Instrumental

The jukebox is playing a honky tonk song
One more I keep saying and then I'll go home
What good would it do me, I know what I'll find
An empty bottle of broken hearts and you're still on my mind

The people are laughing and having their fun
While I sit here crying over what you have done
My pockets are empty, my last drink of wine,
An empty bottle of broken hearts and your still on my mind

Alone and forsaken, so blue I could die
I just sit here drinking till the bottle runs dry
To try and forget you I turn to the wine
An empty bottle of broken hearts and your still on my mind

Well gather round me children, a story I will tell
about pretty boy Floyd the outlaw, Oklahoma knew him well
It was in the town of Shawnee on a Saturday afternoon
His wife beside him in the wagon as into town they rode

Then along came the deputy sheriff in a manner rather rude
using vulgar words of language, his wife she overheard
Then pretty boy grabbed a long chain and the deputy grabbed a gun
and in the fight that followed he laid that deputy down

Then he ran to the trees and bushes to live a life of shame
Every crime in Oklahoma was added to his name
He ran to the trees and bushes on the Canadian river shore
and many a starving farmer opened up his door

It was in Oklahoma City, it was on a Christmas day
A whole carload of groceries with a letter that did say
You say that I?m an outlaw, you say that I?m a thief
Well here?s a Christmas dinner for the families on relief

As through this life you travel you meet some funny men
Some will rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen
As through this life you ramble, as through this life you roam
You?ll never see an outlaw take a family from their home

Well, he's got him a house on the hill
He plays country music* till you've had your fill
He's a fireman's friend he's an all night DJ
But he sure don't think much of the records he plays

He's a drug store truck drivin' man
He's the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He'll be lucky if he's not in town

Well, he don't like the young folks I know
He told me one night on his radio show
He's got him a medal he won in the War
It weighs five-hundred pounds and it sleeps on his floor

He's been like a father to me
He's the only DJ you can hear after three
I'm an all night musician in a rock and roll band
And why he don't like me I can't understand

He's a drug store truck drivin' man
He's the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He'll be lucky if he's not in town

---

She's in some honky tonk tonight I know
Running where the music's loud and the lights are low
In a crowded bar she likes to hang around
And as long as there's a honky tonk, she'll never settle down

So close up the honky tonks lock all the doors
Don't let the one I love go there any more
Close up the honky tonks throw away the key
Then maybe the one I love will come back to me

I wish I had the power to turn back the time
And live again the hours when she was all mine
Cause it hurts to see her running with that crowd downtown
And as long as there's a honky tonk she'll never settle down
So close up the honky tonks lock all the doors
Don't let the one I love go there any more
Close up the honky tonks throw away the key
Then maybe the one I love will come back to me
Then maybe the one I love will come back to me

Instrumental

My buddies tell me that I should have waited
They say I'm missing a whole world of fun
But I still love them and I say with pride
I like the Christian life
I won't lose a friend while heeding God's call
For what is a friend who'd want you to fall
Others find pleasures in things I despise
I like the Christian life

SOLO

My buddies shun me since I turned to Jesus
They say I'm missing a whole world of fun
I live without them walking the line
I like the Christian life
I won't lose a friend while heeding God's call
For what is a friend who'd want you to fall
Others find pleasures in things I despise
I like the Christian life
I like the Christian life

Don't say you love me , don't say you care
You're so far away
Telephone communication, only a three minute elation
When I hear your voice
Through love and trust it's gonna work out fine
The only pain I feel is all this time between
You and me, you and me

All the days have turned to years, only emphasize my fears
Since you said goodbye
I can hear your voice at night, I can read the words you write
It's only love
Through love and trust it's gonna work out fine
The only pain I feel is all this time between
You and me, you and me

Now don't say you love me , don't say you care
You're so far away
I can hear your voice at night, I can read the words you write
It's only love
Through love and trust it's gonna work out fine
The only pain I feel is all this time between
You and me, you and me

Through love and trust it's gonna work out fine
The only pain I feel is all this time between
You and me, you and me
You and me

Grease collecting stained-glass rubies
Pillowed gently on a strand
Bearing looks of frenzied blankness
Slowing down their freebie king

Middleclass suburban children wearing costumes that reveal
Blindly follow recent pipers with their mystical appeal go now

So I?m leavin' for the country to try and rest my head
Cause if I hang around this scene too long you know babe I?ll be dead

Color changes superficial
Apathy still a king
Liberal reactonaries never feeling anything go now

Pushed me off the street today
The lamp light gets in the way
On the darkness you pushed me in
You say that it's a sin we?re hangin' around

You told me not to sing today
You say my music gets in the way
Cause he walks on in just as you begin
Bringin' my soul brothers down

And although you're smiling
your hate will not cease
So just face yourself babe
and leave my soul in peace

Well I'll stay out of your way
if you keep out of mine
Find the good lookin' people go
Oh you know we'll both go down in time

If your mem'ry serves you well,
We were goin' to meet again and wait,
So I'm goin' to unpack all my things
And sit before it gets too late.
No man alive will comfort you
With another tale to tell,
But you know that we shall meet again
If your mem'ry serves you well.
This wheel's on fire,
Rolling down the road,
Best notify my next of kin,
This wheel shall explode!

If your mem'ry serves you well,
I was goin' to confiscate your lace,
And wrap it up in a sailor's knot
And hide it in your case.
If I knew for sure that it was yours . . .
But it was oh so hard to tell.
But you knew that we would meet again,
If your mem'ry serves you well.
This wheel's on fire,
Rolling down the road,
Best notify my next of kin,
This wheel shall explode!

If your mem'ry serves you well,
You'll remember you're the one
That called on me to call on them
To get you your favors done.
And after ev'ry plan had failed
And there was nothing more to tell,
You knew that we would meet again,
If your mem'ry served you well.
This wheel's on fire,
Rolling down the road,
Best notify my next of kin,
This wheel shall explode!

The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom
I stood up to say good-bye like all the rest
And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell
Let my guitar playing friend do my request.'

Want you Sing me back home with a song I used to hear
Make my old memories come alive
And take me away and turn back the years
Sing Me Back Home before I die

And I remember Sunday evening when a choir came in from town
Just to sing a few old gospel song
And I heard him tell the singers 'There's a song my mama sang.
Could you sing it once before we move along?'

So you you want to be a rock?n roll star
then listen now to what I say
Just get an electric guitar
and take some time and learn how to play
And when your hair's combed right and your pants fit tight
it?s gonna be all right

Then it?s time to go down town
where the agent men won?t let you down
Sell your soul to the company
who are waiting there to sell plastic ware
And in a week or two if you make the charts
the girls'll tear you apart

The price you pay for your riches and fame
Was it all a strange game
You?re a little insane
The money that came and the public acclaim
Don?t forget what you are
You?re a rock?n roll star

He was a friend of mine, he was a friend of mine
His killing had no purpose, no reason or rhyme
He was a friend of mine

He was in Dallas town, he was in Dallas town
From a sixth floor window a gunner shot him down
He was in Dallas town

He never knew my name, he never knew my name
Though I never met him I knew him just the same
Oh he was a friend of mine

Leader of a nation for such a precious time
He was a friend of mine

Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An' for each an' ev'ry underdog soldier in the night
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An' the hypnotic splatter of mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting

Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An' for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Starry-eyed an' laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an' we watched with one last look
Spellbound an' swallowed 'til the tolling ended

Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an' worse
An' for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An' we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.