Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Tennesse Plates

Music and lyrics by John Hiatt

I woke up in a hotel and I didn’t know what to do




I turned the TV on and wrote a letter to you



The news was talkin’ ‘bout a dragnet up on the interstate

Said they were lookin’ for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates



Since I left California baby, things have gotten worse

Seems the land of opportunity for me is just a curse

Tell that judge in Bakersfield that my trial will have to wait

Down here they’re lookin’ for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates





It was somewhere in Nevada, it was cold outside

She was siverin’ in the dark, so I offered her a ride

Three bank jobs later, four cars hot wired

We crossed the Mississippi like an oil slick fire



If they’d known what we was up to they wouldn’t ‘a let us in

When we landed in Memphis like original sin

Up Elvis Presley Boulevard



to the Graceland Gates



See we were lookin’ for a Cadillac with Tennessee plates



Well, there must have been a dozen of them parked in that garage



And there wasn’t one Lincoln



and there wasn’t one Dodge



And there wasn’t one Japanese model



or make



Just pretty, pretty Cadillacs with Tennessee plates



She saw him singing once when she was seventeen



And ever since that day she’s been living in between

I was never king of nothin’ but this wild weekend

Anyway he wouldn’t care, hell he gave them to his friends



Well this ain’t no hotel I’m writing you from

It’s the Tennessee prison up at Brushy Mountain

Where yours sincerely’s doin’ five to eight

Stampin’ out my time makin’ Tennessee plates

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