Route 23

	  		
Intro: D F#m G A D 


Verse 
D                                      G            D 
Well I spent my whole life since I was high as a knee 
     D                               A 
By that two-lane blacktop they call Route 23 
     D 
My daddy ran a service station 
         G               D 
And the pumps they did shine 
      D                    F#m                 G               D 
I'd watch him wash the windshields, keep the old look to that mind 


Verse 
           D                           G         D 
Well the days they were long, but the money was good 
    D                                                   A 
The only things that changed were the seasons and the shapes of the hoods 
          D                               G    D 
'Til the government came on the radio in late '55 
          D                         F#m  
Said the state's gonna build a new highway 
            G               D 
One that's fast, smooth and wide 


               G               Bm           D 
With that new highway, no one stops here anymore 
  D                  G              D            A 
And you can't make living without swinging that door 
     D                           G            D 
The sign by the roadside still says "Come On In" 
         F#m                                    G        D 
But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again 



Verse 
      D                         G           D 
Now daddy was as stubborn as a mule in the snow 
           D                                         A 
He said, "Good folks return to the places that they know" 
              D                          G            D 
But after the gravel arrived and those steamrollers whined 
           D                     F#m    
All those good folks left me and daddy 
           G           D 
And those two lanes behind 


               G               Bm           D 
With that new highway, no one stops here anymore 
  D                  G              D            A 
And you can't make living without swinging that door 
     D                           G            D 
The sign by the roadside still says "Come On In" 
         F#m                                    G        D 
But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again 



Instrumental: D D F#m G G G A D 

Verse 
         D                                G     D 
Now the calendar on the wall still reads 19 and 75 
         D                                 A 
No one crossed out the day that my daddy died 
     D                                      G       D 
We laid him in the ground 'neath that old sycamore tree 
        D                     F#m                 G    D   
That shades a boarded up gas station...   out on Route 23 


               G               Bm           D 
With that new highway, no one stops here anymore 
  D                  G              D            A 
And you can't make living without swinging that door 
     D                           G            D 
The sign by the roadside still says "Come On In" 
         F#m                                    G        D 
But the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again 

           F#m                                    G        D 
Yeah, the bulbs are long since burnt out, not to light up again