Lyric Talking thunderbird blues

by Townes Van Zandt

Among the strangest things I ever heard
was when a friend of mine said "Man, let s get some thunderbird"
I said "What s that?" he just started to grin
slobbered on his shirt, his eyes got dim
he said "You got fifty-nine cents?"


I said "Yeah, I got a dollar, but don t be a smart-aleck
I ain t gonna spend it on no indian relic"
and he said "Thunderbird s not an old indian trinket,
it s a wine, man, you take it home and drink it."
I said "It sure don t sound like wine to me"
and he said he d bet me the change from my dollar


We hustled on down to the nearest U-Tate-Um
the guy wanted my ID, I whipped her out and showed him
he got a green bottle from the freezing vault
my friend started doing backward somersaults
through the cottage cheese


Took it back to his house, started drinkin
pretty soon I set in to thinkin
"Man, this thunderbird tastes yummy, yummy, yummy
and I know it s doing good things to my tummy, tum..., t..."
it s so you reason when your on that crap


Got a few more bottles, chugged them down
I pulled myself up off the ground
decided I go see my dearest sweet wife
who met me at the door with a carving knife
said "Get them damn grape peel from between your teeth."


I could see we re gonna have a little misunderstanding
I said "Dear, I better get in touch with you later"
She said "Forget it, man, you re never touchin me again!"


Now I ve seen the light and heard the word
and I m staying away from that ol dirty thunderbird
a message come from heaven radiant, and fine,
all I drink now is communion wine
six days a week