-originally appeared on The Basement Lounge - Hot Lunch (1995) -appears on the CD version of Heavy Machinery
THE STORY: I
wrote this about a boy from my Jamestown, New York days.
He’d get so tanked he had to be carried out of the bar over
someone’s shoulder. He wore candy-cane shoe laces in
his boots and he was going gray in his early 20s. He was
ancient and juvenile and maybe that's why I loved him for a little
bit. THE LYRICS:
He stands in a stratosphere of smoke from cigarettes
He’s got his left hand on the bottle
He’s got his right hand on the glass
Well I don’t know his name
And I sure don’t know where he’s from
And that little voice inside me
Says I probably shouldn’t care
Yet I still stare at him
And I find myself mystified
But the color the shirt he’s wearing
And the way that his boots are tied
If love is out of fashion
Consider me out of style
I wanna have his head beside me
Hear him breathe when I go to sleep…
Here is the medicine
To that last disease who only made me frown
I wanna make his TV dinners
Show him off to my whole town
He said he wants to be an actor
And he only lives a motion picture’s length away
Well I don’t understand, you see
Why he’s talking to that fat thing
Instead of me
He’s tossing out his number like confetti
And I catch one of the pieces on my hand
I gotta play my cards the right way
Because this boy is in high demand
He’s jumping from guy to guy
Like a trick-or-treater on Halloween
I wanna give him more than candy
I wanna give him some security
Oh here I go again
I’m crowning him king
Before I know he’s worthy of the throne
When you put someone on a pedestal
They can only fall down…
He nice to look at and he’s nice to me
So I’m all set and ready for matrimony
But he’s just another boy
In just another bar…
He stands in a stratosphere of smoke from cigarettes
He’s just finished up his bottle
He’s got some stranger groping at his ass
And now I know his name
And I even know where he’s from
And that little voice inside me
Says he’s worth a try
You’re worth a try…
