I played the Red River Valley 
He'd sit in the kitchen and cry  [bad word] his fingers through seventy years of livin' 
And wonder, "Lord, why has every well I've drilled gone dry?" 

We were friends, me and this old man 
We's like desperados waitin' for a train 
Desperados waitin' for a train 

He's a drifter, a driller of oil wells 
He's an old school man of the world 
He taught me how to drive his car when he was too [bad word] to 
And he'd wink and give me money for the girls 
And our lives was like, some old Western movie 
Like desperados waitin' for a train 
Like desperados waitin' for a train 

From the time that I could walk he'd take me with him 
To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe 
There was old men with beer guts and dominos 
Lying 'bout their lives while they played 
I was just a kid, they all called me "Sidekick" 
Just like desperados waitin' for a train 
Like desperados waitin' for a train 

One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty 
He's got brown tobacco stains all down his chin 
Well to me he was a hero of this country 
So why's he all dressed up like them old men 
Drinkin' beer and playin' Moon and Forty-two 
Jus' like desperados waitin' for a train 
Like a desperado waitin' for a train 

The day 'fore he died I went to see him 
I was grown and he was almost gone. 
So we just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen 
And sang one more verse to that old song 
 [bad word] on, Jack, that son-of-a [bad word] [bad word] #39; 

We're desperados waitin' for a train 
Was like desperados waitin' for a train