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by Terry
Allen 
All lyrics and music were written
by Terry Allen; Published by Green Shoes Publishing/Leosongs
Amarillo
Highway; High
Plains Jamboree; The Great
Joe Bob (a regional tragedy); The
Wolfman of Del Rio; Lubbock
Woman; The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma;
Truckload of Art; The
Collector (and the Art Mob); OUI (A
French Song); Rendezvous USA;
Cocktails for Three; The
Beautiful Waitress;
Blue Asian Reds (for Roadrunner);
New Delhi Freight Train; FFA; Flatland
Farmer; My Amigo; The
Pink and Black Song;
Thirty Years Waltz; I
Just Left Myself
dedicated to my mother and the memory of my father
PAULINE ROOSEVELT PIERCE ALLEN
FLETCHER MANSON "SLED" ALLEN
in memoriam
STANLEY MCPHERSON (fuck vietnam)
PETER DUEL (fuck hollywood)
DANNY PARRISH (fuck bad blood)
Engineered & Mastered
by DON CALDWELL &
LLOYD MAINES
Produced by: everyone on this record
Musicians
Piano & Vocal/Terry Allen
Pedal steel, acoustic & electric guitars, dobro, mandolin,
tenor banjo, bell tree/Lloyd Maines
Bass/Kenny Maines
Drums/Curtis McBride
Percussion, marimba, jawbone, skin castanets/Alan Shinn
Fiddle/Richard Bowden
Accordian/Ponty Bone
Saxophone/Don Caldwell
Harmonica/Joe Ely (courtesy MCA Records)
Jazz Guitar on "Cocktails for Three"/Luis Martinez
Flatland guitar on "Flatland Farmer"/Jesse Taylor
Trumpet/Tommy Anderson
Trombone/Mark Anthony
Tuba/Russ Standefer
Strings/Ruth Ann Truncale (violin), Susan Allen (viola),
Karen Blalack (cello),
Leslie Blackburn (viola)
String arrangements/Don Caldwell
School song/Monterey High School Marching Band
Harmony/Lloyd Maines, Kenny Maines, Sylvester "band-aid"
Rice, Gwen Hewitt, Suzanne Paulk, Jo Harvey Allen
"Whooooit" Harmony/Freddy Pride, Mike Austin, Vincent
Thomas, Jimmy Sampson
1. Amarillo Highway (for Dave Hickey)
Well
I'm a high straight in Plainview
Side bet in Idalou
An a fresh deck in New Deal
Yeah
Some call me high hand
An some call me low hand
But I'm holdin what I am…The Wheel
'Cause
I'm panhandlin
Man handlin
Post holin
High rollin
Dust Bowlin…Daddy
An I ain't got no blood veins
I just got them four lanes
Of hard…Amarillo Highway
Yeah
I don't wear no Stetson
But I'm willin to bet son
That I'm a big a Texan as you are
'Cause
There's a girl in her barefeet
'Sleep on the back seat
An that trunk is full of Pearl…and Lone Star
(chorus)
So
Gonna hop outta bed
Pop a pill in my head
Yeah, bust the Hub for the Golden Spread
Under blue skies
Gonna stuff my hide
Behind some power glide
An get some southern fried…back in my eyes
(chorus)
An close I'll ever get to heaven
Is makin' speed up ol' 87
Of that hard-ass…Amarillo Highway
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2.
