Raeleen Wheeler

Вступление

From video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-PT0KLIcfc

[Verse 1]

Raeleen wheeler was the first girl I loved

Through the last year of high school,

We were thicker than blood

Holed up in Mississippi, and starvin’ for fun

We made love and dreamed up places to run

I was burnin’ that summer with the big dreams I had

And the songs I’d written, well, the world needed bad

But a pretty girl needs more comfort and gold

Than a beat-up black notebook is likely to hold

[Chorus 1]

Hey, Raelene, it’s a wide world between pearl river

And the bright L.A. lights

And if I’d done it all without dreamin’

I’d still be in Jackson tonight

[Solo]

[Verse 2]

Hollywood hopefuls ain’t an endangered breed

But luck is like lightnin’, and it sure struck me

The hit songs, the women, the standing-room halls

And twenty years of hard labor, holdin’ on to it all

[Solo]

Louisiana I-20 headed east from Monroe

A bus bound for Jackson and a homecoming show

Staring through the dark glass at the flat miles beyond

Tryin’ not to look at a face that is gone

[Chorus 2]

Hey, Raelene, a wife at 19, but I heard you made out all right

and every now and again, I still wonder

Are you somewhere in Jackson tonight?

[Solo]

[Verse 3]

Well, we killed ‘em, we crushed ‘em, burned the place to the ground

And in the dressing room quiet, I was still coming down

When in the doorway appeared an old flame, full-grown

Looking pretty as ever, and entirely alone

She said the divorce nearly broke her, she was learning to stand

And as she talked it came clearer that she wanted a hand

So, I drew her close to me, and I kissed my sweet Rae

And the miles and the memories just melted away

[Verse 4]

Then I glanced in the mirror, and in a split second’s time

N.C. B

Just before recognizing that old face as mine

I saw a strange, sad man in a cheap rhinestone shirt

And a woman he held onto like his last hope on earth

He was worn and trod down as the road he’d been on

N.C. B

And his eyes were half-dead, lookin’ too hard, too long

His life measured in nights that flashed and grew dim

N.C. E N.C.

Leaving no one really happy, least of all him

[Verse 5]

Then the loading gate slammed, and I let my arms fall

We traded numbers, small talk, promised to call

And as she faded from me, and the night closed around

Well, I picked up a black notebook and I let it spill down

[Chorus 3]

Hey, Raelene, it’s a long way between the wantin’ and the makin’ it right

And if I was the one that you needed I’d never leave Jackson tonight

[Outro]

Yeah, if I had it all to do over I’d still be in Jackson tonight