The Winner

There's a bit of wisdom in this old country song by Bobby Bare. This was sent in by Tom Baeli.

THE WINNER
The hulk of a man with a beer in his hand he looked like a drunk old fool


And I knew if I hit him right why I could knock him off of that stool

But everybody they said watch out hey that's the Tiger Man McCool

He's had the whole lotta fights and he's always come out winner yeah he's a winner

But I had myself about five too many and I walked up tall and proud

I faced his back and I faced the fact that he had never stooped or bowed

I said Tiger Man you're a pussycat and a hush fell on the crowd

I said let's you and me go outside and see who's the winner

Well he gripped the bar with one big hairy hand then he braced against the wall

He slowly looked up from his beer my God that man was tall

He said boy I see you're a scrapper so just before you fall

I'm gonna tell you just a little bout what it means to be a winner

He said now you see these bright white smilin' teeth you know they ain't my own

Mine rolled away like Chicklets down the street in San Antone

But I left that person cursin' nursin' seven broken bones

And he only broke ah three of mine that makes me the winner

He said now behind this grin I got a steel pin that holds my jaw in place

A trophy of my most successful motorcycle race

And each morning when I wake and touch this scar across my face

It reminds me of all I got by bein' a winner

Now this broken back was the dyin' act of a handsome Harry Clay

That sticky Cincinnati night I stole his wife away

But that woman she gets uglier and she gets meaner every day

But I got her boy that's what makes me a winner

He said you gotta speak loud when you challenge me son cause it's hard for me to hear

With this twisted neck and these migraine pains and this big ole cauliflower ear

And if it wadn't for this glass eye of mine why I'd shed a happy tear

To think of all that you gonna get by bein' a winner

I got arthritic elbows boy I got dislocated knees

From pickin' fights with thunderstorms and chargin' into trees

And my nose been broke so often I might lose if I sneeze

And son you say you still wanna be a winner

Now you remind me a lotta my younger days with your knuckles a clenchin' white

But boy I'm gonna sit right here and sip this beer all night

And if there's somethin' that you gotta gain to prove by winnin' some silly fight

Well okay I quit I lose you're the winner

So I stumbled from that barroom not so tall and not so proud

And behind me I still hear the hoots of laughter of the crowd

But my eyes still see and my nose still works and my teeth're still in my mouth

And you know I guess that makes me the winner