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Baker Lyle

Eighty Dollars

Still plays the eighty-dollar guitar he bought at nineteen and refuses better ones

style

  • blues rock
  • soul
  • gritty electric guitar
  • hammond organ
  • male vocal raspy and powerful
  • live band energy
  • horn stabs
  • roadhouse warmth
  • southern american drawl
  • standard radio arrangement

the numbers

bpm
99
key
G minor
energy
0.72
dance
0.95
valence
0.50
vocal at
4.2s
length
4:04
language
En

lyrics

(instrumental)

Pawn shop, Lubbock, nineteen years old, eighty dollars
The man said it was worth sixty and he was correct
I've been offered nine thousand for it twice since then
(twice since then)
Both men were being generous and both were wrong

A better guitar plays what you tell it (what you tell it)
This one argues, and the argument is the song

Eighty dollars
(eighty dollars)
Best money anybody ever spent on anything
Eighty dollars
It buzzes on the third fret and it tells the truth

My daughter asked me to teach her on it last spring
Handed it over and my hands did not want to
Thirty seconds of ugly selfishness, hidden badly
(hidden badly)
Then she played four chords and I got over myself

(solo, buzzing third fret)
She'll get it eventually. Not yet. Eventually.
And it'll still buzz. That's the inheritance.
(BAND BACK IN)

Eighty dollars
(eighty dollars)
Best money anybody ever spent on anything
Eighty dollars
It buzzes on the third fret and it tells the truth

(eighty dollars...)
Eighty Dollars — Baker Lyle · FERAL