five hands of stupid

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Lyrics

[Intro - Acoustic guitar and upright bass, sparse, low conversation feel]

[Verse 1 - Male Baritone, dry storyteller voice, almost spoken]
Five of us around the table on a Friday night
Cards on the felt and a low yellow light
Somebody dealt and somebody said
Boys, let me tell you about a time I did something dumb in my head
And the rest of us laughed 'cause we knew what was comin'
Once one man starts, the whole table starts runnin'

[Verse 2 - Earl's story]
Earl went first, said back in eighty-nine
I had a little shop and a partner that was mine
We shook on the deal, never signed a thing
And he walked out the door with everything
Forty thousand in inventory, the truck, and the name
And I started over the next mornin' just the same

[Chorus]
And we all just laughed but the laugh had an edge
'Cause every man here had stood on that ledge
Pass the bottle, deal the cards, somebody go
We've all got a story and we've all got it slow

[Verse 3 - Dale's story]
Dale went second and he didn't smile
Said boys I was stupid for a real long while
There was a woman at work and there was a wife at home
And I picked the wrong one and I ended up alone
Lost the house, lost the kids for a year and a day
And I'd give back every dollar to undo what I had to pay

[Chorus]
And we all just nodded and nobody laughed
'Cause that one cuts deeper than the dumb and the daft
Pass the bottle, deal the cards, somebody go
We've all got a story and we've all got it slow

[Verse 4 - Mac's story]
Mac said alright, well I'll top that
I did eighteen months and I'll tell you what's a fact
A friend of a friend had a deal in a van
And I should've said no but I'm a yes-sir kind of man
Eighteen months of concrete and a couple lost teeth
And a record I'm carryin' underneath

[Chorus]
And we all just whistled and we passed him the bottle
'Cause that one's a story that runs at full throttle
Pass the bottle, deal the cards, somebody go
We've all got a story and we've all got it slow

[Verse 5 - Tommy's story, slower]
Tommy went next and he set down his beer
Said boys I lost somethin' I can't get back here
Best friend of mine for thirty-some years
We had a fight about nothin' and I left in tears
I called him in the morning but he wouldn't pick up
And a month later they buried him and I never patched it up

[Bridge - Very quiet, just acoustic and voice]
Nobody talked for a minute or so
The cards on the table and the lamp burning low
Earl cleared his throat and he looked over at me
Said well son, your turn — let's hear what you've got to plead

[Verse 6 - Narrator's $100k story]
I said boys, I had a hundred grand once and I gave it away
To a man with a folder and a thing he had to say
The deal was a sure thing, the man was a friend
And I drove home from the meeting thinkin' it was the start, not the end
Six months later the calls went cold
And a hundred thousand dollars walked out the door I held open

[Verse 7 - Narrator continues, the realization]
But I'll tell you somethin', and I mean it true
After what Dale paid and what Tommy lost too
After Mac did time and Earl ate the loss
I'm sittin' here thinkin' I'm the one with the luck
'Cause money comes back if you live long enough
And the other things don't, and that's the stuff

[Final Chorus - Full harmonies, slower]
So we all just nodded and we all just sat there
With the cards on the table and the smoke in the air
Pass the bottle, deal the cards, the night ain't done
We've all got a story and we've all got one

[Outro - Acoustic and harmonica, fading]
Five hands of stupid on a Friday night
Five old men in a low yellow light
And the man who paid the most ain't always the one
Who lost the most under the sun

[End]

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