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John Prine
by John Prine
ALBUM RANKINGS:
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews and awards.
Overall Rating:
3.5917
Avg. Critic Score:
4.0000
John Prine Lyrics
Lyrics
Disc
Track
Title
- When I woke up this morning, things were lookin' bad
- Seem like total silence was the only friend I had
- Bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down... and won
- And it was twelve o'clock before I realized
- That I was havin'... no fun
- [Chorus:]
- But fortunately I have the key to escape reality
- And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
- It don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while
- Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone
- No I'm just tryin' to have me some fun
- Last time I checked my bankroll,
- It was gettin' thin
- Sometimes it seems like the bottom
- Is the only place I've been
- I Chased a rainbow down a one-way street... dead end
- And all my friends turned out to be insurance salesmen
- [Chorus]
- Well, I sat down in my closet with all my overalls
- Tryin' to get away
- From all the ears inside my walls
- I dreamed the police heard
- Everything I thought... what then?
- Well I went to court
- And the judge's name was Hoffman
- Ah but fortunately I have the key to escape reality
- And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
- It don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while
- Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone
- No I'm just tryin' to have me some fun
- Well done, hot dog bun, my sister's a nun
- [On the 1997 LIVE ON TOUR Prine ends the song with:]
- Well done, son of a gun,
- Hot dog bun,
- Attilla the Hun,
- My sister-in-law is an Irish nun
- We had an apartment in the city,
- Me and Loretta liked living there.
- Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown,
- A life of their own left us alone.
- John and Linda live in Omaha,
- And Joe is somewhere on the road.
- We lost Davy in the Korean war,
- And I still don't know what for, don't matter anymore.
- [Chorus:]
- Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger,
- And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day.
- Old people just grow lonesome
- Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello."
- Me and Loretta, we don't talk much more,
- She sits and stares through the back door screen.
- And all the news just repeats itself
- Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen.
- Someday I'll go and call up Rudy,
- We worked together at the factory.
- But what could I say if asks "What's new?"
- "Nothing, what's with you? Nothing much to do."
- [Chorus]
- So if you're walking down the street sometime
- And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
- Please don't just pass 'em by and stare
- As if you didn't care, say, "Hello in there, hello."
- Sam Stone came home,
- To his wife and family
- After serving in the conflict overseas.
- And the time that he served,
- Had shattered all his nerves,
- And left a little shrapnel in his knee.
- But the morphine eased the pain,
- And the grass grew round his brain,
- And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
- With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.
- [Chorus:]
- There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
- Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose.
- Little pitchers have big ears,
- Don't stop to count the years,
- Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.
- Mmm....
- Sam Stone's welcome home
- Didn't last too long.
- He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
- And Sammy took to stealing
- When he got that empty feeling
- For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
- And the gold rolled through his veins
- Like a thousand railroad trains,
- And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
- While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...
- [Chorus]
- Sam Stone was alone
- When he popped his last balloon
- Climbing walls while sitting in a chair
- Well, he played his last request
- While the room smelled just like death
- With an overdose hovering in the air
- But life had lost its fun
- And there was nothing to be done
- But trade his house that he bought on the G. I. Bill
- For a flag draped casket on a local heroes' hill.
- [Chorus]
- When I was a child my family would travel
- Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
- And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
- So many times that my memories are worn.
- [Chorus:]
- And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
- Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
- Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
- Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
- Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
- To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill
- Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
- But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
- [Chorus]
- Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
- And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
- Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
- Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.
- [Chorus]
- When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
- Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
- I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
- Just five miles away from wherever I am.
- [Chorus]
- I got a friend in Fremont, He sells used cars, ya know.
- Well, he calls me up twice a year
- Just ask me how'd it go
- Pretty good, not bad, I can't complain
- Actually everything is just about the same
- I met a girl from Venus, and her insides were lined in gold
- Well, she did what she did said "How was it, kid?"
- She was politely told
- "Pretty good, not bad, I can't complain
- But actually everything is just about the same."
- Moonlight makes me dizzy
- Sunlight makes me clean
- Your light is the sweetest thing
- That this boy has ever seen.
