Well you can buy me a drink and i'll tell you what i seen
And i'll give you a bargain from the edge of a maniac's dream
That buys a black widow spider with a riddle in his yarn
That's clinging to the furrow of a blindman's brow
I'll start talking from the brim of a thimble full of whiskey
On a train through the bronx that will take you just as far
As the empty of a bottle to the highway of a scar
That stretched across the blacktop of my cheek like that
And then ducks beneath the brim of a fugitive's hat
And you'll learn why liquor makes a stool pigeon rat on every face
That ever left his shadow down on saint marks place
Hell i'd double cross my mother if it was whiskey that they payed
And so an early bird says nightsticks on the hit parade
And he ain't got a prayer and his days are numbered
And you'll track him down like a dog
Well it's a tough customer you're getting in this trade
Cause the nightstick's heart pumps lemonade
Well whiskey keeps a blindman talkin alright
And i'm the only one who knows just where he stayed last night
He was in a wreckin yard in a switchblade storm
In a wheelbarrow with nothing but revenge to keep him warm
And a half a million dollars in unmarked bills
Was the nightstick's blanket in a febuary chill
And as the buzzard drove a crooked sky
He was dealin high chicago in the mud
And stackin' the deck against a dragnet's eye
A shivering nightstick in a miserable heap
With the siren for a lullaby singing him to sleep
He was bleeding from a buttonhole
Torn by a slug fired from the barrel of a two dollar gun
That scorched a blister on the grip of a punk by now
Is learnin what you have to pay to be a hero anyhow
