If I had a dime for every time I heard my old man say

one of these days

I wouldn't be like my old man today

talking bout places that he'd been

back in his younger days that he was gonna go back to again

one of these days



Dropped out of school when he was just sixteen

fell right in to a tire plant

building the very things that make the asphalt sing

and put Alabama far behind you



I remember him saying that Chicago was a hell right here on earth

and twenty five years later I was saying the same thing about Memphis



It's no wonder everybodies scared of downtown Birmingham

it's just a little too close to home

But there's more crooks down here and the cops don't care,

while old white men wearing ties can do anything they want.



Once a country boy's seen the way the steam rises

off a man's insides on the sidewalk

Tends to change the way he thinks, the way he sees everything

and he goes back to where he came from



One of these days when my face looks like a roadmap gonna find my way back home.

And i'll go walking on the west side after dark and leave my gun locked in my car.

One of these days you'll take one look at me and run. One of these days you'll take

one look at me and run.