This copy incorporates Stewie's corrections plus some of my own:


SEVENTEEN CENTS
Jody Stecher

1. Seventeen cents is a whale of a lot.
Seventeen cents is what I got,
The grocery bills, the heat, and the rent.
All I got left is seventeen cents.

CHORUS: Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen cents,
A dirty old dime and the penny's bent.
Ain't seen nothing of my {darlin'/doney} since.
She left me here with seventeen cents.

2. Down the road, round the bend,
Lookin' for gold at the rainbow's end.
Over the fields and under the fence,
My pocket was lined with seventeen cents. CHORUS

3. I got a letter from the IRS:
"You owe back taxes—seventeen cents."
Wish I had all the money they spent,
Spent on bringing in seventeen cents. CHORUS

4. Chicken chow fung and pichu fries(?),*
Got hot chili on a Saturday night.
The waiter threw me over the fence
'Cause the tip I left was seventeen cents.

CHORUS: Seventeen cents for soapy tea.
He threw it on the table and it spilled on me.
The chicken was pink and the greens was dead.
Could have stayed home for seventeen cents.

5. Went to Nashville, wrote me a song,
Put it on a record by Fiddlin' John,
Bill Monroe, and Joseph Spence.
The royalty check was seventeen cents. FIRST CHORUS

6. Down the road, the skid row gents
Always begged for seventeen cents.
Never did find out where they went
To buy anything for seventeen cents.

CHORUS: Seventeen cents for a cup of joe,
Ticket home or a burger-o.
Never did find out where it's spent
To buy such things for seventeen cents.


[* Google gives 17 hits on "chicken chow fung" but I haven't found anything like "pichu fries."]