Standard (EADGBE)
My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back in his younger days
Prohibition was the talk, but the rich folks walked to the woods where my Daddy stayed
Jugs and jars from shiners, these old boys here, they ain't miners
They came from the twenty-niners
It didn't take a hole in the ground to put the bottom in their face
Back in the thirties when the dust bowl dried
And the woods in Alabama didn't see no light
My Daddy played poker by a hard wood fire
Squeezing all his luck from a hot copper wire
Scrap like a wildcat fights till the end
Trap a wildcat and take his skin
Deal from the bottom, put the ace in the hole
One hand on the jug but you never do know
Son come running
You better come quick
This rotgut moonshine is making me sick
Your Mama called the law and they're gonna take me away
Down so far even the Devil won't stay
Where I call to the Lord with all my soul
I can hear him rattling the chains on the door
He couldn't get in I could see he tried
Through the shadows of the cage around the forty watt light
Daddy tell me another story
Tell me about the lows and the highs
Tell me how to tell the difference between what they tell me is the truth or a lie
Tell me why the ones who have so much make the ones who don't go mad
With the same skin stretched over their white bones and the same jug in their hand
My Daddy played poker on a stump in the woods back when the world was gray
Before black and white went and chose up sides and gave a little bit of both their way
The only blood that's any cleaner is the blood that's blue or greener
Without either you just get meaner and the blood you gave gives you away
Lyrics by Mike Cooley and Ed Cooley (based on a poem by Ed Cooley) / Music by Drive-By Truckers
Shonna Tucker
TORNADOES
Make an E chord, then move it up to the B and A position as listed below:
variation
-0
-0
-8
-9
-9
-0
variation
-0
-0
-6
-7
-7
-0
E Clouds started forming, B 5:00 PM.
A Funnel clouds touched down 5 miles E north of Russellville...
repeat through verse...
the other part for the "pieces of that truckstop" part is something like this:
THE DAY JOHN HENRY DIED
I watched the rain; it settled in. We disappeared for days again.
Most of us were staying in, lazy like the sky.
The letters flew across the wire filtered through a million liars.
The whole world smelled like burning tires the day John Henry died.
We knew about that big machine that ran on human hope and steam.
Bets on John were far between and mostly on the side.
We heard he put up quite a fight. His hands and feet turned snowy white.
That hammer rang out through the night the day John Henry died.
When John Henry was a little bitty baby
nobody ever taught him how to read
but he knew the perfect way to hold a hammer
was the way the railroad baron held the deed.
It didn't matter if he won, if he lived, or if he'd run.
They changed the way his job was done. Labor costs were high.
That new machine was cheap as hell and only John would work as well,
so they left him laying where he fell the day John Henry died.
John Henry was a steel-driving bastard but John Henry was a bastard just the same.
An engine never thinks about his daddy and an engine never needs to write its name.
So pack your bags, we're headed west and L.A. ain't no place to rest.
You'll need some sleep to pass the test, so get some on the flight
and say your prayers John Henry Ford 'cause we don't need your work no more.
You should have known the final score the day John Henry died.
PUTTIN' PEOPLE ON THE MOON
I found this one on allcountrytabs, but I didn't see an author. If you need credit for
please let us know.
Mary Alice had a baby and he looked just like I did
We got married on a Monday and I been working ever since
Every week down at the Ford Plant but now they say they're shutting down
God Damned Reagan in the White House and no one there gives a damn
Double Digit unemployment, TVA be shutting soon
While over there in Huntsville, They puttin' people on the moon
So I took to runnin' numbers for this man I used to know
And I sell a few narcotics and I sell a little blow
I ain't getting rich now but I'm gettin' more than by
Aint it tough to make a living but a man just got to try
If I died in Colbert County, Would it make the evening news?
They too busy blowin' rockets, Puttin' people on the moon
Mary Alice quit askin' why I do the things I do
I ain't sayin' that she likes it, but what else I'm gonna do?
