Let him roll
Lord, let him roar
He always said that heaven
Was just a Dallas whore
He was a wino tried and true
Done about everything there is to do
He worked on freighters, he worked in bars
He worked on farms and he worked on cars
It was white port put that look in his eye
That grown men get when they need to cry
He sat down on the curb to rest
And his head just fell down on his chest
He said every single day it gets
Just a little bit harder to handle and yet
And he lost the thread
And his mind got cluttered
And the words just rolled off
Down in the gutter
He was elevator man in a cheap hotel
In exchange for the rent on a one room cell
He was old in years beyond his time
Thanks to the world
And the white Port wine
So he says son, he always called me son
He said life for you has just begun
And he told me a story that I'd heard before
How he fell in love with a Dallas whore
He could cut through the years to the very night
When it all ended in a whore house fight
And 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
Too many years of fighting the weather
And too many nights of not being together
So he died
When they went through all his personal affects
In among the stubs from the welfare checks
Was a crumbling picture of a girl in a door
And an address in Dallas and nothing more
The welfare people provided the priest
And a couple from the mission down the street
Sang "Amazing Grace" and no one cried
Except some lady in black way off to the side
We all left and she was standing there
Black veil covering her silver hair
And old ene-eyed John said her name was Alice
She used to be a whore in Dallas
Let him roar
Lord, let him roll
I bet he's gone to Dallas
Rest his soul
Lord let him roll
Lord, let him roar
He always said that heaven
Was just a Dallas whore
Let him roar
Lord, let him roll
I bet he's gone to Dallas
Rest his soul