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

Like desperados waitin' for a train
Like desperados waitin' for a train

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

Like desperados waitin' for a train
Like desperados waitin' for a train

And from the time that I could walk he'd take me with him
To a bar called the Green Frog Cafe
There was old men with beer guts and dominos
Oh, and they're lying 'bout their lives while they played
And I was just a kid, they all called me 'Sidekick'

Like desperados waitin' for a train
Like desperados waitin' for a train

And one day I looked up and he's pushin' eighty
And he's brown tobacco stains all down his chin
Well, to me he was one of a heroes of this country
So why's he all dressed up like them old men
He's drinkin' beer and playin' Moon and Forty-two

Like a desperado waitin' for a train
Like a desperado waitin' for a train

And the day 'fore he died I went to see him
And 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-***** is comin'

We're like desperados waitin' for a train
Like desperados waitin' for a train

Like desperados waitin' for a train
Like desperados waitin' for a train