If I could solve the world's problems,
Probably start with hers and mine
But they can put a man on the moon
And I'm stuck down here just scraping by
Mary Alice got cancer just like everybody here
Seems everyone I know is gettin' cancer every year
And we can't afford no insurance, I been 10 years unemployed
So she didn't get no chemo so our lives was destroyed
And nothin' ever changes, the cemetery gets more full
And over there in Huntsville, even NASA's shut down too
Another Joker in the White House, said a change was comin' round
But I'm workin' at The Wal Mart and Mary Alice, in the ground
And all them politicians, theyre all lyin' sacks of ****
They say better days upon us but its sucking left hind tit
And the preacher on the TV says it ain't too late for me
But I bet he drives a Cadillac and I'm broke with some hungry mouths to feed
2X
And I wish I'z still an outlaw, was a better way of life
I could clothe and feed my family
Still have time to love my pretty wife
And if you say I'm being punished. Aint got better things to do?
Turnin' mountains into oceans Puttin' people on the moon
Turnin' mountains into oceans Puttin' people on moon OUT over D slide to Emhe moon
Dump Music (BMI)
Piano - David Barbe
CARL PERKINS' CADILLAC
Notes: I'm not sure of the names of some of these chords, but I can correct them if I'm wrong.
The F#/G thing is the chord when you move your finger to the 2nd fret of the low E
while
playing .
Same thing with the B/C. The C chord is the one that you make while pressing the 3rd
of
the high E and B strings...
Also, this song is tuned down a whole step, as are most of their songs...
Life ain't nothin' but a blendin' up all the ups and downs
Damn it, Elvis, don't you know?
You made your mama so proud.
Before you ever made that record, before there ever was a Sun
Before you ever lost that Cadillac, the Carl Perkins one.
Mr. Phillips found ol' Johnny Cash when he was high
high before he ever took those pills
and he's still too proud to die.
Mr. Phillips never said anything behind nobody's back
like damn it Elvis, don't he know?
He ain't no Johnny Cash
Mr. Phillips was the only man that Jerry Lee still would call sir
I just wish Mr. Phillips did all of y'all, bout as good as you deserved
He did just what he said he's gonna do
and the money came in sacks.
New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac
I got friends in Nashville, or at least they're folks I know
Nashville is where you go to see if what they said is so
Carl drove his brand new Cadillac to Nashville and he went downtown
This time they promised him a Grammy
He turned his Cadillac around
Mr. Phillips never blew enough hot air to need a little gold plated paperweight
He promised him a Cadillac and put the wind in Carl's face
He did just what he said he was gonna do and the money came in sacks
New contracts and Carl Perkins' Cadillac
Dammit Elvis, I swear son I think it's time you came around
Making money you can't spend ain't what being dead's about
You gave me all but one good reason not to do all the things you did
Now Cadillacs are fiberglass, if you were me you'd call it quits
12 String Electric Hagstrom Guitar - Jason Isbell
THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA
(I think I found this one on panicfreaks.org. If you need credit for it, please let us know.
Not sure if I am calling these Em chords by the right name so here is how I finger them,
to high: Em/G- 020033 E/Bm7- 020032
[/] 2X
George A. was at the [E/Bm7] movies in December '4 1
They announced it in the [E/Bm7] lobby what had just gone on
He drove up from [E/Bm7] Birmingham back to the family's farm
Thought he' get him de[/]ferment
There was much work to be done
He was a family man, [E/Bm7] even in those days
But Uncle Sam de[E/Bm7]cided he was needed any way
In the South Pa[E/Bm7]cific over half a world away
He believed in God and [E/Bm7] Country, things was just that way
Just that way -
When I was just a kid I spent every weekend
On the farm that he grew up on so I guess so did I
And we'd stay up watching movies on the black and white TV
We watched "The Sands of Iwo Jima" starring John Wayne
[/] 2X
Every year in [/] June George .
