Lyrics Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

One Piece At A Time

Well I left Kentucky back in '49 and

Went to Detroit workin' on the assembly line

The first year they had me puttin' wheels on Cadillacs

Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by

And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry

Cuz I always wanted me one that was long and black

One day I devised myself a plan

That should be the envy of most any man

I'd sneak it outta there in a lunchbox in my hand

Now gettin' caught meant gettin' fired

But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired

I'd have me a car worth at least 100 grand

I'd get it one piece at a time

And it wouldn't cost me a dime

You'll know it's me when I come through your town

I'm gonna ride around in style

I'm gonna drive everybody wild

Cuz I'll have the only one there is around

So the very next day when I punched in

With my big lunchbox and with help from my friend

I left that day with a lunchbox full of gears

I've never considered myself a thief

But GM wouldn't miss just one little piece

Especially if I strung it out over several years

The first day I got me a fuel pump

And the next day I got me an engine and a trunk

Then I got me a transmission and all the chrome

The little things I could get in my big lunchbox

Like nuts and bolts and all 4 shocks

But the big stuff we snuck out my buddy's mobile home

Now up to now my plan went alright

'Til we tried to put it all together one night

And that's when we noticed that somethin' was definitly wrong

The transmission was a '53 and

The motor turned out to be a '73 and

When we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone

So we drilled it out so that it would fit and

With a little help from an adapter kit

We had that engine runnin' just like a song

Now the headlights, they was another sight

We had 2 on the left and 1 on the right

But when we pulled out the switch all 3 of 'em come on

The back end looked kinda funny too

But we put it together and when we got through

Well that's when we noticed that we only had 1 tail fin

About that time my wife walked out and

I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts

But she opened the door and said

"Honey, take me for a spin"

So we drove uptown just to get the tags and

I headed her right on down main drag

I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around

But up there at the court house they didn't laugh

Cuz to type it up it took the whole staff and

When they got through the title weighed 60 pounds

I'd got it one piece at a time

And it didn't cost me a dime

You'll know it's me when I come through your town

I'm gonna ride around in style

I'm gonna drive everybody wild

Cuz I'll have the only one there is around

Uh, yeah Red Rider this is the Cotton Mouth in the

Psycho Billy Cadillac, come on

Huh?

Uh, this is the Cotton Mouth and negatory on the

Cost of this moe-sheen there Red Rider

You might say I went right up to the factory and

Picked it up, it's cheaper that way

Uh, what model is it?