Steve Earle - The Tennessee Kid Lyrics
[Verse 1]On Mardi Gras day the Tennessee kidAwoke in a puddle of his own worse fearsHaunted by the ghost of vague remembranceNo corporeal beast he could nameSo the kid invoked Lucifer himselfFor those most grievously discourteousAnd charged him with some myth forth to a townAt the crossroads celebrated in a song, come on[Verse 2]Up jumped the devil in the middle of the [?] fair'Who dares utter my most secret name! ' he roaredBut the kid yielded not so much as an inch to uncertaintyStead bast to rejoin the enemy in kind'Oh, [?], Satan, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub''By any other name you ain't nothin' like a rose'And they gutted his loins to the ill suited onslaughtThe devil only shrugged and the kid shuddered when he heard him say'Hey hey hey, hey hey hey hey, hey hey hey hey hey''Balance comes due some day'[Verse 3]'Wait just one goddamn minute! ' cried the kid from the crumbleland [?]'You've neva mentioned nothin' about no kinda note''It just says sign here, it's just a soul, you'll never miss it'I ain't set foot in no church since I was just a lil old thangReckon I would send it straight to hell by the highwayNo matter how long and how hard that I prayedSo I might as well make this guitar talkSomebody said ole' Bob Johnson came down this wayAnd the devil said'Hey hey hey hey, hey hey hey, hey hey hey hey''Balance comes due some day'[Verse 4]And the monster raised himself up to the fullness of his statureBlack wings eclipsing the sandy Mississippi moonBehold Behemot, the trampler of infidelsHe who sweeps away nations with the flick of his tailDiabulus, The Gripper, Faustus, Paganini, lured and long is the tail of my prayQuestion not the iron clad bond of my suretySit down here and blood in your very own handAnd the Tennessee kid cast an eye on the listWhere his mark was indeed clearly and described [?]And he fell to his knees, but it was too late to prayAnd with his very last breath he did say'Hey hey hey hey, hey hey hey, hey hey hey hey''The balance comes due some day'
