Let Him Roll

He's a wino tried and true done about everything there is to do

He worked on freighters he worked in bars he worked on farms he worked on cars

It was white port that put that look in his eye

That grown men get when they need to cry

And he sat down on the curb to rest and his head just fell down on his chest

He said every single day it gets just a little bit harder to handle and yet

And he lost the thread and his mind got cluttered

And the words just rolled off down in the gutter

He was elevator man in a cheap hotel in exchange for the rent on a one room cell

He's old in years beyond his time thanks to the world and the white Port wine

So he says son he always called me son he said life for you has just begun

And he told me a story that I heard before how he fell in love with a Dallas whore

Well he could cut through the years to the very night

When it ended in a whore house fight

And she turned his last proposal down in favor of being a girl about town

Now it's been seventeen years right in line and he ain't been straight none of the time

Too many days of fightin' the weather and too many nights of not being together

And so he died

[ ac.guitar ]

Well when they went through his personal affects

In among the stubs from the welfare checks

Was a crumblin' picture of a girl in a door an address in Dallas and nothin' more

The welfare people provided the priest a couple from the mission down the street

Sang Amazing Grace and no one cried cept some lady in black way off to the side

We all left and she was standin' there black veil covering her silver hair

And ol' ene-eyed John said her name was Alice and she used to be a whore in Dallas

So let him roar Lord let him roll bet he's gone to Dallas rest his soul

Just to let him roll Lord let him roar

He always said that heaven was just a Dallas whore

Let him roar Lord let him roll bet he's gone to Dallas rest his soul