Story Behind The Song

About a man trying to come to terms with his past while living in the present.

Lyrics

Jack Knife.........© 2015 Tony Annunziata
404-668-1008 annunzia@bellsouth.net

He was sitting on a barstool looking ragged and thin
I was thinking I know him
Just couldn't place a name to that face
It was dry like leather all weather worn
Coming from a place long since gone
I asked Mister what's your pleasure....

He said sipping whiskey if you please
I'll pass the time with my disease
All alone's what's best for me
Cause when the past starts screaming loud
I'm caught between back then and now
I'd rather be my own company....(you see)


Sometimes I need to drink to stop from thinking
Sometimes forgetting's all that makes good sense
Sometimes I feel myself slowly sinking
Sometimes a drink's my best defense


They called him Jack Knife I remembered
Ten years back in mid December
He killed three men who tried to rob a bank
They had guns he had a knife
Gives pause to think what to bring to a fight
The bank said thanks by stuffing his pockets with money....(yeah that was quite a story back then the paper ran it front page, I'm laughing when I should be taken care of business. I turned my back and I see this...)

Stranger come into the bar
Had a mean look and a nasty scar
On a face that spelled out nothing but trouble
He said I sit their old man move
Jack Knife said boy what you trying to prove
In a flash they began to scuffle .....( Jack Knife's thinking)


Sometimes I need to drink to stop from thinking
Sometimes forgetting's all that makes good sense
Sometimes I feel myself slowly sinking
Sometimes a drink's my best defense....but not always


Jack knife lying on his back
The stranger's boot all big and black
About to come crashing on the his head
Jack Knife rolled to the right was ready
In his hand I saw him holding Betty
A Bowie knife that slid into that big black boot like butter

From behind the bar I raised my fist
Yelled Jack Knife you ain't changed a bit
He smiled and said son you need to take a better look
Back in the day this punk he would be dead
But today he is screaming instead
With a knife sticking out of his foot......( I guess I mellowed)


Sometimes I need to drink to stop from thinking
Sometimes forgetting's all that makes good sense
Sometimes I feel myself slowly sinking
And every now and then a knife is my best defense
(You know I'm getting older now and slowing down. This arthritis is killing me. Every time I turn it gives me a kink in my neck, it just won't go away. As far as that seat I had to sit their cause when you get old like me you got to be close to that bathroom door. That's what I told the judge and he agreed. Called it self-defense. I'm walking.)