Puttin' People On The Moon
Album(s): The Dirty South, Live From Austin Texas,Sung by: Patterson Hood
Written by: Patterson Hood
Mary Alice had a baby and he looked just like I did.
We got married on a Monday, and I been working ever since.
Every week down at the Ford Plant, but now they say they're shutting down.
Goddamned Reagan's in the White House and no one gives a damn.
Double digit unemployment, TVA be shutting soon.
While over there in Huntsville, they puttin' people on the moon
So I took to runnin' numbers for this man I used to know.
And I sell a few narcotics, and I sell a little blow.
I ain't getting rich now but I'm gettin' more than by.
It's really tough to make a living but a man just got to try.
If I died in Colbert County, would it make the evening news?
They too busy blowin' rockets, puttin' people on the moon.
Mary Alice she quit askin' why I do the things I do.
I ain't sayin' that she likes it, but what else I'm gonna do?
If I could solve the world's problems I'd probably start with hers and mine.
But they can put a man on the moon,
and I'm stuck down here just barely scraping by.
Mary Alice got cancer, just like everybody here.
Seems everyone I know is gettin' cancer every year.
And we can't afford no insurance, I been 10 years unemployed.
So she didn't get no chemo, and our lives was destroyed
Nothin' ever changes, the cemetery gets more full,
and over there in Huntsville, even NASA's shut down too.
Another joker's in the White House, said a change is comin' round.
But I'm workin' at the Wal Mart; Mary Alice in the ground.
And all the politicians, they all lyin' sacks of shit.
They say "better days upon us but it's sucking left hind tit.
And the preacher on the TV says it ain't too late for me.
But I bet he drives a Cadillac and I'm broke with some hungry mouths to feed.
I wish I's still an outlaw, was a better way of life.
I could clothe and feed my family, still have time to love my pretty wife.
And if you say I'm being punished, ain't He got better things to do?
Turnin' mountains into oceans, puttin' people on the moon.
Turnin' mountains into oceans, puttin' people on the moon.