Let Him Roll Written: Guy Clark Performed live on Austin City Limits in 1982 CAPO: none / Key: D [D] Let him roll, boys, let him roll [G] I'll [A] bet he's gone to Dallas, rest his soul [D] SPOKEN: [D] Now he was a wino tried and true He [G] did about everything a man could do He [A] worked on factories, he worked on cars He [G] worked on farms, and he worked in bars [D] It was White Port Wine that put that look in his eye That grown men get when they need to cry And when we sat down on the curb to rest His head just fell down on his chest And he said, " Every single day it gets just a little bit harder to handle and yet" Then he lost the thread and his mind got cluttered And his words just rolled off down the gutter He was an elevator man in a cheap hotel In exchange for the rent in a one-room cell And he was years old before his time No thanks to the world and the White Port Wine Well he said, " Son," he always called me son He said, " Life for you has just begun" Then he told me a story that I'd heard before How he fell in love with a Dallas wh* * * He could cut through the years to the very night That it all ended in a wh* * *house fight When she turned his last proposal down In favor of being a girl-about-town Now it's been seventeen years right in line And he ain't been straight none of the time And it's too many years of fighting the weather And too many nights of not being together, so he died SUNG: [D] Let him roll, boys, let him roll [G] I'll [A] bet he's gone to Dallas, rest his soul [D] Let him roll, boys, let him roll [G] He [A] always thought that heaven was [G] just a Dallas wh* * * [D] SPOKEN: Well we went through his personal effects In among all the stubs from a Well Fare checks Was a crumbling picture of a girl in a door In a dress in Dallas and nothing more The Well Fare people provided the priest And a couple from the mission down the street Sang "Amazing Grace" and nobody cried Except some lady in black way off to the side Well we all left and she was still standing there The black veil covering her silver hair Ol' One-Eyed John said, " Her name is Alice She used to be a wh* * * in Dallas SUNG: Let him roll, boys, let him roll I'll bet he's gone to Dallas, rest his soul Let him roll, boys, let him roll He always thought that heaven was just a Dallas wh* * * Let him roll, boys, let him roll I'll bet he's gone to Dallas, rest his soul Let him roll, boys, let him roll He always thought that heaven was just a Dallas wh* * *