High Plains Jamboree
Ahhh
She was a honky tonker
An he was a family man
An she showed him her gold teeth
When he'd hold her little hand
An
They met out on the highway
At the Paradise Motel Lounge
On Saturday nights
When things weren't right
Between him an his wife in town
An they're just another couple
On a High Plains Jamboree
Playing out them sad songs…they understand
Yeah
Just another couple
Makin jukebox memories
An walking into trouble…hand in hand
Well
She weren't no maid of cotton
An he weren't no hell-of-a-man
But they must have loved each other
Like only the lonely can
'Cause
They slow-danced through the neons
Like sorrow through a song
Then they carried the tune
To the motel room
An they played it all night long
(chorus)
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3. The Great Joe Bob (A Regional Tragedy)
He was a panhandle prince…ahhh
Schoolboy football king
They told him "Hi" in the halls
'Cause he could run them balls
But it was rumored (down deep) he was mean
He dated high-tone girls
With frosty pom-pom curls
But he never gave out his ring
He was the best of the best
He met the grid-iron test
An there ain't nothin…as American
An clean
He was the pride of the backfield
Ahhh the hero of his day
Yeah he carried the ball for the red and blue
They won District Triple-A
An his name made all the papers
As the best they'd ever had
Yeah so nobody understood it
When the Great Joe Bob went bad
First he lost his scholarship
To Texas Tech
For drinking during training
An breaking the coach's neck…yeah
Then he got suspended (ahhh) for acting obscene
Around the Cum-Laudy, Cum-Laudy
Daughter of the Dean
So…
He took up with a waitress
Named Loose Ruby Cole
While she was a-hoppin' tables
Down at the Hi-D-Ho
An he met her on the sly
When her daddy weren't around
Yeah but he stopped making yardage
When he started messin 'round
(chorus)
Yeah it spread like a country wildfire
That something big had gone all strange
Joe Bob the Greatest Halfback
Was actin half-deranged…ahhh
He'd been seen out with this woman
Gettin drunk and havin fun
Yeah he growed his hair, then gived up prayer
An said, "Football days is done"
Then…
He and old Loose Ruby
Robbed a Pinkie's Liquor Store
An had a run-in with the law
When they's runnin out the door
An Joe Bob's fate was sealed
For the next century
Yeah he traded in the pigskin
For the penitentiary
(chorus)
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4.
The Wolfman of Del Rio
(I)
Well
He took his first release
On a highway
In a 1953 green Chevrolet
An he was carryin and awful load
For just a 15 year old
'Til he laid his mind
On the center line
An turned up the radio
Goin a hundred miles an hour
Down the blue asphaltum line
Listenin to the Wolfman of Del Rio
An
He didn't give a damn
About the trouble he was in
Yeah deep down in his soul
He just wanted…to go
An you can tell by the look on his face
He's all caught up with the need
To trade in some emptied out spaces
For some speeeeeeed
An that good ol' American Dream
(II)
An
She took her first release
On the back seat
Of a 1961 black V-8 Ford
An she just give up al control
On that vinyl fuck-an-roll
Breathin hard
With a dark-eyed boy
That she barely even knowed
Goin a hundred miles an hour
Down the blue asphaltum line
Listenin to the Wolfman of Del Rio
An
She didn't give a damn
About the trouble she'd get in
Yeah deep down in her soul
She just wanted…to flow
An you can tell by the paint on her face
She's all made-up for the need
To trade in some emptied out places
For some speeeeeeed
An that good ol' American Dream
(III)
An
Now they circle one another
Armed with the lives from their past
An
They fight to the death for their lies
'Til the bad feelings pass
Then they sit
An they smoke
An they drink
An they talk an talk an talk an talk
And then they stalk around
Like they're lookin for something they've lost
But can never again be found
And it's crazy
Yeah crazy in the backyards
the bedrooms
the kitchens
Crazy out in the streets
Ahhh
Through all their cities
And even smaller towns
An
It most certainly seems
Some disease of the dreams
Has been goin 'round
Yes
It most certainly seems
Some disease of the dreams
Has been goin 'round
Goin a hundred miles an hour
Down the blue asphaltum line
Listenin to the Wolfman of Del Rio
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5. Lubbock Woman
Well
She's sittin in the front room
Just watchin the tv
Paintin her nails red
In a black negligee
She just teased up her new wig
Painted her eyelids blue
Yeah
She's out to win
But she's destined to lose
Too much rouge
Too much booze
Too many movie magazines
Too many high-tones
Makin fun of her
And the way she lives
Too many low-lifes
Makin her promises
They'll never give
But she's a diamond in the wilderness
Ahhh
Sweetheart of the West
Yeah
She ain't so good lookin
But she can make love with the best
'Cause
She's forty
An lonely
An raw
An raunchy
An has a good heart
Yeah
An has a good heart
She's a Lubbock Woman
You got to love that woman
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6.
The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma
Yeah
She tried to live
On the inside
An get a house…an make a home
An
She tried to give
And be satisfied
Livin close…to the bone
But
As time
It passed by
It all…closed in
And she craved
For the wild
On the outsides…again
Yeah she tried to be
What he wanted her to be
And
She tried to do
What he wanted her to do
But
Her honky tonk mind
Just couldn't find a way through
To his plans
So
She broke
For the wild
On the outsides…again
(An ten years later
in Southern California)
Well he met her at a party
For a painter
She was naked and sittin in this chair
That come from France
So
He asked her if she'd mind
Talkin to a stranger
But
She just rolled her crazy eyes
And started to dance
O…KL…AH…OM…A
Outside Oklahoma
Okay…L.A.
