When Jones Came Home

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Jim Lauderdale

It was an August morning in '85
When Jones came home more dead than alive
He'd been to the war, but the war was over
Jones wasn't cut out to be no rover

His wife was gone and his dog had died
He stuck out his thumb, couldn't get a ride
He stuck out his neck and the axe came down
No place for Jones left in that there town

When Jones came home
From that last big war
There was nothing left
That he'd been out fighting for

That Mississippi River and apple pie
And all those things for which a man might die
We're safe until the next time came to kill
So Jones went to school on a G.I. Bill

He learnt to divide and how to multiply
How to build a dam but he never learned why
When everything seemed to be going just fine
They round up the boys and send them on the front line

When Jones came home
From that last big war
There was nothing left
That he'd been out fighting for

His personal slice of the American dream
Seemed to go up in a puff of hot steam
Political manoeuvres never made much sense
Just a series of avoidable accidents

Got no message for the next generation
To scatter shot to make an accusation
Pursuit of the dollar we take for granted
It's never the facts, just how they're slanted

When Jones came home
From that last big war
There was nothing left
That he'd been out fighting for