Lyrics:

A retail hawk sat watchful at the faded edge of day
The phone polls and pines rose from the scoured clay
The sun was slipping toward the gulf in its own good time
And you would not think of death if you drove on past the signs

The old men at the roadhouse weren't too polite to stare
Where we'd come from wasn't home we were far from leavin' there
The camera 'round my neck drew suspicious eyes to me
We were not there to talk we were only there to see

When their faces had said nothing
Was then I stepped outside
And in the instant I knew I would not forget the sight
Alabama at night Alabama at night

You took the wheel up 119 I scan the road ahead
Tryin' to let all I could see cover up all that I'd read
That hotel would not likely let a working man lie down
Like a current through its walls ran the sorrow and the sound

And I kneeled down to let it in me
Sure it would come if I gave it time
And I fumbled amongst a hundred words
But words don't do it right
Alabama at night Alabama at night

A hundred words mean nothing
But what a thousand others say they might

Through sunlit rooms the wealthy walk and the pale unshaven men
To stand before each frame five seconds maybe ten
You're to unveil all that may grow wanted to portray
But I'm not there to talk and if I were I wouldn't say

A cross of rough cut branches and the white grey shadowed sky
A child not far from birth with the end etched in her eyes
The morning star above her and a hem upon the breeze
The poor's no sacred song, poor is a disease

And no hand reaches down from heaven and no one denies it might
So patiently we wait here as all unworthy souls
Alabama at night Alabama at night
Alabama at night