Run Joe Run

[Verse 1]
Well I heard your name on a jukebox cry,
Every night another long-distance sigh,
Pages and pages in a fevered rhyme,
Love gone strange in 4/4 time.
She said “Joseph darling, why don’t you call?”
Then “Joseph baby, do you love me at all?”
Then a record spun and the needle begun—
Sounded less like love, more a smoking gun.

[Chorus]
Run Joe run, put your shoes on son
There’s a red moon risin’ and the night ain’t done
Call a friend, climb a fence, catch the first train out
When devotion starts hissin’, that’s what danger’s about
Run Joe run, don’t walk—run!

[Verse 2]
Now she sings you poisoned yourself somehow
Says “take what the doctor says right now”
But I seen crime shows late at night
And brother that tune don’t sound quite right.
Chicken soup and roses by a sickbed door,
Then a jealous ballad and a slammed screen door
When the love songs turn into evidence, man
You don’t stay around to understand.

[Chorus]
Run Joe run, put your shoes on son
Weak or weary, crawl if you gotta, run
Ring a buddy up, send a coded note
Don’t wait around with your hand on your throat
Run Joe run, don’t walk—run!

[Verse 3]
Well a midnight knock came soft on the pane
Joe heard his name in the pouring rain
Sweet voice whisperin’, “Honey let me in…”
Brother that’s where the trouble begins.
Perfume drifting and a shadow crossed
Joe checked his pulse and nearly got lost
Saw a note on the floor say we’re meant to be
That’s when he climbed out the mango tree.

[Chorus]
Run Joe run, hear the hound dogs howl
Love gone crooked wears a velvet growl
Don’t read the letter, don’t answer the plea
If fate taps twice, climb the nearest tree
Run Joe run, don’t walk—run!

[Bridge — spoken Elvis style]
Well now Joe…
If she says “we belong together forever…”
That may be your cue, son.
Back door. Window. Fire escape. Move.

[Verse 4]
Cadillac rattlin’ down a county line
Joe in the back with a borrowed dime
Calling old friends from a roadside phone
Sayin’ “Boys come get me, I can’t go home.”
And somewhere a record skips in the dark
With a lipstick kiss and a question mark…

[Final Chorus]
Run Joe run, let the engine hum
There’s a whole lotta trouble where that came from
Love ain’t chains and it ain’t surveillance
Sometimes survival looks a lot like silence
Run Joe run—go cat, go!

[Tag]
Run Joe… run…

Male vocal, vintage Elvis-style rockabilly, driving upright bass, slapback guitar, honky-tonk piano, brushed drums, echo