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If your tired heart is aching​.​.​.

by Bo Armstrong

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1.
2.
Get It Right 03:32
Maybe I said a few things that didn’t mean much Maybe I left a few hearts alone in the dust Maybe I made a few mistakes wasted a few good nights But you’re gonna get the best of me and if I'm gonna get it right…   I want to get it right the first time, if I’m gonna get it right at all Honey I’m gonna walk the hard line, cause I’m here for the haul I want to get it right the first time, I’m gonna give it all I got If it’s gonna last a lifetime, then I’ve got one last shot —to get it right the first time I ain’t gonna be another in that long, long line Of ones who tried to make it but got lost and fell behind If your tired heart is aching, let me carry you a while… I want to get it right the first time, if I’m gonna get it right at all Honey I’m gonna walk the hard line, cause I’m here for the haul I want to get it right the first time, I’m gonna give it all I got If it’s gonna last a lifetime, then I’ve got one last shot —to get it right the first time Well the lovin’ and the leavin’ is a young man's game And it all might fall to pieces, but that’s a chance I got to take I want to get it right the first time, if I’m gonna get it right at all Honey I’m gonna walk the hard line, cause I’m here for the haul I want to get it right the first time, I’m gonna give it all I got If it’s gonna last a lifetime, then I’ve got one last shot —to get it right the first time Get it right the first time Get it right the first time
3.
Why, Dallas? 03:23
Why, Dallas?  Why’d you have to make her choose? You made her an offer that you know she won’t refuse Why, Dallas? Yeah, what you got to prove? That everyone is beautiful and everything is new? Why, Dallas? Why, Dallas? Why’d you have to be That silver city shining so bright in all her dreams Why, Dallas? You know I can’t compete That picture perfect skyline ain’t got no room for me Why, Dallas? She said there ain’t no other way but Highway 35 I tried begging her to stay, but she just drew that line Now I’m left waiting on the other side, asking… Why, Dallas? The writing’s on the wall She ain’t eve-r coming  back to tell me she was wrong Why Dallas? Well now you have it all The wide eyes and the bright lights, and a heart that don’t belong Why, Dallas? She said there ain’t no other way but Highway 35 I tried begging her to stay, but she just drew that line Now I’m left waiting on the other side, asking…  Why, Dallas? I guess this means you win I guess it’s time to man on up and take one on the chin Why, Dallas? It’s like it always is The city keeps on spinning, and she just disappears Why, Dallas?
4.
She’s lying there beside me in a dark and lonely bed Silent over something that I didn’t know I said Maybe it’s just growing pains, maybe it’s regret Maybe she and I don’t have it figured out just yet Morning cup of coffee with my old man on the phone He said you ain’t gonna lose her, boy just keep on keepin’ on Your mom and me been through it all, we’ve seen the highs and lows There ain’t a whole lot to it, but the only thing I know is that —   For every kiss and starry eye, For every bittersweet goodbye And every blue sky at the beginning, There’s forty years of getting by, And life and death and restless nights And every now and then you come up winning But it’s in the sticking with it anyway Oh love ain’t just a young man’s game It ain’t that dozen roses, or that first nervous smile It ain’t that thrill that made you feel alive for a little while It’s moving a little slower, it’s sitting by her side It’s her hand in your hand, up every hill every time For every kiss and starry eye, For every bittersweet goodbye And every blue sky at the beginning, There’s 40 years of getting by, And life and death and restless nights And every now and then you come up winning But it’s in the stickin’ with it anyway Oh love ain’t just a young man’s game
5.
It’s been a little while since I left you a note — There on the kitchen counter before heading off to work It’s hard to know what’s different now when so much feels the same I guess love just gets a little tired and no one is to blame, but — I love you more than the day that I first saw you More than the night I told my friends I found the mother of my someday daughter More than the time that I asked you to settle down With me in a two bedroom Nashville Tennessee house Back in the day I loved you to the moon and back again But somehow I love you more now than I did then Two photographs are hanging on the wall in our bedroom One is from the wedding day, and one’s the first that we ever took We look a whole lot younger then than we do right now But the grin in your eye is still the same, and I want ya worse somehow    When I tell my only joke for the hundred millionth time and you still find a way to smile… I’ll know that we ain’t passed our prime, and I’ll… Still love you more than the day that I first saw you More than the night I told my friends I found the mother of my someday daughter More than the time that I asked you to settle down With me in a two bedroom Nashville Tennessee house Back in the day I loved you to the moon and back again But somehow I love you more now than I did then
6.
