Mother Blues

When I was a young man about twenty-one years old, y'all

All I wanted was a stripper girlfriend and a Gold Top Les Paul

Be careful of the things you wish for

You might get 'em

There was a night club in Dallas

It's called Mother Blues

It's where Lightning Hopkins played

And Freddy King even payed some dues

And all the dealers and gamblers

And young white hipsters, they all made the scene

The girl at the door who checked ID's

Was just sixteen

Ah, it was not a place for law abiding citizens

Jackie Jones, he had 'em a habit, he just couldn't stop

Said give me five hundred dollars

And I'll sell you my Les Paul Gold Top

I drove my daddy's car down to Ross Avenue

And I sold it

I guess I should have told him

He eluded to the police, said someone stole it

It was just the first of many bad decisions I was to make for the next twenty years

Oh, but I, I had me a guitar

Everybody knows that the real nightlife begins after the clubs close

What they call after hours

It's 2 AM and everybody's gone

But the band, the dealers and Jack Jones

And then the girls from the landing strip club come over

After they put their clothes back on

So I'm at Ma Blues and I'm sitting on an amp

I'm playing "Twist and Shout"

And this tall drink of water walk in

Look like she might have to shoot her way out

She come up to me and she says, "You know anything good on that guitar?"

I didn't say nothing, I just kept on playing

She said, "Have you ever heard this song called Polk Salad Annie?", I just kept on playing

She said, "Every time I hear that song, my insides feel like warm butter

And I just wanna take off my clothes

And dance around in my underwear"

I said, "Down in Louisiana where the alligator grow so mean"

Oh, oh, that's all I knew of it, but it was enough

So we hit it off, me and this dancer

We hit it off like a metaphor

Like a metaphor for a hydrogen bomb

We was enriched uranium, super critical mass

We was a, a chain reaction, it was love and lust

Ah, mostly lust but a mutual attraction

So there I was, boys, at twenty-one years old, I had it all

I had a fine stripper girlfriend and a Gold Top Les Paul

Aw, the future, oh, it looked promising

Oh, but there were dark clouds on the horizon

She was a beautiful girl

But she liked to drink Tequila, and, oh, that ain't all

I come home four or five times

And she pawned my Les Paul

We broke up and she went to Hollywood

She married an actor

She got a job dancing on the Hudson Brothers TV show

And modern lipstick from Max Factor

Oh, I got over her, I'm glad she done alright

I'm glad she done alright, oh, yes, I am

Well, now me, I never busted through the gates into the big time as a rock and roll star

For forty years, I just carried around an old Gold Top guitar

But love and fate are mysterious things in this funky old world

It was twenty years ago, I ended up marrying that Mother Blues door girl

We had us a boy, he's eighteen years old now, he's playing guitar

He ended up with that Les Paul Gold Top, yes, he did

Now I don't know if he's gonna hang his life on it or not

But I'm very grateful for the time I get to share the stage with him

I'm grateful for the time I get to play with musicians

Like George Reiff and Rick Richardson

I'm grateful that I get to write these old songs

And travel around the world and play them for people

And they come out and hear me play

And the days that I keep my gratitude

Higher than my expectations

Ha, well, I have really good days