Thomas Anderson

singer, songwriter, rock 'n' roller

The Late Great Warren Smith

by Thomas Anderson

from the album The Moon in Transit

I'm driving across the desert at night

The mesas are bright in the pale moonlight

I'm thinking about the music that changed my life

See the souls that shine in the radio light

Here's to you Warren Smith, you did your best

You knew you gifted, you knew you were blessed

In the smoky din of the roadside bars

You had no doubt that you were a star

Blackjack David in a red Cadillac

Rock 'n' roll Ruby stretched out in the back

Gazin' out the window to the stars above

Singin' to herself "Goodbye Mr. Love"

Radio plays you cross the Memphis bridge

Smokey Joe Baugh and the Collins Kids

She says "Pull over drummer, let me get some air"

It's four in the morning, we ain't halfway there

Holed up in Longview when your time's been served

They stole your best years and you lost your nerve

Rockabilly nights and Rockefeller dreams

Warren Smith watched them all fade like steam

Brown muddy water on the banks below

Sweet young Sally with her gambler beau

Indian fires and a wood-smoke breeze

You can still hear her cry floatin' through the breeze

Could've been a hundred years ago

Could've been today, for all we know

Time is the hangman under his hood

Warren Smith didn't like it, but he understood