Don't know what's gotten into you
Must be something in your genes
About this time I was crazy, too
'N most times in between
But I survived to live another day
I might've learned a trick or two
So just remember when your old and your gray
Some of what I taught to you

(chorus)
Stay alive inside,
don't be a stranger
Keep a line open to
the folks back home
Don't run and hide
when everything changes
Walk between the raindrops
dry as a bone

You're laying low, staying outta sight
Hanging out in your room
You're up all night by the monitor's light
Sleeping through the afternoon
Well, I won't tell you how you gotta be
You're old enough to make a choice
It's just that in between all the words on the screen
I doubt you'll ever hear a human voice

(chorus)
Stay alive inside,
don't be a stranger
Keep a line open to
the outside world
Don't run and hide
when everything changes
Walk between the raindrops
smooth as a pearl

You're at that age
And you know it all
And you're not even hearing what I say
Knowing better never kept me outta trouble
I don't care I'm gonna tell you anyway

(chorus)

Every Little Bit Counts

My thoughts were gnawing at me
So I tried hard not to think
I took a pint of whiskey
And poured it down the sink
I'd get my act together
I swore it to myself
I looked up at your picture
And I knocked it off the shelf

(chorus)
Every little bit counts
Every little bit counts

Too little too late, sorry
Too little too late for me
I tried and I tried and I tried
to be so good
Wanted to be good so bad
I tried and I tried and I tried
every trick I could
'til I'd emptied out the
whole damn bag

I'm no longer choking on
the hair of the dog
It's been a couple of weeks now
since I came out of the fog
The highs are slightly higher
And the lows are just as low
A mild improvement on the
average even so
Every little bit counts

Every little bit counts
Though it may not count for much
They could be long forgotten
By the time you add'em up

Soda and Salt

Mamma come runnin'
Daddy come quick
I think I swallowed something
It's making me sick
I don't know what it is
But it isn't sitting well with me
Don't you either one
Try to tell me it's supposed to be

What I got cookin'
Teacher come look
I think I'm on to something
That isn't in the book
I don't know what it is
But that doesn't mean it isn't true
When you write it in your paper
Would you let me have some credit too

(chorus)
I'm having a time
Trying to get it
Don't want to let it
Get to me
I'm gonna be fine
You can bet it
Just don't try to show me nothin' I don't want to see

Got my hands in my pockets
My head in the clouds
I haven't done nothin'
For cryin' out loud
I haven't done nothin'
You'd ever want to call a crime
Before I get started
I get noticed in the nick o' time

I brush my teeth with soda and salt
If anything's missing
It isn't my fault
If anything's missing
I wish you'd look the other way
I don't want any trouble
So I guess I'll do just like you say

(chorus)

There's gotta be something to it
There's gotta be something to it

She lost her mind and she never missed it
Folks all said she'd never learn
She'd take the path of least resistance
Right to the point of no return
Apprehended on occasion, got off easy every time

Said there's gotta be something to it,
Something to it
Don't know why else somebody'd
Want to go through it

(chorus)
When your nights are getting colder
Restless as the wind
I'll be comin over
Fast as I can,
Fast as I can

Well, he had some lines
but he never used 'em
She didn't need much talkin' to
And he thought he'd died
and gone to Houston
By the time the dawn burned off the dew

And they lit right up
Like roman candles
Like fire and gasoline
There must've been something to it,
Somethin to it
They didn't mess around,
They just had to get right to it

When your nights are gettin colder
Restless as the wind
I'll be comin over fast as I can, fast as I can

So for a while they carried on like rabbits
They'd disappear for days and nights
You might say they learned
each other's habits
You might say that became their life

And life wasn't long
Life wasn't easy
Life wasn't cheap,
Life wasn't fair
And there might have been something to it,
Something to it

They went about it in the wrong way
I'da told em, but it wasn't my job
It's on the news, it's in the paper
What could they've been thinkin of?

I saw em headin out that mornin
I guess I'll never know why
I didn't mean nothin by it
Gave em the finger when they waved goodbye

And it's pretty tragic, pretty gory
I knew em all, personal like
I got the inside story
I'm gonna sell the rights

'Cause I'm tired of walking,
I wanna ride
Tired of walking

This kinda thing,
it's bound to happen
Part of the job, we do it all day

We try not to think about it,
'N of course, it's pretty good pay
But I'm just like anybody,
I got things in my past
No, I won't be specific,
but I can make it go away fast
And I'm tired of walking, I wanna ride
Tired of walking

Last night, just for a moment,
down at the drive-in picture show
I coulda swore I heard em callin
from in the speaker hangin on the door
And they were so real, callin to me
I couldn't quite tell what they said
But up on the screen it was just the movie
It musta all just been in my head

And you can go ahead and
call me a vulture
Call me any kind of name
Nothin sells in this culture
quite like disaster
I'm not to blame,

I'm tired of walking
I wanna ride,
tired of walking

Just to let it burn in the ashtray,
kinda gets old
Waitin 'til they call my number
Just lettin my coffee get cold

