The Devil I Know

Three in the morning came without a warning
Wound up with some old buccaneers
Tellin' lies about the time I
Won the Nobel Prize
Guess who bought all the beers
Well, you'd think I'd have tamed
My old dragons by now
I've always tried to be a good scout
But every now and then they come swoopin' in
Saying, "Bubba, it's time to go out"

Now it's fun to wake up in a strange chateau
After racing 'round Paris in a Deux Chevaux
My wingman's crashing but I'm not flying solo
'Cause he traded places with the devil I know
Devil I know, devil I know

Well, life can be confusing
But things need excusin'
To separate the turns from the twists
If I had a Richter scale
For spouting forked tales
We'd all be high on that shit list
Well, the hitch to living hard is
When you drop your guard
And wind up in a headline or a cell
Then compromise, or worse, apologize
Welcome to the world of sinkin' spells

Messing with my mind was fun at the time
Tossing to and fro in a tricky undertow
Deviants and derelicts, lurking high and low
Ridin' shotgun with the devil I know
Devil I know, devil I know
Let's go ridin', devil

There were times, there were places
We played near and far
From the old Anchor Inn to the Suez Canal bar
From the Kraken to Manhattan
Le Select to Old Saigon mojitos in Havana
Timbuktu 'til dawn

Three in the mornin', feral cats are yawnin'
Full moon sinking in the bay
Spoonbills in flight, oh, what a sight
As I sip on my café au lait
Well, the birds got me thinkin'
'bout going day drinkin'
A hall pass to be the old me
Don't need hops and barley to
Throw a little party
Señorita, una mas iced tea

Hell, it's fun to go fishing
On a new slack tide
Wake up living life on the flip side
Them dragons ain't gone
But they're fading like an old tattoo
Lots of mystery in the history
Of the devils I knew
Devils I knew, devils I knew