Well now, I came to Silver Creek before The first grave split the clay, Before the gold, before the girls, Before the drunks could pray. Just a dusty little nowhere With hunger in its teeth… Mnnnn....I could smell that human want From twenty miles beneath. So I poured the miners whiskey, Listened close to what they lacked, A little greed, a little lust... And souls come running fast. Folks think evil screams and growls, Dead hands clawing in the night… Truth is it just pulls up a chair And pours your drink just right.[laughter] I was the real monster behind the bar, Smiling while they bled, I whispered little thoughts like snakes Inside their weary little heads. One small push, one little spark, That’s all most people need… Cause hearts do most the killing Once you water them with greed. Joe arrived from New Orleans With love of piano flowing from his hands, Running from his gamblers’ debts And bloodied from mean loan-shark men. I poured him rye, I fed his pride, I Watched Rosie pull him near… Then i whispered in his ear..., “Call Vale a cheater, boy…” And i smiled into my beer. Now some time after Vale took Joe’s eye clean away I leaned close to joe through the smoke… N' Said, “Blue could still make you a man…” And well...That’s all it really took. Broken folks are easy meals, They just ache to feel made whole… You’d be amazed what human hearts... Will sacrifice for hope. I was the thing behind the bar, Feeding on their pain, Turning loneliness to violence I made the whiskey flow like rain. A little nudge toward jealousy, A little breath toward sin… And every soul in Silver Creek Opened wide and let me in. The stranger rode in half-dead and cold, A stone soldier made of grief, So I showed him Blue in lamplight Like a memory with a pulse beneath. Rosie wanted love and mercy, Blue wanted safety bought… Sheriff wanted Elsie back… And all of them could... rot.[laughter] I whispered through the cottonwoods, Through thunder, cards, and flame… Till Rosie shot the cowboy down And then sweet Blue died just the same. Then Sheriff wrapped his hands ‘round Rosie's neck Thinking law still mattered then… Funny thing about morality.... It bleeds where sorrow bends. You still think monsters got horns… Teeth… claws…No. Monsters just learn your weakness And you hand the knife to yourself. That preacher came from Denver screaming Like heaven sent him west, But righteous men taste sweetest Once they fail their little tests. So I laughed and fed his anger, I Let him think the flames were pure… Till he burned down Murphy’s saloon Thinking fire was the cure. Now Murphy tends the dead downstairs, Joe still plays till dawn, Blue keeps dancing with the stranger Like the bullet never came. Rosie cries and slowly sways, Vale still cheats at cards… And every soul who died here stays Exactly where they are. Cause I’m the thing behind the bar, And this town belongs to me, Every grief and every murder, Every hanging from the trees. You call it fate, you call it sin, You call it love gone wrong… But I just fed the fire a little And watched it spread along. Now Silver Creek ain’t dead at all... It’s hungry underneath… And every lost soul wandering west Still wanders into me. So if you hear piano drifting Through the desert late at night… Or see warm lanterns in the distance Burning soft and gold and bright… Come inside...Forget your name Rest your mind. Tell me what you crave. I’ll pour your drink. I’ll learn your hurt. And Murphy’s’ll keep your grave.
