The Roadblock, lyric by Stan Ridgway

from the songs album Partyball

News travels fast in a small desert town
So it wasn't long at all before the word got around
That a killin' mad car was headed their way
So the sheriff and the boys were gonna stop 'im out on the highway

Right where it intersected big black rock
So it wasn't long at all
Before the whole town was standin' round
Hammerin' a nail and buildin' up a pride in a roadblock
Just hangin' round a roadblock


The mayor's wife sat in the shade
And talked her way through a few good lies
While her husband practiced his acceptance speech
For a medal from the f.b.i.


And granny rocked back in her chair and said
"just what did this man do?"
While some idiot kids ate dirty
Sno-cones colored red white and blue
At the roadblock
Just hangin' round a roadblock (x3)


Then the local paper jumped the gun
And printed the big headline
Town is saved from killer car
With roadblock at stateline


Three miles down the highway in a chevy '69
Were a pair of crazy eyeballs jumpin' left and right in time
To an eight-track tape playin' foghat and jethro tull
And a gasoline-soaked hand shiftin' a little plastic skull


And on the arm, a blue tattoo that read "i'm a son of a bitch!"
A map open on the front seat?c?cleather, black as pitch
One foot slammed on the gas?c?cno shoe, just an argyle sock
And that car was screamin' wild down the highway, like lightning
Toward the roadblock
Right towards the roadblock


Then all eyes turned down the highway towards a big cloud of smoke
And granny went into a mild state of shock and started to choke
And a boy up in a tree yelled out, "here it come"
Then twenty men strong aimed and fired point-blank nineteen shotguns


Well, the next day, the sheriff just tried to stall
While they buried the body out behind a wall
The newspaper said "killer still on the lam?c?c
Seems the boys at the roadblock got the wrong man"


Nobody really knew just who he was
He was drivin' a camaro with dashboard fuzz
They all burned a car right there in big black rock
And no one ever said a word at all again1
About a roadblock
Not about a roadblock
Whooo! about a roadblock
Not about a roadblock, yeah....
Not about a roadblock