I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations

 Mother Blues by Ray Wylie Hubbard.

As a ballad, alright.  As a prelude to a pretty excellent life lesson - great:

And the days that I keep my gratitude

Higher than my expectations

Well, I have really good days

Double click to enlarge.

Mother Blues

by Ray Wylie Hubbard

When I was a young man

About 21 years old y'all

All I wanted was a stripper girlfriend

And a Gold Top Les Paul

Be careful of the things you wish for

You might get 'em

 

There was a night club in Dallas

Called Mother Blues

It's where Lightning Hopkins played

And Freddy King even payed some dues

 

All the dealers and gamblers

And young white hipsters, they all made the scene

The girl at the door who checked ID's

Was just 16

 

Aw, it was not a place for law biding citizens

Jackie Jones he had 'em a habit, he just couldn't stop

Aaid give me 500 dollars

And I'll sell you my Les Paul God Top

 

I drove my daddy's car down to Ross Avenue

And I sold it

I guess I should have told him

He eluded to the police someone stole it

 

It was just the first of many bad decisions

I was to make for the next 20 years

Oh, but I had me a guitar

 

Everybody knows

That the real nightlife

Begins after the clubs close

What they call after hours

 

It's 2 a.m. and everybody's gone

But the band, the dealers and Jack Jones

And then the girls from the landing strip club come over

After they put their clothes back on

 

So I'm at Ma Blues and I'm sitting on an amp

I'm playing "Twist and Shout"

And this tall drink of water walks in

Like she might have to shoot her way out

 

She come up to me and she said

"You know anything good on that guitar?"

I didn't say nothing, I just kept on playing

She said, "Have you ever heard this song

Called Polk Salad Annie?" I just kept playing

 

She said, "Every time I hear that song

My insides feel like warm butter

And I just wanna take off my clothes

And dance around in my underwear"

 

I said, "Down in Louisiana

Where the alligator grow so mean"

That's all I knew of it and it was enough

 

So we hit it off, me and this dancer

We hit it off like a metaphor

Like a metaphor for a hydrogen bomb

We was enriched uranium, super critical mass

We was a chain reaction, it was love and lust

Aw, mostly lust but a mutual attraction

 

So there I was boys at 21 years old, I had it all

I had a fine stripper girlfriend and a Gold Top Les Paul

Aw, the future, it looked promising

Oh but there were dark clouds on the horizon

 

She was a beautiful girl

But she liked to drink Tequila and that ain't all

I come home 4 or 5 times

And she pawned my Les Paul

 

We broke up and she went to Hollywood

She married an actor

 

She got a job dancing on the Hudson Brothers TV show

And modern lipstick from Max Factor

I got over her, I'm glad she done alright

I'm glad she done alright, oh yes, I am

 

Well now me, I never busted through the gates

Into the big time as a rock and roll star

For 40 years I just carried around an old Gold Top guitar

 

But love and fate are mysterious things

In this funky old world

It was 20 years ago I ended up marrying

That Mother Blues door girl

 

We had us a boy, he's 18 years old now, he's playing guitar

He ended up with that Les Paul Gold Top, yes, he did

Now I don't know if he's gonna hang his life on it or not

But I'm very grateful for the time I get to share the stage with him

 

I'm grateful for the time I get to play with musicians

Like George Reiff and Rick Richards

I'm grateful that I get to write these old songs

And travel around the world and play them for people

 

And they come out and hear me play

And the days that I keep my gratitude

Higher than my expectations

Well, I have really good days