The Sad Story of Red McGuire

He played that song about a hundred times.
He knew all the words, remembered the rhyme.
Before long he was down to one silver dime
and he couldn't play it anymore.

You know, they used to dance on this hardwood floor.
They'd sing with the band and yell for more,
Old Red and Bernice didn't know what was in store.
Lots of water under the bridge since then.

A little older, a lot wiser, I guess,
lifted up by good times, pulled down by the stress
of trying to live high and always impress
people that didn't matter anyway.

They had it all in the palm of their hands
and then it was gone like ocean sand.
Nothing worked the way they planned,
and they ran out of courage to try.

He said: "A quarter, please.  Just one more play,
then I'll move on, get out of the way."
He just couldn't think of a reason to stay,
so he headed on down the road.

I heard he got sick in Tennessee,
about as sick as a man can be.
Then death came along and set him free.
He had a quarter in his hand when he died.

I don't know what split them apart.
They loved each other from the very start,
but some time, some way he broke her heart
and he died a lonely man.

Guess I'll keep that song on the record machine.
When somebody plays it, it will always seem
that he's sittin' over there livin' his dream,
waitin' for her to come back.

You just never know from day to day
how these months and years are going to play.
I'd be hard pressed to even say
if it makes much sense at all.

But I'll miss old Red and his Stetson hat.
I'll lift a glass and remember that
the table over there is where he sat
and cried into his beer.

Red tried too hard and pushed too fast.
Maybe that's why it didn't last.
He could not let a moment pass
without tryin' to impress Bernice.

A moral to this story?  I really don't know.
Maybe...when you love somebody, go real slow.
Take your time so love can kinda' flow
like a quiet mountain stream.

Well, sorry friend, gotta' close up now.
There's an acre waitin' for me to plow
and I gotta' tell my Sallyann how
I love her more than she knows.