Standard (EADGBE)
Verse 1
Six o'clock silence of a new day beginning
Is heard in the small Texas town
Like a signal from nowhere the people who live there
Are up and they're moving around
Chorus
'Cause there's bacon to fry and there's biscuits to bake
On the stove that the Salvation Army won't take
And you open the windows and you turn on the fan
'Cause it's hotter than hell when the sun hits the land
Verse 2
Walter and Fanny, well they own the grocery
That sells most all that you need
They've been up and working since early this morning
They've got the whole village to feed
They put out fresh eggs, throw bad ones away
That rotted because of the heat yesterday
The store's all dark so you can't see the flies
That settle on round steak and last Monday's pies
Verse 3
Sleepy Hill's Drugstore and the cafe they're open
The coffee is bubbling hot
And all the folks that ain't working gonna sit there 'till sundown
And talk about what they ain't got
Someone just threw a clutch in the old pickup truck
It seems like they been riding on a streak of bad luck
The doctors bills came and the well has gone dry
Seems their grown kids don't care whether they live or die
Coda
TEXAS TRILOGY: TRAIN RIDE
Verse 1
Well, the last time I remember that train stoppin at the depot
Was when me and my Aunt Veta came riding back from Waco
I remember I was wearing my long pants and we was sharing
Conversation with a man who sold ball-point pens and paper
And the train stopped once in Clifton where my Aunt bought me some ice cream
And my Mom was there to meet us when the train pulled into Kopperl
Chorus
But now kids at night break window lights
And the sound of trains only remains
In the memory of the ones like me
Who have turned their backs on the splintered cracks
In the walls that stand on the railroad land
Where we used to play and then run away
From the depot man
Verse 2
I remember me and brother used to run down to the depot
Just to listen to the whistle blow when the train pulled into Kopperl
And the engine's big and shiny black as coal that fed the fire
And the engineer he'd smile and say, "Howdy, how you fellows?"
And the people by the windows playing cards and reading papers
Seemed as far away to us as next summer's school vacation
Chorus
TEXAS TRILOGY: BOSQUE COUNTRY ROMANCE
Verse 1
Mary Martin was a schoolgirl just seventeen or so
When she married Billy Archer about fourteen years ago
Not even out of high school folks said it wouldn't last
But when you grow up in the country, you grow up mighty fast
V
They married in a hurry in March when school was out
Folks said that she was pregnant, "You just wait and you'll find out."
It came about that winter, one gray November morn
The first of many more to come, a baby boy was born
Chorus
And cattle is their game, and Archer is the name
They give to the acres that they own
If the Brazos don't run dry and the newborn calves they don't die
Another year from Mary will have flown
Another year from Mary will have flown
Verse 2
Now Billy kept what cattle his daddy could afford
As he went bouncing across the cactus in a 1950 Ford
But the cows were sick and skinny and the weeds was all that grew
But Billy kept the place alive the only thing he knew
And Mary cooked the supper and Mary scrubbed the clothes
And Mary busted horses and blew the baby's nose
And Mary and a shotgun kept the rattlesnakes away
And how she kept on smiling no one could ever say
(CHORUS)
Verse 3
Now the drought of '57 was a curse upon the land
No one in Bosque County could give ol' Bill a helping hand
The ground was cracked and broken and the truck was out of gas
And cows can't feed on prickly pear instead of growing grass
Well the weather got the water and a snake bite took a child
And a fire in the old barn took the hay that Bill had piled
The mortgage got the money and the screw worm got the cows
The years have come for Mary; she's waiting for them now
(CHORUS)
Coda
repeat DAYBREAK VERSE 1 in Am)