HELLO FROM HELL (Martindale)

Hello from Hell

From lost and lonely

An empty room in the Shady Hades Motel

Just in case you need to know

This is where you go

When there’s no one left but yourself

I been busted apart

Put back together wrong

Without the thing that kept me hanging on

I’ve been tossed around, ended up all alone

Left here lying right where I was thrown

And if you ever wonder where I fell

Hello from Hell

Sold myself down the river

On promises I could never deliver

Wound up with a soul for sale

But I’ve got something to show

This Grand Canyon-sized hole

Where my heart used to dwell

It’s the leaving I get for the loving I got

The hard times I met and the hell I caught

It ain’t over yet but that’s a hell of a thought

She ain’t coming back but that’s the farm I bought.

VIRGINIA SLIMS & LITTLE KINGS (Martindale)

Varsity cheerleader ain’t got a daddy

Momma who works means she’s all alone

We gotta swing by and check out her room

Locks the door and hides the phone

Afterwards, we head to the city pool

All eyes on a red two-piece

Smells like chlorine and suntan oil

Feels like hiding sin from the police

Park by the pump jack and we get cracking

Hoping they ain’t cut the wheat

Kill the car and climb in the back

Little town love in full swing

Smells like Virginia Slims and Little Kings

After the game, always a keg

Tap that thing and head for the sticks

Hormones hang like a Sunday rain

Gotta go somewhere and hit a lick

Empty’s in back, butt’s on the floor

She’s getting dressed, the phone starts to ring

She lights up and I pop a top

Virginia Slims and Little Kings

Chorus

LOVE TO LIVE BY (Martindale)

Hand to mouth

Just enough check

Week to month

Sun’s burning my neck

Between the time clock and our house

We live day to day

Where the ends barely meet

We love the same way

Like you’re leaving tomorrow

Making up and making love after a fight

Honeymoon never grows old

Clothes from the front door to the bed every night

We don’t look at the bottom line

We make love to live by

Hand in hand

Drive to the drive-in

Backs on the windshield

Up on our hill

Can’t make out the movie

So we make out instead

When you touch me it moves me

Straight out of my head

Chorus

MEXICAN BLUES (Martindale)

Them blue V’s been damn good to come by

Went through all of them we picked up on the cruise

My brother had some I stole

They’s in my pocket when the cops come through

Strike one, they give me probation

Just cause it was offered don’t make it my thing

Two months and I’m back on the horse

You get pulled over, don’t tell ‘em my name

I got a line of a little bit of Sudafed

My girl’s got a few Hydroco’s

Marlboro Reds and a dime in my shoe and

A pocket full of them Mexican Blues

DT’s are like hell without the getting there

I just said screw it and went back to the dope

Picked up GED last year in State jail

But a record like mine don’t leave me much hope

Attorney General’s been sending notices

Guess I gotta show up on Monday at 9

What good’s it do, my visits are supervised

Kids don’t even recognize me half of the time

Strike three came without a warning

Should’ve known the sombitch was wearing a wire

Can’t swim uphill anyway

If I don’t make parole this is where I’ll retire

Catching chain next week out of county

On the cool bro, it’s probably best

Things always get better back in Huntsville

Gotta get locked up before I get a rest

HEART OF BREAKING UP (Martindale)

Way too soon

I walk into our room

Still see your shadow and smell your perfume

Every corner calls out to me

All the walls

Talk at the same damn time

Too much of you here to try to shake tonight

One out of two is all I can see

Here I am in the middle of none of your stuff

Like leaving me lonesome just ain’t enough

Left your memory here like some kind of bluff

Guess it’s a given I’ve been taking it tough

It’s hard to believe you’ve taken your love

The polish is coming off and I’m looking rough

I’m still in the heart of breaking up.

Your laughter

Still echoes through the halls

Where happiness once hung on every wall

Wish I could wear this house

And never take it off

All this nothing

Says I missed the call

While my heart blindly takes the fall

You’re gone, I was wrong

And now I’m paying the cost

Maybe I don’t want to forget

I feel safe here with all my regrets

I’m more comfortable with the pain

And it looks like you’re not out of here yet

Excuses may be all that’s left

To protect me from the pain

ADAM AND EVE (Martindale)

We were beautiful once, and we could be again

The kind of woman you are makes a man a man

The world could be frozen but my heart would still beat

Flames belong to the fire

I almost hated you the way I loved you so much

You tore holes in me with every touch

You know I could never leave a woman I need

Blood’s gonna bleed

We left the world to crumble and roll at our feet

And the heavens had fallen and the ruins were our retreat

As the only two survivors we had to start anew

When you’re Adam and Eve there’s only one thing to do

Pull the blinds in the morning

Like the world’s never been born

Hide from the flood, pretend from the storm

Some vague sense of conscience tugs in the night

Like a honeymoon