Delirium Tremolos
The Beauty Way
The Beauty Way
Written by Eliza Gilkyson
My daddy made a pretty damn good livin’
Playin’ music on the beauty way.
He’s gonna die with some money in his pocket.
Wish I could do the same today little darlin’,
Wish I could do the same today.
Wide eyed kid and a little transistor
Tuned into Wolfman Jack.
I picked up a guitar, heard the sirens whisper
And I never looked back little darlin’,
And I never looked back.
I worked the clubs along the Sangre De Cristos.
Polished a diamond in the rough.
By the time I hit LA I was hotter than a pistol.
But you’re never hot enough little darlin’,
You’re never really hot enough.
I felt the lights on the big, big stages.
A fire burnin’ in my soul.
I had those nights where my guitar was ragin’.
It’s not somethin’ you control little darlin’,
It’s not somethin’ you control.
Redtail divin’ for a rat on sunset,
Coyotes pickin’ through the trash.
I wish I was lyin’ like a cat in the sun,
‘stead of workin’ like a dog for the cash little darlin’,
I’m only workin’ for the cash.
Sometimes I wish I could unplug this cord,
And my soul or my money I could save.
But every time I say I’m gonna quit the beauty way,
I feel my bones just turnin’ in their grave little darlin’,
Bones just turnin’ in their grave.
Rock-N-Roll Gypsies
Rock-N-Roll Gypsies
Written by Roger Tillison
To the faraway places and friends,
Of the people and the places I’ve been,
I’ll sing you a song, and I won’t keep you long.
For the tambourine’s playin’, and the carnival’s callin’ me on.
And the rock and roll gypsies are ridin’ tonight.
On the carnival strips they’ll stay.
And the golden earrings laugh at the light,
As life is more than a play,
For tomorrow will soon be yesterday.
To the motherless children who ride
On the shadowless highway at night.
It’s more than a game,
More than fortune or fame.
For the winner takes nothing and the loser gets all that remains.
And the rock and roll gypsies are ridin’ tonight.
On the carnival strips they’ll stay.
And the golden earrings laugh at the light,
As life is more than a play,
For tomorrow will soon be yesterday.
And the rock and roll gypsies are ridin’ tonight.
On the carnival strips they’ll stay.
And the golden earrings laugh at the light,
As life is more than a play,
For tomorrow will soon be yesterday.
Dallas After Midnight
Dallas After Midnight
I pulled in the alley behind the liquor store,
Turned out the lights, left the motor runnin’, and opened up the door.
I flashed a grin and said, “Well, Jack this is gonna be a piece of cake
Later tonight we’ll head down to The Last Stand and split up the take.”
Sittin’ in the darkness, I take a drink of wine,
Feelin’ high and fast and loose and so right.
Then I think of something I’d never realized,
If I get shot tonight I ain’t never been baptized.
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Dallas after midnight
Oh, Dallas after midnight
I came runnin’ back, blinded by sweat, blood and tears.
I said, “Jack, the cat had a gun, let’s get out of here.”
I didn’t say nothin’ as we drove away.
I kept askin’ myself, “How’d I ever get so mean I couldn’t pray?”
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Now, there ain’t nothin’ I like better than drivin’ on hard concrete.
I’d rather hold a steering wheel than have a woman at my feet.
Ever since I was a little kid, I was always rowdy and loud.
Now here I am, thirty-four, still runnin’ ‘round with the wrong crowd.
Now we had such plans for when we got to Mexico.
After a high speed chase we got caught just south of San Angelo
Well the judge, he asked, “Why’d you wanna go and rob a liquor store?”
I said, “Well Your Honor, it’s hard to live in Dallas when you’re white trash and poor.”
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Dallas after midnight
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Oh, Dallas after midnight
Dallas after midnight
Torn in Two
Torn in Two
Written by Gurf Morlix
There’s a tattoo on my shoulder.
There’s a story under my skin.
Put there, to remind me,
Of the shape you let me in.
I took the Ford ‘cause it was rainin’.
I went down Chippewa road.
I picked it out, from the window,
Like a thousand fools before.
I got a heart that’s torn in two
So ever’one can see
I’m nothin’ without you. My heart’s been torn in two.
I was talkin’ all about you,
As if it mattered to him.
He sighed and said, “I know her.”
Drew it on and colored it in.
I got a heart that’s torn in two
So ever’one can see
I’m nothin’ without you. My heart’s been torn in two.
I put a thousand miles on my motor.
