Lyrics Patti Scialfa

Patti Scialfa

City Boys

My Auntie Mabel

1953

Left her Minnesota dirt farm to see what she could see

In a letter to her mother telling her what she enjoyed

Said there's nothing in the whole wide world like a city boy

1987

Took Daddy's Cadillac

I drove it to Chicago, never brought it back

Well all these years later, I'm still unemployed

Oh well there's nothing in the whole wide world like a city boy

My granddaddy had long grey hair

Silver cane and a rocking chair

Tapped that cane on a wooden floor

Saying "take what you're given, and then ask for more"

Well now, baby, what do you think of that

Can you make a woman out of an alley cat

Can you take the agitation and not get annoyed

Oh well there's nothing in the whole wide world like a city boy

Now my Auntie Mabel, she plays the dominoes

Way down South where the yucca plant grows

Drinking whiskey out of Coca-Cola bottles, smoking Viceroys

Still swears there's nothing in the whole wide world like a city boy

Those city boys