Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)

Lyrics: Merle Travis, Tex Williams
Music: Merle Travis, Tex Williams

Played by the David Nelson Band for the first time in late 2017

Now I'm a fellow with a heart of gold
And the ways of a gentleman I've been told
The kind of a fellow that wouldn't even harm a flea

But if me and a certain character met
The guy that invented the cigarette
I'd murder the son-of-a-gun in the first degree

It ain't 'cos I don't smoke myself
And I don't reckon that it'll hinder your health
Smoked all my life and I ain't dead yet

But nicotine slaves are all the same
At a pettin' party or a poker game
Everything's gotta stop while they smoke that cigarette

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette

Now in a game of chance the other night
Old Dame Fortune was doing me right
The kings and the queens just kept on coming around

And I got a full and I bet 'em high
But my bluff didn't work on a certain guy
He just kept on raisin' and layin' the money down

Now he'd raise me and I'd raise him
I sweated blood, you gotta sink or swim
He finally called, didn't raise the bet

So I said Aces full, pal, how about you
He said "I'll tell you in a minute or two
But right now, I just gotta have a cigarette

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette

The other night I had me a date
With the cutest little girl in the forty eight states
One of them high-bred, uptown, fancy little things

She said she'd like a minute and it seemed to me
That everything was about like it oughta be
So hand in hand we strolled down lover's lane

She was oh so far from a jug of ice
And our smoochin' party was goin' nice
So help me, had I, I could have have been there yet

But I give her a kiss and a little squeeze
And she said, Tex, excuse me please
But I just gotta have another, cigarette

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette