When Walter Went Crazy

Drive-By Truckers

When Walter went crazy
She was sitting on the couch
Painting her toenails
And drinking a tab
He walked out of the bedroom with a cigarette in his mouth
And he poured gasoline in a circle all around the house

When Walter went crazy
He had rattlesnake in his eyes
Blended whisky in his veins and murder in his heart
She watched him walk out the door and knew he was gone
Matlock on the TV and her mama on the phone

When Walter went crazy, they say he just snapped
It had gone on for so long and she wasn’t coming back
She hadn’t been off the couch in at least a dozen years
Deafened by the silence and the grinding of the gears

His friends could see it coming like yellow piss on snow
Like a house fire in the distance, like a car crash in slow mo
Their friends could see it coming but what could someone do
When it’s speeding down the runway and
The brake line’s cut in two

When Walter went crazy
The house went up in flames
You could see his hands shaking
From the bourbon and the shame
He never planned the ending
He just rolled the credit names
When the lights came up we all went home
But never quite the same

When the lights came up we all went home
But never quite the same

When the lights came up we all went home
But never quite the same