Chorus:
"When you're sitting up too late, and I have gone to bed,
And the TV flickers bluely in your aching head,
And you're staring out a window at a parking lot," you said.
"Turn out the lights."

I could hear the neon buzzing through the sweating pane of glass,
"Come on in" the tubing mumbled in the night.
I ran my finger down the pane, I wrote and then erased your name,
The shower door slid open and she came into the room,
And looked at me and smiled, "Isn't it too bright? 
Turn out the lights."

Repeat chorus

In the morning restaurant  the tablecloths are stiff and white,
There are flowers made of plastic on each one.
The silverware is gleaming like a polished bayonet in flight,
A woman takes our orders and writes them with a frown,
And for a second it's another Sunday morning, in another Sunday town.

Repeat chorus

And later on, alone, I am sitting in my car.
There is a hint of some perfume and sun bleached leather.
I can't stand the radio--how can they preach to eskimos?
I watch the cars whiz by, time my mistake to a semi,
I'll be coming home to baby. . . .   by and by.

Repeat chorus

My Uncle old-time Charlie threw his fiddle up a tree
My brother told me 'simmons was the thing that got his goat:
He'd sat there on the back porch, drinking Elum tea,
And when he went inside to eat there wasn't any soap.

There wasn't any victuals, there warn't no silverware,
There wasn't any plates nor cups nor no place to sit down,
There wasn't any table, there wasn't any chair,
And his wife was in the living room without no underwear.

Chorus:
Charlie, Oh Charlie, your name will always be,
You took my grampaw's fiddle and you throw'd it up a tree,
They say you ate the 'simmons that had landed on the ground,
And when you pitched that fiddle up they say you shot it down.

Well Charlie looked and looked around, his house was awful strange,
The clock was running back'ards, the upstairs felt like rain,
His couch was lying on the floor, his car was in the ditch,
He picked up grampaw's fiddle but it wouldn't get in pitch

Oh Charlie wound and tuned and tuned, he twisted all them wires,
He put his E on Mercury, he put his G on Mars,
His head was spinning like the Moon is spinning round the Earth,
He rosined up his bow a spell but took an awful thirst.

Repeat chorus

By the time he got his pistol out the 'simmon punch was gone,
The Sun has passed behind the ridge, evening was coming on,
It took him twenty cartergize -- ey god he got 'er down --
He dragged his legs into the house and left er on the ground!

Repeat chorus