Steve Earle
"Mexico Demos"

Songs:

• Mustang Wine
• Juanita
• We're From Texas
• Tom Ames' Prayer
• Old Friends
• Songs About Mexico
• Honey On They Highway
• The Mercenary Song
• Darling Commit Me
• Never Really Been In Love Before
• Tired Of Being Treated This Way
• Ben McCulloch
• Daddy & Me Played Swing
• You Tear Me Up
• A Country Song

Mustang Wine
(Steve Earle)

My friend Bill lives down in the projects
Stays drunk all the time
He makes Mustang Wine
He makes Mustang Wine
He makes Mustang Wine and he stays drunk all the time

Well, Mustang grapes, they ain't too sweet
But that Mustang wine just can't be beat

He drinks Mustang Wine
He drinks Mustang Wine
He drinks Mustang Wine and stays drunk all the time

Well, I was changin' the screen when telephone rings
It was Bill on the line and I said "come on by"
And bring your Mustang Wine
He brought his Mustang Wine
He drinks Mustang Wine and stays drunk all the time

I said my friend Bill lives down in the projects
Stays drunk all the time
He drinks Mustang Wine
He drinks Mustang Wine
He drinks Mustang Wine and stays drunk all the time

He makes Mustang Wine
He makes Mustang Wine
He makes Mustang Wine and stays drunk all the time

Tom Ames' Prayer
(Steve Earle)

Everyone in Nacadoches knew Tom Ames would come to some bad end
Well the sheriff had cought him stealin' chickens and such
by the time that he was ten

And one day his daddy took a ten dollar bill
and he tucked it in his hand
He said I can tell you're headed for trouble son
and your momma wouldn't understand

So he took that money and his brothers old bay
and he left without a word of thanks
Fell in with a crowd in some border town
and took to robbin' banks

Outside the law your luck will run out fast
and a few years came and went
'Till he's trapped in an alley in Abilene
with all but four shells spent

And he realized prayin' was the only thing
that he hadn't ever tried
Well he wasn't sure he knew quite how
but he looked up to the sky

Said you don't owe me nothin' and as far as I know
Lord don't owe nothin' to you
And I ain't askin' for a miracle Lord
just a little bit of luck will do

And you know I ain't never prayed before
but it always seemed to me
If prayin' is the same as beggin' Lord
I don't take no charity

Yeah but right now Lord with my back to the wall
Can't help but recall
How they nearly hung me for stealin' a horse
in Fort Smith Arkansas

Judge Parker said guilty and the gavel came down
just like a cannon shot
And I went away quietly
and I began to file and plot

Well they sent the preacher down to my cell
He said the Lord is your only hope
He's the only friend that you gonna have
When you hit the end of Parker's rope

Well I guess he coulda' kept on preachin' 'till Christmas
but he turned his back on me
I put a home made blade to that golden throat
and asked the deputy for the key

Well it ain't the first close call I ever had
I'm sure you already know
I had some help from you Lord and the devil himself
It's been strictly touch and go

Yeah but who in the hell am I talkin' to
there ain't no one here but me
Then he cocked both his pistols and he spit in the dirt
and he walked out in the street

---

Mercenary Song
(Steve Earle)

Me and Bill there we both come from Georgia
Met Hank out in New Mexico
We're bound for Duranqo to join Pancho Villa
We hear that he's payin' in gold

I guess a man's got to do what he's best at
Ain't found nothin' better so far
Been called mercenaries and men with no country
Just soldiers in search of a war

chorus
And we're bound for the border
We're soldiers of fortune
And we'll fight for no country but we'll die for good pay
Under the flag of of the greenback dollar
Or the peso down Mexico way

When this war is over might go back to Georgia
And settle down quiet some where
I'll most likely pack up and head south for Chile
Heard tell there's some trouble down there

---

Ben McCulloch
(Steve Earle)

We signed up in San Antone my brother Paul and me
To fight with Ben McCulloch and the Texas infantry
Well the poster said we'd get a uniform and seven bucks a week
The best rations in the army and a rifle we could keep

When I first laid eyes on the general I knew he was a fightin' man
He was every inch a soldier every word was his command
Well his eyes were cold as the lead and steel forged into tools of war
He took the lives of many and the souls of many more

Well they marched us to Missouri and we hardly stopped for rest
Then he made this speech and said we're comin' to the test
Well we've got to take Saint Louie boys before the yankees do
If we control the Mississippi then the Federals are through

Well they told us that our enemy would all be dressed in blue
They forgot about the winter's cold and the cursed fever too
My brother died at Wilson's creek and Lord I seen him fall
We fell back to the Boston Mountains in the North of Arkansas

chorus
Goddamn you Ben McCulloch
I hate you more than any other man alive
And when you die you'll be a foot soldier just like me
In the devil's infantry

And on the way to Fayetteville we cursed McCulloch`s name
And mourned the dead that we'd left behind and we was carrying the lame
I killed a boy the other night who'd never even shaved
I don't even know what I'm fightin' for I ain't never owned a slave

So I snuck out of camp and then I heard the news next night
The Federals won the battle and McCulloch lost his life

---

You Tear Me Up
(Steve Earle, Alice Randall)

I've been in love before
I can't say I was really impressed
So I ain't gonna anymore
This time I'm gonna give it a rest
Well if I see something good, I just might
I never let my heart out at night
So how'd you get to me
You must have found the key
You tear me up

I tell you that I don't know
But everybody knows that I do
Swearing that I won't
But girl, I wasn't counting on you
I've built a wall around my heart
So no little girl could tear it apart
For all my running ‘round
The wall came tumbling down
You tear me up

bridge:
Oo-oo-oo what you do-oo-oo to me
Whoa, I want some mo-oo-re oo-wee

I call on the phone
Just to know you're there on the line
Well the way I carry on
You'd think it was my very first time
I can't believe I'm acting like this
Oh, why'd you have to give me that kiss
Little girl, you sure play rough
I just can't get enough
You tear me up

Well little girl, you sure play rough
I just can't get enough
You tear me up...

---

A Country Song
(Steve Earle)

A country song left the farm
As the young man marched to war
Became a sound heard clear around the world
From a lonely soldier's guitar
Who had never been so far before
For Mom and Dad and a special little girl
And cutting through the quiet like a whistle in the night
A train of memories and even city boys could ride

chorus:
Mountain high, valley low
Proud and strong, a country song

Meanwhile cross the water
The mothers and the daughters
Were working in the defense factories
All up and down the line
The machines and women whined
A country song as blue as the sea
That stretched so far between
Like the prayers and the dreams
Of the men who where fighting to keep their country free

chorus

Though it seemed to take forever
They were finally back together
And the young men took a restless look around
'Cause it seemed the world unfolded
And the land just couldn't hold 'em
So they headed for the cities and the towns
They could feel the homefires glow
As they gathered around the radio
To hear the Grand Old Opry as the weekend rolled around

chorus

There's a kid out on the highway
Who says he's got some dues to pay
So he set out with a guitar and a dream
He don't look much like a cowboy
But he swears he's gonna make some noise
Change a tune or two in Tennessee
Though his hands had never worked the land
His granddad was a railroad man
He sang him Jimmie Rodgers songs as he sat upon his knee

chorus x 2