He died with his boots on in another mans bed
The way he once said it would be
He's scoundrel i guess and just got what was due
But he was always a good friend to me
He talked of a girl he'd known long ago
His eyes welled with tears when he tried to explain
How the sound of her voice had made him feel whole
and the smell of her skin
Like sage after rain
Like sage after rain
Like sage after rain
I'd go to East Colfax with some of my friends
Back in highschool for something to do
And that's where I met him when he bought us some beer
A six-pack if he could have two
He said: "come back to my place, you can drink it there safe. don't worry it's cool"
Then he gave us his name
I paused at a picture and he told me about her
and the smell of her skin
Like sage after rain
Like sage after rain
Like sage after rain
( Guitarbreak)
I'd go to his house and we'd talk books for hours
Pacing the floor as he'd quote from his head
There's an old royal typewriter, a desk by a window
Three novels in boxes under his bed
A drafty old house his grandfather'd left him
He grew up in Boston, came west on a train
The snow-covered front range, and a lovely young teacher
The smell of her skin
Like sage after rain
Like sage after rain
Like sage after rain
She was killed in the wreck that left him half-broken
He told me about it one time, and that's all
Some people said it'd helped if she was driving
He said that made less than no difference at all
He'd talk of her beauty, her eyes and her fire
He'd smile when he'd call her "broad with great brains"
But there was always respect and his memories were tender
And the smell of her skin
Like sage after rain
Like sage after rain
Like sage after rain
(Guitar break)
They called me about him early one morning
I made the arrangements that sent him to burn
No wife, no children, no next of kin there
Like it said in his will they gave me the urn
I drove north to Wyoming in a late april drizzle
A place where we'd hunted on the antelope(?) plains
I spread him about in the place he had chosen
A prayer and a breath
Of sage after rain
Sage after rain
Sage after rain