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7. Truckload of Art
Recitation:
Once upon a time…
Sometime ago back on the east coast
In New York City, to be exact…
A bunch of artists and painters and
sculptors and musicians and
poets and writers and dancers
and architects
Started feeling real superior
to their ego-counter-parts
Out on the West Coast…so,
They all got together and decided
They would show those snotty surfer upstarts
A thing or two about the Big Apple
And…they hired themselves a truck
It was a big, spanking new white-shiny
Chrome-plated cab-over
Peterbilt…
With mudflaps, stereo, tv, AM & FM radio,
Leather seats and a naugahide sleeper…
All fresh
With new American Flag decals and "ART ARK"
Printed on the side of the door
With solid 24 karat gold leaf type…
And they filled up this truck
With the most significant piles
And influential heaps of Art Work
To ever be assembled in Modern Times,
And it sent it West…to chide
Cajole, humble and humiliate…the Golden Bear.
And this is the true story of that truck…
A Truckload of Art
From New York City
Came rollin down the road
Yeah the driver was singing
And the sunset was pretty
But the truck turned over
And she rolled off the road
Yeah a Truckload of Art
is burning near the highway
Precious objects are scattered
All over the ground
And it's a terrible sight
If a person were to see it
But there weren't nobody around
(Yodel)
Yeah the driver went sailing
High in the sky
Landing in the gold lap of the Lord
Who smiled and then said
"Son, you're better off dead
Than haulin a truckload
full of hot avant-gárde
(chorus)
Yes…an important artwork
Was thrown burning to the ground
Tragically…landing in the weeds
And the smoke could be seen
Ahhh for miles all around
Yeah but nobody…knows what it means
Yes…a Truckload of Art
Is burning near the highway
And it's a tough job for the highway patrol
Ahhh they'll soon see the smoke
An come runnin to poke
Then dig a deep ditch
And throw the arts in a hole
(Yodel)
Yeah a Truckload of Art
Is burning near the highway
And it's raging far-out of control
And what the critics have cheered
Is now shattered and queered
And their noble reviews
Have been stewed on the road
(chorus)
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8. The Collector (and the Art Mob)
His lonely
is only
A blank space
in the hallway
On the wallway
Between the hanging
Of paintings
Of lonely
that ain't lonely
At all...
Well...the Art Mob's out tonight
Yeah...the Art Mob's out tonight
Ahhh...you better look good
Yeah...you better act right
'Cause,
the Art Mob's out tonight
(repeat)
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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9.
OUI (a French Song)
OOOOOOO UI
OOOOOOO UI
OOOOOOO UI
OOOOOOO UI
Well I give up all my sculpturing
'Cause my life had gone all sad
An I went to work down at the factory
It weren't art...but it weren't bad
So
They put me on the assembly line
Puttin plastic leaves on the plastic palms
Then they shipped then off the Los Angeles
Yeah it weren't art...but it weren't wrong
Now some say it's pathetic
When you give up your aesthetic
For a blue collar job in the factory
But all that exhibiting
Was just too damn inhibiting
For a beer drinking
Regular guy...like me
OOOOOOO UI
OOOOOOO UI
OOOOOOO UI
OOOOOOO WE
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10. Rendezvous USA
Sa la vey
Sa la guerre
When that soft suburban moonlight
Plays a mansionette melody
Calling all blue collars
And their sweet boufantee's
To go slipping through the shadows
Sipping corvasier
It's magnifique
in Rendezvous, U...S...A
Sa la vey
It's not Parie
Sa la guerre
It's over here
When fast food restaurants elegante
Offer glamour with glitter galore
An tattooed hands hold champagne
That whispers of amour
To them coquettes across the tables
With their crepe-suzette's flirt'eee...yeah
Ahhh great fond-due
In Rendezvous U...S...A
Sa la vey
It's not Parie
Sa la guerre
Yeah but I don't care
'Cause sleazy sheik haunts the ballrooms
Dancing disco's debonair
An beau-coups of hip medallions
Rub against Frederick's brassieres
An they'll soon get off together
to French tickle some tet-a-tet...yeh
Ahhh what a grand adieu
To Rendezvous...
