Little Red Shoes

(From The 2004 Album Van Lear Rose)

Intro
C

Verse 1
CI Was Eleven Months Old, I Was Just Starting To Walk
CAnd Daddy Always Kept A Big Stick Behind The Door
CJust In Case Somebody Was To Come In
CThat Was Drunk On Moonshine, You Know
CAnd Daddy Had To Do Something About It
CAnyway, This Woman, We Called Her Old Aunt Boyd
CShe Come In And She Was Telling Mommy About Her, Uh, Husband,
CShe Thinks Is Going Out With This Woman In Paintsville
So She Reared Back With That Big Stick, Showing D#Mommy
How She Was Going To Hit This FWoman In The Head With It
And When She CWent Back With It, She Hit Me In The Head
And Mommy Said I D#Cried For Five Days
FAnd She Said On That Fifth CNight, I Had A Great Big Knot
CTo Show Up Right In The Middle Of My Forehead
CAnd You Know, The Only Thing I Remember
CI Don’t Remember No Pain
CI Just Remember Mommy And Daddy Carrying Me In This Old Quilt
CThat Mommy Had Made Out Of Overalls
CThe Knots Kept Getting Bigger And Bigger
CSo She Took Me To The Doctor
CAnd That Stuff Called Mesitor, Something Like That
CMommy Said It Made Both Ears Flat To My Face
CAnd I Ain’t Got Very Big Ears
And They Told Mommy That I Would, That I Was Gonna Die D#​
And That FHappened Like Four Times
CSo I Didn’t Walk Till I Was Almost Five
It Was, It Was Kind D#Of A Mess

Verse 2
F Oh I Forgot About The Shoes
Well CShoot, I Hadn’t, I’d Never Had A Pair Of Shoes
CAnd Mommy Had Went Took Me To The Hospital
CYou Know, To See What If They Couldn’t Do Something
CBut They Wouldn’t Keep Me Because Mommy And Daddy Didn’t Have No Money
CThey Just Tell ‘Em To Take Me Home And Let Me Die, You Know
C'Cause There Wasn’t Nothing They Could Do About That Kind Of Disease, I Guess
CAnd, Um, Mommy Told Daddy, Says “Ted, You Take Her Down The Street
CYou Carry Her Down The Street” And Said “Let Me Try This Store Here”
And Mommy D#Went In And Told Them The Story TFhat I Was Dying
CThat She Had To Carry Me Twelve Miles To Town
And D#Twelve Miles Back And That I HFad No Shoes
That CPlace, I Think It Was Murphy’s 5 And 10
CAnd They’re Still There In Paintsville, Kentucky
CAnd I Think They Told Mommy They Wasn’t In Business To Give Shoes Away
CMommy Told Daddy, Says, “Carry Loretta On Down A Little Farther”
CSaid, “Let Me Stop In Another Store”
CAnd Mommy Went Right Back To The Same Store
CWhen The Guy’s Back Was Turned She Stole These Little Red Shoes
CAnd I Remember On The Big Old Bridge That Went Across The River
It Went D#Way Up High And I’ve AFlways Been Scared Of That BCridge
CThat Took Me Across The Big Sandy River
MommyD# Pulled Them Out From Under That Yellow JFacket That She Was Wearing
And CShe Was Putting Them Red Shoes On Me
CAnd I Thought Them Was The Prettiest Things I Ever Saw In My Life

Verse 3
CAnd Daddy Started Crying And I Wondered Why
CAnd He Said, “Clerie, We’re Not Going To Make It Home”
CAnd Mommy Put The Shoes On Me And Daddy Took Off Running
CAnd Run All The Way Ahead To Butcher Holler With Me
CAnd Mommy Never Had A Chance To Carry Me Any Farther
CAnd That’s Almost Twelve Miles That Daddy Run With Me
CBut Daddy Knew That The Cops Was Gonna Get Us
CHe Left Mommy Standing And He Took Off In A Dead Run
CI Remember Him Running But I Didn’t Know What For
CAnd I Remember Asking Mommy, “Mommy, Why Is Daddy Running?”
CI Remember Her Hollering
                                           N.c.
“To Put Your Little Red Shoes Away, Honey, When You Get Home”
N.c.
Can You Believe That?
N.c.
So I Wrote A Song Called “Put My Little Red Shoes Away”
N.c.
You Know, They’re My Little Red Shoes
N.c.
And I Don’t Want ‘Em To Get, To Be Dirty