The Way It Is lyrics

I'm driving down the highway

Headed to the range

Gonna knock 'em out stong

But I'm feeling no pain

Got an old brown bag

Big stick in the back

Where the grass don't grow

Gonna take a few hacks

There's a place for you if you're just like me

Armchair greens chillin at the TV

Have another cool one

but it won't hurt

Got myself a big stick

swingin in the dirt

Oh I wish I could laugh

When I look way back

To find out who stole all my dreams

Whoa I wish it was easy

To face the fact

There's nobody there but me

Well it's hard not to smile

When I'm back on high ground

I'm wishing someone could see

'Cause when the sun comes up

And my dreams die down

There's nobody there but me

Well it's hard not to smile

There's a place

A local roadside shack

A poor man's Paris with parking in the back

There's a girl there

She knows how to unwind

She don't talk much but she knows just how to act

I said-Don't tell me she don't love me

The money's just a mere formality

Every day, every night

Something's going on, something's going on

Down the road over yonder

Way out here, working on the docks

Everyone sees the long day through

Well what would I do without the nights and the phone

And the chance just to talk to you

What would I do now...

Just to talk to you

A thousand miles away

What I wouldn't give for only one night

A little relief in sight

Or someday when times weren't so tight

CHORUS

When the day goes down on the water town

The song came and went

Like the times that we spent

Hiding out from the rain under the carnival tent

I laughed and she'd smile

It would last for awhile

You don't know what you got till you lose it all again

CHORUS

Listen to the mandolin rain

Listen to the music on the lake

Listen to my heart break every time she runs away

Listen to the banjo wind

A sad song drifting low

B. R. Hornsby/John Hornsby

About this time of evening, out by the bay
They turn the roadlights on the bridge
A diesel rolls in silhouette, eastbound
Lovers glad the sun has set
I'm staring into the twilight
Wishing I could find someone tonight

I know she's out there somewhere
On the western skyline
Lonely women say a prayer
On the western skyline

The rooftops sag on second street

It's a hazy winter's day

And I'm staring out on the southland

In the twilight distance on the bay

My mind sees you running through the marshland

All these years I've been waiting for you

Through high tides and low tides too

But if I stop now how could I ever be with you?

It's a long race

If I try I will surely finish

It's a long race

If I try I will surely win it

Four walls I built one winter

She came to share my name

For years we lived as lovers on the open plains

Far off the heat wave shimmers

Pipelines and the gasoline

One day it all came running like a bad dream

Fire, smoke-filled lungs

I hope I'll be standing when the day is done

We're

CHORUS

Staring out on the red plains

And we're hiding out from the smoke and the rage

The rain held back again

Haven't felt a drop since you went away

Outside of town, the hills are brown

I guess way out there you'd call 'em golden

Lines outside the welfare store

The clock is stopped at the bank next door

They yelled like hell when the boys left home

Now just like you they're all gone

CHORUS

The river runs low tonight

Eyes are closed on the waterline

Standing in line marking time-

Waiting for the welfare dime

'Cause they can't buy a job

The man in the silk suit hurries by

As he catches the poor ladies' eyes

Just for fun he says "get a job"

CHORUS

That's just the way it is

Some things will never change

That's just the way it is

But don't you believe them

They say he little boy you can't go

Where the others go

Here I am

I'm in a gaseous haze

Ten lanes and tall boys

Going both ways

El dorado riding on the fringe

Aztec princes take revenge

This ain't my style, this ain't my home

I'm going where it's safe to roam

CHORUS

Take me all the way back

To the wild frontier

Well I'm counting the miles

Seeing her smile in the wild frontier

Electric sun

Electric hair

Leather skin

Remember when the days were long

And rolled beneath a deep blue sky

Didn't have a care in the world

With mommy and daddy standin' by

But "happily ever after" fails

And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales

The lawyer dwell on small details

Since daddy had to fly

But I know a place where we can go

That's still untouched by men

We'll sit and watch the clouds roll by

Sit there with a blank expression

Say you can't go on anymore

It's not like me to come out and help you

Mabye I've been down this road before

Been living in the shadows

Now you come out slow

Now you're in the saddle

Got to ride a long

Now you're dream was shattered

These days are through

Maybe something mattered

It's not just for you

Some are gonna go for broke

Sometimes I lead sometimes I follow
This time I'll go where she wants me to go
She said maybe today maybe tomorrow
Go deep in the woods down the low valley road

While no one was lookin on the old plantation
He took her all the way down the long valley road
They sent her away not too much later
And left him walking down the old valley road
Walk on, walk on alone