Here's my transcription from the recording on Spotify:


WASTE THE PAINT
Written by Jim Hunter
As sung by Jim Hunter on "Sparks in Flight: Live" (2003).

[Spoken:] This one is to the memory of Wink Martindale.

I was at the end o' the bar, tryin' to see the damage o' the night before.
I was feelin' kind o' wasted from wakin' on some stranger's floor,
Shakin' my head in the mem'ry of all that's said and done.
I ordered up a beer, pulled down my stool, and I sat down.

The sun streamed in the window on the old piano by the wall,
A relic of a bygone age in some old music hall.
There right above it, as the mornin' light spread its rays,
Hung this old four-by-three picture that took my breath away.

And a voice right behind me said, "If you like it, it's up for sale"
As I turned to face a girl leanin' up against the barroom rail,
And I said, "I wish I had the money; it's gone the last few days,"
And a wisp o' hair fell on her eyes; I fought the earth to brush it away.

She said, "Waste the paint an' you can't go wrong
In the stroke o' the brush; it's in the line o' the song.
Good words come easy when they come from your soul."
She paints the pictures that no frame could ever hold.

Well, true vision comes in strangest of places, strangest of times,
But I found out that day that all I wanted was already mine.
We breathe life into our dreams, send 'em off into space.
This one's for the girl in the flat-heel shoes, the angel smile on her face.

She said, "Waste the paint an' you can't go wrong
In the stroke o' the brush; it's in the line o' the song.
When they made us they threw away the mold."
She paints the pictures that no frame could ever hold.

She said, "Waste the paint an' you can't go wrong
In the stroke o' the brush; it's in the line o' the song.
Good words come easy when they come from your soul."
She paints the pictures that no frame could ever hold,
Could ever hold,
Could ever hold.


[Jim Hunter also sings this song on "Uphill Slide" (1991) and "The Temple Records Sampler" (1992).]