Texas Campfire Tapes
Lyrics

Hep Cat

Neck Tie

Ballad of Patch Eye & Meg

Down on Thomas Street

Incomplete Image (4/4 Troubador)

Steppin' Out

Who Cares (Ghost Town)

5 AM in Amsterdam

Secret Admirer

Chain Smoker

(Don't You Mess Around With) My Little Sister

Fogtown

Secret to a Long Life (Is Knowing When It's Time to Go)

The Hep Cat

He's a bop bop(B7) beat
Oh, he's (E)so cool
He's so (B7)hep
He ain't nobody's(E) fool

Oh he's (A)a hep cat
He's so bop (E)bop beat
He's been(A) around, cats
He's (B)wise to the streets
He's wise to the streets
He's so wise to the streets

He's so(B7) cool
It makes me(E) hot
He's everything that I am(E) not

He's a hep cat
To the first degree
He's like, wow, man
And it really makes me flip when he

Calls me baby...boom chicka boom chicka
Don't you just love it

He's a bama (B7)lama
He's the cat's (E)pajamas
He's so(B7) hep
It makes me(E) flip
He's so(B7) cool
Too cool for(E) school
He knows where (B7)it's at
'Cause he's (E)a hep cat
A hep cat

Necktie

There was a naked man standing in an alley
And he weren't wearing no clothes
A naked man was standing in an alley
And he wasn't wearing (E7)no clothes
He said(B7), all I need I do believe
Is a (A)pair of black dress(E7) shoes

There was a red light lady on the corner
Looked like the richest woman in the world
A red light lady standing on the corner
And she was looking like the richest woman in the world
She had a fine fur coat upon her back
And a string of cultured pearls

There was a man found hanging in his jail cell
And they told me it was suicide
A man was found hanging in his jail cell

And they said it was suicide
Now you can blame the social system
But I still say it was his necktie
Necktie

(E7)Now when I die won't you bury me
In a pair of black dress shoes
You put (A)a fine fur coat upon my back
And a string of cultured (E)pearls too
St P(A)eter'll be so proud to have a woman like me
Come and see him (E)when I die
And they (B7)won't keep me out of them Pearly Gates
'Cause I'll be(A) sure to wear (E)my necktie

Ballad of Patch Eye and Meg

Remembering back when I was a kid
I'd sneak down to the docks
Watch the old men carving wood and the sailors tying knots
But the thing that I remember best was grey haired old Patch Eye
And the stories that he'd tell me about his younger days
As we watched the ships go by

Chorus
He'd talk about his missing eye
He'd talk about his wooden leg
But he'd never talk about the old tattoo
On his right arm that said 'Meg'

He said he was captain of a pirate ship
Sailing seas both blue and green
He said all pirates got to have a patch so's they can look real mean
He'd make the bad guys walk the plank
The pretty ladies he would save
He'd take the treasure from those ships
Then send 'em to a watery grave

Chorus
He'd talk about his missing eye
He'd talk about his wooden leg
But he'd never talk about the old tattoo
On his right arm that said 'Meg'

He told me how he lost his leg
As he sat there carving ships
Once he lost it down in Africa
to a lion's hungry grip
Another time it was way out west
In a gunfight or so he said
Aw, but that's alright, a man's got two legs
Hell, he could have lost his head

Chorus
He told me how he lost his
And how he lost his leg
But he never told me how he lost the love of
Brown haired blue eyed Meg

Down on Thomas Street

Down on Thomas Street
That's where they meet

I went down there just the other day
I went down to that Blue Note Cafe

Most folks are black but the songs are all blue
Most folks are black but I was there so there's white folk too

The Incomplete Image (4/4 Troubadour)

Did I tell you the story of the 4/4 troubadour
The traveling tramp
The barefoot bum
Did I tell you the story of the carefree gypsy
The hitching hobo
The rich man's son?

