DDPro's Website > Tom Paxton Chords > The Hooker (Early Version)

 

The Hooker

 

See also: The Hooker (Album Version)

Capo 4th fret


C            F     C
Where do you go at night?
      F            G
Where do you go at night?
C               F       C
Wrapped in your cheap cologne,
      F            G
Where do you go at night?


Am                       Em       Am
Down to the pit with the stinking air,
                                   Em       Am
And the smell of the death and the sweat is there.
                           Em          Am
I dance for a dollar and I dance for a dime,
                                      Em          Am
Till their eyes are begging and their pockets are mine.
  C                 Am
I pick a body and I name my fee;
  C                    Am
I take their money and they take me.
C              F     C
That's where I go at night.
       F             G     Am
That's where I go at night.

How do you spend your days?
How do you spend your days?
When you can sleep no more,
How do you spend your days?

I rise at four in the afternoon.
I take a match and the kitchen spoon.
I wrap my arm in an old necktie,
And I find religion on the very first try.
I wash my face and comb my hair.
My looks are going but I just can't care.
That's how I spend my days.
That's how I spend my days.

Where do you find your love?
Where do you find your love?
Where do you run to him?
Where do you find your love?

I find my love in an old hotel,
He's mean and wicked and he knows me well.
He takes my money and he takes my mind.
He takes my body and he beats me blind.
He says he'll help me but he won't say when,
And he sends me walking on the streets again.
That's where I find my love.
That's where I find my love.

How will you spend your life?
How will you spend your life?
While ladies play at cards,
How will you spend your life?

Dying in a circle of velvet rooms.
Lying in six inch carpeted tombs.
Hiding in the gutter from the aching pains.
Trading my years for the shaking veins.
Dying in pain when the tricks are few
When I can't get action from a john like you.
That's how I'll spend my life.
That's how I'll spend my life.
That's how I'll spend my life.
That's how I'll spend my life.

(Words and music by Tom Paxton, 1967)

Notes: This version is from a concert in May 1967 in Los Angeles. Tom revised it pretty quickly - two months later, at a concert in New Brunswick, he sang the album version. Anyway, some people still prefer this early version, which is in a major key, and is a nice contrast to the stark lyrics.

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