Stan Ridgway - The Roadblock (demo) lyrics

News travels fast in a small desert town So it wasn't long at all before the word got around That a k**in' mad car was headed their way So the sheriff and the boys were gonna stop 'im out on the highway Right where it intersected Big Black Rock So it wasn't long at all Before the whole town was standin' round Hammerin' a nail and buildin' up a pride in a roadblock Just hangin' round a roadblock The mayor's wife sat in the shade And talked her way through a few good lies While her husband practiced his acceptance speech For a medal from the F.B.I And Granny rocked back in her chair and said "Just what did this man do?" While some idiot kids ate dirty Sno-cones colored red white and blue At the roadblock Just hangin' round a roadblock Just hangin' round a roadblock Just hangin' round a roadblock Then the local paper jumped the gun And printed the big headline Town is saved from k**er car With roadblock at stateline Three miles down the highway in a Chevy '69 Were a pair of crazy eyeballs jumpin' left and right in time To an eight-track tape playin' Foghat and Jethro Tull And a gasoline-soaked hand shiftin' a little plastic skull And on the arm, a blue tattoo that read "I'm a son of a b**h!" A map open on the front seat––leather, black as pitch One foot slammed on the gas––no shoe, just an argyle sock And that car was screamin' wild down the highway, like lightning Toward the roadblock Right towards the roadblock Then all eyes turned down the highway towards a big cloud of smoke And Granny went into a mild state of shock and started to choke And a boy up in a tree yelled out, "Here it come" Then twenty men strong aimed and fired point-blank nineteen shotguns Well, the next day, the sheriff just tried to stall While they buried the body out behind a wall The newspaper said "k**er still on the lam–– Seems the boys at the roadblock got the wrong man" Nobody really knew just who he was He was drivin' a Camaro with dashboard fuzz They all burned a car right there in Big Black Rock And no one ever said a word at all again1 About a roadblock Not about a roadblock Whooo! About a roadblock Not about a roadblock, yeah... Not about a roadblock