Questions and Answers (In the Dead of the Night); From the Series “Country Music Lyrics”

 

From the Series “Country Music Lyrics”

 

Questions and Answers

(In the Dead of the Night)

 

Can I live with all this low-down

Lonesome heartache, pain and blues?

You can if you got to,

And you know that you got to,

And if you know that you got to, then

You know that you can.

 

Can I live through one more hour

Of February snow and ice and

Dismal days and still worse nights

And reams of alcoholic haze?

You can if you know that

You ain’t got no choice, son;

If you know that you got to, then

You know that you can.

 

Will the sunlit times come soon,

And burn off all this aching pain,

And dry up all the booze inside,

And send me solace, daylight warmth,

With sweet and dreamless sleep at night,

And help me make it through this life?

They may come right soon, son,

And they may not come, ever,

Life makes no promises,

That ain’t life’s job.

Your job’s to live, son,

To load years, transport ’em,

You just walk on now, you hear?

 

I can if I got to,

And I know that I got to;

If you know that you got to, then

You know that you can.

 

Note

Lyrics from the notebook of Bobby Lee Goosey, written in the 1980s. Song originally intended for George Jones, but George never got around to recording it.