She makes his coffee, she makes his bed She does the laundry, she keeps him fed When she was twenty-one she wore her mother's lace She said "forever" with a smile upon her face   She does the car-pool, she PTAs Doctors and dentists, she drives all day When she was twenty-nine she delivered number three And every Christmas card showed a perfect family   Everything runs right on time, years of practice and design Spit and polish 'til it shines. He thinks he'll keep her Everything is so benign, safest place you'll ever find God forbid you change your mind. He thinks he'll keep her   She packs his suitcase, she sits and waits With no expression upon her face When she was thirty-six she met him at their door She said I'm sorry, I don't love you anymore   Everything runs right on time, years of practice and design Spit and polish 'til it shines. He thinks he'll keep her Everything is so benign, safest place you'll ever find God forbid you change your mind. He thinks he'll keep her   For fifteen years she had a job and not one raise in pay Now she's in the typing pool at minimum wage   Everything runs right on time, years of practice and design Spit and polish 'til it shines. He thinks he'll keep her Everything is so benign, safest place you'll ever find At least until you change your mind. He thinks he'll keep her alright
7.
There’s a stranger in my bed He’s been there for a while He lays down his head Right next to yours each night When he wakes up in the morning He don’t look you in the eye He just stumbles to my closet And switches on my light Yeah he knows what he’s doing But he can’t tell you why He don’t love you like he’s supposed to Like the way he knows he can He don’t hold you a little closer  Every time he has the chance He just takes it all for granted Turns his back instead But we both know that someday he’ll regret That there’s a stranger in my bed There’s a stranger in my bed Yeah he looks a lot like me But his shoulders hang too heavy And his words just cut too deep He’s anxious and he’s angry He’s losing ground and losing sleep  Yeah he ain’t the man you fell for And he ain’t the man you need, ‘cause — He don’t love you like he’s supposed to Like the way he knows he can He don’t hold you a little closer  Every time he has the chance He just takes it all for granted Turns his back instead But we both know that someday he’ll regret there’s a stranger in my bed He don’t love you like he’s supposed to But I swear that I still can ‘Cause I want everything we hoped for And everything we had Yeah if I could only get back And put this all to rest ‘Cause we both know that someday I’ll regret That there’s a stranger in my bed Yeah he don’t love you like he’s supposed to But I swear that I still can ‘Cause I want everything we hoped for And everything we had if I could only get back And put this all to rest we both know that someday I’ll regret That there’s a stranger in my bed
8.
There’s a bible in a drawer by a bed in a motel room It ain’t seen the light in a couple of moons Oh those souls that we lose too soon Coulda been found in the pages of the bible in the motel room There’s a picture in a frame in a box on the closet floor  Oh the life it would give if it could ask for more It could pick up the pieces of a broken heart That smile in the frame in a box on the closet floor We get caught in the day to day Get left picking up the pieces that we lose along the way  Are we out here making our own luck Or are we just collecting dust There’s an upright sealed tight pushed up against the wall It ain’t been in tune in a little while Those keys they would sing with a little bit of love There’s songs left waiting in that upright against the wall We get caught in the day to day Get left picking up the pieces that we lose along the way  Are we out here making our own luck Or are we just collecting dust
9.
10.
I left Dallas with an attitude, not too sure who I was gonna be The leaves turned in New England, and God painted seasons on the trees Turned sixteen in a room alone with voices through a telephone  Reminding me of what I left behind  I counted down the days till I would see the smile on my sisters faces But I started getting used to the cold air and the thick skin that it gave me Oh the first time that I felt it, like a rowboat in the sea So far from shore just hoping there was hope out there for me I ain’t mad about it; there’s no way around it We all grow up and the lucky ones they settle down real quick  A chip up on my shoulder, I got roots all over It’s tough to tell which way to go  Oh I don’t know —which way’s home From that corn field in the Delta to that shoebox on the upper east side  The city hears my Texas charm my friends all hear a New York state of mind Somehow along the way I found the one that didn’t mind those drives From here to there and back again —she’s steady by my side And I ain’t mad about it; there’s no way around it We all grow up and the lucky ones they settle down real quick  A chip up on my shoulder, I got roots all over It’s tough to tell which way to go  Oh I don’t know —which way’s home If you ask me where I’m from, I’ll tell you where I’ve been And a couple of those places keep me coming back again But so do you…and you…and you… I ain’t mad about it; there’s just no way around it We all grow up and the lucky ones they settle down real quick  A chip up on my shoulder, I got roots all over Tough to tell which way to go Oh I don’t know… Oh I don’t know… Which way’s home?

credits

released November 18, 2022

Produced, Recorded and Engineered by Brian Douglas Phillips at Rattle Trap Audio in Austin, TX.

Mastered by Joe Causey at Voyager Mastering in Nashville, TN.

Featured Artwork by Kinsey Hotchkiss, Boston, MA.

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about

Bo Armstrong Nashville, Tennessee

Songwriter.
Singer.

Texas-bent Americana.

Dallas born,
Nashville based.

NYC & MS DELTA in between...

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