And I played the Red River Valley
And he'd sit
In the kitchen
And cry
Run his fingers
Through seventy years of livin'
And wonder,
"Lord, has every well
I've drilled gone dry?"
We was friends
Me and this old man
(Was) Like desperados
Waitin' for a train
Like desperados
Waitin' for a train
Well, he's a drifter
And a driller of oil wells
And an old school man
Of the world
He taught me
How to drive his car
When he was
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
Waitin' for a train
Like desperados
Waitin' for a train
From the time that
I could walk
He'd take me with him
To a bar called
The Green Frog Cafe
And there was old men
With beer guts and dominoes
Lying 'bout their lives
While they played
And I was just a kid
But they all called me
"His sidekick"
Was like desperados
Waitin' for a train
Like desperados
Waitin' for a train
And one day
I looked up
And he's pushin' eighty
And has brown tobacco
Stains all down his chin
Well, 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
(Just) Like a desperado
Waitin' for a train
Like a desperado
Waitin' for a train
And then 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
"Come on, Jack,
That son-of-a-bitch is comin'"
We're desperados
Waitin' for a train
(Was) Like desperados
Waitin' for a train
Like desperados
Waitin' for a train
Like desperados
Waitin' for a train