Little Red Shoes

(From The 2004 Album Van Lear Rose)

Intro
D

Verse 1
DI Was Eleven Months Old, I Was Just Starting To Walk
DAnd Daddy Always Kept A Big Stick Behind The Door
DJust In Case Somebody Was To Come In
DThat Was Drunk On Moonshine, You Know
DAnd Daddy Had To Do Something About It
DAnyway, This Woman, We Called Her Old Aunt Boyd
DShe Come In And She Was Telling Mommy About Her, Uh, Husband,
DShe Thinks Is Going Out With This Woman In Paintsville
So She Reared Back With That Big Stick, Showing FMommy
How She Was Going To Hit This GWoman In The Head With It
And When She DWent Back With It, She Hit Me In The Head
And Mommy Said I FCried For Five Days
GAnd She Said On That Fifth DNight, I Had A Great Big Knot
DTo Show Up Right In The Middle Of My Forehead
DAnd You Know, The Only Thing I Remember
DI Don’t Remember No Pain
DI Just Remember Mommy And Daddy Carrying Me In This Old Quilt
DThat Mommy Had Made Out Of Overalls
DThe Knots Kept Getting Bigger And Bigger
DSo She Took Me To The Doctor
DAnd That Stuff Called Mesitor, Something Like That
DMommy Said It Made Both Ears Flat To My Face
DAnd I Ain’t Got Very Big Ears
And They Told Mommy That I Would, That I Was Gonna Die F​
And That GHappened Like Four Times
DSo I Didn’t Walk Till I Was Almost Five
It Was, It Was Kind FOf A Mess

Verse 2
G Oh I Forgot About The Shoes
Well DShoot, I Hadn’t, I’d Never Had A Pair Of Shoes
DAnd Mommy Had Went Took Me To The Hospital
DYou Know, To See What If They Couldn’t Do Something
DBut They Wouldn’t Keep Me Because Mommy And Daddy Didn’t Have No Money
DThey Just Tell ‘Em To Take Me Home And Let Me Die, You Know
D'Cause There Wasn’t Nothing They Could Do About That Kind Of Disease, I Guess
DAnd, Um, Mommy Told Daddy, Says “Ted, You Take Her Down The Street
DYou Carry Her Down The Street” And Said “Let Me Try This Store Here”
And Mommy FWent In And Told Them The Story GThat I Was Dying
DThat She Had To Carry Me Twelve Miles To Town
And FTwelve Miles Back And That I GHad No Shoes
That DPlace, I Think It Was Murphy’s 5 And 10
DAnd They’re Still There In Paintsville, Kentucky
DAnd I Think They Told Mommy They Wasn’t In Business To Give Shoes Away
DMommy Told Daddy, Says, “Carry Loretta On Down A Little Farther”
DSaid, “Let Me Stop In Another Store”
DAnd Mommy Went Right Back To The Same Store
DWhen The Guy’s Back Was Turned She Stole These Little Red Shoes
DAnd I Remember On The Big Old Bridge That Went Across The River
It Went FWay Up High And I’ve GAlways Been Scared Of That DBridge
DThat Took Me Across The Big Sandy River
MommyF Pulled Them Out From Under That Yellow GJacket That She Was Wearing
And DShe Was Putting Them Red Shoes On Me
DAnd I Thought Them Was The Prettiest Things I Ever Saw In My Life

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