Devil, Devil (Prelude: Princess of Darkness)

This town, she is a temptress A siren with gold eyes She'll cut you with her kindness And she will bleed you with her lies She's been called a glistening devil She's good at keeping score If you make it, she's your savior If you don't, she's a whore The roads to and from her heart are littered with creative souls They gave all their all, and all they got in return is empty holes Sure, we've all heard about Shell, and Chris Willy, and Bobby Bares She's smiled on the Johnny's, the Merle's And made Music Row millionaires Like a beacon, she goes seeking seed Her loins so fertile To a free man, she's a prison To a caged one, she's a fire (fire) She's the reason there's a Sunday Morning Coming Down I Saw The Light A Boy Named Sue He Stopped Loving Her Today The Pill, and 16th Avenue The Ryman, oh, she's a diamond On the crown of that wicked queen She was Roy Acuff's castle and Elvis Presley's broken dream It's not all bad, it's not all dark It's not all gloom and crass But, to mine gold in this silver mine, it does take balls of brass 'Cause she's seen 'em come, and seen 'em go And came herself a time or two No matter how satisfied her screams sound She always wants someone new The next him or her, or them, or all To be a star in this lady's town You can fuck, or you can fight You see, it all comes down to money Not romantic art of days gone past If you forget that rule you can bet your backside She will bury it in your ass A tramp, a slut, a bitch, a mutt A thousand pawn shop guitars A nasty little needle to a vein That feeds a singer's heart She lurks in friendly shadows, but she's a junkie with a limp The agents are her bookies, and the labels are her pimps I'll tell you a well-known secret of a tiny place known far and wide The devil walks among us, folks And Nashville is his bride Of all the chaos he has caused, and done His greatest trick is to every guitar-toting dreamer, the Devil don't exist But me? I shook his hand, and I know that he is real So Devil, you can go screw yourself And then go straight to hell Devil, devil, I feel you preyin' on my mind I got nine things going wrong right now And her leaving makes a dime I'm mad as hell, and drunk, and well Tonight, I guess we'll see If Devil, Devil, you're bad enough to lock horns with me Level, level, in search of solid ground This swinging, swaying, side to side, is tossin' me around I got a hankering for an anchor to steady up my bow Level, level, tie this rebel down Crazy, crazy, calling out my name I've got one foot on the platform, and the other is on a train Save me, save me, I know what's in store Crazy, crazy, hell I've been there before Danger, danger, the way you're looking there at me Be careful what you wish for, you might get what you don't need I'm a brush fire on a drought land in a Santa Ana breeze Danger, danger, don't you play around with me Crazy, crazy, calling out my name I've got one foot on the platform, and the other is on a train Save me, save me, I know what's in store Crazy, crazy, hell I've been there before Angel, angel, heavenly body in holy jeans On second thought, get over here and wrap me in your wings Throw caution to the wind and honey, give me what I need Angel, angel, love this Devil, Devil, out of me Devil, Devil, Devil Uh-uh-uh-uh, Devil, Devil Uh-uh-uh-uh Uh-uh-uh-uh, Devil, Devil Uh-uh-uh-uh