Highwaymen - Desperados Waiting For A Train

 

 

 

 

[Kristofferson:]
I'd play the "Red River Valley"
And he'd sit out in the kitchen and cry
And run his fingers through seventy years of livin'
And wonder, "Lord, has ever' well I drilled run dry?"
We were friends, me and this old man

[All 4:]
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train

[Jennings:]
He's a drifter, and a driller of oil wells
And an old-school man of the world
He let me drive his car when he's too drunk to
And he'd wink and give me money for the girls
And our lives were like some old Western movies

[All 4:]
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train

[Nelson:]
From the time that I could walk he'd take me with him
To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe
And there were old men with beer guts and dominos
Lyin' 'bout their lives while they played
And I was just a kid, they all called his sidekick

[All 4:]
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train

[Cash:]
One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty
And there's brown tobacco stains all down his chin
To me he's one of the heroes of this country
So why's he all dressed up like them old men?
Drinkin' beer and playin' Moon and Forty-two

[All 4:]
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train

[Nelson:]
The day before he died I went to see him
I was grown and he was almost gone

[Cash:]
So, we just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen
And sang another verse to that old song

[Kirstofferson-Spoken:]
Come on, Jack, that son-of-a-gun's a-comin'

[All 4:]
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train

 

Highwayman ('85)