Hell, quit my job down at the car wash
Wrote my mom a goodbye note
By sundown I had them keys
With my guitar under my coat
Comed on down to Memphis
Got me a room at the YMCA
Next three weeks I went home to Annapolis
Lookin' for a place to play
Thought my ticket would set on fire
But nobody wanted to hire a piano man
Well I never got to stock a deck down in Memphis
Lord I run out of money and luck
'Til I caught me a ride down to Macon, Georgia
On an overloaded broken truck
Popped on down to Panama city
Started workin' in all night bars
Tryna make myself a dollar
Makin' music on my guitar
Same ol' story, tell all my peers
Ain't no room around here for a piano man
Well I stepped into a hobo jungle
And rode a thousand Harley tracks
'Til I wound up down to Mobile, Alabama
At a club they call Big Jack's
A little four-piece band with a jam
And a two-part guitar and I sat in
I'll show ya what Alabama sounded like
To a silly little piano man, (swing it boys)
Well if you ever take a trip to the ocean...