Stan Ridgway - The roadblock lyrics

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News travels fast in a small desert town

So it wasn't long at all before the word got around

That a killin' mad car was headed their way

So the sheriff and the boys were gonna stop 'im out on the highway

Right where it intersected Big Black Rock

So it wasn't long at all

Before the whole town was standin' round

Hammerin' a nail and buildin' up a pride in a roadblock

Just hangin' round a roadblock

The mayor's wife sat in the shade

And talked her way through a few good lies

While her husband practiced his acceptance speech

For a medal from the F.B.I.

And Granny rocked back in her chair and said

"Just what did this man do?"

While some idiot kids ate dirty

Sno-cones colored red white and blue

At the roadblock

Just hangin' round a roadblock (x3)

Then the local paper jumped the gun

And printed the big headline

Town is saved from killer car

With roadblock at stateline

Three miles down the highway in a Chevy '69

Were a pair of crazy eyeballs jumpin' left and right in time

To an eight-track tape playin' Foghat and Jethro Tull

And a gasoline-soaked hand shiftin' a little plastic skull

And on the arm, a blue tattoo that read "I'm a son of a bitch!"

A map open on the front seat––leather, black as pitch

One foot slammed on the gas––no shoe, just an argyle sock

And that car was screamin' wild down the highway, like lightning

Toward the roadblock

Right towards the roadblock

Then all eyes turned down the highway towards a big cloud of smoke

And Granny went into a mild state of shock and started to choke

And a boy up in a tree yelled out, "Here it come"

Then twenty men strong aimed and fired point-blank nineteen shotguns

Well, the next day, the sheriff just tried to stall

While they buried the body out behind a wall

The newspaper said "Killer still on the lam––

Seems the boys at the roadblock got the wrong man"

Nobody really knew just who he was

He was drivin' a Camaro with dashboard fuzz

They all burned a car right there in Big Black Rock

And no one ever said a word at all again1

About a roadblock

Not about a roadblock

Whooo! About a roadblock

Not about a roadblock, yeah....

Not about a roadblock