Straight and Narrow Lyrics

It's not life
It's just a short stretch of time
A lesson you have to sit through
You gambled and lost
Here's the cost
Three months of Sundays staring at you
Count one for the dirty deed
Two for the need
That wounds you like a poison arrow

Three for the living rough
And the fact that times are tough
That drove you off the straight and narrow

Small turns to big
When a joker in a wig
Looks down at you, pure as the driven snow
In a backroom with a drink
He doesn't think
Of the years that tumble down like dominoes
Count one for the dirty deed
Two for the need
That wounds you like a poison arrow

Three for the shame
You can never clear your name
Or get back on the straight and narrow

And it feels like
Big fists keep punching you down
And while the world's spinning round
You're counted out
One for the dirty deed
Two for the need
That wounds you like a poison arrow

The wages of sin
Are a pattern that sets in
And keeps you off the straight and narrow

So many mouths to feed
You look at all that greed
It chills you to the marrow

Three! says the judge
And reinforces a grudge
And keeps you off the straight and narrow