Well Jesse was a rovin' gambler
Nine ball was his game
He kept one step out ahead of his Rep
One town out ahead of his fame
I think I mighta seen him in Clovis
But the place was kinda loud
Even so, it was a long time ago
When my head sorta stayed in a cloud
There's a lotta green in the city
That you can't cut thick or thin
There's a lot of green between fat and lean
That you might never see again, Oh, Jesse
You might never see again
Well I KNOW I saw him in Shreveport
The time this song's about
I was hangin' in town 'cause the river was down
Like my sister I was sweatin' the drought
He was playin' some kid from Dallas
Who could out talk a freeway cop
A day and a half they'd been on a raft
Tryin' to play till the other would drop
There's a lotta green in the city
That you can't cut thick or thin
There's a lot of green between fat and lean
That you might never see again, Oh, Jesse
You might never see again
Carmen wore a red silk dress
She lean'd beside the coke machine
She must have been the prize that was in his eyes
It was as clear as gasoline
Twenty seven hundred on the table
Another twenty five in the dark
Dallas was talkin' up a blue streak
As Jesse reached for the chalk
The room got deathly quiet
The newsboy shut his mouth
The cold north wind changed it's mind again
And blew lazy from the south
The whippoorwills quit singin'
Not even the judge did laugh
When Jesse Justice chalked his saber
And sliced the 9 in half
There's a lotta green in the city
That you can't cut thick or thin
There's a lot of green between fat and lean
That you might never see again, Oh, Jesse
You might never see again