If I had a dime for every time I heard my old man say, "One of these days"
I wouldn't be like my old man today
Talking 'bout places that he'd been
Back in his younger days that he was gonna go back to again
One of these days

Dropped out of school when he was just sixteen
Fell right in to a tire plant
Building the very things that make the asphalt sing
And he put Alabama far behind him

I remember him saying that Chicago was a hell right here on Earth
Twenty five years later I was saying the same thing about Memphis

It's no wonder еverybody's scared of downtown Birmingham
It's just a little too closе to home
There's more crooks down there and the cops don't care
The white men wearing ties can do anything they want

Once a country boy's seen the way the steam rises
Off a man's insides on the sidewalk
Tends to change the way he thinks, the way he sees everything
And he goes back to where he came from

One of these days when my face looks like a roadmap
I'm gonna find my way back home
And I'll go walking on the west side after dark
And leave my gun locked in my car
One of these days you'll take one look at me and run
One of these days you'll take one look at me and run