Guy Clark



I played the Red River Valley 

He'd sit in the kitchen and cry 

Run his fingers through seventy years of livin' 

"I wonder, Lord, has every well I've drilled gone dry?" 

We were friends, me and this old man 

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 

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 were 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 

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 

Like desperados waitin' for a train 

Desperados waitin' for a train 



The day before he died I went to see him

I was grown and he was almost gone. 

So we 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' 



Desperados waitin' for a train 

Desperados waitin' for a train.