El Paso

El Paso - Jason Anderson

Well it seems like all the kids 'round here

Are wrapped up with leaving this place

Tony told me from his kitchen on Mesita

And he talked about to me about staying

He said man you see across the street

That's the university

You hit a home run

And the ball rolls into Juarez

High school juniors leave their cars

Walk across to the bars

You can imagine how it is

And even if we get out well

We always end up back home

To the only place we really know

El Paso

El Paso

Eddie he told me about the kidnapped women

What they call

The disappeared

Of *** and thugs and depressing strip clubs

I guess these border towns can be pretty weird

Fair enough

But on the east side

There's a pack of wild dogs called the rippers

They chase rabbits in the summer time

True story

But they can only catch them

When their little rabbit hearts quit

And melt

Give out under these cloudless oven skies

See them run and they run straight into the sun

Only to explode

You can watch them limp away

Like boats trying to stay afloat in El Paso

El Paso

Yeah

Dusk was hugging the foothills as I drove in

The mountains were draped with shadows east of I 10

The first couple stars like Lite Brite pegs

Like a candle in a colander

Uh

My brother telephoned from New York state

And he told me about a disastrous date

He said I know there's lots of fish in the lake

But sometimes it seems like they hibernate

And some nights I get so bored I cut my hair

Other nights I just stand

In front of that tall hall mirror and stare

Until my gaze gets soft and my reflection turns weird

And when I think of my life I feel so unprepared

He said

Man how can you live like a tramp out on the road

You know bouncing like a tetherball

Here and there

To and fro

Chasing the highway like a dirty gravel rainbow

Do you ever get release

Let alone a pot of gold

And I said

Dude chill remember last summer

Those books I would read

About the history of Greece and philosophy

Well they say maybe when we die there's peace

Or at least just rest from these tiresome lives we lead

And either way that makes so much sense to me

Besides who cares until they're deceased

And the clergy weeps

And the family grieves

And the tombstone proclaims R I P

And they wrench the fillings

Out of of your poor old teeth

And they cover your corpse in a snow white sheet

And they hang a tag from your ice cold feet

And they pray for your soul over a couple of weeks

And they say

He was a pretty

The newspapers say he was a pretty

Oh they claim he was a pretty good guy

And they let the body lie

Yeah they let the body lie

Oh they let the body lie

Yeah they let the body lie

Well everyone must die

It's true

But first we get to live

Don't ever ever forget to live

So I let my cellphone drop low

Down beneath the driver's seat

And I pulled off on the shoulder

And stared hard across at Mexico

At some space station looking refinery

There was a puff of smoke

Like a dragon's cough

Off the tops of that factory

So me I joked aloud

I wonder if they make clouds

Instead of guns and robots and machinery

And I put my foot back on the pedal

And I pulled off really slow

Into the loneliness and the darkness of El Paso

El Paso

Please say say say El Paso

And you say say it again

El Paso

You say oh

You say oh

You say oh

You say oh

You say yeah

You say yeah

You say yeah

You say yeah

Yeah

Yeah

Yeah

Yeah

Yeah