I think that the last line of the last verse may be "if you can live with that you're way up in the game." I had always thought that it was "ten-watt lover", but, having read these lyrics, "tin-pot lover" makes more sense to me. Happy to have the help.

Herb Pedersen himself recorded this on his LP (now CD) "Lonesome Feeling"; it may be that he sings the lyrics more clearly than John Starling did with the Seldom Scene.