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Boy Named Sue Lyrics

Artist: Shel Silverstein
Album: Boy Named Sue

Hey my daddy left home when I was three and he didn't leave much for ma and me
Just this here old guitar and a half filled bottle of booze
And it wasn't just that he run and hid but the meanest thing that old man did
Was before he left he went and named me Sue
Yeah he must've thought that it was quite a joke and it got a lot of laughs from lots of folk
It seems I had to fight my whole life through
Well the girl would giggle and I'd get red and some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head
I tell ya life ain't easy for a boy named Sue
Yeah I grew up quick and I grew up mean my fist got hard and my wits got keen
I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame
And I made me a vow to the moon and stars I'd search them honky tonks and bars
And I kill the man that gave me that awful name
It was Gatlinburg in mid-July I drove up my throat was dry
I thought that I'd stop and have me a brew
At an old saloon on a street of mud and there at a table dealing stud
Sat the dirty heartless dog that named me Sue
Yeah I knew that old man was my dad from a worn-out picture my momma'd had
I knew the scar on his cheek and his twinkly eye
He was kinda bent and gray and old and I looked at him and my blood ran cold
I said my name is Sue how do you do now you're gonna die
So I hit him hard right between the eyes he went down but to my surprise
He come up with a knife and he cut up a piece of my ear
So I busted a chair right across his teeth and we crashed through the wall and into the street
A kickin' and a gougin' in the mud and the blood and the beer
Well I tell ya I've fought tougher men but I really can't remember when
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile
Then he went for a gun and I heard him curse when he seen that I grabbed mine first
He stood there lookin' at me and he said with a cheepy smile
He said son this world is rough and if a man's gonna make it he's gotta be tough
And I know I wouldn't be there to help ya along
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye I knew you'd have to get tough or die
And it's that name that helped to make you strong
He said you just fought one hell of a fight and I know you hate me you got the right
To kill me and I wouldn't blame you if you do
But ya ought to thank me before I die for the gravel in ya guts and the steel in ya eye
Cause I'm that heartless hound who named you Sue what could I do
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun and I called him my pa and he called me son
And I come away with a different point of view
And I think about him now and then every time I try and every time I win
And you know if I ever have a son I think I'll just name him Jim or name him Paul or some like that
Anything but Sue I still hate that name

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