Summer Wages Lyrics - Other Voices, Too (a Trip Back To Bountiful) - Nanci Griffith

(Ian Tyson) 

Never hit seventeen 

When you play against the dealer 

You know that the odds 

Won't ride with you 

And never leave your woman alone 

With your friends around to steal her 

She'll be gambled and gone 

Like summer wages 

And we'll keep rollin' on 

'Til we get to Vancouver 

And the woman that I love 

She's living there 

It's been six long months 

And more since I've seen her 

Years have gambled and gone 

Like summer wages 

In all the beer parlors 

All down along Main Street 

The dreams of the seasons 

Get all spilled down on the floor 

All the big stands of timber 

Just waiting for the falling 

And the hookers stand watchfully 

Waiting by the door 

So I'll work on the towboats 

With my slippery city shoes 

Which lord I swore I would never do again 

Through the the gray fog-bound straits 

Where the cedars stand watching 

I'll be far off and gone 

Like summer wages 

Never hit seventeen 

When you play against the dealer 

You know that the odds 

Won't ride with you 

And never leave your woman alone 

With your friends around to steal her 

She'll be gambled and gone 

Like summer wages 

And the years are gambled and lost 

Like summer wages