goes to reunion
Of the men that he [E/Bm7] served with
And their wives and kids and grandkids
My Great Uncle used to [E/Bm7] take me and I'd watch them recollect
about some things I [E/Bm7] couldn't comprehend
And I thought about that movie, asked if it was that way
He just shook his head and smiled at me in such a loving way
As he thought about some friends he will never see again
He said "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima"
[/] 4X
Most of those men are [E/Bm7] gone now but he goes still every year
And George A's still doing [E/Bm7] fine, especially for his years
He's still living on that [E/Bm7] homestead
in the house that he was born in
And I sure wish I could [E/Bm7] go see him today
He never drove a new car though he could easily afford it
He'd just buy one for the family and take what ever no one wanted
He said a shiny car didn't mean much after all the things he'd seen
George A. never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima repeat 1X
Banjos - Mike Cooley / Fender Rhodes - David Barbe / Harmonica - Mike Cooley
DANKO / MANUEL
Let the night air cool you off.
Tilt your head back and try to cough.
Don't say nothing 'bout the things you never saw.
Let the night air cool you off.
I ain't living like I should.
A little rest might do me good.
Got to sinking in the place where I once stood.
Now I ain't living like I should.
Can you hear that singing? Sounds like gold.
Maybe I can only hear it in my head.
Fifteen years ago we owned that road
now it's rolling over us instead.
Richard Manuel is dead.
God forbid you call their bluff.
Like the nightmares ain't enough.
Remember when we used to think that we were tough?
God forbid you call their bluff.
First they make you out to be
the only pirate on the sea.
Then they say Danko would have sounded just like me.
"Is that the man you want to be?"
Can you hear that song? It sounds like gold.
Maybe I could make it bigger overseas.
Fifteen years ago we owned this road
now it only gives us somewhere else to leave.
Something else you can't believe.
Can you hear that singing? Sounds like gold.
Maybe I can hear poor Richard from the grave
singin' where to reap and when to sow
when you've found another home you have to leave.
Something else you can't believe.
Mellophones and Fender Rhodes - Jason Isbell
BOYS FROM ALABAMA
(chords submitted by William Montgomery)
Intro
Well, they caught you smoking grass and the judge threw the book
I can see a little opportunism in your look
You can take it from me, boy
You can take it from a crook
I got friends on the inside and friends on the outside
They'll sneak up beside you so keep on their good side
I can see you standing there, staring down at your shoes
Thinking about your Mom and Dad and wondering what to do
Well you best look inside yourself, boy, we're all watching you
We got friends in jail who will see you through
Boy, don't forget, no matter what you do
Don't piss off the Boys from Alabama
You know they won't let it slide
They might find your body in the Tennessee River
or they might not find you at all
There'll be no place to run and hide
and your family ain't safe at all
Don't piss off the Boys from Alabama
We're keeping an eye on you
Keeping an eye on you
Don't piss off the Boys from Alabama
Better take it like a man
Ain't nobody gonna stick anything up your ass
If you remember who your friends are
We got good help down in Franklin County
They'll hunt you like a dog
You can take your fall or lose it all
The choice is up to you
(to outro) walk up to (, , ,
)
I wouldn't piss off the Boys from Alabama if I was you
Wurlitzer - Jason Isbell / B3 - David Barbe / Banjo - Mike Cooley / Auto Parts - The
Line Chain Gang
COTTONSEED
(Thanks to Alec Riedl for sending this one).
Tune down full step and drop E string to C
Intro
Dm C Dm hammer the high e (actually d) string for accents
throughout
I came to tell my story to all these young and eager minds
To look in their unspoiled faces and their curious bright eyes
Stories of corruption, crime and killing, yes it's true
Greed and fixed elections, guns and drugs and whores and booze
It's been a while since I put on a suit of my own clothes
And even longer since I cast my shadow on a church house door
They say every sin is deadly but I believe they may be wrong
I'm guilty of all seven and I don't feel too bad at all
I used to have a wad of hundred dollar bills in the back pocket of my
suit
I had a .45 underneath my coat and another one in my boot
I drove a big ole Cadillac, bought a new one anytime I pleased
And I put more lawmen in the ground than Alabama put cottonseed
I spent a few years on vacation, sanctioned by the state I mentioned
But a man like me don't do no time too hard to come back from
The meanest of the mean, I see you lock away and toss the key
But they're all just loud mouth punks to me, I've scraped meaner off
my shoe
Somewhere, I ain't saying, there's a hole that holds a judge
The last one that I dug myself
And I must admit I was sad to lay him in it, but I did the best I
could
Once his Honor grows a conscience, well folks, that there just ain't
no good
There's a pretty girl out there said "Daddy, you stay cool tonight
All I need from you is to come home and be here by my side
Say what you gotta say to shut their Bibles and their mouths
If they was to tie a noose, they'd have to lay their Bibles down"
I ain't here to save no souls and even if I could
I could never save enough to put back half the ones I took
So if they rest in torment you can't say it's cause of me
They'd long been bought and paid for like that fool's in Tennessee
THE BUFORD STICK (The Legend of Sheriff Buford Pusser)
Play this 3x, then add C and G chords at the end.
