Desperados Waiting for a Train

About Desperados Waiting for a Train

"Desperados Waiting for a Train" is a song written by Guy Clark and originally recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker for his 1973 album Viva Terlingua. It subsequently appeared on Rita Coolidge's 1974 album Fall into Spring, David Allan Coe's third album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy (1974), Tom Rush's album Ladies Love Outlaws the same year, before Clark's own rendition was released on his first LP, 1975's Old No. 1. Clark has stated that the song is about his grandmother's boyfriend named Jack who was a grandfather figure to him. The song was also covered by Slim Pickens in 1981 on his self-titled album (Picc-A-Dilly PIC-3484). The American country music group the Highwaymen released it as a single in September 1985. It was the second single from the album Highwayman. The song reached #15 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. Nanci Griffith recorded it for her 1998 album Other Voices Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful), accompanied by Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Eric Taylor. more »

Year:

2017

4:31

31 Views

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I played the Red River Valley 
He'd sit in the kitchen and cry 
Run his fingers through seventy years of livin' 
And wonder, "Lord, why has every well I've drilled gone dry?" 

We were friends, me and this old man 
We's like desperados waitin' for a train 
Desperados waitin' for a train 

He's a drifter, a driller of oil wells 
He's 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 
There was old men with beer guts and dominoes 
Lying 'bout their lives while they played 
I was just a kid, they all called me "Sidekick" 
Just like desperados waitin' for a train 
Like desperados waitin' for a train 

One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty 
He's got brown tobacco stains all down his chin 
Well to me he was a hero of this country 
So why's he all dressed up like them old men 
Drinkin' beer and playin' Moon and Forty-two 
Jus' like desperados waitin' for a train 
Like a desperado waitin' for a train 

The day 'fore 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 one more 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.

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Guy Clark

Guy Clark (born November 6, 1941) is an American Texas country and folk singer, musician, songwriter, recording artist, and performer. He has released more than twenty albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, and Rodney Crowell. more »

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