I broke down in Bowling Green.
To find a girl who thinks just like you.
I gotta burn some gasoline.
I got a heart that’s torn in two
So ever’one can see
I’m nothin’ without you. My heart’s been torn in two.
I got a heart that’s torn in two
So ever’one can see
I’m nothin’ without you. My heart’s been torn in two.
My heart’s been torn in two.
My heart’s been torn in two.
Drivin’ Wheel
Drivin’ Wheel
Written by David Wiffin
I just came in on the midnight special.
Well, hey, how ‘bout that?
My car broke down in Texas.
She stopped dead in her tracks.
I just called to tell you that I miss you.
I just called to tell you how I feel.
‘Cause I feel like some old engine. I done lost my drivin’ wheel.
‘Cause I feel like some old engine. I done lost my drivin’ wheel.
They took my money for a train ride.
It was a bad flight.
I gave you my promise that I’d be with you
By last Saturday night.
I just called to tell you that I need you.
I just called to tell you how I feel.
‘Cause I feel like some old engine. I done lost my drivin’ wheel.
‘Cause I feel like some old engine. I done lost my drivin’ wheel.
You can’t say much in a phone call.
You know how that is.
I just called to tell you one short somethin’.
Now won’t you listen to this?
I just called to tell you that I love you.
I just called to tell you how I feel.
‘Cause I feel like some old engine. I done lost my drivin’ wheel.
‘Cause I feel like some old engine. I done lost my drivin’ wheel.
‘Cause I feel like some old engine. I done lost my drivin’ wheel.
‘Cause I feel like some old engine. I done lost my drivin’ wheel.
This Mornin’ I Am Born Again
This Mornin’ I Was Born Again
Lyrics by Woodie Guthrie Music by Slaid Cleaves
This mornin’ I was born again and a light shines on my land.
I no longer look for heaven in your deathly distant land.
I do not want your pearly gates, don’t want your streets of gold.
This mornin’ I was born again and a light shines in my soul.
This mornin’ I was born again, I was born again complete.
I stood up above my troubles and I stand on my two feet.
My hand it feels unlimited, my body feels like the sky.
I feel at home in the universe where yonder planets fly.
This mornin’ I was born again, my past is dead and gone.
This great eternal moment is my great eternal dawn.
Each drop of blood within me, each breath of life I breathe,
Is united with these mountains and the mountains with the seas.
I feel the sun upon me, its rays crawl through my skin.
I breathe the life of Jesus and old John Henry in.
I give myself, my heart, my soul to give some friend a hand.
This mornin’ I was born again, I am in the Promised Land.
This mornin’ I was born again and a light shines on my land.
I no longer look for heaven in your deathly distant land.
I do not want your pearly gates, don’t want your streets of gold.
And I do not want your mansion for my heart is never cold.
Dust of the Chase
Dust of the Chase
Said I come down from Oklahoma with a pistol in my boot
A pair of dice, a deck of cards, and a bible in my suit
I come here as the cause of tears, just a cryin’ shame
Seven stud or eternal blood, I’m lookin’ for a game
I double crossed the state of Texas and they gave me a little time
I taught myself to double cut the cards and hold scriptures in my mind
I learned to love the tumblin’ die and to believe the word
Tombstones and rollin’ bones, beats anything I ever heard
Patience is a virtue that I don’t possess
And I can’t deny that heaven lies beneath a cotton dress
How small a part of time we share till we hear the sound of wings
I am lost in the dust of the chase that my life brings
I have walked through God’s green pastures, beneath his rich blue skies
I’ve seen the fall of man and the kingdom hidden from their eyes
I have heard the roar of thunder, I felt the lightening bolt
And when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I take along Samuel Colt
Every night I kiss the cards and hold them to my breast
And when I see the kind of hearts, I know that I am blessed
And though my eyes are blind sometimes I know there’s something there
So when the time’s at hand and I kill a man I, I say a little prayer
Roll and I Tumble
Roll and I Tumble
Written by Gurf Morlix
Roll and I tumble, cried the whole night long
Roll and I tumble, cried the whole night long
Got up this mornin’ didn’t know right from wrong
What you gonna do when your tarot be like mine
Gonna stand in the rain, gonna wring your hands and cry
She won’t get up woman, she won’t do nothin’ she says
