Well, I quit my job down at the car wash And left my mama a goodbye note By sundown, I'd left Kingston With my guitar up under my coat
I hitchhiked all the way down to Memphis Got a room at the YMCA For the next three weeks I went a hauntin' them nightclubs Lookin' for a place to play
Well, I thought my pickin' Would set 'em on fire But nobody wanted to hire A guitar man
Well, I nearly 'bout starved to death down in Memphis I run out of money and luck So I bummed me a ride down to Macon, Georgia On a overloaded poultry truck
I thumbed on down to Panama City Started checkin' out some of them all night bars Hopin' I can make myself a dollar Makin' music on my guitar
Got the same old story At them all night piers "There ain't no room around here for a guitar man We don't need a guitar man, son"
So I slept in the hobo jungles I bummed a thousand miles of track Till I found myself in Mobile, Alabama In a club they call Big Jack's
A little four piece band was jammin' So I took my guitar and I sat in I showed 'em what a band would sound like With a swingin' little guitar man, show 'em, son
Yeah
So if you ever take a trip down to the ocean Find yourself down 'round Mobile Well, make it on out to the club called Jack's Till you got a little time to kill
Just follow that crowd of people You'll wind up out on his dance floor Diggin' the finest little five piece group Up and down the Gulf of Mexico
And guess who's leadin' That five piece band Why, wouldn't you know It's that swingin' little guitar man, yeah