TONIGHT I FEEL LIKE AN OLD VIOLIN

Johnny Paycheck had four careers. He played in some of the best country bands for artists like Ray Price and George Jones (though not widely acknowledged, his vocal style was a major influence on Jones). He went solo and had some minor hits, great songs like "A-11" and "The Real Mr. Heartache", and wrote hits for others, like "Apartment No. 9" for Tammy Wynette. Then, he made it big, too big, with the song he's most famous for, David Allan Coe's "Take This Job And Shove It". That's when he fell into drugs, alcohol and prison. During this period, he also scored with some remarkable, play-on-words-type-songs like, "Slide Off Of Your Satin Sheets" and "I'm The Only Hell (My Mama Ever Raised)." He finally cleaned up in his later life and was invited to rejoin the Opry, where he made several, unforgettable appearances. But just as things were turning around, he died on Feb. 19, 2003. One of his greatest compositions was the "Old Violin". Here's an acoustic version, played among his peers, followed by the words. It's his story and I think his best work.

Old Violin

Well, I can't recall, one time in my life,

I've felt as lonely as I do tonight.
I feel like I could lay down, and get up no more,
It's the damndest feelin'; I never felt it before.

Tonight I feel like an old violin,
Soon to be put away and never played again.
Don't ask me why I feel like this, hell, I can't say.
I only wish this feelin' would just go away.

I guess it's 'cos the truth,
Is the hardest thing I ever faced.
'Cos you can't change the truth,
In the slightest way. I tried.

So I asked myself,
I said: "John, where'd you go from here?"
Then like a damned fool,
I turned around and looked in the mirror.

And there I saw, an old violin.
Soon to be put away and never played again.

So one more time, just to be sure,
I said: "John, where in the hell do you go from here?"
You know that when a nickel's worth of difference,
And I looked in the mirror, that's when I knew.

That there I was seein', an old violin.
Soon to be put away, and never played again.

And just like that, it hit me,
That old violin and I were just alike.
We'd give our all to music,
And soon, we'd give our life.

• Johnny Paycheck on Wikipedia (hard to find a great site on him)

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