[Verse 1]
Well, I quit my job down at the car wash
I left my mama a goodbye note
By sundown I'd left Kingston
With my guitar under my coat
I hitchhiked all the way down to Memphis
Got a room at the YMCA
For the next three weeks I went hunting them nightclubs
Just looking for a place to play
Well, I thought my picking would set them on fire
But nobody wanted to hire a guitar man

[Verse 2]
Well, I nearly about starved to death down in Memphis
I run out to money and luck
So I bought me a ride down to Macon, Georgia
On a overloaded poultry truck
I thumbed on down to Panama City
Started picking out some of them all night bars
Hoping I could make myself a dollar
Making music on my guitar
I got the same old story at them all night piers
"There ain't no room around here for a guitar man"
"We don't need a guitar man, son"

[Verse 3]
So I slept in the hobo jungles
Roamed a thousand miles of track
Till I found myself in Mobile, Alabama
At a club they call Big Jack's
A little four-piece band was jamming
So I took my guitar and I sat in
I showed them what a band would sound like
With a swinging little guitar man
Show them, son
[Verse 4]
If you ever take a trip down to the ocean
Find yourself down around Mobile
Make it on out to a club called Jack's
If you got a little time to kill
Just follow that crowd of people
You'll wind up out on his dance floor
Digging the finest little five-piece group
Up and down the Gulf of Mexico
Guess who's leading that five-piece band
Well, wouldn't you know, it's that swinging little guitar man

[Verse 5]
Well, I came a long way from the car wash
Got to where I said I'd get
Now that I'm here I know for sure
I really have not got there yet
Think I'll start all over
Swing my guitar over my back
I'm going to get myself back on the track
I'll never, never ever look back
I'll never be more than what I am
Wouldn't you know
I'm a swinging little Guitar man