peppy
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Story behind the song
I was thinking about an old song by a guy named Sammy Johns, about how he had this Chevy Van, and he picked up this hot poontang, and then they had sex. That was it, I thought? The whole story? Looking in the rearview mirror, I could imagine all the things that could have gone wrong. In fact, in my real life, many of them did. So I stitched it all together and wrote this song. Couldn't resist a happy ending, though.
Lyrics
I was a couple years past high school
In the early 1970s
Making cones and sundaes for minimum wage
Down at the Tastee Freeze
I spent most the money that I had earned
On a beat-up old Chevy van
I bought it from the neighbor on down the block
Who'd got it second hand
Who'd got it second hand
I had a plan I'd travel cross the land
earn some money along the way
Doin odd jobs in towns and country
Just livin day to day
I didn't give them notice down at the freeze
You could say I left suddenly
Dropped my hairnet in the trashcan by the door
Walked out and I was free
Walked out and I was free
First I asked my friends, then the friends of my friends
If anyone would come with me
But they wouldn't leave their girlfriends or their jobs
They wore their chains like jewelry.
The first couple days were groovy and great
Didn't I have me a time
but the solitude got old real fast
adventure became a grind
adventure became a grind
Soon I wished I'd brought along some other 8 track tapes
And I thought I's gonna go insane
hearing Tea for the Tillerman a thousand times
And America's A Horse With No Name
I pulled off the road for some gasoline
In sunny southern Idaho
I tucked my hair up under my hat
So the rednecks would stay mellow
I wanted them to stay mellow
As I pointed my Chevy van up the ramp
To get back on the interstate
a girl hitch hiker stuck out her thumb
and I knew that it must be fate
I was pretty damn certain that I'd never seen
Anyone who looked so beautiful
Kickin up a spray of gravel with my brakes
I told her hop in and off we go
hop in and off we go
Then I saw a bearded hippie in a paisley shirt
Jumpin from behind a bush
It's the oldest trick in hitching history
And I knew that I was on the hook
She smiled and said they call me Cathy
And my old man here's Paul
We're so obliged that you're taking us
Up the road to Klamath Falls
Up the road to Klamath Falls
Well, I can't do that, I told her straight
Because I'm headed south
Manys the time that I thought back on that,
And wished that I'd just shut my mouth
They dumped me bruised and bleeding
Just this side of hell
I gotta say that skinny longhair packed a punch
And Kathy did as well
Kathy did as well
But they left me with just barely enough
Cash to catch the Greyhound home
I guess you could say that they weren't bad
Clean through to the bone
The local cops turned up my van
Trashed and dumped in Coeur d'Alene
A junkyard there took it in for parts
And I was on my feet again.
On my feet again
I hung around town and I found a job
Working for the government
Sometimes I think I'm gonna take another trip
But I never went
Sitting in a rocker on the back porch lookin
At the diapers on the line
Drinking ice tea with you by my side
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine
That suits me just fine