There is some REALLY good stuff in this thread!

Inspired by watching videos of some of those 'good time boys' with a good friend, and a long conversation I'd once had with a man who'd occasionally played with Bob Wills. This may turn out to be a song... I dunno.

He sat there in the corner
Staring miles beyond the stage
A sepia tinted image
In this electric neon age
I bought us a round and said "Friend,
There's a story in your eyes."
He said "I used to play up there,
But how the time it flies,

All the good-time boys are gone away
One by one they disappeared
Like some old photograph
Much handled and dog-eared
I guess there was too much light
And it caused the world to fade
And I lived in the shadows
So I'm the one who stayed

I don't recall the details
Of days now past and gone
But I remember lighter laughter
I remember louder song
Maybe I felt safer
To travel on my own
But now the landscape's foriegn
And this world is not my home

When I laugh now, my eyes feel cold
I laugh because I should
I see shadows in the spotlights
Where once, giants stood
Some of them were strangers
Some of them were friends
Who set out upon the road that starts
Where the horizon ends

Sometimes I hear an echo
In this empty place
Of a song they used to sing
Or I recall a face
Sometimes memory gets lost
In rude insistant noise
But oh, how I miss
Those good-time boys"