Little Red Shoes

(From The 2004 Album Van Lear Rose)

Intro
A

Verse 1
AI Was Eleven Months Old, I Was Just Starting To Walk
AAnd Daddy Always Kept A Big Stick Behind The Door
AJust In Case Somebody Was To Come In
AThat Was Drunk On Moonshine, You Know
AAnd Daddy Had To Do Something About It
AAnyway, This Woman, We Called Her Old Aunt Boyd
AShe Come In And She Was Telling Mommy About Her, Uh, Husband,
AShe Thinks Is Going Out With This Woman In Paintsville
So She Reared Back With That Big Stick, Showing CMommy
How She Was Going To Hit This DWoman In The Head With It
And When She AWent Back With It, She Hit Me In The Head
And Mommy Said I CCried For Five Days
DAnd She Said On That Fifth ANight, I Had A Great Big Knot
ATo Show Up Right In The Middle Of My Forehead
AAnd You Know, The Only Thing I Remember
AI Don’t Remember No Pain
AI Just Remember Mommy And Daddy Carrying Me In This Old Quilt
AThat Mommy Had Made Out Of Overalls
AThe Knots Kept Getting Bigger And Bigger
ASo She Took Me To The Doctor
AAnd That Stuff Called Mesitor, Something Like That
AMommy Said It Made Both Ears Flat To My Face
AAnd I Ain’t Got Very Big Ears
And They Told Mommy That I Would, That I Was Gonna Die C​
And That DHappened Like Four Times
ASo I Didn’t Walk Till I Was Almost Five
It Was, It Was Kind COf A Mess

Verse 2
D Oh I Forgot About The Shoes
Well AShoot, I Hadn’t, I’d Never Had A Pair Of Shoes
AAnd Mommy Had Went Took Me To The Hospital
AYou Know, To See What If They Couldn’t Do Something
ABut They Wouldn’t Keep Me Because Mommy And Daddy Didn’t Have No Money
AThey Just Tell ‘Em To Take Me Home And Let Me Die, You Know
A'Cause There Wasn’t Nothing They Could Do About That Kind Of Disease, I Guess
AAnd, Um, Mommy Told Daddy, Says “Ted, You Take Her Down The Street
AYou Carry Her Down The Street” And Said “Let Me Try This Store Here”
And Mommy CWent In And Told Them The Story DThat I Was Dying
AThat She Had To Carry Me Twelve Miles To Town
And CTwelve Miles Back And That I DHad No Shoes
That APlace, I Think It Was Murphy’s 5 And 10
AAnd They’re Still There In Paintsville, Kentucky
AAnd I Think They Told Mommy They Wasn’t In Business To Give Shoes Away
AMommy Told Daddy, Says, “Carry Loretta On Down A Little Farther”
ASaid, “Let Me Stop In Another Store”
AAnd Mommy Went Right Back To The Same Store
AWhen The Guy’s Back Was Turned She Stole These Little Red Shoes
AAnd I Remember On The Big Old Bridge That Went Across The River
It Went CWay Up High And I’ve DAlways Been Scared Of That ABridge
AThat Took Me Across The Big Sandy River
MommyC Pulled Them Out From Under That Yellow DJacket That She Was Wearing
And AShe Was Putting Them Red Shoes On Me
AAnd I Thought Them Was The Prettiest Things I Ever Saw In My Life

Verse 3
AAnd Daddy Started Crying And I Wondered Why
AAnd He Said, “Clerie, We’re Not Going To Make It Home”
AAnd Mommy Put The Shoes On Me And Daddy Took Off Running
AAnd Run All The Way Ahead To Butcher Holler With Me
AAnd Mommy Never Had A Chance To Carry Me Any Farther
AAnd That’s Almost Twelve Miles That Daddy Run With Me
ABut Daddy Knew That The Cops Was Gonna Get Us
AHe Left Mommy Standing And He Took Off In A Dead Run
AI Remember Him Running But I Didn’t Know What For
AAnd I Remember Asking Mommy, “Mommy, Why Is Daddy Running?”
AI 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