I was running through
the summer rain,
trying to catch the evening train
To kill that old familiar pain,
weaving through my tangled brain
I tipped my bottle back,
and I smacked into a cop I didn't see
That police man said, Mr. Cool,
if you ain't drunk then you're a fool
I said, if that's against the law,
then tell me why
I never saw a man locked
in that jail of yours
Who wasn't just as
low -down poor as me
Well, that's just when someone
turned out the lights
And I wound up in jail to spend the night
In a dream of all the wine
and lonely girls
In this best of all possible worlds
Well I woke up next morning
feeling like my head was gone
And like my thick old tongue
was licking something sick and wrong
And I told that man I'd sell my soul
for something wet and cold as I would sell
That kindly jailer grinned at me
and he ate me up with sympathy
And poured himself another beer
and came and whispered in my ear
If booze was just a dime a bottle,
boy, you couldn't even buy the smell
So to me, there was something
I liked about this town
But it takes more than that
to bring me down, down, down
Cause there's still a lot of wine
and lonely girls
In this best of all possible worlds
They finally came and told me
they was gonna set me free
And I'd be leaving town
if I knew what was good for me
I said it's nice to learn
that everybody's so
concerned about my health
I said I won't be leaving
no more quicker than I can
Because I've enjoyed about as
much of this as I can stand
And I don't need this town of yours
more than I never needed
nothing else
There's still a lot of drinks
that I ain't drunk
And lots of pretty thoughts
that I ain't thunk
And there's still so many lonely, lonely girls
In this best of all possible worlds