Child Bride - Nebraska Outtakes

English translation

Friday night's pay night

Guys fresh out of work

Talking 'bout the weekend

Trying to scrub off the dirt

Some heading home to their families

Some wearing trouble on their shirts

Some driving down to Stovall

Just looking to get hurt

I work for the county

Out on 95

Just holding that red flag

Watching the traffic pass me by

All day, I keep a picture

Of my baby in my head

At night, I dream I'm with her

Laying in my bunkhouse bed

Seen her at the canteen

Down at the Legion Hall

She come in with her brothers

Standing back up against the wall

Me and her, we'd go walking

Down by them winding tracks

Well, one day I looked straight at her

And she looked straight back

Gray clouds stretch across

The white moon

Sitting in the backyard in my old car

We'd hum out of tune

Well, I saved my money

And I put it all away

I went to see her daddy

We didn't have much to say

He said, "Now, son

Can't you see she's just a little girl

Who don't know nothing

'Bout the meanness in this world?"

Took off down into Florida

Yeah, we got along alright

One day, her brothers came and got her

And they took me in a black and white

Prosecutor kept his promise

That he made on that day

Well, she was sad, and the judge was mad

They put me straight away

Well, they said she was too young

She was no younger than I've been

When she put her arms around me

And the night close in

Well, sometimes I dream of getting out of here

Heading down towards them old tracks

I swore l'd come and get her

But I know I ain't ever going back

There's nights I can't sleep

No matter how hard I try

So from my window, I watch the moonlight

Fall on the far hillside

I imagine I put on my jacket

Go down to this little roadside bar

Pick a stranger and spin around the dance floor

To a Mexican guitar