There was a time when I didn't talk
I'd look away or I'd shrug it off
Tune it out or turn it off
Or say something short and soft
Out of school I took a J-O-B
Makin' bu*tons in a factory
Thinkin' what does life got in for me?
And I didn't wanna know
In a city full of double deals
My boss would yawn and roll back on his heels
Like anyone could cop a feel
Of lady luck
I was made with my brother Bill
Drinking Muskie Moons on top of Laurel Hill
It's funny, now I'd cheek a poison pill
To sober up, to sober up
And no two-bit claim of I'm all right
Is gonna turn around and make it right
So I'm fishin' in my pocket for a light
And I'm standin' on the corner on a Saturday night
I seen pigeons flap their filthy wings
To a freezing sunset in the west
Rain sh** down from their haunted perch
In the bells above St. Someone's church
The Sexton drinks and dreams in bed
One eye in a line of light
Startled by a ghost he screams
His dead wife's name into the night
Which echoes down a cobbled hall
Bounces off a gray stone floor
Fired down a line of stairs
Where it's silenced by a door
Beyond which I am leaning, leaning
Watching cars and dreaming
As steam rose 'round my body
Like my soul up to the stars
I guess the devil's had his way with town
Now that Willie is in the ground
And I guess the devil made me this
When he gave me no one I can't resist
I got the bill today
Wrote back I moved away
They called me up to say
They know that I'm still here
So on the fifth day of the fifth month
At five o'clock in the dawn
I rolled myself in a T-O-P
And jumped out on Highway One
With a 400 engine hot as a cremation coffin
And a tailgate bangin' like an airplane wing
I was rollin' on the highway
I was doin' it my way
Whistlin' "Someday" and singing this song
I'm thinking tonight of my blue eyes
Concerning a great speckled bird
I didn't know God made honky tonk angels
And went back to the wild side of life