Hikin' on a houseboat, tryin' not to sink Wonderin' if he ought to float back or just stay here and drink He found a guitar four, he found that chastity shore And a song was born Willie on an airplane, brown bag and a pen Flyin' high thinkin' about bein' on the road again Tryin' to ride on the crowd down at John T. Ford And a song was born Had a real life, had a real love The best ones you can't make up It just means more when you've been there before Out of hard times, out of heartbreaks Hit your good rhyme to a mistake Then you pour those feelings out over three chords And a song was born I rode him into Carolina mountains, on the Cabo beach In a thousand rooms in Nashville, Tennessee On a Bitterroot River, Montana back porch A song was born Had a real life, had a real love The best ones you can't make up It just means more when you've been there before Out of hard times, out of heartbreaks Hit your good rhyme to a mistake Then you pour those feelings out over three chords A song was born Had a real life, had a real love The best ones you can't make up It just means more when you've been there before Out of hard times, out of heartbreaks Hit your good rhyme to a mistake Then you pour those feelings out over three chords Then you pour those feelings out over three chords A song was born A song was born