Mother Blues

When I was a young man About 21 years old, y'all All I wanted was a stripper girlfriend And a Gold Top Les Paul Be careful of the things you wish for You might get 'em There was a nightclub in Dallas It's called Mother Blues It's where Lightning Hopkins played And Freddy King even paid some dues And all the dealers and gamblers And young white hipsters, they all made the scene The girl at the door who checked IDs Was just 16 Ah, it was not a place for law-abiding citizens Jackie Jones he had him a habit, he just couldn't stop He said give me 500 dollars And I'll sell you my Les Paul Gold Top I drove my daddy's car down to Ross Avenue And I sold it I guess I should have told him He alluded to the police that someone stoled it It was just the first of many bad decisions I was to make for the next 20 years Oh, but I, I had me a guitar Everybody knows That the real nightlife Begins after the clubs close What they call "after-hours" It's 2 a.m., and everybody's gone But the band, the dealers, and Jack Jones And then the girls from the landing strip club come over After they put their clothes back on So I'm at Ma Blues and I'm sitting on an amp I'm playing "Twist and Shout" And this tall drink of water walked in Looked like she might have to shoot her way out She come up to me She says, "You know anything good on that guitar?" I didn't say nothing, I just kept on playing She said, "Have you ever heard this song Called Polk Salad Annie?" I just kept on playing She said, "Every time I hear that song My insides feel like warm butter And I just wanna take off my clothes And dance around in my underwear" I said, "Down in Louisiana Oh, where the alligator grow so mean" Oh! Oh, that's all I knew of it, but it was enough Oh! So we hit it off, me and this dancer We hit it off like a metaphor Like a metaphor for a hydrogen bomb We was enriched uranium, supercritical mass We was a, a chain reaction It was love and lust Ah, mostly lust, but a mutual attraction So there I was, boys, at 21 years old, I had it all I had a fine stripper girlfriend and a Gold Top Les Paul Ah, the future, ah it looked promising Oh, but, but there were dark clouds on the horizon She was a beautiful girl But she liked to drink tequila and, whoa, that ain't all I come home 4 or 5 times And she pawned my Les Paul We broke up and she went to Hollywood She married her an actor She got a job dancing on the Hudson Brothers TV show And modern lipstick from Max Factor Oh, I got over her, I'm glad she done alright I'm glad she done alright, oh, yes I am Well now me, I never busted through the gates Into the big time as a rock and roll star For 40 years I just carried around an old Gold Top guitar But love and fate are mysterious things In this funky old world It was 20 years ago I ended up marrying That Mother Blues door girl We had us a boy, he's 18 years old now, he's playing guitar He ended up with that Les Paul Gold Top, yes, he did Now I don't know if he's gonna hang his life on it or not But I'm very grateful for the time I get to share the stage with him I'm grateful for the time I get to play with musicians Like George Reiff and Rick Richards I'm grateful that I get to write these old songs And travel around the world and play them for people And they come out and hear me play And the days that I keep my gratitude Higher than my expectations Ah! Well, I have really good days