John Prine ……Jesus The Missing Years

Intro: – Play this pattern thoughout song
[(C)] [(F)] [(G)] [(C)]
It was raining. It was cold
West Bethlehem was no place for a twelve year old
So he packed his bags and he headed out
To find out what the world’s about
He went to France. He went to Spain
He found love. He found pain.
He found stores so he started to shop
But he had no money so he got in trouble with a cop

Kids in trouble with the cops
So he cut his hair and moved to Rome
It was there he met his Irish bride
And they rented a flat on the lower east side of Rome…
Italy that is
Music publishers, book binders, Bible belters, swimming pools,
orgies and lots of pretty Italian chicks.

(C)Charley bought some popcorn
B(F)illy bought a car
So(G)meone almost bought the farm
But they didn’t go that f(C)ar
Things shut down at midnight
(F)At least around here they do
C(G)ause we all reside down the block
Inside at ….23 Sk(C)idoo.

Wine was flowing so were beers
So Jesus found his missing years
He went to a dance and said “This don’t move me”
He hiked up his pants and he went to a movie
On his thirteenth birthday he saw “Rebel without a Cause”
He went straight on home and invented Santa Claus
Who gave him a gift and he responded in kind
He gave the gift of love and went out of his mind

You see him and the wife wasn’t getting along
So he took out his guitar and he wrote a song
Called “The Dove of Love Fell Off the Perch”
But he couldn’t get divorced in the Catholic Church
At least not back then anyhow
Jesus was a good guy he didn’t need this st
So he took a pill with a Coca-Cola and he swallowed it.
He discovered the Beatles
And he recorded with the Stones
Once He even opened up a three-way package for old George Jones

(C)Charley bought some popcorn
B(F)illy bought a car
So(G)meone almost bought the farm
But they didn’t go that f(C)ar
Things shut down at midnight
(F)At least around here they do
C(G)ause we all reside down the block
Inside at ….23 Sk(C)idoo.

The years passed by like sweet little days
With babies crying pork chops and beaujolais
When he woke up he was seventeen
The world was angry. The world was mean.
Why the man down the street and the kid on the stoop
All agreed that life stank. All the world smelled like poop
Baby poop that is ..the worst kind

So he grew his hair long and thew away his comb
And headed back to Jerusalem to find Mom, Dad and home
But when he got there the cupboard was bare
Except for an old black man with a fishing rod
He said “Whatcha gonna be when you grow up?”
Jesus said “God”
Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into?
I’m a human corkscrew and all my wine is blood
They’re gonna kill me Mama. They don’t like me Bud.

So Jesus went to Heaven and he went there awful quick
All them people killed him and he wasn’t even sick
So come and gather around me my contemporary peers
And I’ll tell you all the story of
Jesus…The Missing Years

(C)Charley bought some popcorn
B(F)illy bought a car
So(G)meone almost bought the farm
But they didn’t go that f(C)ar
Things shut down at midnight
(F)At least around here they do
C(G)ause we all reside down the block
Inside at ….23 Sk(C)idoo.
We all (G)reside down the block
Inside at ….23 Sk(C)idoo. (G) (C)

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Well I know a guy that’s got a lot to lose,
He’s a pretty nice fella, kinda confused.
He’s got muscles in his head ain’t never been used,
He thinks he owns half of this town.

Well he starts drinkin’ heavy, gets a big red nose,
Then he fights with his lady, until it shows.
He takes her out to dinner, and buys her new clothes,
And that’s the way that the world goes ‘round.

That’s the way that the world goes ‘round,
You’re up one day, the next you’re down,
It’s half inch of water, but you think you’re gonna drown,
That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.

I was sittin’ in the bathtub, a-countin’ my toes,
When the radiator broke, the water all froze.
I got stuck in the ice, without my clothes,
Naked as the eyes of a clown.

I was crying those ice cubes, hoping I’d croak,
When the sun came through the window, the ice all broke.
I stood up and laughed; I thought it was a joke,
That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.

Did you ever stand and shiver
While you were staring at a river?

That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.(repeat…)

That’s the way that the world goes ‘round,
That’s the way that the world goes ‘round.
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# Submitted to the ftp.nevada.edu:/pub/guitar archives
# by Steve Putz
# 7 September 1992