if i had a dime for every time i heard my old man say one of these days i wouldn t be like my old man today talking bout places that he d been back in his younger days that he was gonna go back to again one of these days dropped out of school when he was just sixteen fell right in to a tire plant building the very things that make the asphalt sing and put alabama far behind you i remember him saying that chicago was a hell right here on earth and twenty five years later i was saying the same thing about memphis it s no wonder everybodies scared of downtown birmingham it s just a little too close to home but there s more crooks down here and the cops don t care while old white men wearing ties can do anything they want once a country boy s seen the way the steam rises off a man s insides on the sidewalk tends to change the way he thinks the way he sees everything and he goes back to where he came from one of these days when my face looks like a roadmap gonna find my way back home and i ll go walking on the west side after dark and leave my gun locked in my car one of these days you ll take one look at me and run one of these days you ll take one look at me and run