Money Ain't Everything

(album: If I Could Make A Living - 1994)

Let's go to Louisiana, boys

Way down in Louisiana
Where the moss and cypress grew
You'd find old Jack in a shotgun shack
In the back of the black bayou

Some folks called him crazy
But I knew better than that
He kept a hundred dollar bill
Tucked away in the brim
Of his dirty old cowboy hat

Jack told me a story
When I was ten years old
He said, "There was once a fool
Tried to swim this swamp
With his back weighted down with gold"

He said, "You should've seen that alligator smile
He had a meal fit for a king
But he ened up on my table son
Money ain't everything"

He said, "There's only one way into this world
And one way out it's true
You either eat the alligator
Or he's gonna eat you"

"There's people living in a high-rise
That'll never hear a robin sing
What good is first place
When you're in a rat race
Money ain't everything"

Little Maggie May was dying
Her heart was about to go
When her daddy found a sack
On the porch out back
With half a million dollars in gold

But they still talk about the stranger
Who saved her life that spring
No name on the note
But someone wrote
Money ain't everything

He said, "There's only one way into this world
And one way out it's true
You either eat the alligator
Or he's gonna eat you"

"There's people living in a high-rise
That'll never hear a robin sing
What good is first place
When you're in a rat race
Money ain't everything"

No name on the note
But I know who wrote
Money ain't everything