They Call Me J-J-Joe

(Outlaw Country / Heavy Metal Hybrid)

Wanted signs nailed to a telephone pole

“Six Fingered Jed” took another poor soul

Burned down the rail camp west of Jericho Ridge

Left six shell casings lined up on the bridge

Sheriff got buried with his badge in his hand

Jed just laughed and vanished into the sand

Then the saloon doors groaned real low

And somebody whispered…

“Lord… that’s J-J-Joe…”

Three inch crater in the middle of his skull

Half machine memory, the other half null

Long black duster and a sawed-off grin

Dust and diesel where his blood once been

He drank white lightning mixed with motor oil

Like his veins ran pistons instead of boil

Looked at the poster, voice dragging slow

“S-s-six fingered Jed… where’d he go?”

They call me J-J-Joe

Last badge breathing in the wasteland glow

D-d-don’t run far

Don’t run slow

I always get my man

And the dead all know

Y-y-your move hombre

That’s all she wrote

When you hear them bootheels

And that rusted coat

They call me J-J-Joe…

And I always get my man

Tracked him through the ghost towns south of Doom

Through reactor ash and refinery fumes

Found six graves by a water tower line

Each one marked with a finger bone sign

Jed’s gang came screaming from the canyon wall

Joe drew iron faster than the rain could fall

Gun smoke thunder and a crimson glow

One man standing when the dust laid low

Jed laughed mean through his rotten teeth

“You ain’t no lawman underneath”

Joe touched the dent in his metal head

“D-d-don’t matter much…” he said

Heavy boots scraped across the floor

Wind blew ashes through the old bar door

Joe spit black oil in the neon light

“S-s-somebody’s gotta set this right…”

They call me J-J-Joe

Steel-eyed rider where the dead winds blow

T-t-try me once

You won’t try no more

You’ll be pushing up daisies

Through the reactor floor

Six Fingered Jed drew first and fast

But Joe’s old iron spoke last

Out in the wasteland people still know

Last thing Jed heard…

“They call me… J-J-Joe…”

Six shell casings in the blood-red dust

One more outlaw turned to rust

Joe rode west through the acid snow

Still hunting devils

Still called Joe…