[Intro] [Slow, dusty outlaw country groove kicks in] [A weeping pedal steel guitar plays a lonesome, sliding melody] [Steady, heavy acoustic guitar strumming with a slow porch-stomp bass drum] [Verse 1] For a whole long year I was locked in a frame Between the place where I slept and the job with my name No power in the outlets, no bulbs in the hall Just a dark empty room with my back to the wall So I lived at the library, borrowing time Using their wires just to keep me in line Stealing their currents and riding their wave Just a ghost in the system trying to behave A circular path in the cold and the gray Just trying to power my way through the day. [Verse 2] [A low, thumping bass guitar enters, grounding the slow rhythm] Then she walked up to me, a friend of a friend Holding a wire with an outlet to lend Just asking for a charger on a regular night She was waiting on another under the neon light We didn't do nothing, I thought nothing of the spark But she started giving rides to me out in the dark Flirting in the spaces when her lovers would fail Everyone knew she liked to jump off the rail By the third night she stayed, she was looking for a bed I had a place to crash, so "why not," I said. [Chorus] [The pedal steel swells with a bitter, twangy melody] [The backing band grows heavier, full country-rock texture] And it sounds like a country song spinning around When you build up a castle on unstable ground Moving from the dark to a rent-to-own shack Never seeing the tracks she was leaving out back. [Verse 3] [The music drops back down to a tense, chugging acoustic rhythm] We packed up our bags from the house with no lights To a rental property, stepping up the heights To a rent-to-own dream, building life on the floor But I never knew the shadow that was sneaking through the door She was running around town while my back was turned small When I found out the truth, I slammed a broom against the wall The wood went to splinters, the sirens started loud Spent my time in a jail cell, wrapped up in a shroud But the trap wasn't broken, the knot was still tied We got right back together just to watch it collide And she walked out the door like she’d done it before Left me stranded right there on the rent-to-own floor. [Guitar Solo] [A blistering, emotional country-rock guitar solo] [Bending strings, heavy twang, blending with a crying pedal steel guitar] [Chorus] [Maximum volume, full outlaw country band driving the rhythm] And it sounds like a country song spinning around When you build up a castle on unstable ground Moving from the dark to a rent-to-own shack Never seeing the tracks she was leaving out back. [Outro] [The drums slow down to a stark, single porch-stomp] [The pedal steel guitar lets out a long, fading, lonesome cry] Yeah, she left me again... Right back in the dark... Just a country song... [One final, dry acoustic guitar strum that rings out and fades away] [End]