She won’t get up woman, she won’t do nothin’ she says
Roll and I tumble, cried the whole night long
Roll and I tumble, cried the whole night long
Cooler-N-Hell
Cooler-N-Hell
Written by Ray Wylie Hubbard and Cody Canada
A sixty-eight Camaro, Candy Apple Red
Four speed transmission, chrome heads
Rev her up, and she casts a spell
Some things here under heaven are just cooler-n-hell
A pack of Chesterfields, sunglasses and a suit
A half pint of gin and a gold tooth
Lightnin’ Hopkins and a penatonic scale
Some things here under heaven are just cooler-n-hell
A blonde telecaster, 1955
Dyna Comp pedal and a beer bottle for a slide
A black face twin, with JBLs
Some things here under heaven are just cooler-n-hell
Black mascara, Loreal on her lips
A tribal tattoo just above her hips
A honky-tonkin’ woman who wears her ink well
Some things here under heaven are just cooler-n-hell
Yeah, some of this stuff down here is just cooler-n-hell
Choctaw Bingo
Choctaw Bingo
Written by James McMurtry
Strap them kids in
Give ‘em a lil’ bit of vodka
In a Cherry Coke
We’re goin’ to Oklahoma
To the family reunion
For the first time in years
It’s up at Uncle Slatons
‘Cause he’s gettin’ on in years
No longer travels but he’s
Still pretty spry
He’s not much on talkin’
And he’s too mean to die
And they’ll be comin’ down
From Kansas and from west Arkansas
It’ll be one big ol’ party
Like you’ve never saw
Uncle Slaton’s got his Texan pride
Back in the thickets with his Asian bride
He’s got an Airstream trailer and a
Holstein cow
Still makes whiskey ‘cause he still knows how
He plays that Choctaw bingo every Friday night
You know he had to leave Texas but he, he won’t say why
He owns a quarter section up by Lake Ufalla
Caught a great big ol’ bluecat on a driftin’ jugline
Sells his hardwood timber to the chippin’ mill
Cooks that crystal meth ‘cause his shine don’t sell
He cooks that crystal meth ‘cause his shine don’t sell
You know he likes that money, he don’t mind the smell
My cousin Roscoe, Slaton’s oldest boy
From his second marriage up in Illinois
He’s raised in East St Louis by his
Mamma’s people where they do things different
Thought he’d just come on down
He’s goin’ to Dallas, Texas in a semi truck
Caught from that big McDonalds
You know the one that’s built up on that
Big old bridge across the Will Rogers turnpike
Took the big cabin exit stopped and bought a carton of cigarettes
At that Indian smoke shop with the big neon smoke rings
In the Cherokee nation hit Muskogee late that night
Somebody ran the stoplight at the Shawnee bypass
Roscoe tried to miss him but he didn’t quite
Bob and Mae come up from
Some little town way down by
Lake Texoma where he coaches football
They were two-A champions now for two years running
But he says they won’t be this year
No they won’t be this year
And he stopped off in Tuska at that pop knife and gun place
Bought a SKS rifle and a couple full cases of that steel core ammo
With the Berdan primers from some east bloc nation
That no longer needs em’
And a desert eagle that’s one great big old pistol
I mean fifty caliber made by bad-ass Hebrews
And some surplus tracers for that old BAR
Of Slaton’s as soon as it gets dark
We’re gonna have us a time
We’re gonna have us a time
Ruth-Anne and Lynn come down from Baxter springs
Thats one hell-raisin town way up in
Southeastern kansas
Got a biker bar next to the lingerie store
Thats got rollin stones lips up there in
Bright pink neon
And they’re right downtown where everyone can see ‘em
And they burn all night
You know they burn all night
They burn all night
They burn all night
Ruth-Anne and Lynn they wear them cut off britches
And them skinny little halters
And they’re second cousins to me
Man I don’t care I wanna get between ‘em
With a great big ol’ hard-on
Like a old bois’darc fencepost
You could hang a five rail _____ from
Do some sister-twistin’
‘Till the cows come home
You know we’ll have us a time
We’re gonna have us a time
Uncle Slaton’s got his Texan pride
Back in the thickets with his Asian bride
He cut that corner pasture into acre lots
He sells them owner financed strictly to them
That’s got no kind of credit
‘Cause he knows they’re slackers
And they’ll miss that payment
And he, he takes it back
He plays that Choctaw bingo
Every Friday night
He drinks his Johnny Walker
At that club 69
We’re gonna strap them kids in
Give ‘em a lil’ bit of Benadryl
In a Cherry Coke
We’re goin’ to Oklahoma
Gonna have us a time
Gonna have us a time