I'm tired of walking
Tired of walking

They went about it in the wrong way
I'da told em, but it wasn't my job

Mr. airline agent won't you understand
I'm a frequent traveler and a
patient man
But I've been mistreated a time or two
I've stood about all I'm gonna stand from you
I got my ticket in my hand just like everybody else
I paid my money in advance so I could use a little help
You're making such a fuss
You're holding up the line
Just get me on the plane everything will be fine

(chorus)
I gotta go
You gotta get me to the show
Quit looking at my hair
Just get me in the air

I got a '52 tele hanging off my back
It fits really easy in the overhead rack
If I was a guy in a suit with a
kitchen sink
You'd a' let me right on
You wouldn't even a' blinked
But a guitar you say I gotta check it at the gate
Well that isn't gonna happen get your hand off the case
Get your hand off the case unless you wanta lose the arm
Get outa my face you won't come to any harm

(chorus)

Mr. airline agent is there something
I missed
I've never seen anything quite like this
I'm a frequent traveler and I've
been around
I've been roughed up and I've been shook down
I guess your supervisor knows about your nasty attitude
Giving me a hassle just for
something to do
To make you fee like a man
Well I've had about enough
And I'm going to go postal if you don't straighten up

(chorus)

I'll quit my job
and leave this place
Got a guitar in a machine gun case
I'll make no judgment,
I'll let it all pass
Looking at the world through bullet-proof glass
The access road backed-up to the ramp
They won't let you in and they don't give a damn

Racing to the red light

Momma says to get your face to the fire
Put the guitar down, put the clothes in the dryer
Put the guitar down, quit making it ring
A little bit of hope is a dangerous thing
A dangerous thing, well I shoulda known
Gotta quit doing it soon as I'm grown
Gotta get my hands back down in the dirt
If you liked what you're doing, it wouldn't be work
If you liked what you're doing, it wouldn't be good
Nobody else in the neighborhood's got that kinda money,
That kinda pride, and we're all pretty well satisfied

Racing to the red light
Racing to the red light

Two fifty worth of gas on pump number five
A lottery ticket and a Colt 45
Scratch it right off, cash it back in
Just give me five more somebody gotta win
Somebody gotta win, it happens all the time
Ending up spending your every last dime

Racing to the red light

I'll quit my job and leave this place
Gotta guitar in a machine gun case
If I play it just right I can live like a king
A little bit of hope is a dangerous thing
A little bit of hope, a dangerous mind
Cut your throat for your space in line

Racing to the red light

You never know when
you leave the house
You might come home
by a different route
It could take longer than you planned
It could get completely out of hand

If you let it slide if you let it slip
You could wonder how it came to this
In the neighborhood on a quiet night
Out beside the road in the flashing lights

Now I don't need to know the guy
next door
I haven't seen him for a month or more
And This is how I like to live
He don't ask what I won't give

(chorus)
And I'm comfortable
Can't you see
I'm comfortable
So just let me be
It's the best you'll do on an average day
I'm comfortable
I'm gonna stay that way

Deny the flesh to save the soul
Deny the fact you're too damned old
Deny the flesh to save the flesh
For god's sake save whatever's left

But I will not stray from the well worn path
I will not stray so don't you even ask
And if you see me coming
Don't put your thumb in the air
Cause I'll drive on by
And leave you standing there

(chorus)

Pick that guitar up off the stand
And play it like a full grown man
Play it till the walls come down
Twist the knobs till it shakes the ground

You never know when
you leave the house
You might come home
by a different route
By a different road than
the one you took
Don't give me that injured look

(chorus)

There's tire marks on the concrete
Where you spun out of the drive
There's a hound dog in the corner
Lookin' glad to be alive
And if the phone rings on the table
Well I don't know what I'll do
I only want to talk to you

It's serious this time
What am I supposed to say
Is it a test of some kind
Or a price I ought to have to pay
Now it's upside down and backwards
The foot's on the other shoe
I only want to talk to you
I only want to talk to you

The neighbor kids across the street
Are pointing across the yard
And the social worker next door
Dropped by and left her card
But I don't want to talk to nobody
About what we're going through
I only want to talk to you
I only want to talk to you

And it's serious this time
What am I supposed to do
Walkin' a fine line
Must've broken it clean in two
Now it's upside down and backwards
The foot's on the other shoe
And I only want to talk to you
I only want to talk to you

There's a nice young man in a clean white shirt
Ringing the front door bell
I'm gonna hide out in the kitchen
And let that hound dog give him hell
'Cause I don't want to talk about Jesus
Not even for a minute or two
I only want to talk to you
I only want to talk to you
I only want to talk to you

ride the blue wind high and free
she'll lead you down to misery
leave you low come time to go
alone and low as low can be

if I had a nickle I'd find a game
if I won a dollar I'd make it rain
if it rained an ocean I'd drink it dry
and lay me down dissatisfied

tell my sister I said so long
tell my mother I did no wrong
tell my brother to watch his own
tell my friends to mourn me none

legs to walk and thoughts to fly
eyes to laugh and lips to cry
a restless tongue to classify
all born to grow and grown to die

chained across the face of time
feeling full of foolish rhyme
there aint no dark 'til something shines
I'm bound to leave this dark behind

ride the blue wind high and free
she'll lead you down to misery
leave you low come time to go
alone and low as low can be