“Pleasure Horse” Lyrics
Company Spade
Well I learned a lot in that old stock lot
Like how to work the day away
Hands all mangled from a pitchfork handle
And my baby’s on her way
She comes rolling down the dirt road
Hollering at me
Saying boy you best get dressed
And get your body clean
We go out on those payday nights and all we’d waste away
My hand’s on the bottle my head’s on the throttle
There’s my heart with the company spade
Drunk on the lawn singing till dawn
Now I’m groaning at the light
Gotta go to work this morning
I didn’t go to bed last night
I don’t know how to get through
I don’t think I know how to love
I don’t have a lot to look forward to
But being there with the one I constantly think of
Chorus
Then I showed up late it was a big mistake
And you better believe that he brow beat me
Where pray tell is this place called hell
If not hung over me
I fucked up the farmer’s seed count
And everything in between
But that farmer’s charming baby girl
Is the sweetest this that I think I’ve ever seen
Chorus
Dogs
The dogs they came after me late in the night
Too tired to open the lids of my eyes
What they wanted from me I could never decide
All the pleasure they got from destroying my hide
But I’ve never been one to fight
So I let them take me tonight
With my body relieved of the burden of life
I lay there alone waiting for the light
But the light wasn’t late it just never arrived
All the wrong that I’d done left no light to rely on
But I’ve never been one to fight
All my life I spent standing in line
And I shivered most of the time
With my head in a vice I soon turned to a song
That I had heard long before feeling was gone
What the song meant to me I could never describe
It came to my ears at a fortunate time
But I’ve never been one to fight
All my life I spent standing in line
And I shivered most of the time
Gotta Wonder
There was a girl of mine I thought would never come up empty
She just let me be whatever it was I was
There was no way I could offend her with all the flowers I’d never send her
She even seemed to mean well when we’d fight
But she never could quite look me in the eye
And I think that there’s a good chance she had trouble on her mind
Undone I’ve become
Oh my god I gotta wonder why she never tore my heart asunder
And drown it for the fool she knew I was
She gave me one too many chances, I took one too many glances
At the beautiful blondes and the proud little flowers in sight
But I never could quite look her in the eye
And good god now there’s a sure chance I have trouble on my mind
Undone I become
Another song unsung
Another race un-run I think I missed the starting gun
Gracie
I trembled on the day we looked for Gracie
All the memories we had together came back to me
And I thought perhaps the thing had lost her way, you see
She was hungry and we couldn’t afford her any food to eat
Because the price of grain wouldn’t rise and the rain wouldn’t fall
And that’s when we heard poor Gracie’s call
We found her body broken lying down in a ditch
Her bones were crushed beyond what even all our money could fix
To take her home and mend her up was my only wish
But pa replied the four ten’s got one more bullet in it
So I ran to the house and I cried in the yard
Crying Gracie life shouldn’t be this hard
New Enemies
You come home from work when the day is done
After nothing has worked and nothings been won
You do your best to sleep and not dream about me
Cause some things you keep till you need em to see
If any new enemies lie ahead
When you’re callin me up I know you’re cursing yourself
But there’s no worse curse than calling for help
You know you know better and you know it ain’t right
To be calling me up on a Saturday night with all those things on your mind
Praying I won’t reply and you won’t have to decide
But there’s one you gotta choose and one you gotta lose
And I know that he ain’t the first one you left behind
Now we’re meeting at the dock after quitting time
It’s feeling more and more each day like you’re mine
And then I asked you what he thinks and if you thought he would mind
That I’ve been taking up most of your time
When you’re leaving so soon on his dime
Now, baby, I can’t repay you, but maybe I could save you the miles
Cause there’s one you gotta choose and one you gotta lose
And girl I know that he ain’t the first one you’ve left behind
News Radio
When I showed up this morning she was sleeping waiting for the light
And my best friend he just told me what she’d been keeping from me just the other night
So I headed off with nowhere to go
There was nothing but news on my radio
And something told me that she’d been telling lies
About the company she kept and where she lies
There are place I could go where I could lay low and stay out of her sight
Until the night I let her know I let her have it I deliver the blow
Till then I’m headed off with nowhere to go
There was nothing but news on my radio
And something told me she’d been telling lies
About the places that she’s been and where she lies
We both moved away the same day to different places for shots at brand new lives
And then we went our separate ways through the same maze escape blatantly disguised
And so I’m headed off with nowhere to go
There was nothing but news on my radio
And now I know that she’d been telling lies
It feels so good to know for once that I was right
Oahe
When I was a young boy I’d run down the creek bed
And look for the stones that the natives would lay
Sometimes I’d find effigies up on the hilltops
Or down in the gulches and buried away
My fresh young mind served as my loyal companion
New hardboiled mysteries and victories I’d spun
In my mind I’d contrive the most innocent lies
I was high on the plains when the whole thing begun
Before sorrow stole my old my imagination
And left me running for an upturned bottle again
If I could just count down my blessings and relax
Like the rest of the Midwest sit back and laugh at the jokes life cracks
Way out on the big water lake of Oahe
I’d cast out my tow lines and lay there in wait
Caught not by the limits or rules places upon me
By the man at the station who sold me the bait
The rest of my life wrecked by reckless abandon
Always standing by the mountain and showing up late
When the sunset hits the skyline all these flimsy dreams of mine
Unwind like the hands of a simpler time
Before sorrow stole my old my imagination
And left me running for an upturned bottle again
I’d never die for what is right if I could live another night
I’d drive out west and find somewhere to be
Oahe, Oahe
Reasons
Well I’m still in doubt, but pressure is the point to getting somewhere in life
So I’ll feel it out, but I like what’s goin’ wrong too much to give in to the right
It takes more than Nudie suits and cowboy boots to make a man
But she sure showed me around and shook me off and pulled me from the ground
Now I’ve been crawling floors for you baby, waitin’ for the indication you’d stay with me
The time you take is the cruelest kind, I’m givin up on the reason and the rhyme
Guess I’ll cool it down, cause there’s no goin back to her knowing what she was like
No more feelin proud, then concealing all the damage from the cameras and the lights
No more waiting , wasted, wishing for the best in my condition to come along another night
Cause see ya later honey seemed to me a funny way to say goodbye
Won’t you let me know the next time I say something right
Cause I don’t mean to slow you down when you’re hitting all the lights
The last time we got together you know the love was out of sight
And I think that you’d agree that somehow it felt alright
Now I’m sick of crawling these dirty floors for you darling
And it’s time I rise and give up on finding the reason and the rhyme
Old Heart, Sweetheart
Lady, you can’t change his mind
Make him believe that you’re still trying to decide
Between those sexy city lights
And being beneath that starry blanket of heartland sky
Over the sound of your sighs
Your broken heart croaks goodbye
And now you’ve gotta leave
That dirty old heart behind
Now he’s still calling all the time
Swearing to you this time he’s really made up his mind
While picking rings out for his bride
You swore to yourself goddamn this day would never make you cry
But now you’ve drank all the wine
And no one’s showing you a good time
And now you’ve gotta leave
Without any kind of new find
Stones
Little darling I hear you’re doin fine
First in your class you beat em every time
Your pa says you’re happy and you mention me constantly
He’s the only one that knows the pain it brings to me
You still hold on to dreams and you still believed in Christ
Now nothing’s changed, we’ll both, still feel the same way
If we never meet again we’ll never have to say
You’re so tired of being alone
You start to envy stones
Never again a beautiful feeling
Your drunken anvil on all evening
Don’t do what your dad did and stick around the pit
Make your world your hometown girl but leave me out of it
You’re so tired of being alone
You start to envy stones