From the recording Give'em What They Want
A few years back, Buddy Miller, Gurf Morlix and me were sitting around, and I said "We really ought to do some music together, you know, while we're still young". We all agreed in principal, but I was serious. So I started writing this song and sent the bones of it around to the other two, hoping to have them chime in and finish the thing. Well, I didn't hear back for a while, and eventually, my own muse kicked in and finished it off.
It sort of references the 3 of us knocking around late 70's Austin, and name checks some bands and venues we played in. The last verse is a nod to the Band, one of my great influences. Ok, I hope this isn't like explaining a joke, and then it's not funny anymore.
Josh Hunt on drums, my son Emerson Wells-Barrett on mandolin, Buddy played baritone guitar (as he is wont to do) and I played the other stuff.
Oh yeah, Buddy, Gurf and I trade verse lines and all 3 of us sing the chorus.
Lyrics
Three young alleycats sitting on a fence
Trying to find a way to make their rents
It don’t take much but it takes all we got
So we show up for work at the lumber yard
The money’s not bad, the work’s not hard
But it’s gonna take a few more two-steps to get out of here
Watching the stars rise and fall
Don’t it seem like the universe used to be a little bit smaller
Way back when
Now the universe will never be the same again
At the fork in the road there’s a hole in the wall
The stage is set, but it’s kind of small
Hey, I think I heard someone singing my song
Country loving doesn’t hold the key
But there’s something in her eyes I see
Something so rare when she sings
Watching the stars rise and fall
Don’t it seem like the universe used to be a little bit smaller
Way back when
Now the universe will never be the same again
We’re all passing time
Who knows just what we’ll find
We’ll all be paid in kind
Now the dust has settled, the wind has blown
The ashes are scattered and the kids are grown
And how long we can howl at the moon, no one can tell
I’m not prepared for the rockin’ chair,
I heard that thing ain’t going nowhere
So Rick, Richard and Levon won’t you wait a spell
Watching the stars rise and fall
Don’t it seem like the universe used to be a little bit smaller
Way back when
Now the universe will never be the same again
No, the universe will never be the same again