(C and G chords are repeated right before the verse).
Now Sheriff Buford Pusser's gotten too big for his britches
With his book reviews and movie deals
Down at the car lot making public appearances
For breaking up our homes and stills
I know he likes to brag how he wrestled a bear
But I knew him from the funeral home
Ask him for a warrant, he'll say "I keep it in my shoe"
That son of a bitch has got to go
That son of a bitch has got to go
Now they lined up around the block to see that movie
And crying for his ambushed wife
Marveling about about shot eight times and stabbed seven
Some folks can't take a hint
They say he didn't take no crap from the State Line Gang
What the hell they talking bout?
I'm just a hard workingman with a family to feed
And he made my daughter cry
Said he made my daughter cry
"Watch out for Buford!" is what they keep on telling me
But to me he's just another crooked lawman up in Tennessee
He gets a new hot car to keep us on our toes
And that ridiculous stick where the press corp. goes
And some big time Hollywood actors playing him on the big screen
"Watch out for Buford! He's shutting down our stills and whores"
But it ain't like he's all that different from what was there before
It wouldn't take my man long to do the job
Just a partially sawed through steering rod
And I wouldn't have to worry about the good Sheriff anymore
Now the funeral's got'em lined up for twenty blocks
No one liked that SOB when he's alive
But the ruckus he began keeps a spreadin' like a wildfire
Not sure if I'm gonna survive
Hit an embankment doing 120 on a straight-away
The Lord works in mysterious ways
They'll probably make another movie, glorifying what he done
But I'll never have to hear them say
I'll never have to hear them say
Watch out for Buford
o221oo
32oo33
A xo22oo These variations of the chords,
D xxo23o seem to sound the best ... have FUN!
Well before I could walk, I had a wrench in my hand
I was my Mama's little angel and my Daddy's second chance
He went end over end the first year he went pro
And he lost part of his eyesight and he couldn't race no more
But he never lost his touch when he got under a hood
He knew how to make them run and he knew one day he would
See his name in victory lane and engraved on that cup
Just like all them other crazy fools with racing in their blood
He would put me on his lap when he'd drive and I'd take the wheel
He'd say "What do you think about that son? How does she feel?
You just wait till them little legs get long enough to reach the gas
Once you put her on the floor one time there ain't no turning back"
Every Saturday, he'd take me out to the garage
He'd take an empty bucket and fill it full of engine parts
He's sit me down and pour em out in front of me on the floor
I'd have to tell him what each one was and what each one was for
We'd jump in his old car and go down to the race that night
He'd tell me what each driver was doing wrong and what each one did right
He could always pick the winner before they ever took a curve
But before I turned 18 Daddy said "Now pretty soon
You'll be old enough to race but I'm gonna leave it up to you
I taught you all about it, taught you everything I know
You gotta have a car to do it and you gotta work and buy your own"
(walk down)
The first one I bought was a Mustang #2
Nobody kept'em any longer than they kept a pair of shoes
They started showing up at every used car lot in town
A V-8 on a go-cart, easy terms, no money down
Me and Daddy and my uncle took her home and we tore her down
Checked her out real good, cleaned her up and bored her out
Took out all the seats, pulled the carpet off the floor
Knocked out all the glass and welded up the doors
Well the first time that I raced my qualifying was a shame
I started out way in the back and came back about the same
I pulled her in the pit, couldn't look my Daddy in the eye
He said "If you quit now son, it's gonna haunt you all your life"
See it ain't about the money or even being #1
You gotta know when it's all over you did the best you could've done
And knowing that it's in you and you never let it out
Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have
Since then I've wrecked a bunch of cars and I've broke a bunch of bones
It's anybody's race out there and I've learned to run my own
I'd shove em in the wall and I'd hit em from behind
I'd let them know that I was there, I'd let them know that track was mine
It's been several years now since my Daddy passed away
But his picture's on my dash every time I go to race
I lost more than I won but I ain't gonna give up
Till they put me in the ground or Daddy's name's on that cup
(walk down)
NEVER GONNA CHANGE
Let this be a lesson to you girl: Don't come around where you know you don't belong.
