Lyrics: One Piece At A Time

Well I left Kentucky back in '49
And went to Detroit workin' on assembly line
The first year they had me puttin' wheels on Cadillacs
Every day I'd watch them beauties roll by
And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry
Cause I always wanted me one that was long and black

One day I devised myself a plan
That should be the envy of most any man
I'd sneak it out of there in a lunchbox in my hand
Now gettin' caught meant gettin' fired
But I figured I'd have it all by the time I retired
I'd have me a car worth at least a hundred grand

I'd get it one piece at a time and it wouldn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style I'm gonna drive everybody wild
Cause I'll have the only one there is around

So the very next day when I punched in
With my big lunchbox and the help of a friend
I left that day with the lunchbox full of gears
I've never considered myself a thief
But GM wouldn't miss just one little piece
Especially if I strung it out over several years

The first day I got me a fuel pump
And the next day I got me an engine and a trump
Then I got me a transmission and all the chrome
The little things I could get in my big lunchbox
Like nuts and bolts and four shocks
But the big stuff we snuck out in my buddy's mobile home

Now up to now my plan went alright
Till we tried to put it altogether one night
And that's when we noticed that something was definitelly wrong
The transmission was a '53
And the motor turned out to be a '73
And when we tried to put in the bolts all the holes were gone

So we drilled it out so that it would fit
And with a little bit of help from an adopter kit
We had that engine runnin' just like a song
Now the headlights they was another sight
We had two on the left and one on the right
But when we pulled out the switch all three of 'em come on

The back end looked kinda funny too
But we put it together and when we got through
Well that's when we noticed that we only had one tailfin
About that time my wife walked out
And I could see in her eyes that she had her doubts
But she opened the door and said honey take me for a spin

So we drove uptown just to get the tax
And I headed to right on down main drag
I could hear everybody laughin' for blocks around
But up there at the courthouse they didn't laugh
Cause to type it up it took the whole staff
And when they got through the title weighed sixty pounds

I got it one piece at a time and it wouldn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style I'm gonna drive everybody wild
Cause I'll have the only one there is around

Oh yeah Red Rider this is the Cotton Mouth in this psychobilly Cadillac come on
Oh now this is the Cotton Mouth and negatory
On the cost of this machine there Red Rider
You might say I went right up to the factory and picked it up it's cheaper that way
Oh what model is it
Well it's a 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 automobile
It's a 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 automobile