West Of The Mississippi
Portable people
Cordless minds
Push the fast-forward
Someone broke the rewind
Program my machine
For the Promised Land
But half way there
The manual gets banned
Unplug the clock
Let's stay in bed
Electrify the coffins
To modernize the dead
Contemplate jazz
While traffic's backing up
The radio's confused
The station's breaking up
Son, I hope you understand
If there is a Promised Land
It's West of the Mississippi
And North of the Rio Grande
Allergic reaction
To synthetic clothes
We explicate
The billboard prose
You find it funny
I find it lame
Does the highway call
Or mock our names?
New words coined
It seems strange
But it takes months
To make correct change
So let's take the car
With the binary plates
To catch the future
A half hour late
Son, I hope you understand
If there is a Promised Land
It's West of the Mississippi
And North of the Rio Grande
Oh Susanna, baby
Don't cry for me
I left Oklahoma
With my banjo knees
Headed out West
Looking to breath
Just got a lungful
Of nicotine
Headed down South
For something to do
But rock-and roll
Had colonized the blues
Headed back home
To sit on the couch
That's when the truth
Fell out of my mouth
Son, I hope you understand
If there is a Promised Land
It's West of the Mississippi
And North of the Rio Grande
© 2011, Allen Herndon (BMI).