Lyrics to Jail

I wish you well on your travels

My friends I wish you well along the way

This is the story of how I came to be

In jail for a night and a day



Well I'm driving my '88 Olds Cutlass

It's raining and it's dark

My wipers are beating slow and steady

Like the thump, thump, thumping of my heart

I'm rolling down from up in Colorado

Some little town in Texas tonight

When my rear view flashes blue, blue, blue

It's a cop; my license plate's missing a light

He smells sweet green Colorado

Hidden in the lining 'bove my head

Next thing I know there's four cop cars flashing

And around my wrists are bracelets of lead

Well, take my license, take my fingerprints

Take my wallet that I'll no longer need

Take my belt in case I want to hang myself

For a nickel bag of weed

Then put me in a cell on an old mattress pad

To measure out in minutes this night

One cup of water in styrofoam

Four walls and one fluorescent light

And this is my one phone call

And baby I'm calling you

You tell me, "stay strong boy"

I say "well, I'll do the best I do"



And I wish you well on your travels

My friends I wish you well along the way

This is the story of how I came to be

In jail for a night and a day



Now at first I'm thinking, man, I'm such a fuck-up

My head is lonesome and bowed

Figure I'll join some program, get religious

My abstinence will make my mother proud

And I stare at the stone cold floor

I guess that's what you do in the pen

Then I get to thinking what I'd really like to do

Is to come back here and fight this to the end



Your honor, think of Johnny Cash

And Elvis and Hank Williams too

Whatever it took to go get those songs

Those good old boys would do

If it's illegal, then throw out Blonde on Blonde

And every Beatles song since Hard Day's Night

Go ahead and burn Walt Whitman

Unpaint Starry Night

Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, let 'em burn

Kerouac, Thelonious Monk

Alice in Wonderland, Picasso

Burroughs, Blake, Ginsberg, throw it out, it's junk

Then throw out all your favorite records

Throw your books of poetry away

Close the museums, burn the paintings

Restore us to Galileo's Day

Then to the drug store we will go

For Vicodin and Chloraseptic spray

Scarf a couple Darvocets and Xanax

And then we'll go floating away

Dear Governor, dear Governor, dear Governor

The ultimate enforcer of my fate

Did I interrupt your three-martini lunch?

Are you off on your cigarette break?



Well, I wish you well on your travels

My friends I wish you well along the way

This is the story of how I came to be

In jail for a night and a day



Next day, my buddies bail me out

Toward late afternoon

And the grass, it never smelled greener

Sun drips honey like from a golden spoon

I jump in the car and drive on out of there

Soon I'm miles away

And I get to thinking what awaits me

When I come back some not-so-distant day

Will I stand before the judge

And say, "Your Honor, this law, it is wrong"

Or do I just do the time and pay my fine

Shake this town from my boots and be gone



I wish you well on your travels

My friends I wish you well along the way

This is the story of how I came to be

In jail for a night and a day