Tupelo Mississippi Flash

(album: Nashville Underground - 1968)

I'm gonna tell you a story that's all about
This job I had one time as a talent scout

I had a hard day at the office and the boss wasn't in town
The day this hired legged guitar picker just happened to come around
Well, he walks into my office with a great big grin
And folks that's where my story really begins

He said, "Son my name is Boregard Rippy
I come to you from Tupelo Mississippi
I write songs that'll sing like a bird
I play licks on my guitar like you ain't never heard"

"But I'm down on my luck, things are just a little slack
I gotta quarter in my pocket and a shirt on my back
But you buy me some supper, give me a place I can sleep"
He said, "I'll sing you some songs
That'll knock your head to creak, I got talent boy"
Said, "Back home they call me the Tupelo Mississippi Flash"

Well, I knew I was in a room with some kind of a nut
When he pulled out that pack of used cigarette butts
So that's when I told him,'We can't use you today?
So I handed the boy a dollar and I sent him on his way

Well, the boss got back and we both had a laugh
When I told him 'bout the Tupelo Mississippi Flash
And pretty soon I had the story circling around
About this Mississippi nut that we had in our town

I said,'Watch him everybody, the boy's squirrely
He walks around calling himself the Tupelo Mississippi Flash?

Well, and it happened one day while I was driving to my home
I just happened to have my car radio on
When I heard the jockey raving about a brand new smash
By a kid called the Tupelo Mississippi Flash

Well, I almost wrecked my automobile
I went through a red light, I hit the traffic cop, why

Well, my story's got an ending and it's short and sweet
The boss man he fired me and left me out in the street
But I got a new job now and I'm learning real fast
I'm driving the bus for the Tupelo Mississippi Flash

And his Cadillac, I'm driving that for him too
And that yacht he's got, and his aeroplane
Well, chauffeur, so good, I always say
Tupelo Mississippi, who ever heard of it, why

I'll kill the boy
Help him somebody