I'd sing 'Red River Valley' He'd sit out in the kitchen and cry Run his fingers through seventy years of livin' And wonder, Lord, has every well I drilled, gone dry?
We was friends, me and this old man Like desperados waiting for a train Like desperados waiting for a train
He's a drifter and a driller of oil wells An old school man of the world Taught me how to drive his car when he's too drunk to And he'd wink and give me money for the girls
And our lives was like some old western movie Like desperados waiting for a train Like desperados waiting for a train
From the time I could walk he'd take me with him To a place called the Green Frog Cafe And there was old men with beer guts and Dominos Lyin' 'bout their lives while they'd play
And I was just a kid they all called his sidekick Like desperados waiting for a train Like desperados waiting for a train
One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty And there's brown tobacco stains all down his chin To me he's one of the heroes of this country So why's he all dressed up like them old men?
Drinkin' beer and playin' moon and forty two Like desperados waiting for a train Like desperados waiting for a train
The day before he died I went to see him I was grown and he was almost gone So we just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen And sang another verse to that old song
Right, Jack, that son of a bitch is comin' Like desperados waiting for a train Like desperados waiting for a train, waiting Like desperados waiting for a train