DEVIL'S ADDRESS

 

I'M IN HEAVEN THAT'S WHAT THE SIGN SAYS
THIS BAR'S MORE LIKE HELL, EVERYTHING PAINTED RED
EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE A TRUCK GOES BY HEADED NORTH
HEADLIGHTS FLASHING ACROSS THESE SMOKY WALLS

IF YOU WANT TO FIND ME
JUST POST A LETTER TO 'HAPPINESS'
BUT MARK IT CARE-OF
CARE OF THE DEVIL'S ADDRESS

I STARTED DRIFTIN' WHEN I COULDN'T PAY THE RENT
ON THAT MOBILE HOME, WAS MORE LIKE A SHED
I SPENT EVERY WINTER JUST A WATCHIN' THE RAIN
TURN THAT GRAVEL PATH INTO A LAKE

NOW I'M FINE AND DANDY BUT I'M ALL ALONE
JUST ME AND THE SPARKLE OF THE TARMAC ROAD
THOUSAND MILES BEHIND ME, WIFE'S IN ANOTHER MAN'S BED
THOUSAND MILES AHEAD OF ME BEFORE I'LL EVER REST

 

Well my mother's father and my uncle were both truck drivers all their lives but I don't drive which kind of sad considering how many times driving features in my songs!

I imagined it as a kind of folkier version of 'Return to Sender'!

The last lines are a straight cop of a Raymond Carver idea in his wonderful poem whose title escapes me at the moment where he ends up trying to disentangle a snagged fishing line and then drops the line about his wife in another man's bed.....pure class..so now you know....