If you bite your tongue, choose your friends well
It may mean the difference between the suburbs
And hillbilly hell

Go ahead and dream for now, scratch your infant brain
Dig holes in the sandbox, fill `em up again
You will get drunk some night, wonder where it went

The bearing in the ceiling fan is drying up
I let it shriek `cause it's too hot to turn off
Sounds like music if you listen long enough

Rolling over things a thousand times in my mind
Doesn't make it clear, leaves me feeling deaf and blind
Rolling down the road, rolling over precious time

The time was never right, the words were never said
But all the time the idea kept on driftin' through my head
But it drifted out the window, it got lost out in this world
Now I've lost the melancholy girl

I'd see her in the nightclubs, sad and so alone
Want to ask her number but I didn't have a phone
Now the phone is ringin' somewhere in this world
The phone rings for the melancholy girl

So on my bed I lie tonight, spinnin' from the drink
Nothin' in the oven I've got dishes in the sink
Ask myself this question "How in this world
Could I forget the melancholy girl?"

Had so many more friends back then
Didn't have little boxes that I tried to put them in
I grew away, much like the branch of a tree
I grew and there was money growin' on me

Well, I guess he treats you right
And that's a big, ol' car you drive
I've seen your house, but I've never been inside
You can come and see me anytime

Guess it's workin out just fine
You've made somethin' of your life
But I recall a different time
You can come and see me anytime

Does it ever cross your mind?
Would you tell or would you lie?
Stay home drink amother bottle of wine
You can come and see me anytime

Went to the metropolis, too many people on top of us
Fume and dash to catch the bus,
several languages we were cussed so we packed what we \would need,
to the country we proceeded
Listened to the farmhouse creak, didn't make it past three weeks

Decided to try somethin' new, packed our bags and off we flew
`Though our money was exchanged, in a month we caught a plane
Back in North American space, in a small town a place
Paranoid of our new faces, locals followed back ten paces

Your neck smells like peppermint, c'mon baby let me pay your rent
Dressed like that you're lookin' heaven sent, speakin' of heaven baby this is it
Wanna' squire you all around this glorious world

Pay no mind to the city stench, people here are ruder than the French
When I hold on to your little hand, might as well be there in Paris, France
Or pretty much anywhere else in this glorious world

Guess it's a fact we all gotta' face,
for a lotta' people its a awful place job are tedious with bills to pay,
workin' a week of time into a day
guess they're just to busy to notice this glorious world

Life is good above the water, but all the pearls are down deep below
Love my mother and I love my father, hold my breath and down I go

Like to walk the roads and stairs, only wish that I could breathe
Like the fish and like the sharks, that I see when I'm diving deep

Made no plans, none I can't change
Made no changes, know what you're getting
Don't know what you're getting into

Big old world, but now I've found you
What are the chances? Nothing can kill me

There won't be another one like her, she was always the belle of the ball
I knew her once when I was a dunce, and she was the pearl of them all

Left her to seek out my fortune, all that I hit was the wall
I was out west, just survivin' at best, far from the pearl of them all

I've had a few in my own time, know that it's been quite a ball
It's all for the best but the thought never rests, the thought of the pearl of them all

It pains me to of her passing, it's a shame that her number was called
For all that it's worth, we need her on earth, goodbye to the pearl of them all

Nobody came to take you away, so you decided to take a bus
Went away for a while but now you're back, now you're back here with all of us

No parades upon you return, and no tears from anyone but you
And the grass was greener than all of your money, and everyone was meaner too

It's a peculiar type of night, I've been drivin' much too long
Tuned to a station far away, pullin' in familiar songs

I've got a suitcase in my car, it's full of books I never read
I don't wanna' read a book, I just wanna' go to sleep

He was always losin' his cigarettes, in a place far, far away
Always able to sift the sunlight out from the midst of a cold, dark day

Not an ashtray anywhere in the home he never leaves
In the midst of a cold, dark day he smiles, rolls up his sleeves