Dan Bern - Jail lyrics

Well, I wish you well on your travels My friends I wish you well along the way This is the story of how I came to be In jail for a night and a day Well, I'm driving my '88 Olds Cutla** It's raining and it's dark My wipers are beating slow and steady Like the thump, thump, thumping of my heart I'm rolling down from up in Colorado Some little town in Texas tonight When my rear view flashes blue, blue, blue It's the cop; my license plate's missing a light He smells sweet green Colorado Hidden in the lining 'bove my head Next thing I know there's four cop cars flashing And around my wrists are bracelets of lead Well, take my license, take my fingerprints Take my wallet that I'll no longer need Take my belt in case I want to hang myself For a nickel bag of weed Then put me in a cell on an old mattress pad To measure out in minutes this night One cup of water in styrofoam Four walls and one fluorescent light And this is my one phone call And baby I'm calling you You tell me, "Stay strong boy." I say, "Well, I'll do the best I do." And I wish you well on your travels My friends I wish you well along the way This is the story of how I came to be In jail for a night and a day Now at first I'm thinking, man, I'm such a f**-up My head is lonesome and bowed Figure I'll join some program, get religious My abstinence will make my mother proud And I stare at the stone cold floor I guess that's what you do in the pen Then I get to thinking what I'd really like to do Is to come back here and fight this to the end Your Honor, think of Johnny Cash And Elvis and Hank Williams too Whatever it took to go get those songs Those good old boys would do If it's illegal, then throw out Blonde On Blonde And every Beatles song since "Hard Day's Night" Go ahead and burn Walt Whitman Unpaint Starry Night Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, let 'em burn Kerouac, Thelonious Monk Alice in Wonderland, Pica**o Burroughs, Blake, Ginsberg, throw it out, it's junk Then throw out all your favorite records Throw your books of poetry away Close the museums, burn the paintings Restore us to Galileo's Day Then to the drug store we will go For Vicodin and Chloraseptic spray Scarf a couple Darvocets and Xanax And then we'll go floating away Dear Governor, dear Governor, dear Governor The final enforcer of my fate Did I interrupt your three-martini lunch? Are you off on your cigarette break? I wish you well on your travels My friends I wish you well along the way This is the story of how I came to be In jail for a night and a day The next day, my buddies bail me out Toward late afternoon And the gra**, it never smelled greener Sun drips honey like from a golden spoon I jump in the car and drive on out of there Soon we're miles away And I get to thinking what awaits me When I come back some not-so-distant day Will I stand before the judge And say, "Your Honor, this law, it is wrong." Or do I just do the time and pay my fine Shake this town from my boots and be gone I wish you well on your travels My friends I wish you well along the way This is the story of how I came to be In jail for a night and a day