"Take the Money and Run" (1976)

The first brand new album I ever purchased with my own money was Steve Miller Band's Fly Like an Eagle (1976). I was thirteen, a Kerrisdale Courier paperboy, and on weekends I would go downtown to where the albums were before visiting my father in the West End. A&A Records was at the corner of Robson and Granville (or was it Nelson and Granville?) and A&B Sound further north on Seymour and Dunsmuir.

When the Hard Rock Miners were touring regularly (1988-1993), the van was our rehearsal space. I don't remember it as a place where we got a lot of writing done, but for rehearsing and arranging, it was great.

I love the Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers Van Sessions. Great musicianship, great humour, great friends, too, I hope. Their video above is one of my favourites. As for the song, I liked it as a kid, but I like it even more now.

Could it use another verse between the third and the fourth? It seems like there was one there once. But just as well -- more room to imagine what Bobbie Sue slipped away from, how she did it, and where Billy Joe was.

Hoo-hoo

This is a story about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue
Two young lovers with nothin' better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here is what happened when they decided to cut loose

They headed down to, ooh, old El Paso
That's where they ran into a great big hassle
Billy Joe shot a man while robbing his castle
Bobbie Sue took the money and run

Hoo-hoo-hoo, go on, take the money and run
Go on, take the money and run
Hoo-hoo-hoo, go on, take the money and run
Go on, take the money and run

Hoo-hoo-hoo

Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain't gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin' off of the people's taxes

Bobbie Sue, whoa, whoa, she slipped away
Billy Joe caught up to her the very next day

They got the money, hey, you know they got away
They headed down south and they're still running today

Singin' go on take the money and run