Drank all the beer in your parlour,
ate all the honey in your jar,
took a hundred dollar bill from your coffee can,
drove away in your brand new car.

Don’t you send the state cars for me,
you don’t even know my name.
All I ever wanted was to be free,
no trouble, no blues, no blame.

Well, baby, I shoulda told you
a long long time ago,
wherever I come from I always finish up
on Extrication Row

Think a gold band gonna hold me,
think a veil gonna tie me down?
I’m married to the darkening highway,
left a trail of dust in every town.

Once saw a bird on a millblade,
high above the black tree fern,
but he flew away as soon as the wind blew,
and them arms began to turn

Well, baby, I shoulda told you
a long long time ago,
wherever I come from I always finish up
on Extrication Row

Now baby don’t you fret so plaintive,
don’t you know that leavin ain’t no crime?
I might not have given you my heart, but
I gave you a grand ole time

And if you stand out on your front porch,
look out of your window now and then,
you might see me on the horizon
if I’m passin through here again…
 
Well, baby, I shoulda told you
a long long time ago,
wherever I come from I always finish up
on Extrication Row

Ten years waitin in a dust-bowl town
for my gambler’s luck to come around,
said to my demons, come follow me down,
Ten Gallon Mile put my bones in the ground.

Saw you out walkin in the yellow sunshine,
Jack of Hearts stridin your invisible line,
desert rose bloomed in this heart of mine,
cold steel thorns all silver and fine.

Took you in cause brother, it’d been a while,
fallin for you would be my heart’s sore trial,
said, this Capulet collapses for your rhinestone smile,
kickin your heels down the Ten Gallon Mile.

Lonesome hearts are hungry for a human love,
I was hangin on your every breath,
thought your soul fit mine like a hand in a glove
but we were severed, my love, in death.

Cut you from the cross with my pearl-handled knife,
laid your hands across your chest.
The sherriff’s court done taken your life,
the buzzards’ll do the rest.

When that dark day of Judgement’s finally here
I won’t fly up with the angels to the cold blue air,
just come to the crossroads and I’ll be there:
the girl with the ribbons in her long red hair.

Ten years waitin in a dust-bowl town
for my gambler’s luck to come around,
said to my demons, come follow me down,
Ten Gallon Mile put my bones in the ground.

Lord, ain’t you the best thing
that I ever saw,
come down and dance a reel with me, I’ll
teach you what your feet are for.

Lord, ain’t you the best thing
that I ever saw,
come hold my hand and kiss my mouth, I’ll
teach you what your tongue is for.

Lord, ain’t you the best thing
that I ever saw,
come lay with me my darlin, I’ll
teach you what your bed is for.

Well, Lord ain’t I the best thing
that you ever had?
Come live with me and be my love,
I won’t ever make you sad.

My lover has gone far away,
cross the blue horizon.
Left my heart’s flag here to sway,
a wound to gather poison.
Said he’d send me somethin back,
down the jagged range,
but I’m the Queen they dealt his Jack,
some things never change.

Bought a pitch and staked his claim,
stretched the wire round
Pray there’s more than dirt and shame
in that stony ground.
The water rushes thin and clear
back here on the plains,
pray he’ll find the colour
to repay me for my pains.

Lover, won’t you come on home
cross this dusty land?
Don’t care if all you’ve got to show
is nothin in your hand.
I miss your tender weary eyes,
your hungry travellin heart,
give all the gold in China
that we may never part.

Ain’t no colour in the mountains,
ain’t no colour in the sea,
ain’t no colour in the riverbed,
no colour for you and me.