What a grand adieu
To Rendezvous U...S...A
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11. Cocktails for Three
Cocktails for three
Ohhh it's gettin to me
Yeah passin afternoons
Sittin in these cocktail rooms
Ahhh from nine to five
I'm in the pink
'Cause after work
We go for a drink
But
He shows up every time
Just as I clink
Your daqueri to mine
Ohhh cocktails for three
It's not natural to me
Hey not for me and you
Should be...cocktails for two
Just sittin here with that fellow and you
tryin hard to act mellow...when I'm blue
Ahhh whoo-whoo
Cocktails for three
It's too kinky for me
Best let it go and be done
Just stick to...cocktails for one
Now he's just another lonely business man
Sittin in a lonely business land
His story is on every jukebox
And his life...like his drinkin
Is on the rocks
Yeah
His life...like his drinkin
Is on the rocks
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12. The Beautiful Waitress
Well it's not silly
When she brings you your chili
To grab a cracker
And distract her...with a crunch
A cracker crunch
'Cause you'll only see her once
Only this one time at lunch
And she might as well see you too
Ahhh...it's the last time
You're passing through
And it's not rude
When she takes away your food
To touch her fingers
And let them linger awhile with your loneliness
A cracker crunch
'Cause you'll only touch her once
Only this one time at lunch
And she might as well touch you too
Ahhh...it's the last time
You're passin through
So it's not strange
When she brings you your change
To bend down and kiss her
And whisper you'll miss her...forever
A cracker crunch
'Cause you'll only love her once
Only this one time at lunch
And she might as well love you too
Ahhh...it's the last time
You're passin through
Recitation:
A waitress asked me what I did
I told her I tried (to make art).
She asked me if I made any money.
I said no...I have to "teach" to do that.
She asked me what I taught and where.
I told her.
She told me that she liked art, but that she
couldn't draw a straight line.
I told her if she could reach for something
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13. Blue Asian Reds (for Roadrunner)
Yeah she got them red eyes
Ahhh from doin the red pills
And she says it's for the high times
Yeah she says it's for thrills
So she does reds...with her coffee
With her pepsi's and her gin
And she says it really does her out fine
But...it's just doin her in
You see...She lost her soldier boy
Over in Nam
And she found out a year ago Wednesday
When after work...she come home
And she read his latest letter
That said
Never again...would he leave her alone
But beside hit...the telegram
That said he was gone
Ohhh she cried and she cried
Yeah...for nearly a year
Then I guess she just lost the will to live
Like she lost that soldier...so dear
'Cause she just traded in all that sadness
And all of her fears
For a bottle...marked heartache
Full of little red tears
Yeah she got them red eyes
Ahhh from doin the red pills
And she says it's for the high times
Yeah she says it's for thrills
So she does reds...with her coffee
With her pepsi's and her gin
And she says it really does her out fine
But...it's just doin her in
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14.
New Delhi Freight Train
Some people think that I must be crazy
But my real name is just Jesse James
An I left them half-crocked, hard-knocks of black rock county
Just to ride on that New Delhi Train
Ridin on that New Delhi Freight Train
Ridin down that New Delhi Line
Ridin on that New Delhi Freight Train
Well I left my love behind
Yeah I left my love behind
Yeah I'm just a country boy without angels
ahhh just a country boy without gold
An I been to silver cities load of rainbows
Where I pillaged and I killed and I stole
Ridin on that New Delhi Freight Train
Ridin down that New Delhi Line
Ridin on that New Delhi Freight Train
Well I left my life behind
Yeah I left my life behind
Then I killed a man named smilin Jordan (Jeer-dun)
Yeah I killed him with one of my guns
And I knew that I had did what I had not ought to
But I welcomed the run from what I'd done
Ridin on that New Delhi Freight Train
Ridin down that New Delhi Line
Ridin on that New Delhi Freight Train
Well I left my guns behind
Yeah I left my guns behind
(repeat)
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15.
FFA
Yeah
He never done too good
When he's in high school
Ahhh
He never even talked
To a popular girl
Yeah
He just hung around
Down at the drive-in
Honkin on his horn
An drinkin Pearl
Beer
But he's a Future Farmer of America
Yeah
Blue Jacket pride
Of the FFA
And
He's the future father
Of some president
Who'll be another pain-in-the-ass
For the U S of A
He'll be another pain-in-the-ass
For the U S of A
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16. Flatland Farmer
He's a flatland farmer
Who flatpicks an old guitar
Yeah he's a flatland farmer
He flatpicks an old guitar
He don't make no money
But he can out-pick them Nashville stars
Yeah the people come in pick-ups
They travel in from miles around
Ahhh the people come in pick-ups
They travel in from miles around
Yeah they park in his front yard...sit on his ground
An they eat fried chicken to that flatland sound
Eat a little...
