Intro] (Spoken, low and smoky, with a Texas drawl) Well now… Night’s got a long memory, darlin’. And Route 77 don’t forget. [Verse 1] I got dust on my boots and a name on a file, Cold coffee heartbeat and a crooked little smile, Cheaters, debtors, ghosts in the pines, I bring ’em home one way at a time. Red tail lights bleeding into the rain, Mile markers whispering somebody’s name, If the law won’t come, if the saints don’t stay, Call me when the dark needs a price to pay. [Pre-Chorus] I don’t ask why, I don’t ask long, Just load the shells and follow the wrong, One eye dim, but the other cuts true— Honey, I can still see straight through you. [Chorus] I got one good eye on Route 77 And a shotgun prayer pointed up at heaven, No sleep, no mercy, no alibi line, If you leave a mark, I will follow the sign. Yeah, the night gets mean and the road gets loud, But I hunt that howl through the thundercloud, One good eye, and it’s all I need— To find what runs, and to bury what bleeds. [Verse 2] Neon motel angels with nicotine wings, A radio preacher selling broken things, Your fear talks big, but your footsteps sing, And I learned long ago what silence brings. There’s a crack in the lens where the daylight dies, Shadow in the corner of my right-side sight, But the dark ain’t new and the dark ain’t fast, I been reading its teeth since the winter passed. [Pre-Chorus] I don’t need luck, I don’t need grace, Just a clean last look at a guilty face, Pin the target down, let the heartbeat slow— When I take the shot, you’ll know. [Chorus] I got one good eye on Route 77 And a shotgun prayer pointed up at heaven, No sleep, no mercy, no alibi line, If you leave a mark, I will follow the sign. Yeah, the night gets mean and the road gets loud, But I hunt that howl through the thundercloud, One good eye, and it’s all I need— To find what runs, and to bury what bleeds. [Bridge] (Spoken/sung, heavier accent) Ain’t no haunted road, sweetheart— Just memories with engines. Just promises gone feral. Just people. And people are the hardest ghosts to kill. [Breakdown] So ring that line if your world falls through, If the moon turns black and the glass looks blue, If the thing in the mirror says it knows your name— I’ve walked that fire. I came back the same. (Or close enough.) [Final Chorus] I got one good eye on Route 77 And a hard old will that outlives heaven, No choir, no badge, just a trail and steel, And a truth so sharp you can taste it real. Let the storm roll in, let the dead talk cheap, I don’t make promises I can’t keep, One good eye, and a heart of grit— Point me to the dark… and I’ll finish it. [Outro] (Spoken) Case closed. Next.