Last seen hitching down the Whitehorse Highway
Picking on a guitar
Singing a song
He's been running on steam since he was sixteen
But now Daddy wants to see his boy before he dies

Did I tell you the story of the poor man's daughter
The poor man's lover
The poor man's ward
Did I tell you the story of the poor man's hired hand
She keeps his house for her room and board
Last seen hitching at the edge of town
She had a sign that said
'Anywhere but here'
Now she never found a job where she was not fired
But she never found a town where she was not hired

Stepping Out

I'm stepping out
Lordy, lordy ain't no doubt
I'm stepping out
I want to sing I want to shout
I want to be what the fuss is all about
I'm stepping out

I'm stepping east
I'm stepping west
I'm gonna put my toot-toot-tootsies to the test
I'm gonna do what I do best
I'm stepping out

Chorus
Don't talk to me of no responsibilities
Don't you pull no little pout
It ain't no use giving me your abuse
Because tonight I'm stepping out

I'm stepping high
I'm stepping low
I'm stepping anywhere my footsteps want to go
First the heel and then the toe
I'm stepping out
I'm stepping out

Who Cares (Ghost Town)

I was walking down an old dirt road
I was feeling out and down
And taking it out on an old tin can
When I came up on an old ghost town

Doors hanging on one hinge
You know the scene?
The background's playing the High Noon Theme
There's dust devils swirling in the street
And sidewinders winding down the street

I seen a sign that said 'Hotel'
So I walked in and rang the bell
Looking around, my eyes open wider
When I see the grin on a Cheshire spider
Spooky!

(So I go outside again)
I seen a sign that said 'County Jail'
So I walk in and ring the bell
I see what used to be a man
Reaching out a bony hand
From behind the bars to take the key
That hung not more than a foot away
Spooky!

So I go outside again and as I squint an eye
I see a buzzard up in the sky
Circling low and lighting down
On what remains of this old ghost town

I seen a sign that says 'Saloon'
And like I said, it's hot, high noon
So I go in and ring the bell
No one answers so I ring the bell again
You see, my daddy used to tend a bar
So I know what the secrets are
It's 'stash the money in your purse
and stash a bottle underneath the first.....
Awww, no...
Keep some secrets never tell
And those secrets will keep you very well

Speaking of keeping, if you're feeling down
And you come up on some old ghost town
Direct your feet past all decay
And go straight to the place
Where things just mellow with age

5 AM in Amsterdam

Isabel Ringing in my head
I remember you once said
"It's just a trick of lighting, Chel,
It's just tripping over power lines, that's all"
I'm living alone now

It's not clear if the sound I hear
Is just the ringing in my ears
Did you hear that?
Did you hear that?

It's 5 AM in Amsterdam
And this is how I know
Not by the voice on my portable radio
The batteries are old
It's 5 AM in Amsterdam
And this is how I know

Not by a digital watch
I don't even own one
It's 5 AM in Amsterdam
And this is how I know
Not by my traveler's clock
It wound down long ago

It's 5 AM in Amsterdam
And this is how I know
There's a church beside a park
And it fills the dying dark
With five strokes
There it is again
Did you hear it that time
Did you hear that?

Secret Admirer

She's got a sweet little asset
That can take her places
Where they don't recall names
But they remember faces
She knows how to use those feminine graces
She spends a lot of time by the swimming pool
And if shopping was a brain disease
She'd be a shopping fool
And though she doesn't go to bed
On the first date as a rule....

Chorus
She goes downtown
It's all marble and mirror
She casts sideways glances
She's got a secret admirer
She's the All-American
Made in America
Object of desire

She drives a sporty little foreign job everywhere
She has a lifetime subscription to Vanity Fair
Her favorite charity
Is the man who does her hair
Well the advertisers buy it
and sell it as beauty
You run out to find a copy like
An unquestioned duty
It's no secret that the boys
Down at the disco call her 'Tooty'

Chorus

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