Wild Town

She don’t need your sympathy
With a smile that swears she’s winning the last game
Does all her drinking for free
So much attitude on a 90-pound frame

A headline waiting to happen
Thrown to the wind alibis in the mail
Spinning like a Leslie Cabinet
Making the rent in one-dollar bills

 Her eyes shut this wild town down
You’ll never hold a girl like her
Tears it up and runs it into the ground
Her eyes shut this wild town down

Lady of perpetual motion
Catholic school Sisters swore our love was a sin
Now she’s shakin’ at the Tally-Ho
Spending every penny and you’ll never get it back again

Her eyes shut this wild town down
You’ll never hold a girl like her
Tears it up and runs it into the ground
Her eyes shut this wild town down

© Michael S. O’Connor

Getaway Car

The ol’ man’s been drinkin’
And momma’s been drivin’
Herself home alone more and more
Baby tuggin’ at her breast
And that ol’ devil won’t take no rest
The god-damn neighbors all keeping score

 It’s momma’s birthday
Oh but the bills ain’t paid
We’ll sit alone in the dark
“Make a pallet by the screen door dear“
“Try and let some cool air in here”
Listen to the highway rolling fast

 And I dream of a getaway car
One with no brakes or plates
Dark and swift without a trace
I’ll drive it oh so far away
Straight into the night
I’m gonna bury it all in the glow of my headlights

 The Town Pump’s at the edge of town
And the whores call his name when he comes around
Three sheets to the wind like a millionaire
Crawls home on his hands and knees
To three hungry mouths to feed
Their belly’s as empty as the Frigidaire 

Michael S. O’Connor

Trampoline

Blew slide trombone in a six piece band
In the gutter where the winners got blood on their hands
Working, working, till the whole shack swings
Like a blind man jumping on a trampoline

The small print’s what the kid can’t read
And it’s hard, it’s hard with your ass in the breeze
Working, working, scuffling up your knees
Like a blind man jumping on a trampoline

A ten-dollar suit, a thirty-dollar gig
Leaves Jackson to tighten your wig
“Susie good pussy’s” gonna loosen the noose
Her head full of stitches and a Harley tattoo

The sign on the door reads “No Colors Can Be Worn”
Rich folks slummin’ get what they bargain for
When you’re safe across the tracks, I’ll be sleeping in my car
If you whistle the tune, put your cabbage in the jar

Thirty-one nights in the month of May
And forty-nine jobs this band’s gonna play
Working, working, pray your lips don’t bleed
Like a blind man jumping on a trampoline

© Michael S. O’Connor

Devil’s Lullaby

 When the shrimpers hit town with their white boots on
Drinking all their pay before they make home so were staying
Diggy Liggy Li, Diggy Liggy Lo
That’s the song that you better know if you’re playing
The women whistle and the fiddles whine
Sounds like the Devil’s lullaby

It’s a rattlesnake race I found myself in
Landlady notified my next of kin and I’m ramblin’
Left a crying, pregnant teenage bride
Grandmother kneeling by her side, they were praying
San Patricio hear their cry
I’m playing the Devil’s lullaby

I sang the song when I was young
About the power in the the blood
But Jesus he can’t save me, I’m crucified
The Devil’s lullaby

So I sang the songs of a rose tattoo
A sailor’s heart with a girl untrue under the street lamp
All the skirt chasing and freebasing
How the scarlet flows where she sliced me good with a razor
The sirens wail and the church bells chime
Playing me the Devil’s lullaby
The women whistle and the fiddles whine
Playing the Devil’s lullaby

 © Michael S. O’Connor

Sleepy Town

Sleepy little town, how’d it come to be
The whole world lies before you
Your back’s against the sea

Tucker played a little ball, left home for the university
Never made the pros, back here is where he found his feet
Standing six foot nine, easily identified
He’d robbed another liquor store, the law would have their man in time

Deep down in the cut, beneath the refineries
An ex-rival guns him down in a dope-deal-turned-robbery
The paper showed it all too clear, a black and white photograph
A bloody hand and a wad of twenties left lying in the grass

 Sleepy little town, how’d it come to be
The whole world lies before you
Your back’s against the sea

A poster of your face has blown from up the street
For a show that you’ll never play, and it’s resting at my feet
Three hundred pounds of soul blown through an alto saxophone
And a heart streaked blue with tears, and nowhere left to go

With the wind in your face, and your momma on the line
The police try to talk you down, but you didn’t give them time
From high upon the Harbor Bridge to the hard concrete below
“Flip, Flop & Fly” is a song that i can’t play no more

Sleepy little town, how’d it come to be
The whole world lies before you
Your back’s against the sea

© Michael S. O’Connor

Tag-Along

 Well I’m not made for rambling anymore
Though I never could stay long
As the birds all sing their song again

 The sun through the window pane
Lights your face in the early dawn
I have only to remember your name
Doesn’t matter anyway

 The world has turned upside down
I don’t know who’s true or strong
But I swear this time I will do my best
If you’ll let me tag along

 Bang the box till your arms fall off
Scream the blues till you choke and cough
When a tear is your only wage
At least you got to play

 Now I’m with the boys in the back room
I’m shooting dope, they’re shooting dice
Can’t recall when I last dreamt of home
Or even thought to write

 The world has turned upside down
I don’t know who’s true or strong
But I swear this time I will do my best
If you’ll let me tag along

 I promise I’ll try and do my best
If you’ll let me tag along

 © Michael S. O’Connor

Off The Wagon

The only one that likes me when I drink
The only one who cares what I think
The only one who listens, so what the hell
What you don’t want to hear is what I’m dying to tell

 Start it off gently, real it low key
Try not to take it personally
It ain’t no prayer, it ain’t no toast, 
It’s more like a shot from an unholy ghost

Last night I punched my shadow all the way across the room
My shadow came right back at me with the stick end of the broom
Now here I am, one black eye, one blew tire, and not one thin dime
If there’s a million stars in a knock-out sky
There’s a million more in a knocked-out eye

Last night I saw you stumbling out that door
Swearing that you would not be back here anymore
But here you are, and here I am
Acting like we never saw each other before
Hey, get up off that floor, now my shirt’s all torn
Let’s have one more

Oh, but I don’t like you when you drink
And I don’t care what you think
I ain’t listening so what the hell
I’m jumping straight off the wagon and into the well

 © Michael S. O’Connor & Stephen Monk Wilson

Live Like The River

Blood on the engine, mud on my heels
Soul through the floorboard, hands on the wheel
Hungry for love like an orphan I’ve run
With a heart like a fist, and a flame to my tongue

 I’m gonna live like the river
Wild and brave, not knowing my way
I’ll be chasing the sun
Till these bones crumble in my grave

Tears in the café, they won’t let me hide
Count the scars on my chin, and the miles ‘round your eyes
Hit the road, hit the bottle, hit it all but the brakes
Sad songs and broken glass are left in my wake

 I’m gonna live like the river
Wild and brave, not knowing my way
I’ll be chasing the sun
Till these bones crumble in my grave

 You can count out our money when the pillow hits our head
I’ll trade this bed of nails I’ve made, but it’s way too late for that

© Michael S. O’Connor & Eleanor Whitmore