[Intro]
My name is Jon Dee Graham
And I can assure you, aw I have been to Birmingham

[Verse 1]
There was a night club in Dallas
Called Mother Blues
It's where Lightning Hopkins played
Freddy King payed some dues
The dealers and gamblers and young white hipsters
They all made the scene
The girl at the door who checked ID's
Just 16

This was not a place for law biding citizens

Jackie Jones he had him a habit
Just couldn't stop
Said give me 500 Dollars
And I'll sell you my Les Paul Gold Top
I drove my daddy's car down to Ross Avenue
And there I sold it
I guess I should have told him
He alluded to the police someone stole it

It was just the first of many bad decisions I was to make over the next 20 years
Oh, but I had me a guitar
[Verse 2]
Everybody knows
That the real nightlife
Begins after the clubs close
What they call after hours
(Just like the sound of "after hours")

It's 2 a.m. and everybody's gone
But the band, the dealers and ol' Jack Jones
And then the girls from the landing strip club come over
After they put their clothes back on
So I'm at Ma Blues and I'm sitting on an amp
Playing "Twist and Shout"
And this tall drink of water walks in
Like she might have to shoot her way out
She comes up to me and she says
"You know anything good on that guitar?"
I didn't say nothing, I just kept on playing
She said, "Have you ever heard this song
Called 'Polk Salad Annie'?" I just kept playing
She said, "Every time I hear that song
My insides feel like warm butter
And I just wanna take off all my clothes
And dance around in my underwear"
And I said, "Down in Louisiana
Where the alligator grow so mean"
That's all I knew of it but apparently that was enough
[Verse 3]
So we hit it off, me and this dancer
We hit it off like a metaphor
Like a metaphor for a hydrogen bomb
We was enriched uranium, super critical mass
We was a chain reaction, it was love and lust
Well, mostly lust
But a mutual attraction

So there I was boys at 21 years old, I had it all
A fine stripper girlfriend and a Gold Top Les Paul
Aw, the future looked promising
Aw, but there were dark clouds on the horizon
See, turned out...

[Verse 4]
She was a beautiful girl
But she liked to drink Tequila and that ain't all
I come home 4 or 5 times
To find she had pawned my Les Paul
We broke up and she went to Hollywood
And married an actor
She got a job dancing on the Hudson Brothers TV show
And modern lipstick for ol' Max Factor
I got over her, I'm glad she done alright
No really, I'm glad she done alright
[Verse 5]
Well now me, I never busted through the gates
Into the big time as a rock and roll star
40 years I just carried around
That same old Gold Top guitar
But love and fate are mysterious things
In this funky old world
It was 20 years ago I ended up marrying
That Mother Blues door girl

See, that was Ray and Judy
They went on and had a boy, named Lucas
I believe Lucas inherited the Les Paul
Playing alongside Ray
Aw, our old friend George Reiff
Rick Richards, aw man it was beyond belief

[Outro]
Now Ray, he's just grateful to have a job
Writing songs, telling lies
Remember Ray, I have been to Birmingham