And I played the Red River Valley
And he'd sit in the kitchen and cry
Run his fingers through seventy years of livin'
And wonder, "Lord, has every well I've drilled gone dry?"
We was friends, me and this old man
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train

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

By the time that I could walk, he'd take me with him
To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe
And there was old men with beer guts and dominoes
Lying 'bout their lives while they all played
And I was just a kid, but they all called me "sidekick"
Like desperados waiting' for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train

One day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty
Had brown tobacco stains all down his chin
See to me, he's the hero of this country
So why's he all dressed up like them old men?
Drinkin' beer and playin' Moon and Forty-two
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train
Just like desperados waiting for the train
Two desperados waiting for a train
The day before 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 another verse to that old song
Come on, Jack, that son of a bitch is comin'
Like desperados waiting for a train
Just like desperados waiting for the train
Two desperados waiting for a train
Two desperados waiting for a train