Well I quit my job down at the carwash I left my mama a goodbye note
By sundown I'd left Kingston with my guitar up under my coat
I hitchhiked all the way down to Memphis got a room at the YMCA
For the next three weeks I went a hauntin' them night clubs
Lookin' for a place to play
Well I thought my pickin' would set 'em on fire
But nobody wanted to hire a guitar man

Well I nearly bout starved to death down in Memphis
I run out of money and luck
So I bummed me a ride down to Macon Georgia
On a overloaded poultry truck
I thumbed on down to Panama City
Started checkin' out some of them all night bars
Hopin' I can make myself a dollar makin' music on my guitar
Got the same old story at them all night piers
There ain't no room around here for a guitar man
We don't need a guitar man son

So I slept in hobo jungles bummed a thousand miles of track
Till I found myself in Mobile Alabama at a club they call Big Jack's
A little four piece band was jammin' so I took my guitar and I sat in
I showed 'em what a band would sound like with a swingin' little guitar man
Show 'em son

So if you ever take a trip down to the ocean find yourself down round Mobile
Well make it on out to the club called Jack's if you got a little time to kill
Just follow that crowd of people you'll wind up out on his dance floor
Diggin' the finest little five piece group up and down the Gulf of Mexico
And guess who's leadin' that five piece band
Why wouldn't you know it's that swingin' little guitar man yeah