Day 27: A Million Ways To Lose (with Jay Stott)

Lyrics:
Thursday night, I got off of work
Last five dollars and my last clean shirt
I went down to the store, I said "what the hey?"
My momma's always said, "you can't win you don't play"

Got a box of Tide and a six-pack, too
It's not like I had a whole lot to do
Picked out my numbers, and I was on my way
As far as I could tell, it was just another day

Let me tell you, baby, there's a million ways to lose
Cigarettes and cocaine and always the booze
Like I'm a Molotov cocktail, I'm bad news
It don't take too much to light my fuse

Three beers later, I was thinking 'bout chips
Watching my laudry doing back flips
The man on the TV was calling out digits
I looked down and saw the same ones on my ticket

Ran into the street screaming and yelling
The people walking by wondering what I was selling
I went to the machine and I pulled out all my cash
Twenty dollar bills falling like burning ash

Let me tell you, baby, there's a million ways to lose
Cigarettes and cocaine and always the booze
Like I'm a Molotov cocktail, I'm bad news
It don't take too much to light my fuse

Took my ticket to the lottery bureau
I figured they were gonna treat me like a hero
Show the lady my ticket, she said, "too bad for you"
I said, "what do you mean?"
She said, "that's a seven not a two"

They say if you fail history,  you're condemned to repeat it
Well I failed math and the lady said, "beat it"
Now I'm sittin' on a barstool telling my buddy
Trying to tell the tale of what happened to all my money

Let me tell you, baby, there's a million ways to lose
Cigarettes and cocaine and always the booze
Like I'm a Molotov cocktail, I'm bad news
It don't take too much to light my fuse

Details: This is the first time I've worked with Jay Stott and it was a blast! He's a great storyteller, even when talking about boring things (like retirement or whatever). He's also an amazingly quick thinker when it comes to lyrics-- he probably rolled off 2/3rds of the words for this song in no time. But we had a great discussion about a variety of things before we really got going, and we incorporated a lot of that into the song. On top of his great wordplay, I really love this guy's rock solid rhythm guitar playing!

This song took only about 2 hours to write, then another 30 to record.