Old 97's

I got a four-leaf clover It ain't done one single lick of good I'm still a drunk I'm still a loser Living in a lousy neighborhood I got a real live horseshoe And I hung it upside-down above my door But it don't do nothing to attract you So I don't kno...

I was playing every Monday on Burgundy in some shitty little bar I was working on a novel called 'New Orleans Ain't No City, it's a Scar' The heroine does heroin The hero wears his hair just like The King He says, "It ain't my job to sweet talk you, my job...

When the day breaks on Cedar Creek Lake Or my life rolls into Rome When the sun goes down on Austin town That's when I'll know I'm home What a time we'll have on Greenville Ave With the big shots in Big D I'm livin' in a state of Texas And Texas lives...

Heaven i need drug Her eyes are all but fixed upon her coffee cup And looking down she tells you things are looking up Take another slug Heaven I had a dream But now my lifes a nightmare of efficiency She rattles off the things she never got for free G...

I watch, as it stops for a girl A moment, elaborate and weak I am easy in her midst Why elaborate, when there's no need to? But I do, all night My words ring like money off a bar But she's here, asleep now One can only go alone so far One can only go...

When you were just a little girl in Pine Bluff Daddy disappeared without a trace Now there's no more little girls in Pine Bluff They all ran like tears out of this place Am I too late Am I too late Tell you that I love you Now they've carried you away...

Kill the bottle and build a fire Watch the flames lick the telephone wire You knew I was trouble from the start Know-it-all, yeah, you should have known better Baby I'm bad right down to the letter You spent too much time gambling with your heart If yo...

The Empty Bottle was half empty, tide was low, and I was thirsty Saw her sitting at the bar, you know how some girls are Always making eyes, well she wasn't making eyes So I sidled up beside her, settled down and shouted, "Hi there." "My name's Stewart Ran...

I've been lightin' matches in the boiler room Wearing sulphur perfume (Don't I smell nice?) You come sniffin' around just like you own the joint You know it's rude to point (Don't make me tell you twice.) Well I like the way you walk That's why I left...

Big brown eyes and a gust of wind And the cherry burns the corner of the page that says "The end is coming soon", but not soon enough Restring all your guitars, pack up all your stuff 'Cause if Robert's dad is right We might not make it through the night...

I left you last night on the left coast I'm writin' you a letter right now The things that you do are rendering you Something I can't live without Maybe maybe I've got a pulse now Maybe my heart's on fire A bird in the hand is worth a bird in a cage Is...

These storms they gather forces unbeknownst to fools like me They hide on the horizon too far gone to see I could have swore the heart you wore upon your sleeve was mine I could not see in front of me you were leaving I was blind Blinding sheets of rain t...

She drove a blue car around Bloomington She was a thin girl but she had substance She said that most girls who come to Bloomington Only come here to find husbands The existence of God was confirmed By the way she unfolded herself alongside And I tried t...

Rowboat lightning I kissed her yeah it didn't mean a thing Seems like years ago it was yesterday Fire drill yell freeze don't hang around long face disease I got a book of poems that's gonna set you free Well it's bad luck and it's a hard luck story And I...

The hat on your head the ghosts before breakfast The lump in your throat the name on her necklace She's certain she'll never be caught You can buy her things now but she'll never be bought The cat on her mind the ring in her tan-line The lowering lids th...

In a hotel room just off Times Square it's like a closet I can watch the dancing class go round In a hotel room that costs as much as my apartment I can watch the working class go down And it's enough to make a crooked man go straight - Broadway, Broadwa...

And I tried And I know what we are Yeah, I saw it in a strange dream We're a mess I'm afraid That this is the real thing And I tried Tried to leave it all alone Send your brown haired daughter home But I can't So I won't And you ought to hear my hea...

Do you wanna mess around? Do you wanna spend the night? I've known both kinds of love But I want to get it right this time I don't wanna settle down I don't want to make no plans Exept for what I'm gonna do With a pair of idle hands They're tearing t...

There was a fine rain There was a red wine There was a long whistle It was a good sign There was a band playin' Somewhere off-screen There was a girl sayin' 'Come clean.' CHORUS In a dream On a bus On a busted afternoon In a haze On a bus On a...

Can't get a line to telephone you Why you holing your company? I been moaning Oh! Lonesome Me You made a pigeon of my heart And I'd go anywhere to know you Take a long way coming back Be your yellow bedroom cab Making bread in your heaven And you're th...

The bottom line's been snorted The bottom card's been dealt No one knows like you know right now How truly bad it felt All your life you wasted On dreamin' about the day Worker bees kill off their queen And carry all her eggs away Oh, then if you die...

I turned my microwave on and I cooked my chicken ravioli The last ten years of my life I've been feeling kind of lonely I don't do love I don't do women named Hannah And I don't do red haired girls from Louisiana I'm suffering from a kind of indecision A...

well the sun's down gone don't hand me no light the moon and the man will be rollin' all night scorpio's up bleeding all day into pasture and the hours behind are allways too few miles between can't begin to undo the feeling you will never see another like h...

You're gonna crash on the barrelhead son You'll regret the things that you done One of these days you're gonna rue All the messed up things you do You're gonna die the way you live And the way you drink you're like a river Bound for falls and not much f...

