Tommy
Kelly Joe Phelps

Tommy had a watch, a good kind of watch
It wouldn't tell time if you asked it
Didn't have a face, just an ear and an eye
To see him with

Tommy stole candy from the corner store
And gave it to the mice he built a home for
By the side of the heater, next to his guitar
That he could neither play nor destroy

Tommy wrote a letter to the office of iniquity
Demanding a history of his actions
But the letter was returned just 2 days gone
There was no office of iniquity

Tommy couldn't see so well and he didn't have a radio
He'd talk to himself in different voices
Or sing to himself in a Russian dialect
Invented on a Sunday afternoon

Tommy stole a limp and he borrowed a demeanor
So he'd scare anybody who'd want to talk away
'Cause they frightened him so bad that he'd pee down his legs
As he tried, very hard, to find the words

Tommy wore the helmet of a frustrated miner
Digging for words as though gold
Standing in the mud in his dark gray fedora
Wearing his knee-patched dungarees

Tommy was alone when the fire started
High behind the wheel of a colt 45
With a clip full of ether and a bucket full of gas
And a belly full of turpentine

Tommy made sure there was no one in danger
By knocking on each door like a madman
Then he locked himself in and did the whirling dervish
Tipped the candle over on the floor

Tommy fell asleep before the firemen came
Which was good because they scared him anyway
All that they found were the mice inside the fridge
In a box, with some cheese
And a hand warmer, run on batteries

Tommy was a good man. Nobody Knew
Tommy was a good man. Nobody Knew


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Lyrics by Kelly Joe Phelps

  American Exchange Hotel   Beggar's Oil   Big Shaky   Blowing Dust 40 Miles   Blue Daughter Tattoo   Capman Bootman   Cardboard Box of Batteries   Circle Wars   Crossroad (Robert Johnson)   Crow's Nest   Cypress Grove   Don Quixote's Windmill   Down in a Willow Garden (Traditional)   Down To The Praying Ground   Doxology   Fare Thee Well   Flash Cards   Fleashine   Footprints   Frankenstein Party of Three: Your Table is Ready   Go There   Gold Tooth   Goodbye To Sorrow   Goodnight Irene   Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah   Handful of Arrows   Hard Times They Never Go Away   Holy Spirit Flood   Hometown With Melody   Hope In The Lord To Provide   Hosanna   I Am the Light of the World   I Am the Light of This World   I Bid You Goodnight   I've Been Converted   It's James Now   Jericho   Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed   Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross (Fanny J. Crosby / W...   Katy   Knock Louder   Lass of Loch Royale (If I Prove False To Thee)   Lass of Loch Royale (If I Prove False to Thee) [Li...   Lead Me On   Loud As Ears   Love Me Baby Blues   Many a Time   Marking Stone Blues   May You Never (John Martyn)   Motherless Children   Mr. My Go   Not So Far To Go   Pastures of Plenty (Woodie Guthrie)   Piece by Piece   Pilgrim's Reach   Plumb Line   Pretty Polly (Traditional inspired by Dock Boggs)   Prodigal Son (Traditional inspired by Dock Boggs)   Red Light Nickel   River Rat Jimmy   Roll Away the Stone   Rusting Gate   Sail the Jordan   See That My Grave is Kept Clean   Slingshot Professionals   Someone to Save Me   Sometimes A Drifter   Soverign Wyoming   Spanish Hands   Talkin' To Jehovah   Taylor John   The Anvil   The Black Crow Keeps Flying   The House Carpenter   Tight to the Jar   Tommy [Band Arrangement]   Train Carried My Girl From Town   Valley to Pray (Traditional)   Waiting For Marty   Wandering Away   When the Roll is Called Up Yonder   Where Do I Go Now   Window Grin   Without the Light   Worn Out

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