the evening
Just about to lay down
Was there at your backdoor
Did you hear a strange sound, girl?
Honey I just saw your light

Here I come baby
It's the usual time of night

I can't help but want you
Ever since I known ya
I would never hurt you
I don't want to own you, girl
I just want to hold you tight

Here I come baby
It's the usual time of night

I know you don't love me
I know you don't need me
If you ever want me
Just hit on your back porch light
At the usual time of night

Now I been down to Texas
I been to New Orleans
I was born a rambler
You are gonna haunt my dreams
Any time the wound is right

Here I come baby
It's the usual time of night

I know you don't love me
I know you don't need me
If you ever want me
Just leave on your back porch light
At the usual time of night

Here I come
Here I come baby

 

[fox69]

"The Week Of Living Dangerously"

"The Week Of Living Dangerously"



I got out of work and I headed for the neighborhood beer joint
I sat around and had a beer with the boys like I always do
Well I didn't have nothin' to say anyway there ain't no point
There's just something 'bout a Monday that always makes me blue
Well it was well after dark so I knew my wife and kids were waitin'
And I guess I took a left where I generally take a right
Well I filled her up with gas, checked the oil at the Texaco station
I threw the car seat in the dumpster and headed off into the night

Woo-ohh-ooh-ooh-ooh
There's somethin' 'bout a Monday that always makes me blue

Well I headed south on 35 hell bent for vinyl
I hadn't never had her up past 55 before
Well somethin' 'bout that little red line always looked so final
Buddy you'd be surprised how fast a Chevrolet truck can go

Now, down in Mexico they've got a little place called Boystown
Where a man's still a man if you know what I'm talkin' about
Well, I walked into the Cadillac bar and I laid my cash down
I said "there's plenty more where that came from" and the lights went out

Well I woke up in a county jail 'cross the line in Laredo
With a headache and a deputy staring at me through the door
Well he said "Now how you got across that river alive, I don't know
But your wife just made your bail so now you're really dead for sure"

Now my wife, she called my boss and cried so I got my job back
And the boys down at the plant, they whisper and stare at me
Yea well my wife can find a lot of little jobs to keep me on the right track
Well, but that's a small price to pay for a week of living dangerously

Yeah-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-wee
That's a small price to pay for a week of living dangerously

 

[fox69]

"The Window Song"

"The Window Song"



Look out your window
To the street below
Did you see a shadow
Maybe it was a ghost?
A knock on your front door
Check it out again
It could be an echo
Or something in the wind

Look out your window
And tell me what you see
It ain't me

Every empty look below
Every angry word we spoke
Proves we've gone as far
As we can go

Roll down my window
And blow the smoke away
Any way the wind blows
Well, that'll be okay
And every minute gets me
Another mile away
You won't even miss me
Till you pull down your shades

Look out your window
And tell me what you see
It ain't me

Every empty look below
Every angry word we spoke
Proves we've gone as far
As we can go

 

[fox69]

"Think It Over"

"Think It Over"



You're here, you're gone
I'm still hangin' on
This game ain't nothin' new
You've changed your mind
So many times
But I'm still in love with you
I'll think it over when you're walkin' out the door
Why'd you go and leave me sad and blue
And if you knew
What I go through
You'd think it over too

I hope someday
I'll find a way
I'll walk right out on you
Til that day comes
I'm still the one
If you should need a fool

 

[fox69]

"This City"

"This City"



This city won't wash away
This city won't ever drown
Blood in the water and hell to pay
Sky tear open and pain rain down
Doesn't matter 'cause come what may
I ain't ever gonna leave this town
This city won't wash away
This city won't ever drown
Ain't the river or the wind to blame
Everybody around here knows
Nothin' holdin' back Ponchartrain
Except for a prayer and a promise's ghost
We just carry on diggin' our graves
In solid marble above the ground
Maybe our bones'll wash away
But this city won't ever drown
This city won't ever die
Just as long as her heart beats strong
Like a second line steppin' high
Raisin' hell as we roll along
Gentilly to the Vieux Carre
Lower Nine, Central City, Uptown
Singin' Jacamo fee-nah-nay
This city won't ever drown
Doesn't matter cause there ain't no way
I'm ever gonna leave this town
This city won't wash away
This city won't ever drown

 

[fox69]

"This Highway's Mine (Roadmaster)"

"This Highway's Mine (Roadmaster)"



I'm running down this highway
Don't remember where I slept last night
I just remember halfway through the night
I woke up stiff with fright
I dreamed there was no asphalt
I dreamed there was no gasoline
Felt like a rat caught in some nowhere town
I woke up and screamed
This highway
This highway
This highway
This highway
This highway
This highway's mine