Cryin', cryin' Cryin' drunk Walker lives on the island I'm still stuck in the south Walker lives off his hands now I still live off my mouth The only difference is you've got integrity, I don't Only difference is I'll do a lot of things you won't You...

Cryin', cryin' Cryin' drunk Walker lives on the island I'm still stuck in the south Walker lives off his hands now I still live off my mouth The only difference is you've got integrity, I don't Only difference is I'll do a lot of things you won't You'd...

In a western town, beneath the northern lights Where the pine trees pine for the fall of night You believe in cards, you believe in signs And I'll be leavin' soon, but I'm here tonight On a mountainside, well below the stars Keep your lovers eyes in maso...

Underneath the foreign stars In a foreign place Where they don't love you I do turn In the pale moonlight Your eyes are wide And the band plays Everybody wants you And he takes your hand, tenderly And he whispers sweet surrender Nothing, is how he f...

Dancing with tears in my eyes 'Cause the girl in my arms isn't you Dancing with somebody new When it's you that my arms are calling to And I'm trying to smile once in a while But I found, oh, it wouldn't do Now I'm dancing with tears in my eyes 'Cause t...

Standing on the corner of 6th and How To Forget Trying to do right by you all night Annette You can go ahead and get married And this will be our secret thing I won't tell a soul except the people in the nightclub where I sing I don't want to get you all...

Alternate chording Last night I dreamt of you, Abbie Hoffman peddling your books I gave five bucks to you, the other kids just gave you dirty looks I said "I'm sorry it didn't work out quite the way you planned." You said, "That's silly boy, the revolution...

When I first met Doreen She was barely seventeen She was drinking whiskey sours in the bar The way she tossed 'em back I would've had a heart attack But as it is I let her drive my car We galloped through the boroughs Like a pair of horny thoroughbred...

I might have wound up in L.A. panning for gold Found me a woman to warm up with when the water got cold But I heard that there ain't no gold there There's just line upon line of cocaine I've been there once and I ain't gonna go there again I stopped beli...

Man, I had a terrible day I couldn't stop gettin' in my own way Time to blow my pay, I need a drink Move your ass cause that's my stool Pour one Bass, no, make it two Don't need no lip from you, I need a drink Fire up the generator, hoist the flag and...

The walls are built up stone by stone The fields divided one by one And the train conductor says Take a break, driver 8 Driver 8, take a break We've been on this shift too long And the train conductor says Take a break, driver 8 Driver 8, take a brea...

I've been reading books when no one's lookin' I've been listenin' to the sirens in the night Robert says I'm goin' straight to hell, yeah If I hang around here I just might And I'd like to take some medicine And like to drink some wine I'd like to wake...

Every night is Friday night Without you Every night is Friday night Without you When I was young I was dumb as a rock I could not read a clock And nothin' didn't mean nothin' to me Now I'm no saint But I ain't such a freak On the days of the week...

Pushing through the market square So many mothers sighing News had just come over We had five years left to cry in News guy wept and told us Earth was really dying Cried so much, his face was wet And I knew he wasn't lying I heard telephones, opera ho...

Well she said I know, but I just can't tell Everything that you've just been saying Lucy was there as well in the dark When the kids in the band were playing No one can hear a word or tell What the girl was singing See, she must've been 16 or 18 I'm jus...

I was a debater Was not a stoner nor an inline skater Was not a player nor a player hater I was just a bookworm on a respirator Who's to say that's wrong I was in the chess club Didn't have a swimming pool much less a true love Didn't have a dalliance...

this is more than I can tolerate ehe kind of pain you've got to medicate I can't remember why I couldn't wait to get so close to you try to call you on the telephone you never answer but I know you're home I wonder why I'm so all alone while I'm so close to yo...

What remains of the day remains to be seen By the TV that we never turn on Each other's enough I never had it so rough Ever since I been gone White noise swells in my head Making me worry it's the summertime But it's the dead of the fall It's the dead...

She woke from a dream Her head was on fire Why was he so nervous? He took her to the park She crossed her arms And lowered her eyelids Some day somebody's gonna ask you A question that you should say yes to Once in your life Maybe tonight I've got a questio...

Salome, uncross your heart. I know what goes on inside, it's over before it starts. Well I'll stay all night, I'll wait right here. The full moon might work magic girl, but I won't disappear. CHORUS: And I'm tired of making friends, and I'm tired of making ti...

He came from Phoenix in a borrowed VW bug To be somebody or just be somebody who Came from Phoenix in a borrowed VW bug Just to prove that he was on her like she was a drug Hallucinogenic with no hangover at all She kept quarters in a jar in a drawer in her d...

I gotta check for nothing All made out to someone I truly love myself Murray says we’re gonna take the money sometime Well it might as well be this time We’re gonna spend it all on ourselves Ken picked this bank at random I said, do we shoot them? And he sai...

I got a timebomb, in my mind Mom. I hear it ticking but I don't know why. I call the police, but they don't like me. I hear 'em whispering when I walk by. I got a landmine in my bloodline. I'm not immune to getting blown apart. She's like a claymore, that's w...