STANLEY BY GOD TERRY

Stanley by God Terry knew exactly how it felt

To play a George Jones song in a white leather belt

With matching shoes, polyester blues

At the Pine Grove Lounge for all you can drink booze

A bloody bucket of ol broads and men

Who had been clean shaven when they started at 10

When Stanley got goin’ with mama by his side

And daddy on bass singin’ Charlie Pride

Kaw-lija, Folsom, Stand By Your Man

Just a few you might hear from the band

Nobody gets it like Tom T. Hall

Sad spun laughs off a disco ball

They could kinda play but they could really drink

Somebody’d finally say exactly what they think

And Pine-Sol, sawdust and last night’s beer

And a bolo tie on a rear view mirror

There’s a fighter in every dancin’ fool

I watched all as a baby from a black barstool

Stanley’s wife Carol didn’t care to hang around

She liked her drink, just didn’t take it in town

They’d knock down drag out every weekend

By Sunday somebody’s face was on the mend

And passed out cold on the concrete porch

Love sure is a bitch when your liver is scorched

South end of the county had a whole ‘nother bar

Where the band would play since it wasn’t very far

There were more strange women, even more smoke

In a field by a legendary live oak

Carol came in hot on Hennessy

Left and wrapped her car round that live oak tree

I remember in the morning mama dropping the phone

I remember hushed words and hearing daddy groan

They had a pretty daughter, shy little Sherry

We went and picked her up from the school library

She was 16 and could sing so sweet

And on a really good night she’d babysit me

After all that it gets kinda cloudy

But 2 years later she was Miss Sumter County

As small town, trashy, tragic goes

She feathered her hair and sang The Rose

The whole Cow Palace knew just how she felt

And Stanley By God Terry wore a white leather belt

And country music and hillbilly pain

Make stories that’ll hurt ya, and hold ya like a chain