Well I quit my job down at the car wash
Left my mama a goodbye note
By sundown I‘d left kingston
With my guitar under my coat
I hitchhiked all the way down to memphis,
Got a room at the ymca,

For the next three weeks I went huntin them nights,
Just lookin for a place to play
Well, I thought my pickin would set em on fire
But nobody wanted to hire a guitar man.

Well, I nearly bout starved to death down in memphis
I run outta money and luck
So I bought me a ride down to macon, georgia
On a overloaded poultry truck
I thumbed on down to panama city
Started pickin out some o them all night bars
Hopin I could make myself a dollar
Makin music on my guitar

I got the same old story at them all night piers
There aint no room around here for a guitar man
We don’t need a guitar man, son

So I slept in the hobo jungles
Roamed a thousand miles of track
Till I found myself in mobile alabama
At a club they call big jacks
A little four-piece band was jammin
So I took my guitar and I sat in
I showed em what a band would sound like
With a swingin little guitar man
Show em son
If you ever take a trip down to the ocean
Find yourself down around mobile
Make it on out to a club called jacks
If you got a little time to kill
Just follow that crowd of people
You'll wind up out on his dance floor
Diggin the finest little five-piece group
Up and down the gulf of mexico
Guess whos leadin that five-piece band
Well, wouldnt ya know, its that swingin little guitar man
Hey guitar man