El paso

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 drugs 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 light bright pegs
like a candle in a colander
uh huh
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 ohhhh.
you say ohhhhhhh.
you say oh-ohhhhh.
you say oh-ohhhhhhh.
you say yeahhhhhhhhhh.
you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
yeahhhhhhhhh.

ohhhh.
whoahhhh.
whoahhhhhh.
whoahhhhhhhh.