words and music by Joe Jackson)



Out to the west there's a trail that leads somewhere

And a call of the wild that takes some people there

Through Monument Valley to California sun

From New Amsterdam to the Way the West Was Won



Well, years will go by when you won't get nowhere

You're cold and you're tired and you're free and you don't care



You keep pushin' on when your friends keep turning back

And you keep building towns and laying railroad track

And things get crazy and you have to use that gun

And you wonder if this is the way the west is won



But keep thinkin' that way and you won't get nowhere

'Cause you got a right just to get where you're goin' to

Gotta keep runnin' gotta be the best

Gotta walk tall in the wild west



You keep on the move or you try to settle down

And there's strangers from further and further away in town

And you give them some tools and they know what must be done

And you know who's the boss and you know the west was won



And they say...

Where I come from you can't get nowhere

I'm breaking my back for some opportunity

Making my fortune and I'll take it all home

Tell my kids about the wild west



But there's still beauty as the flowers bloom on desert sands

And there's still hope as the sun rises over the Rio Grande

But it's so crowded now and nothing's simple any more

And they're still knocking at your door



You hear guns in the night and you hope they're not for you

'Cause a dog eats a dog then he eats his master too

In the land of the free and the not so often brave

There's both love or money, now choose which you will save



But... keep thinkin' that way and you won't get nowhere

'Cause you got a right just to get where you're goin' to

Gotta keep runnin' gotta be the best

Gotta walk tall in the wild west



(C) 1986 Pokazuka Ltd. (ASCAP