Pinball Song

Six weeks on the road now, I'm feeling kind of spent

There's a few things I need and ones a friend

A few good games of pinball and a double whiskey sour

I'll rinse it with a beer and repeat again

You know I couldn't find you in the place you used to be

I'm a sucker for the old times, that's me

But I asked around the bar and they said you were gone for a couple of days

On a vacation in the drunk tank so they'd say

I saw that girl you used to know at the other end of the bar

I never thought she'd ever get that far

She said you two were through, it seemed you were driving for different things

I said I understood, I've wrecked that car

So now there's thirteen empty bottles, a glass or two or four

The lights came on we headed for the door

But the night was adolescent and she said she wanted more

And that's what she kept the apple blossom for

So up the stairs to her apartment with the Christmas lights that blink

It's the second week of May but that'd be okay

Except that under those blinking lights we opened a big old can of stink

And you smell it soon enough in one more day

Saturday, the twelfth of May, the policeman turns the valve

And the first drunk of the weekend dribbles out

Collect all your effects and take a cab straight to the bar

You're wondering what the whisperings all about

Well I'll tell you:

It's about the easy sheen of alcohol, of better-not-do's done

Of blinking lights and the curse of roomates' tongues

An entire bar's worth holding theirs, but it only takes just one

And then it's pass that can around, it's your turn, son

Because this pinball gane I'm playing, you know it's not the same

Times used to be you and me could always match

Yeah and the multiball came easy just like the replay game

And the wagers won and tossed hard down the hatch

So now I nailed the free game and there's a bottle across my head

My table tilts, I'm headed for the floor

Went out to find an old friend but I lost me one instead

I lost it all for just another score