Well, daddy joined the air force Said it was a good source Danger, love and money But it only led to divorce Ended up in Abilene Workin' at a Dairy Queen Put me in the Army On the day that I turned 17 Here I am standing In the desert with a gun Thought of goin' AWOL But I'm too afraid to run So I got myself a new plan Stealing from the Taliban Make a little money Turnin' poppies into heroin Sergeant didn't like it So they put me in a hole I said it's easy shootin' When they don't know where to go Threw me on a lily pad Sent me home to NORAD Knew I'd be in trouble But I didn't think it'd be this bad A stranger wearing all black Met me on the tarmac Told him I was sorry But I ain't never going back He said you ain't in trouble, son Learned to fire without a gun Got a new assignment Now you working for the Pentagon Gonna take a trip Wouldn't tell me what it's for Gotta to serve your country Gonna help us win the war MIT, PhD's Night and day, they testing me Ain't what I was thinking But I'm being all that I can be I ain't no genius But I knew it wasn't right Eating uppers in the morning And LSD at night Send me off to deep space Help them win the arms race Ola me, oh, mighty But this shit has got a funny taste I think I hear the countdown Hundred feet above the ground Told me when I'm leaving But nothing 'bout coming down Sitting on a bad dream Thousand pounds of gasoline Ain't leaving nothing But some rubble in my slipstream Mama always said I should be aiming for the moon Never would have guessed That I'd be passing by soon How the hell did I get here? Blasting through the atmosphere Drop my rocket boosters And I'm shifting into high gear Bowie on my system And a bottle on my knee Armstrong ain't got nothing on me Hey yo, here we go KMAG YOYO Someone wanna get me Got to come up where the sun don't go I think I see a bright light Something 'bout it ain't right Laid down in a spaceship Woke up in a fire fight Tripping from the morphine Came down in a bad scene God, don't let me die here I ain't even 19 I won't ever ask you, Lord For anything again Swear it on the Bible Torah, Koran Lying in a rhino track 'Bout to have a heart attack IED got to me Someone call a medi-vac I need some fixin' Now how long has it been Never wanna go and try And shoot a gun again Slippin' out the back door Wanna join the Peace Corps Tell me I'm a hero Now someone else can fight this war

If you're nobody's business or you're front page news Folk Rock, Country or Delta Blues, Tell your truth however you choose And do it all for the sake of the song Yeah, hitchhike, and bus ride and rental car, Living rooms, coffee houses and rundown bars Ten thousand people or alone under the stars Its all for the sake of the song And there's a man who wrote "Your Cheatin' Heart", now he's through his tooth And he plays it on a stolen harp, That's soaked in hundred proof And there's one who might be happy With a foreign badger's purse She's lost the crowd's attention at the forty second verse And it's the travelling salesman, the girl next door On the empty room to the bird on the corner Less is less until more is More And it's all for the sake of the song And there's the young man on the marquee, Yeah he's the son of some well known His father bought the tour bus, so he could strike out on his own And there's the brooding contradiction, he's holding Van Gogh's ear That he's taped it to his guitar, in the hope someone will hear It's back stage and Nudie Suits, and the next big thing will get 'em back to your roots High tops, flannel and duct tape boots And it's all for the sake of the song And there's the mystic, there's the legend, and there's the best that's ever been And there's the voice of a generation who wants to pass this way again And there's record deals and trained seals, and puppets on a string And they're all just trying to figure out what makes the caged bird sing It's lights, camera, on with the show, lifetime to get ready, now go cat go Where it all ends, nobody knows But it's all for the sake of the song So if you're nobody's business or you're front page news Folk Rock, Country or Delta Blues, Tell your truth however you choose And do it all for the sake of the song

I got a woman, she's wild as Rome She likes to lay naked and be gazed upon Well, she crosses a bridge then sets in on fire Lands like a bird on a telephone wire Wine bottles scattered like last night's clothes Cigarettes, papers, and dominoes Well, she laughs for a minute 'bout the shape I'm in Says, "You be the sinner, honey, I'll be the sin" I'm gonna holler, and I'm gonna scream I'm gonna get me some mescaline She brings me roses and a place to lean A drunken poet's dream There's some money on the table and a pistol on the floor Some old paperback books of Louis L'Amour She says, "Honey, don't worry 'bout Judgement Day All these people goin' to heaven They're just in our way" I'm gonna holler, and I'm gonna scream I'm gonna get me some mescaline She brings me roses and a place to lean A drunken poet's dream Now, all my life, I laid around While the colors all turned blue Well, I close my eyes And I finally found it Brought me back to you I got a woman, she'd wild as Rome Aw, she likes to lay naked and be gazed upon Well, she crosses a bridge then sets in on fire Lands like a bird on a telephone wire I'm gonna holler, and I'm gonna scream I'm gonna get me some mescaline She brings me roses and a place to lean A drunken poet's dream A drunken poet's dream A drunken poet