"There's a run-down old bar
at the end of the street",
And she named it
and asked if I knew it.

Chain Gang

There's one little thing that all of us share,
We're part of a very long chain,
A chain that now binds us and holds us together.
This chain makes us all look the same.

We work every day by the side of the road,
Just pickin’ up bottles and trash,
They keep all their rifles loaded and ready,
In case we decide we will dash.

The guy here beside me once shot an old man,
And left him to die in a ditch.
He took all his cash and a watch that he had,
But it never at all made him rich.

And just down the line is a really dumb guy
Who was married to twenty-some women.
They’ve put him away for fifteen to life,
But it still doesn’t keep him from sinnin’.

Does it ever at all make you wonder a bit,
What it is I am doing in this line?
Just what did I do that was ever so wrong?
That would make them take all that was mine?

Allow me to tell a sad story to you,
Of a time I was down on my luck,
I would do anything that was offered to me,
In order to just make a buck.

One evening in spring I was out for a walk,
When approached by some girl in an alley,
I said I was Blaine and then asked for her name.
All she said was, “The boys call me Sally”.

“I have a small job that needs to be done,
And you look like the man who can do it.
There's a run-down old bar at the end of the street.”
And she named it and asked if I knew it.

I knew it as once, I had been there before,
When out on the town with the guys,
We had stopped there real late for a couple of beers,
Topped off with a burger and fries.

“It's just a small job, and here’s what it is,
Two guys there named Willie and Sid.
Just take this here gun and do what you can,
For their lives I’d be glad to be rid.”

Before I could answer, I stood in that bar,
With the pistol held in my right hand,
And I knew in a flash that with everything done,
It would only be me who would stand.

A shot then rang out, but it wasn’t my gun,
And a bloodstain appeared on my chest.
I sank to the floor and started to fire,
But my shots, they were never the best.

I shot to the right and shot to the left,
And saw people fall one by one,
And I looked in the corner and saw Will and Sid;
They were aiming at me; I was done.

The cops busted in and soon took control,
It was over as fast as it started.
And I saw Will and Sid and stared straight at them,
And they glared back at me as we parted.

Now I live in a prison and work on this chain,
And regret the dumb thing I once did,
And the two guys beside me named Willie and Sid,
Of their lives I will never be rid.

by David Ronald Bruce Pekrul