- Molly went to Arkansas, she got raped by Dobbin's dog
- Well, she was doing good till she went in the woods
- And got pinned up against a log
- Pretty good, not bad, she can't complain
- Cause actually all them dogs is just about the same
- Moonlight makes me dizzy
- Sunlight makes me clean
- Your light is the sweetest thing
- That this boy has ever seen.
- [Instrumental]
- I heard Allah and Buddha were singing at the Savior's feast
- And up the sky and Arabian rabbi
- Fed Quaker oats to a priest.
- Pretty good, not bad, they can't complain
- Cause actually all them gods is just about the same
- Pretty good, not bad, I can't complain
- Cause actually everything is just about the same
- While digesting Reader's Digest
- In the back of a dirty book store,
- A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
- Fell out on the floor.
- Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
- Slapped it on my window shield,
- And if I could see old Betsy Ross
- I'd tell her how good I feel.
- [Chorus:]
- But your flag decal won't get you
- Into Heaven any more.
- They're already overcrowded
- From your dirty little war.
- Now Jesus don't like killin'
- No matter what the reason's for,
- And your flag decal won't get you
- Into Heaven any more.
- Well, I went to the bank this morning
- And the cashier he said to me,
- "If you join the Christmas club
- We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
- Well, I didn't mess around a bit
- I took him up on what he said.
- And I stuck them stickers all over my car
- And one on my wife's forehead.
- [Chorus]
- Well, I got my window shield so filled
- With flags I couldn't see.
- So, I ran the car upside a curb
- And right into a tree.
- By the time they got a doctor down
- I was already dead.
- And I'll never understand why the man
- Standing in the Pearly Gates said...
- "But your flag decal won't get you
- Into Heaven any more.
- We're already overcrowded
- From your dirty little war.
- Now Jesus don't like killin'
- No matter what the reason's for,
- And your flag decal won't get you
- Into Heaven any more."
- As the cafe was closing
- On a warm summer night
- And Cathy was cleaning the spoons
- The radio played the "Hit Parade"
- And I hummed a long with the tune
- She asked me to change the station
- Said the song just drove her insane
- But it weren't just the music playing
- It was me that she was trying to blame.
- [Chorus:]
- And the sky is black and still now
- On the hill where the angels sing
- Ain't it funny how an old broken bottle
- Looks just like a diamond ring
- But it's far, far from me
- Well, I leaned on my left leg
- In the parking lot dirt
- And Cathy was closing the lights
- A June bug flew from the warmth he once knew
- And I wished for once I weren't right
- Why we used to laugh together
- And we'd dance to any old song.
- Well, ya know, she still laughs with me
- But she waits just a second too long.
- [Chorus]
- Well, I started the engine
- And I gave it some gas
- And Cathy was closing her purse
- Well, we hadn't gone far in my beat old car
- And I was prepared for the worst.
- "Will you still see me tomorrow?"
- "No, I got too much to do."
- Well, a question ain't really a question
- If you know the answer too.
- [Chorus]
- I am an old woman named after my mother
- My old man is another child that's grown old
- If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
- This old house would have burnt down a long time ago
- [Chorus:]
- Make me an angel that flies from Montgom'ry
- Make me a poster of an old rodeo
- Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
- To believe in this living is just a hard way to go
- When I was a young girl well, I had me a cowboy
- He weren't much to look at, just free rambling man
- But that was a long time and no matter how I try
- The years just flow by like a broken down dam.
- [Chorus]
- There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzing
- And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today.
- How the hell can a person go to work in the morning
- And come home in the evening and have nothing to say.
- [Chorus]
- Strolling down the highway with my shoes in my hand
- I don't talk much I'm a quiet man
- Beauty and silence both run deep
- And running like crazy while you are asleep
- [Chorus:]
- You got news for me, I got nothing for you
- Don't pin your blues on me
- Just go ahead and do whatever you wish to
- Last Monday night I saw a fight
- Between Wednesday and Thursday over Saturday night
- Tuesday asked me what was going on I said,
- "Sunday's in the meadow and Friday's in the corn."
