When the Gas Runs Low (For Jackie Bates) Lyrics

Rosetown Saskatchewan

Little boy blue at the break of dawn

It's hard times in the city, it's hard times in the town

Come on kid we won't be long

The people here say we gotta keep moving on

It's hard times in the city, it's hard times in the town

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Running low on wood, running low on kerosene

Running low on food under the shadow of the guillotine

But it's hard times in the city, it's hard times in the town

Prairie conquistador, you felt there was something lacking

A drinkin' and a gamblin' riding shotgun in a pine box taxi

Half a dozen years go by and along comes Jackie

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

It's hard times in the city, it's hard times in the town

You feel beat n' destructed, you feeling just like Hollis Brown

Hey there Teddy Boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs out?

Money's come and gone and come and gone again

Your foolish pride has got in the way again my friend

And it's hard times in the city it's hard times in the town

Maybe California that's where you should've been born

As you stare at the blood on the clothes young Jackie wore

And it's hard times in the city and it's hard times in the town ain't it?

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Your heart is trembling and there's sweat upon your brow

You turn to Rosie, there's no turning back now

We're all in this together just three loners in the crowd

It's hard times in the city it's hard times in the town

The power of the engine rumbling down below

The stutter and the chugging of your last and final blow

Rosie shuts the engine off and why we do not know

And it's hard times in the city and it's hard times in the town

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

The frozen silence sends a chill down your spine

Your vomit frozen on the suit you wore that night

Your child lays between you, cold n' blue n' void of life

And it's hard times in the city and it's hard times in the town

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

They say times were tough during the great depression

Peoples minds just didn't work the same

For Teddy Bates it was a mental recession a cobweb of deception

Abandoned and neglected, denied and unprotected

Naturally selected by government and fate

But what about Jackie Bates?

Just a symbol of the times I guess, a casualty of the mind

Just cover that with turpentine and watch it burn you blind

Just a kid who knew no better than to trust his ma and pa

Just to follow without question win or lose or draw

He never would have thought that the ones who loved him most

Would fill a car with gas and make from him a ghost

And it's hard times in the city and it's hard times in the town

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Barbed wire heart, a real stand up point in liberty

Two demons got acquitted off the hook for all eternity

But that's only in law, not by the hand of God

For judgement will come down upon the beggar and the crown

Don't hide behind your gold, or society's mold

Cause you're blind and standing naked amongst the beauty he beholds

And a symbol of the wreckage, just a product of the times

Don't excuse you from the wrath of he who testifies

And I hope you feel the guilt, and the pressure from within

I hope your body turns to silt, turns to rust from all your sins

And your head begins to spin, and the pain does you in

And your blood begins to boil and your organs start to spoil

And you can't take the pain but it comes back just the same

Just like a mighty chorus of delusion stands before us

And the righteous will stand tall against the evil that's before us

And you start to reek of death as you suffer your last breath

And just before you go the golden gavel hammers down

Cause it's hard times in the city and it's hard times in the town

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Hey there Teddy boy, what you gonna do when the gas runs low?

Rosetown Saskatchewan

Little boy blue at the break of dawn

It's hard times in the city, it's hard times in the town