One Of These Days

If I had a dime for every time I heard my old man say
One of these days
I wouldn't be like my old man today
Talking 'bout places that he'd been
Back in his younger days that he was gonna go back to again
One of these days

Dropped out of school when he was just 16
Fell right in to a tire plant
Building the very things that make the asphalt sing
And put Alabama far behind you

I remember him saying that Chicago was a hell right here on earth
And 25 years later I was saying the same thing about Memphis

It's no wonder everybody's scared of downtown Birmingham
It's just a little too close to home
It's just more crooks down there and the cops don't care
And white men wearing ties can do anything they want

Once a country boy's seen the way the steam rises
Off a man's insides on the sidewalk
Tends to change the way he thinks, the way he sees everything
And he goes back to where he came from

One of these days when my face looks like a roadmap gonna find my way back home
And I'll go walking on the west side after dark and leave my gun locked in my car
One of these days you'll take one look at me and run
One of these days you'll take one look at me and run