Waylon Jennings Live!
Lyrics
Drunk at the Meskwaki casino
Right where God intended me to be
Looking up at the one man in this room
Who's handled more cocaine than me
Think back on the good times just an hour or so ago
Before I got myself this drunk
When the valet parked my rented Mitsubishi
With a beat up old brown suitcase in the trunk
Full of firearms and flash drives
Full of passports
And international money orders
For just in case I make it cross the border
Get a postcard from the gift shop
Let my family know I'm doing fine
Looking up at a map up on the ceiling
To find the place where we all meet up further on down the line
Head back to my table
Get another scotch and soda for the road
The band on stage is really working up a head of steam
Close my eyes and lean my head back, dream a little dream
Full of firearms and flash drives
Full of passports
And international money orders
For just in case I make it cross the border
Banter
- I was on my way to a reading in Chapel Hill, I live next door in Durham, and listening to Honky Tonk Heroes by Waylon Jennings, and as you do you start to think about how you might try to write a fake Waylon Jennings song. (2018-05-27 Old Town School of Folk Music)
- I've had another brief insight in between dissociative moments in that one [Maybe Sprout Wings] where I realized that, I mean, most of my songs have some level of sad in them. But the saddest Mountain Goats songs are not the ones in which people wanna die. Because those people know that they will be free. The saddest Mountain Goats songs are the ones where the narrator knows he's not gonna die. and that this could conceivably go on for decades after this. This next song actually belongs to the first category. You can hear, there's a little bit of jubilation in knowing that it will soon be over. The end won't be pretty but it will be an end. It will surprise exactly no one to know that I wrote the first line to this one at a stoplight while listening to an album called Honky Tonk Heroes by Waylon Jennings. (2019-04-30 Brooklyn Steel)
- I wouldn't normally say that, I try to discourage debauched behavior, but I'd like to dedicate this to the drunkest person in the room. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. (2023-10-07 Ace of Spades)
- This song takes place in the land where our liberties we prize and our rights we shall maintain. And those of you who are from Minnesota but recognize that as the Iowa state motto, I respect that! This song takes place down in Iowa, most likely around Tama county, but. It's about a fella who figures there's no better place to hide from the Federales than central Iowa. And y'know, he's right until he's wrong. He's just watching Waylon Jennings play and waiting for the cops to show up, circa 1998. (2024-04-12 The Palace)
Live Performances
Footnotes