Pawn Shop Guitar

Intro

A shop bell over a door, one out-of-tune guitar chord

Verse 1

Daddy's old Gibson with the cigarette burnTraded it for sixty dollars the winter I turnedTwenty-two and angry and too proud to call homeI told myself a guitar's just wood and some chrome

Pre-Chorus

He never asked me where it wentHe just looked at the empty standAnd he let it go

Chorus

Some things you can buy backSome things you just can'tI found it in a window on the edge of BirminghamSame burn on the body, same crack in the neckI paid ten times the moneyBut I'd pay it all againFor a pawn shop guitarAnd the chance to say I'm sorry to a manWho's not here to hear it

Verse 2

Took it to the churchyard where the cedar trees growSat down on the grass by the name I knowTried to play the song he played on Christmas EveGot the chords all wrong, but I think he'd forgive me

Pre-Chorus

He never asked me where it wentHe just looked at the empty standAnd he let it go

Chorus

Some things you can buy backSome things you just can'tI found it in a window on the edge of BirminghamSame burn on the body, same crack in the neckI paid ten times the moneyBut I'd pay it all againFor a pawn shop guitarAnd the chance to say I'm sorry to a manWho's not here to hear it

Bridge

Organ swells, choir hums

So I'll teach it to my boyThe way he taught it to meEvery wrong chord and every burnSome things don't get sold again

Final Chorus

Full band, choir, voice tearing open

Some things you can buy backSome things you just can'tBut I'm holding what he held in these same two handsSame burn on the body, same crack in the neckI paid ten times the moneyAnd I'd pay it all againFor a pawn shop guitarAnd the chance to be the kind of manHe'd be proud to hear

Outro

Just the guitar, one chord ringing out

Some things you can buy back