Rock & Roll of the Finest Vintage

Lyrics

3. Grenadine = Red Dye No.40
(word and music by Sam Russell)

Sam:
grenadine
red dye #40 mixed with Coke shot straight from gun
following the trail splattered under Texas sun
from a punk posing as line cook always with burned hand
what you didn't know yet aw you tried to understand

grenadine
you call me up from Portland waiting for rush to return
south of Seattle where I’ve spent years now trying to learn
how to sweeten up shift with just right amount poured in
sweetening what might be but never what has been

at your and Dave's place, after close, we’d sail
up a sugar nile to look back from yeah way on down the rails
I’d had fill first summer at Boathouse, to Santa Fe back I did leave
and the morning my train left, I got high with Kimmy on

grenadine
in Indiana, on your parents back deck, we drank to change
after I felt called back home to The Chancery to face

Sam & Allison:
Wisconsin highway full of wrecks to come and years to waste
but that summer we found courage used since in cherry taste

Sam:
grenadine
she showed me how to dance in New York our hands pressed
she said

Sam & Allison:
you'll probably use this on some waitress

Sam:
you find your friends and lovers working on the job
everyone you know works in a restaurant

you moved to Austin and I moved to Chicago
I got a tattoo to commemorate parting ways for growing old
and you came back all fucked up and I turned my back on you
cutting off my past, to be a man and a brother I did lose in

grenadine
you went to my dad's church craving but he wouldn’t there
it was just that one Sunday he wasn’t)preaching I swear
I'd take that train an hour north and cross border
to see you stuck, think I couldn't help you anymore

Sam & Allison:
I’d see you stuck, think I couldn't help you anymore

Sam:
I'd see you stuck, think I couldn't help you anymore