Carolina Rain

Rose lived on the south side of town
Until her landlord showed up with two hundred dollar bills
A notice of eviction on the other hand
Now she don't live there no more
And everyone thinks he drowned

I pulled into Mecklenburg on them trains
Into a station that was flooded when they opened up the dams
And broke their connections to the railway lines
So they could blast into the quarry
And for every load of granite, we got a ton, don't worry

One night at the diner over eggs
Over easy she showed me the length of her legs
But that gold plated cross on her neck, it was real
And you don't get that kind of money
From pushing the meal

And I should've told him
That you were the one for me but I lied, but I lied
To 'most any drifter who's looking for work is too weird
I met your sister and I married her in July
But if only to be closer to you, Caroline

Percy and I moved down the street until we lost two pretty girls
One was seven and one was three
Alderman and Caroline owned the house right up the hill
Where we laid those babies down
So they could still see our house

Suspicion got the best of old Alderman Haint
He owned an auto parts store off the interstate
But the Lord took him home in July
And then Rose spilled the beans on the day that he died
And we were in trouble

I should've told him that you were the one for me but I lied, but I lied
Tied up to concrete at the bottom of the quarry
With a tattoo on his heart that spelled out Caroline
He was silent but his rosary
Well it drifted into custody of a sheriff that was just deputized

And I was down at the banquet hall
When two guys came up, pretty angry and drunk
And I'm still here at the banquet hall, at the banquet hall
Where the gun went off in the Carolina rain
In the Carolina rain, in the Carolina rain, oh, Caroline