American Backslide

Music & Lyrics by Garland Jeffreys

From the album Guts for Love (1982)

How does it feel

In the morning shower

Will the great decision

Come before lunch hour

From the ivory tower

Like a proclamation

Who’ll be the next to go

How does it feel

When you got no power

And your fate is shaky

Like your destination

And your future’s empty

Full of just frustration

And you’re searching high and low

One o’clock jump, one o’clock jump

One o’clock jump, one o’clock jump

How does it feel

When you got no job

And you got three kids

Nothin’ much to eat

And you steal and you rob

Just to make ends meet

And you can’t even stand on your own two feet

How does it feel

When your favorite player

Has been bought and sold

Before he gets too old

Leave him out in the cold

With a pension and a plaque

And a drug addiction for his sacroiliac

One o’clock jump, one o’clock jump

One o’clock jump, one o’clock jump

How does it feel

When you’re driving’ around

In your automobile

And they tell you it’s real

On your radio

That they’re makin’ a deal

But you know in your heart it’s a dirty deal

How does it feel

When everything you say

Seems to wash away

And is twisted like clay

And you stammer and you stutter

Every word you mutter

Like an echo in the dark

Is so ineffective

One o’clock jump, one o’clock jump

One o’clock jump, one o’clock jump

30 seconds ‘fore the big strike

No one’s riding down the turnpike

Everything is turning ghostlike

60 minutes after midnite