That'll Get You Ten

Just two years an' seven days

Between me an' legal age

Just one clerk in that liquor store

Between me an' that front door

My coat had deep pockets

An' he probably had a gun

Well, I reckon he was watchin' 'cause he said

"Son, that'll get you one"

"One year pickin' up trash on the highway

One phone call to hear your momma's heartbreak

If you think it's worth it, don't let me stop you, son

'Cause that'll get you one"

She had a beer in her hand, she was comin' on strong

An' I was just this close to takin' her home

Things were lookin' good when we left that bar

Till she stopped an' said, "That's my car"

That's when I saw the sticker

That said, 'Franklin County High'

Well, I didn't even kiss the girl goodbye

'Cause that'll get you five

Five years bustin' up rocks on the chain gang

Pound in' and a bang straight plates in the same sink

Wonderin' if I'm ever gonna make it out alive

An' those tan breaks might get me thinkin' 'bout a jailbreak

Askin' my mom to slip a file in my bun cake

Those bloodhounds'd probably haul me back in

An' that's another ten

Boss man climbin' down my back

Won't cut me one inch of slack

'Tween that steel beam an' the ground below

It'd be a nasty fall if the wind should blow

I don't see a witness an' we're up here awful high

If he should lose his balance

He might not survive

But that'd get you life

Pumpin' that iron with the boys on the cell-block

Tyin' my soap to a rope so it don't drop

An' some ol' boy thinks my biceps look nice

Writin' to the governor an' beggin' for a pardon

Thinkin', "That's how Merle Haggard got started"

Swappin' cigarettes for momma's apple pie

Lookin' through the glass an' talkin' to my lawyer

Memorizing Moby Dick an' Tom Sawyer

Tellin' the parole board, I learned wrong from right

Yeah, that'd get you life, yeah, that'd get you life