Route 23

Intro: Verse Well I spent my whole life since I was high as a knee By that two-lane blacktop they call Route 23 My daddy ran a service station And the pumps they did shine I'd watch him wash the windshields, keep the old look to that mind Verse Well the days they were long, but the money was good The only things that changed were the seasons and the shapes of the hoods 'Til the government came on the radio in late '55 Said the state's gonna build a new highway One that's fast, smooth and wide With that new highway, no one stops here anymore And you can't make living without swinging that door The sign by the roadside still says "Come On In" But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again Verse Now daddy was as stubborn as a mule in the snow He said, "Good folks return to the places that they know" But after the gravel arrived and those steamrollers whined All those good folks left me and daddy And those two lanes behind With that new highway, no one stops here anymore And you can't make living without swinging that door The sign by the roadside still says "Come On In" But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again Instrumental: Verse Now the calendar on the wall still reads 19 and 75 No one crossed out the day that my daddy died We laid him in the ground 'neath that old sycamore tree That shades a boarded up gas station... out on Route 23 With that new highway, no one stops here anymore And you can't make living without swinging that door The sign by the roadside still says "Come On In" But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again Yeah, the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again