Verse 1:
There was a boy on the street
With his bag and guitar
He was playing to eat
And living hard
A man pulled up in a pick up truck
It had a box made of wood
And it was covered in muck
He stopped to listen, threw in a buck
He said “well boy, you can really play
I have an offer for you today
How about I take you off the street
Give you a place to stay?”
Verse 2:
The boy grabbed his bag
And hopped in the ride
Thinking this man could just kill him
But he was dead inside
He shut that door
Went down the road
And the man glanced over
As he handed him a smokе
He said “where arе you from?”
The boy said the east coast
That western man said “you’re far from home”
The boy said “well now the east coast
That’s just where I was born
You know I’m ripping up this asphalt
And riding down the railroad
I spent my winter down in Mexico
Chasing dust across the desert of Guerrero
I took the crystal ball down off a mountaintop
And I swam with the crocs
In them Oaxacan swamps”
Verse 3:
The man nodded
“so there’s some places you’ve been”
The boy said
“I rode a freight train over to New Orleans!
Up from Houston and never got seen
With a pocket full of pesos
But I had no green
Then in an unexpected change of luck
Well, an old friend of mine paid my way back on up
I reconnected with some Vancouver folks
Oh, they wanted help building a studio
Then one evening, whiskey’s in sight
Well you know how that goes and it started a fight
He went to break my guitar
I knocked him down on his side
And I skipped that town in the dead of night”
Verse 4:
As the boy was telling his tale
Well that rusty old truck reached the end of the trail
With flowers in bloom, grass was so green
It was the prettiest sight that boy had ever seen
There was vegetable crops all around
There were chickens and ducks, sheep and cows
The man said “have your fill, we’ve got plenty here
Have a pack of smokes and a whole case of beer..
It’s your favourite kind!”
Verse 5:
“Now come on back
Boy I’ve got something to show you”
Brought him to a berry patch full of huckles and blue
He said “each and every one of these berries here
Is ripe for the pick, you can eat your heart out
Until you get sick”
So that boy did
Verse 6:
They went on back to the farmhouse
And greeted by a pretty lady in a flower blouse
The man said “go ahead kid, and have some fun”
You know that boy did until the morning sun
Verse 7:
He awoke to the man standing at his feet
He had the guitar in his hand
And not skipping a beat
He handed it over and said “come on, boy..
Play me something!”
The boy grabbed it by the neck
And he hit them strings
Verse 8:
The man looked as if he heard an angel sing
He shook that boys hand and said
“Thanks for playing”
The boy thanked him back
Said “I know there’s not much I bring
But for what you have, sir I’d give most anything”
The man looked at him
He raise his eyebrow and said
“Anything?”
Verse 9:
He said
“I’ll take your guitar, you can have it all
From the house, to the truck, and every finishing nail
You can take my wife, and the berry patch
Oh but all great deals
Come with a catch
Verse 10:
You see
There’s not a damn thing here you can sell
Yeah, you will stay your whole life
And you can’t leave the trail
I’ll take that guitar off your hands
In fact I’ll take those as well
You can have my old fingers
That been beat to hell!
You will work everyday
But you’ll have what you need
And I can hit that road and finally be free!”
Verse 11:
The boy thought about it, but before he was sure
He looked back at him, the man grew a pair of horns
He said “well what do you say?”
With a tongue that was forked
The boy grabbed his guitar and he head out the door
Down that mountain, back where he came
And when the boy looked back
That house was up in flames
Verse 12:
So take my change, you can take my life
But I’m gonna have this guitar
When I sleep each night
I might not have no riches and have no gold
But I’ll have these two hands, I’ll have them until I’m old
I may sleep in ditches and wake up cold
But nobody else will ever have this soul