- [Chorus]
- Hocus-pocus, Maladjusted
- Don't you think my tears get rusted
- Steady losing means you ain't using
- What you really think is right
- [Chorus]
- Oodles of light what a beautiful sight
- Both of God's eyes are shining tonight
- Rays and beams of incredible dreams
- And I am a quiet man.
- Oodles of light what a beautiful sight
- Both of God's eyes are shining tonight
- Rays and beams of incredible dreams
- And I am a quiet man.
- Oodles of light what a beautiful sight
- Both of God's eyes are shining tonight
- Rays and beams of incredible dreams
- And I am a quiet man.
- Small town, bright lights, Saturday night,
- Pinballs and pool halls flashing their lights.
- Making change behind the counter in a penny arcade
- Sat the fat girl daughter of Virginia and Ray
- [Spoken:]
- Lydia
- Lydia hid her thoughts like a cat
- Behind her small eyes sunk deep in her fat.
- She read romance magazines up in her room
- And felt just like Sunday on Saturday afternoon.
- [Chorus:]
- But dreaming just comes natural
- Like the first breath from a baby,
- Like sunshine feeding daisies,
- Like the love hidden deep in your heart.
- Bunk beds, shaved heads, Saturday night,
- A warehouse of strangers with sixty watt lights.
- Staring through the ceiling, just wanting to be
- Lay one of too many, a young PFC:
- [Spoken:]
- Donald
- There were spaces between Donald and whatever he said.
- Strangers had forced him to live in his head.
- He envisioned the details of romantic scenes
- After midnight in the stillness of the barracks latrine.
- [Chorus]
- Hot love, cold love, no love at all.
- A portrait of guilt is hung on the wall.
- Nothing is wrong, nothing is right.
- Donald and Lydia made love that night.
- [Spoken:]
- Love
- The made love in the mountains, they made love in the streams,
- They made love in the valleys, they made love in their dreams.
- But when they were finished there was nothing to say,
- 'Cause mostly they made love from ten miles away.
- [Chorus]
- Wanda had a baby in nineteen fifty one.
- The father was stranger and a stranger was the son.
- Call that child James Lewis, call these rooms a home.
- Changing all them diapers polish all that chrome.
- C'mon, baby, spend the night with me
- All around the schoolyard playing all the games
- Running, laughing back and forth the kid with two first names
- Stranger in the closet, lock the diary
- The past is running faster singing harmony
- C'mon, baby, spend the night with me
- "God bless this kitchen" said the knick-knack shelf
- "The dinner's almost ready Go and wash yourself"
- Jimmy's growing up now and Wanda's growing old
- The time is growin' shorter the nights are long and cold
- C'mon, baby, spend the night with me
- Sneaking in the closet and through the diary
- Now, don't you know all he saw was all there was to see
- The whole town saw Jimmy on the six o'clock news
- His brains were on the sidewalk and blood was on his shoes
- C'mon, baby, spend the night with me
- C'mon, baby, spend the night with me
- While window shopping through the past
- I ran across a looking glass
- Reflecting moments remaining in a burned out light
- Tragic magic prayers of passion
- Stay the same through changing fashions
- They freeze my mind like water on a winter's night
- Spent most of my youth
- Out hobo cruising
- And all I got for proof
- Is rocks in my pockets and dirt in my shoes
- So goodbye nonbeliever
- Don't you know that I hate to leave here
- So long babe, I got the flashback blues.
- Photographs show the laughs
- Recorded in between the bad times
- Happy sailors dancing on a sinking ship
- Cloudy skies and dead fruit flies
- Waving goodbye with tears in my eyes
- Well, sure I made it but ya know it was as hell of a trip.
- Spent most of my youth
- Out hobo cruising
- And all I got for proof
- Is rocks in my pockets and dirt in my shoes
- And ten times what it grieves you
- That's how much more I hate to leave you now
- So long babe, I got the flashback blues.
- Spent most of my youth
- Out hobo cruising
- And all I got for proof
- Is rocks in my pockets and dirt in my shoes
- So goodbye nonbeliever
- Don't you know that I hate to leave here
- So long babe, I got the flashback blues.
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