They're riding on the avenue and probably coming after you and they all look mean and strong.
Mean and strong like liquor.
Mean and strong like fear.
Strong like the people from South Alabama and mean like the people from here.
Take it from me
We ain't never gonna change.
Daddy used to empty out his shotgun shells and fill 'em full of black-eyed peas.
He'd aim real low and tear out your ankles or rip right through your knees.
There ain't much traffic on the highway. There ain't much traffic on the lake.
The ATF and the ABI got everything they could take.
Take it from me They didn't take it from me.
We ain't never gonna change.
We ain't doin' nothin' wrong.
We ain't never gonna change
so shut your mouth and play along.
I thought about going in the army. I thought about going overseas.
I wouldn't have trouble with a piss test; only problem is my bad left knee.
My brother got picked up at Parker's, got him a ride in a new Crown Vic.
They said that he was movin' on a federal level but they couldn't really make it stick.
Take it from me
We ain't never gonna change.
We ain't doin' nothin' wrong.
We ain't never gonna change
so shut your mouth and play along.
You can throw me in the Colbert County jailhouse.
You can throw me off the Wilson Dam
but there ain't much difference in the man I wanna be and the man I really am.
We ain't never gonna change.
LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN
This is a general idea of the main riff and stuff during the verses.
Play it with some feeling...
If I throw myself off Lookout Mountain
No more for my soul to keep
I wonder who will drive my car
I wonder if my Mom will weep
If I throw myself off Lookout Mountain
No more pain my soul to bare
No more worries about paying taxes
What to eat, what to wear
Who will end up with my records?
Who will end up with my tapes?
Who will pay my credit card bills?
Who's gonna pay for my mistakes?
Main riff repeats
[ the other chords in the instrumental break are F and G]
If I throw myself off Lookout Mountain who will ever hear my songs?
Who's gonna mow the cemetery when all of my family's gone?
Who will Mom and Daddy find to continue the family name?
Who will stand there taking credit, who will lay there passing blame?
Who will lay there passing blame?
Cat - Summer 1990.
Backing Vocals - David Barbe and Jason Isbell
GODDAMN LONELY LOVE
I got green and I got blues
Every day theres a little less difference between the two
So I belly up and disappear
Well I aint really drowning cause I see the beach from here
I could take greyhound home
when I got there itd be gone
along with everything that home is made up of
So Ill take two of what your having
Ill take all of what you got
to kill this goddamn lonely
goddamn lonely love
Sister listen to what your daddy says
Dont be ashamed of things that hide behind your breast
Belly up and arch your back
Well I aint really fallin asleep Im fadin to black
You can come to me by plane
but it wouldnt be the same
as that old motel room in Texarkana was
So Ill take two of what your having
Ill take all of what you got
to kill this goddamn lonely
goddamn lonely love
Stop me if you heard this one before,
A man walks into a bar
And leaves before his ashes hit the floor
Stop me if I ever get that far
the suns a desperate star
that burns like every single one before
I could find another dream
one that keeps me warm and clean
but I aint dreamin any more girl Im waking up
So Ill take two of what your having
Ill take everything shes got
to kill this goddamn lonely
goddamn lonely love
All Ive got is this goddamn lonely goddamn lonely love
All Ive got is this goddamn lonely goddamn lonely love
All Ive got is this goddamn lonely goddamn lonely love