John Prine – Jesus The Missing Years (Guitar)

  C
It was raining, it was cold

   F
West Bethlehem was no place for a twelve-year old

   G
So he packed his bag and he headed out

                        C
To find out what the world's about

 C
He went to France and went to Spain

 F
He found love and he found pain

 G
He found stores, so he started to shop

                                              C
He had no money, so he got in trouble with a cop

  C
Kids in trouble with the cops from Israel didn't have no home

   F
So he cut his hair and moved to Rome

  G
It was there, he met his Irish bride

                                                   C
And they rented a flat on the lower east side of Rome

 F
Italy, that is

 G
Music publishers, book binders

                                  C
Orgies, and lots of pretty Italian chicks

 C                            F
Charlie bought some popcorn, Billy bought a car

  G
Someone almost bought the farm, but they didn't go that far

   C                               F
Things shut down at midnight, at least round here they do

    G                                            C
'Cause we all reside down the block inside 23 Skidoo

  C
Wine was flowing, so were beers

 F
So Jesus found his missing years

 G
He went to a dance and said, "This don't move me"

                           C
He hiked up his pants and he went to a movie

  C
On his thirteenth birthday, he saw Rebel Without A Cause

   F
He went straight on home and invented Santa Claus

   G
Who gave him a gift and he responded in kind

                                              C
He gave the gift of love and went out of his mind

  C
You see, him and the wife wasn't getting along

 F
So he took out his guitar and he wrote a song

   G
Called 'The Dove Of Love Fell Off The Perch'

                                                C
But he couldn't get divorced in the Catholic Church

 F
At least not back then, anyhow

 C
Jesus was a good guy

                 F
And he swallowed it

  G
He discovered the Beatles

               C
For old George Jones

   C                               F
Charlie bought some popcorn, Billy bought a car

   G                                                      C
Someone almost bought the farm, but they didn't go that far

    C                           F
Things shut down at midnight, at least round here they do

    G                                                C
'Cause we all reside down the block inside of...23 Skidoo

      C
The years went by like sweet little days

    F
With babies crying pork chops and Beaujolais

    G
When he woke up, he was seventeen

                       C
The world was angry, the world was mean

   C
Why, the man down the street and the kid on the stoop

                         F
All agreed that life stank, all the world smelled like poop

      G
Baby poop, that is

       C
The worst kind

  G
So he grew his hair long and he threw away his comb

                                                 C
Headed back to Jerusalem to find Mom and Dad and home

 C
But when he got there, the cupboard was bare

   F
Except for an old black man with a fishing rod

 G
He said, "What you gonna be when you grow up?"

   C
Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?

      F
I'm a human corkscrew and all my wine is blood

                       G                           C
They're gonna kill me, Mama, they don't like me, Bud

     C
So Jesus went to Heaven, he went there awful quick

     F
All them people killed him, he wasn't even sick

      G
So, come and gather around me, my contemporary peers

      F                               G         C
And I'll tell you all the story of Jesus: The Missing Years

     C                         F
Charlie bought some popcorn, Billy bought a car

     G                                                   C
Someone almost bought the farm, but they didn't go that far

     C                             F
Things shut down at midnight, at least round here they do

    G                                              C
'Cause we all reside down the block inside at 23...Skidoo