Me and Hal and Walter McClure

It was one cold winter night
when three of us, me and Hal, and Walter McClure
went walking under a moonless sky.

Fun and girls and spirits had been plenty
for some of us; me and Hal for sure,
but not Walter, not Walter McClure.

He was in a mood and deaf to my calling,
kept on walking, looking weird
as if he’d seen a night monster near.

Three others started raising Cain.
It didn’t seem right and I yelled for him to stop:
“Hey, Walt! What’s got into your brain?”

But Walt had turned a deaf ear.
He picked up a stick
and a-rack-a-tack-tack was all we could hear.

He raised that stick and briefly looked back
“Walter McClure!” I called. But he kept on
and all we could hear was a-rack-a-tack-tack

It was a-rack-a-tack-tack times many more
for Charley Comb’s fences to fall,
and the night air smelled deadly, oh yeah...

And I wanted to help him, kept calling him back,
but John Barleycorn was having its way
though I wanted to help him, but oh my... was I drunk!

I kept gazing at the absent stars
as I walked under the moonless sky
I could’ve said a prayer, but I forgot.

And soon I heard nothing but the rack-a-tack-tack,
though it would be the last one I’d hear that night,
’cause Charlie Comb’s fence came tumbling down.

A faint stream of yellow came out of Charley’s window,
as he pointed his rifle into the night.
“Let him go, Charley,” I yelled. “He’s having a night in limbo!”

But the rack-a-tack-tack stopped that night
without moon or stars when Walter McClure
took his last breath and I was oh... so... drunk...