I played the Red River Valley He'd sit in the kitchen and cry Run his fingers through seventy years of livin' And wonder, "Lord, why has every well I've drilled gone dry?"
We were friends, me and this old man We's 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 He 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 was 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 dominos 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 Well 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 Jus' like desperados waitin' for a train Like a desperado waitin' for a train
The day 'fore he died I went to see him I was grown and he was almost gone. So we just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen And sang one more verse to that old song (spoken) Come on, Jack, that son-of-a-bitch is comin'
We're desperados waitin' for a train Was like desperados waitin' for a train