Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded August 21, September 5 and 8, 2016. Mixed September 8, 2016.

 

Genesis: I wrote this song sometime during 1984, while working on a soon-to-be abandoned album project. The album was modeled on David Blue’s wonderful 1973 album, Nice Baby and the Angel. That album featured David Lindley on lap steel guitar, fiddle, and viola. I love the moody ballads and the up-tempo rockers.

This song is very transparent: a drug deal that is going to go terribly wrong. I believe I had been reading several early novels by Graham Greene, hence the hint of religious guilt in the first line of the chorus.

Production: Bass Guitar, Electric Guitars, Lap Steel Guitar, Organ, and Drums.

Lyrics

Monterrey Sun

Mexico on the Fourth of July

Ain’t nobody celebrating here

Standing in a furnace called Monterrey

Can’t drink I’ve got to stay clear

Sipping warm Coca-Cola from a Styrofoam cup

Waiting for a man who hasn’t shown up

One more day my cover gets blown

One more day ship my body back home

 

CHORUS:

Father forgive me for all that I’ve done

Stop torturing me with this Monterrey Sun

White heat pours from the end of a gun

Take me away from this Monterrey Sun

Take me away from this Monterrey Sun

 

The money I’m holding is covered with sweat

My nerves are crazy with heat

A child keeps crying but nobody comes

Mad dogs careen down the street

Can’t make a phone call no line is secure

The locals are restless I’m not so sure

When I get back gonna get what I’m owed

Got to get out or it’s the end of the road

 

CHORUS

Here comes the Chevy all covered in dust

With a woman behind the wheel

She motions me closer I shouldn’t move

No strangers was part of the deal.

It looks like a set-up but I want to go home

We drive through adobe bleached to the bone

When I came to there was blood on the stone

Took a moment to realize that it was my own

CHORUS

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved