Desperados Waiting For A Train
Johnny Cash Lyrics

I'd play the Red River Valley
I would play a song called the Red River Valley.

And he'd sit out in the kitchen and cry
The old man would sit in the kitchen and cry while listening to the song.

And run his fingers through seventy years of livin'
The old man would reminisce about his life experiences by running his fingers through his hair.

And wonder, "Lord, has ever' well I've drilled run dry?"
He would question whether he has ever had a failed oil drilling project.

We were friends, me and this old man
The artist and the old man were close friends.

Like desperados waitin' for a train
They were like outlaws waiting for something to happen.

He's a drifter and a driller of oil wells
The old man was a wanderer and worked in the oil industry.

And an old school man of the world
He was a traditional man who had seen a lot of the world.

He let me drive his car
The old man allowed the artist to drive his car.

When he's too drunk to
When he was too intoxicated to drive.

And he'd wink and give me money for the girls
The old man would give the singer money to spend on women.

And our lives were like some old western movie
Their lives were reminiscent of an old western film.

From the time that I could walk he'd take me with him
The old man would take the singer with him everywhere from a young age.

To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe
They visited a bar named the Green Frog Cafe.

There were old men with beer guts and dominos
The bar was frequented by elderly men playing dominos and drinking beer.

Lying 'bout their lives while they'd played
They would tell exaggerated stories about their lives while playing dominos.

And I was just a kid
The artist was just a child at the time.

They all called his "Sidekick"
The singer was referred to as the old man's sidekick.

One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty
One day, the old man had turned eighty years old.

And there's brown tobacco stains all down his chin
The old man had tobacco stains on his chin.

To me he's one of the heroes of this country
The old man was a hero in the eyes of the artist.

So why's he all dressed up like them old men
The artist questioned why the old man was dressing like the old men at the Green Frog Cafe.

Drinkin' beer and playin' Moon and Forty-two
He was drinking beer and playing a game called Moon and Forty-two.

A day before he died, I went to see him
The artist visited the old man one day before he passed away.

I was grown and he was almost gone
The singer was now an adult and the old man was near death.

So we just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen
They closed their eyes and imagined a kitchen from their past memories.

And sang another verse to that old song
They sang another verse to the Red River Valley song.

"Come on, Jack, that son of a guns are comin' "
The old man said a phrase from a movie while they were singing.