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Whole Lotta Choice (Lost in Cleveland)

from Live at Raveler's (Remastered) by Todd Burge

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about

A mostly true story about that took place during my first trip up to Cleveland to play a show at the Barking Spider.

lyrics

Whole Lotta Choice (Lost In Cleveland)
(C)1997

Three strikes and you’re out
Two strikes and you’re a little bit down
One strike might send a king off to play golf
That same strike might get a pauper
A much lessor offer

And what if one strike went right to your pretty daughter’s face?
She’d have to hide that mark when she wanted to go just about anyplace
Way back when things were a bit more fair
The only care in her world
Was the perfect curl in her hair
And how the boys would stare

Must have had a friend
Must have had all kinds of friends
Once had a voice
And a whole lotta choice
A whole lotta choice

Now I was leaving a show one night in Cleveland Ohio
My right hand was fishing around my car’s interior for a map
And the next thing you know
Instead of driving down 90 South
I was destined to go up and get a big drink
Out of a lake at the upper end of the state

Now I could’ve been driving just about anyplace
There was paint rotting off the houses and holes in the streets
There were beer cans along the curb
And about every other block
My sore eyes would see
The bright green
Squeaky clean sign
That read “BP”
Like a light watching over me

So I drove up to get directions and a big bag of potato chips
But the door was locked and the speaker was broken
So we had to read each other’s lips
And man I thought I’d thanked that lady kindly
But about then she flipped me the bird
And when I looked down in that sliding metal box
I saw a small container of paper clips
She didn’t see a single word

Must have had a friend
Must have had all kinds of friends
Once had a voice
And a whole lotta choice
A whole lotta choice

Now I don’t know about the land of the free
But I can see the home of the brave
It’s behind bullet proof plastic
At a BP Station in Cleveland
So I got in my car with no more sense of direction
Than when I arrived at that service-less station

It was just about then that I met my escort
Came in the form of a police car, the finest in Ohio
He said what’s a white West Virginia boy doing
Driving a Geo, at 1 AM in the Cleveland ghetto

I filled him in on my show and everything else I thought he’d like to know
I said, I’m trying to connect up with I-90 South
He said, Follow me boy, I’ll direct you out
And man I thought I’d seen it all
When I saw, a lady sleeping in the street
While I was cranking up my heat
And tuned into a re-broadcast of Rush Limbaugh

Must have had a friend
Must have had all kinds of friend
Once had a voice
Must have made that her choice
A whole lotta choice
A whole lotta choice
A whole lotta choice

credits

from Live at Raveler's (Remastered), track released August 8, 1997

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Todd Burge Parkersburg

If it’s been discovered by man, West Virginia’s Todd Burge has written about it. A born ponderer and observer of life, each of his songs tells a story. Whether drawn from personal experience or a tale of poetically woven fiction, you’ll live every second of it through his songs. ... more

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