"DEAD MAN TALKING"

Well, I'm sittin' here in this dirty cell
Just waitin' for the preacher man to send me to hell

It was a county law man put me here
He had a judge in his pocket and a bug in his ear

Now I swear to high heaven I'm an innocent man
I done been framed with a gun in my hand

So a man with a badge slapped the cuffs on my hand
I was fixin' to use 'em 'til he fucked up my plan

So the long and the short's that I wound up here
They give me an appointment with the 'lectric chair

CHORUS:

Now I'm just a dead man walking
But I don't need a crutch
I'm just a dead man talking
But I'm talking too much

Missionary man said he'd give me some hope
I said, "No thanks, sir, give me soap-on-a-rope"

Now my days of bar-hoppin' been nipped in the bud
All the blood and the guts and the beer and the mud

Now the only bars I see anymore
Are the bars on the windows and the ones on the doors
(...and there ain't no bouncer to kick me out, now)

REPEAT CHORUS

Now I ain't too dumb, I'm quite well read
I got a stack of dirty magazines under m'bed

My cell-mate's a good 'un, he's in here for life
He calls me his husband and I call him my wife
(...that's the arrangement...ain't too worried about Adam & Steve)

Well, the food in here, Lord, it ain't too good
Water's gone bad and the bread tastes like wood

I don't ask much, but I'll make you a deal
I want the GOOD kind of brownies for my last meal

REPEAT CHORUS

Don't want nobody to sing me back home
Tell Porter and Hag I'm just too far gone

They say Ol' Sparky he's a terrible thing
Sometimes at midnight you can hear him sing

The Warden don't like me, he's a son-of-a-bitch
But I'll sure enough respect when his hand's on the switch
(...though I somehow doubt the feeling will be mutual)

There ain't no denying that day's bound to come
Say goodbye to my wife, say goodbye to my sons

REPEAT CHORUS

Sounds mighty hard but it's the stone cold truth
Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
(...and I took a man's LIFE!)

Yes, I took a man's life and I still don't care
When I get down to hell I'm gonna see him there

When the juice starts to flow through that killin' machine
Your eyes'll pop out and your shorts will turn green

I done seventy days down in the hole
You can take my body but you can't have my soul

Yeah, I sold it cheap and a long time ago
Devil come to collect, put me here on death row

So don't pray for me, mama, the Lord don't hear
He's on the Warden's side, don't you waste no tears
(...He's on the side of the law now
He ain't showin' no favoritism
I can't be forgiven
For the life I was living
So carry me away
And use a silver spade)

REPEAT CHORUS

1.15.10

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