George Smith - "Operator Unknown"

from Round 15, Week 5 by Monday Morning 3AM Music Club

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about

Another crazy rush week scribbling out a song late on Sunday night. It's fun to try to exercise it though; good for the soul. As with most of my songs this round, a little more time could make something happen so I may revisit this one again.
I wanted to use "California" as a person's nickname, so I tried to imagine a story behind a person so aptly named for either being built like a tank, ready to fall off the deep end, and/or a dreamer.
I believe the well-established influence of early 2000's Drive By Truckers and Darrell Scott in general helped form the narrative here.

lyrics

"Operator Unknown"

Every day he'd wake up
and dream till the sun went down
Cigarettes and whiskey dusk
Ounce by ounce, pound for pound

They used to call him California
Always wanted to get away
To find some gold and a girl to hold
Far from the Bluegrass State

There's no room for a dreamer
At the bottom of the mines
Slow death in excess if you make it that long
Blue flame from a copper line

Seemed more like the thing to do
Than to waste away in a grave
Digging in the hills
For someone else's golden chain

Saving for a rainy day's
an easy thing to do
The devil gets his six days in
before the dawn of Sunday's dew

Brown leather bag is all he had
Planned to take from here
Paper stacks never looking back
Train to commandeer

The west coast was calling
Like the sirens' seductive song
One more day to clean the sinners' plates
Didn't seem like too long

Last sunrise in the holler
Just past the whistle moan
He met the eye of a Colt .45
Operator unknown

credits

from Round 15, Week 5, released July 31, 2017

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Monday Morning 3AM Music Club Winston Salem, North Carolina

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