Forgotten Songs I Will Love Forever, #1- Rickie Lee Jones’s Last Chance Texaco

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Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

Part One of a New & Occasional Series…the other parts are here.

In no particular order.

“Last Chance Texaco” Written & Performed by Ricki Lee Jones on her classic debut album, Rickie Lee Jones, 1979.

40 years on, it sends a chill down my spine every damn time I hear it.

Performed in 1979-

Lyrics-

A long stretch of headlights
Bends into I-9
Tiptoe into truck stops
And sleepy diesel eyes
Volcanoes rumble in the taxi
And glow in the dark
Camels in the driver’s seat
A slow, easy mark

But you ran out of gas
Down the road a piece
Then the battery went dead
And now the cable won’t reach…

It’s your last chance
To check under the hood
Last chance
She ain’t soundin’ too good,
Your last chance
To trust the man with the star
You’ve found the last chance Texaco

Well, he tried to be Standard
He tried to be Mobil
He tried living in a world
And in a shell
There was this block-busted blonde
He loved her – free parts and labor
But she broke down and died
And threw all the rods he gave her

But this one ain’t fuel-injected
Her plug’s disconnected
She gets scared and she stalls
She just needs a man, that’s all

It’s her last chance
Her timing’s all wrong
Her last chance
She can’t idle this long
Her last chance
Turn her over and go
Pullin’ out of the last chance Texaco
The last chance

Performed in 1985-

  • For Zette.

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