Well they call mighty Nashville
Music City USA
Yeah they call that god-all-mighty Nashville
Music City USA
Ahhh but get out of the city to where the farmer plays
An you're into real music country without them city ways
Get with the flatland farmer
Who flatpicks an old guitar
Get with the flatland farmer
Who flatpicks an old guitar
An closest you'll want to any Music Row
Is a long dirt furrow where cotton grows
Grow...
Get with the flatland farmer
Who flatpicks an old guitar
Yeah, get with the flatland farmer
Who flatpicks an old guitar
He don't make no money...Awww
But I'll tell...that boy can
Out sing
Out pick
Out play
Out drink
Out pray...and out lay
Any of them Nashville stars
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17.
My Amigo
I need money
I need love
I need a cadillac
To give me a shove
And get me out of this up-tight
Mid-night
Into some lime-light...again
Yeah 'cause I know
My ego
Ain't my amigo
Anymore
An
I need whiskey
I need style
I need a job
to make it worthwhile
And to get me out of this up-tight
Mid-night
Into some lime-light...again
Yeah 'cause I know
My ego
Ain't my amigo
Any more
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18.
The Pink and Black Song
Well I drove down to the drive-in
Then I drove in
Yeah I asked that carhop for a coke
Said...let's go for a little spin
She said...I'm losin you boy
Losin you
Somewhere between the burgers and the malt
I said...if you won't pass your pepper, sugar
Then I don't want none of your salt
An I drove off
Yeah I drove down the main drag
Smack in the middle of town
Turned on my radio
An let my leatherette top...down
Yeah I was cruisin out Broadway
Draggin down Main
du do de du do de you do de you do de you
And just then the dj on the radio said
Pink and Black
She's comin back again
An I drove in
(An when I turned up that radio...this is what I heard)
Wooooooooo
If you ever need somebody to love you
If you ever need somebody to care
Stick your finger...up in the air
An baby I'll be there
'Cause Pink and Black is comin back, Pink and Black is
comin back, Pink and Black is comin back...for you and me
An if you ever need to boogie-woogie
An if you ever need to dirty bob...ummmbop
Well baby don't stop...ummmbop
'Cause I'll be dancin there too
Whoooooooooit
An if you ever need some brown penny-loafers
If you ever need some bobby-sox...well baby don't leave the hop
Just stay on top and bop...like we did in school
Yeah...we'll both be cool
(chorus)
So come with me...to 1953
An we'll bring back...all of our used-to-be's
Yeah...Pink and Black...she's comin back
For you and me
Whoooit Whoooit Whoit Whooooooo
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19.
The Thirty Years War Waltz (for Jo Harvey)
I remember standing
All scrubbed down and clean
Tapping my foot
By the record machine
An I was watching you dancing
watchin you prancin
watchin you glancin
At me...so
I took my first chance
And I asked you to dance
And we touched the first time with a song flying by
And when the blue of your eyes
Met my blues down inside
Well I knew...that we two...could fly
Through
Thirty years of confuscions and change
Thirty years of the stress and the strain
Thirty years to be accused and to blame
Ahhh thirty years that don't mean a thing
When you put them beside
Them good songs we sang
So
Now I'm standing
But roughed up and mean
Kicking my boots
At the record machine
Til I remember the dances
remember the chances
remember you glancin
At me...so
I just brush off my pants
And I ask you to dance
And we touch once again with the song flying home
And that smile all your own
Still beats all I've ever known
So I laugh...and I moan
'Cause we two have flown
Through
Thirty years of the storms and the rains
Thirty years of the fears and the pains
Thirty years of the wars and the games
Ahhh
Thirty years that don't mean a thing
When you put them beside
Them good songs we sang
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20.
I Just Left Myself
Well
I just left myself today
Hell
I couldn't wait to get away
There's still a smear
Across the mirror
That I have been
But it won't
Reflect on me
Again
'Cause
I just left myself today
Yeah
I just packed me up and went away
I didn't float
I didn't fly
I did not transcend
No I
Just walked out on me
Again
Again
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