Johnny Cash
"One Piece At A Time" lyrics

One Piece At A Time

Well, I left Kentucky back in fourty-nine
And went to Detroit working on assembly line
The first year they had me putting wheels on cadillacs
Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by
And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry
Cause I always wanted me one
That was long and black

One day I devised myself a plan
That should be the envy of most any man
I'd sneak it out of there in a lunchbox in my hand
Now getting caught meant getting fired
But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired
I'd have me a car worth at least a hundred grand

I'd get it one piece at a time
And it wouldn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me
When I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
Cause I'll have the only one there is around

So the very next day when I punched in
With my big lunchbox and with help from my friends
I left that day with a lunch box full of gears
I've never considered myself a thief
But GM wouldn't miss just one little piece
Especially if I strung it out over several years

The first day I got me a fuel pump
And the next day I got me an engine and a trunk
Then I got me a transmission and all of the chrome
The little things I could get in my big lunchbox
Like nuts, and bolts, and all four shocks
But the big stuff we snuck out
In my buddy's mobile home

Now up to now my plan went all right
Till we tried to put it all together one night
And that's when we noticed
That something was definitely wrong
The transmission was a fifty-three
And the motor turned out to be a seventy-three
And when we tried to put in the bolts
All the holes were gone

So we drilled it out so that it would fit
And with a little bit of help from an adaptor kit
We had that engine running just like a song
Now the headlights they was another sight
We had two on the left and one on the right
But when we pulled out the switch
All three of them come on

The back end looked kinda funny too
But we put it together and when we got through
Well, that's when we noticed
That we only had one tail fin
About that time my wife walked out
And I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts
But she opened the door and said
"Honey, take me for a spin"

So we drove up town just to get the tags
And I headed her right on down main drag
I could hear everybody laughing for blocks around
But up there at the court house they didn't laugh
Cause to type it up it took the whole staff
And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds

I got it one piece at a time
And it didn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me
When I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
Cause I'll have the only one there is around

Uh, yeah, red ryder
This is the cotton mouth
In the psychobilly Cadillac, come on
Huh
This is the cotton mouth and negatory
On the cost of this mow-chine there red ryder
You might say I went right up to the factory
And picked it up
It's cheaper that way
Ah, what model is it?

Well, it's a fourty-nine, fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two
Fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six
Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine automobile
It's a sixty, sixty-one, sixty-two, sixty-three
Sixty-four, sixty-five, sixty-six, sixty-seven
Sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy automobile

Authors: Wayne Camp