I grew up on the dragstrip
I used to shut em down
I used to take their pinkslips
There's a sucker born in every town
I never showed no mercy
I blew them all away
They stood there and cursed me
As I towed their lives away

I used to run the cocaine
I used to run the weed
These days I'm just running
Tryin' to make this highway bleed
Sometimes the only difference 'tween me and this machine
Is I run on desperation
She runs on gasoline

I'm the Roadmaster
The Asphalt Blaster
Mess with me and I'll shut you down
The bad thing
The highway king and I've come to claim my kingdom now

 

[fox69]

"Time Has Come Today"

"Time Has Come Today"



Time has come today
Young hearts can go that way
Can't put it off another day
I don't care what others say
They say we don't listen anyway
Time has come today
The rules have changed today
I have no place to stay
Thinking about the subway
The love has flown away
My tears have come and gone
Oh my lord, I have to roam
I have no home
I have no home

Now the time has come
No place to run
I might get burned up by the sun
But I had my fun

I've been loved and put aside
I've been crushed by tumbling tide
And my soul has been psychedelicized

Now the time has come
There are things to realize
Time has come today
Time has come today
Time

 

[fox69]

"To Live Is To Fly"

"To Live Is To Fly"



Won't say I love you, babe
Won't say I need you, babe
I'm gonna get you babe
And I will not do you wrong

Living's mostly wasting time
I'll waste my share of mine
But it never feels too good
So let's don't take too long

Well you're soft as glass
And I'm a gentleman
We got the sky to talk about
And the world to lie upon

Days up and down they come
Like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some
Don't turn none away

Everything is not enough
And nothin' is too much to bear
Where you've been is good and gone
All you keep's the getting there

Well to live is to fly, all low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes

It's goodbye to all my friends
It's time to go again
But think of all the poetry
And the pickin' down the line

Well I'll miss the system here
The bottom's low and the treble's clear
But it don't pay to think to much
On things you leave behind

Well I may be gone
But it won't be long
I will be a bringin' back the melodies
And rhythm that I find

We all got holes to fill
And them holes are all that's real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own

The choice is yours to make
And time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone

Well to live is to fly, all low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes
Shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eyes

 

[fox69]

"Tom Ames' Prayer"

"Tom Ames' Prayer"



Everyone in Nacadoches knew Tom Ames would come to some bad end
Well the sheriff had cought him stealin' chickens and such
By the time that he was ten
And one day his daddy took a ten dollar bill
And he tucked it in his hand
He said I can tell you're headed for trouble son
And your momma wouldn't understand

So he took that money and his brothers old bay
And he left without a word of thanks
Fell in with a crowd in some border town
And took to robbin' banks

Outside the law your luck will run out fast
And a few years came and went
'Till he's trapped in an alley in Abilene
With all but four shells spent

And he realized prayin' was the only thing
That he hadn't ever tried
Well he wasn't sure he knew quite how
But he looked up to the sky

Said you don't owe me nothin' and as far as I know
Lord don't owe nothin' to you
And I ain't askin' for a miracle Lord
Just a little bit of luck will do

And you know I ain't never prayed before
But it always seemed to me
If prayin' is the same as beggin' Lord
I don't take no charity

Yeah but right now Lord with my back to the wall
Can't help but recall
How they nearly hung me for stealin' a horse
In Fort Smith Arkansas

Judge Parker said guilty and the gavel came down
Just like a cannon shot
And I went away quietly
And I began to file and plot

Well they sent the preacher down to my cell
He said the Lord is your only hope
He's the only friend that you gonna have
When you hit the end of Parker's rope

Well I guess he coulda' kept on preachin' 'till Christmas
But he turned his back on me
I put a home made blade to that golden throat
And asked the deputy for the key

Well it ain't the first close call I ever had
I'm sure you already know
I had some help from you Lord and the devil himself
It's been strictly touch and go

Yeah but who in the hell am I talkin' to
There ain't no one here but me
Then he cocked both his pistols and he spit in the dirt
And he walked out in the street

 

[fox69]

"Tom Dooley"

"Tom Dooley"


[Chorus:]
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley
Poor boy, you're bound to die

I met her on the mountain
I said she'd be my wife
I met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with my knife

[Chorus]

I drug her to the river
As God Almighty knows
The man beside the water
Hid her shoes and clothes

I dug her grave a footlong
I dug it three foot deep
I threw the cold clay on her
Tramped it with my feet

[Chorus]

'Bout this time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Down there in that holler
Hangin' from a tree

[Chorus 5x]