Bread and Water Lyrics

He grew up wild in a trite suburban nightmare

Smoking dope and drinking beer behind the gym

From the abc's to the sat's

Plenty of promise no guarantees

Telling his Father that he'd grow up to be like him

He won a scholarship to a school in West Virginia

He met Virginia at a blood drive after hours

Flat on his back with a needle in his arm

She was telling a story about life on the farm

While holding his hand and smelling like fresh cut flowers

Most of the time he can live off bread and water

Most of the time he can't even remember her name

But once in awhile he still thinks about the farmers daughter

And everything he bought her

But most of the time there's no time to explain

They struggled through their first five years of marriage

Full of detour signs closed roads and a sharpened knife

On a frozen night a damp October moon

Drew the anger out and sent her to her tomb

And they sentence him to twenty years to life

Most of the time he can live off bread and water

Most of the time he can't even remember her name

But once in awhile he still thinks about the farmers daughter

And the night he caught her

But most of the time there's no time to explain

In a ten-foot cell he read from William Shakespeare

Tennessee Williams, Kipling, and Mark Twain

Dreaming every night of the play he'd write

About a tragic lover and an endless flight

Though a trembling sky full of thunder, hail, and rain

Most of the time he can live off bread and water

Most of the time he can't even remember her name

But once in awhile he still thinks about the farmers daughter

On the teeter-totter

But most of the time there's no time to explain

On a summer morning twelve years after the nightmare

They set him free with a suitcase and a pair of shoes

He plays his guitar in a local bar

Spends his money on beer and his rusted car

It's the price that you pay if you're gonna learn to sing the blues

Most of the time he can live off bread and water

Most of the time he can't even remember her name

But once in awhile he still thinks about the farmers daughter

And the night he shot her

But most of the time there's no time to explain

Every year every fifteenth of December

He wanders through a chilly winter mist

Dredges through his mind knowing what he'll find

A smoke-stained photograph that strikes him blind

He puts flowers on her gravestone and blows her a kiss

Most of the time he can live off bread and water

Most of the time he can't even remember her name

But once in awhile he still thinks about the farmers daughter

Susan Walker

But most of the time there's no time to explain