Kris Kristofferson - To Beat The Devil Lyrics
[voice: it was winter time in nashville, down on music city rowAnd I was looking for a place to get myself out of the cold, to warmThe frozen feeling that was eating at my soul, and keep the chillyWind off my guitar; my thirsty wanted whiskey, my hungry neededBeans; but itd been a month of pay days since Id heard that eagleScream; so with a stomach full of empty and pocket full of dreamsI left my pride and stepped inside a bar (actually I guess youdCall it a tavern). cigarette smoke to the ceiling and sawdust on theFloor.Friendly shadows. I saw that there was just one old man sittingAt the bar; and in the mirror I could see him checking me with myGuitar; he turned and said come up here boy and show us what youAre. I said Im dry and he bought me a beer. he nodded at myGuitar and said its a tough life aint it? I just looked at himAnd he said you aint making any money, are you? I said youveBeen reading my mail. he just smiled and said let me see thatGuitar: I got something you ought to hear. then he laidIt on me.....]If you waste your time a-talking to the people who dont listenTo the things that you are saying who do you thinks going to hear?And if you should die explaining how the things that they complain aboutAre things they could be changing, who dyou thinks goin to care?There were other lonely singers in a world turned deaf and blind whoWere crucified for what they tried to show,And their voices have been scattered by the swirling winds of time,cause the truth remains that no-one wants to know![voice: well, the old man was a stranger, but Id heard his song before;Back when failure had me locked out on the wrong side of the door; whenNo-one stood behind me but my shadow on the floor and lonesome was moreThan a state of mind. you see, the devil haunts a hungry man; if youDont want to join him youve got to beat him. I aint sayin I beat theDevil, but I drank his beer for nothing, and then I stole his song!]And you still can hear me singing to the people who dont listenTo the things that I am saying, praying someones going to hear;And I guess Ill die explaining how the things that they complain aboutAre things they could be changing, hoping someones goin to care.I was born a lonely singer and Im bound to die the sameBut Ive got to feed the hunger in my soul;And if I never have a nickel I wont ever die of shamecause I dont believe that no-one wants to know!
