Audobon

C.W. McCall

Well, I was born in a town called Audubon

Southwest Iowa, right where it oughta been

Twenty-three houses, fourteen saloons,

And a feed mill in nineteen-thirty.

Had a neon sign, said "Squealer Feeds"

And the bus came through when they felt the need

And they stopped at a place there in town called The Old Home Cafe



Now my daddy was a music lovin' man

He stood six-foot-seven, had big ol' hands

He'd lost two fingers in a chainsaw but he could still play the violin

And Mom played piana, just the keys in the middle

And Dad played a storm on his three-fingered fiddle

'Cause that's all there was to do back there folks, except ta go downtown and watch haircuts



So I was raised on Dust Bowl tunes, you see

Had a six-tube radio an' no TV

It was so dog-goned hot I had to wet the bed in the summer just to keep cool.

Yeah, many's a night I'd lay awake

A-waitin' for a distant station break

Just a-settin' and a-wettin' an' a-lettin' that radio fry.



Well, I listened to Nashville and Tulsa and Dallas

And Oklahoma City gave my ear a callus

And I'll never forget them announcers at three A.M.

They'd come on an' say "Friends, there's many a soul who needs us

"So send them letters an' cards ta Jesus

"That's J-E-S-U-S friends, in care a' Del Rio, Texas."



But the place I remember, on the edge a' town

Was the place where you really got the hard-core sound

Yeah, a place where the truckers used ta stop on their way to Dees Moins

There was signs all over them windowsills

Like "If the Devil don't get ya, then Roosevelt will"

And "The bank don't sell no beer, and we don't cash no checks."



Now them truckers never talked about nothin' but haulin'

And the four-letter words was really appallin'

They thought them home-town gals was nothin' but toys for their amusement.

Rode Chevys and Macks and big ol' stacks

They's alw