DC - Back Into Dry County

Dry County is a Bon Jovi song. It's also, in my opinion (and the opinion of many Bon Jovi fans), one of the greatest songs ever written, a 10 minute epic with the most exciting guitar solo I've ever heard. The lyrics are as follows, you kind of need to read them to make sense of what we wrote:

Dry County - Bon Jovi

Across the border they turn
Water into wine
Some say it's the devil's blood
They're squeezing from the vine
Some say it's a saviour
In these hard and desperate times
For me it helps me to forget
That we're just born to die

I came here like so many did
To find that better life
To find my piece of easy street
And finally be alive
I know nothing good comes easy
All good things take some time
I've made my bed, I'll lie in it
To die in it's the crime

You can't help but prosper
Where the streets are paved with gold
They say the oil wells ran deeper here
Than anybody's known
I packed up on my wife and kid
And left them back at home
Now there's nothing in this paydirt
The ghosts are all I know

Now the oil's gone
And the money's gone
All the jobs are gone
Still we're hangin' on

Chorus:
Down in dry county
Where we're swimming in the sand
Praying for some holy water
To wash the sins from off our hands
In dry county
The promise has run dry
Where nobody cries
And no one's getting out of here alive

Not this time

In the blessed name of Jesus
I heard a preacher say
That we are all God's children
And He'd be back, be back someday
And I hoped that he knew
Something as he drank his cup of wine
I didn't have too good a feeling
As I head out to the night

I cursed the sky to open
I begged the clouds for rain
I prayed all night for water
For this burning in my veins
(Every night the same)
It was like my soul's on fire
And I had to watch the flames
All my dreams went up in ashes
And my future blew away

Now the oil's gone
And the money's gone
And the jobs are gone
Still we're hangin' on

Chorus:
Down in dry county
They're swimming in the sand
Praying for some holy water
To wash the sins from off our hand
Here in dry county
The promise has run dry
Where nobody cries
And no one's getting out of here alive

Men spend their whole lives
Waiting praying for their big reward
But it seems sometimes
The payoff leaves you feeling
Like a dirty whore
If I could choose the way I'll die
Make it by the gun or knife
'Cause the other way there's too much pain
Night after night after night

Chorus:
Down in dry county
They're swimming in the sand
Praying for some holy water
To wash the sins from off our hand
Here in dry county
The promise has run dry
Where nobody cries
And no one's getting out of here alive

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Adrian (I think) came up with the idea of writing two 'follow up' songs to it: Straight Out Of Dry County, which documents the protaganist finally escaping, and Back Into Dry County, which see's him returning. Why we decided to write them out of synch I have no idea, but Back Into Dry County became our first co-written song. As far as I can remember, Adrian wrote most of this one ... my main contribution was the first 9 lines, the last two lines of the chorus, and the "finally it all fits" bit in the last verse.

It goes a little something like this:

Back Into Dry County - Adrian and Me - Sometime in 2003

The sand still haunts me
In every one of my nightmares
Breathing deep I still can taste
That dusty desert air
Would you ever go back into Hell
If you got the chance to leave?
Would you miss the pain
Miss the burnin' heat
Miss the people who can't breathe?
Walking out
It felt so clean
Like coming home
Just like a dream
But I couldn't stay away
I just couldn't stay gone
I left my soul in the fields
Its the place I belong
I'm riding day and night
On these wings of steel
Heading back for my destiny
All I've got are these two wheels
Riding day and night
On wings of steel


They wanted our blood for oil
But all that's in the past
I'm stronger now
Now I'm going back

Chorus:
I'm going
Back Into Dry County
Heading back to the sands
Back Into Dry County
Back to where it all began
(Down in Dry County)
So many looking for a reason to live
Too many finding a reason to die
We gotta hang on
We gotta stay alive
(Down in Dry County)
No use tryin' to pretend
This is where it began
And this is where its gonna end

Countin' every second
Until I reack those fiery gates
Just tryin' to numb myself off so
The pain don't get too great
I know I can't escape it
Gotta burn down there again
Goin' back once more
Burning down the door
Gonna live inside my pain
Missing out
On all my dreams
Because they came up
With this scheme
But now I'm on that road again
I thought I could be strong
But I left my soul in the fields
In the place I belong
I'm paying back my sins
Just to stay alive
Heading back to face my demons
Hoping they'll let me survive
Paying back my sins
To stay alive

They wanted our blood for oil
But all that's in the past
I'm stronger now
Now I'm going back

Chorus:
I'm going
Back Into Dry County
Heading back to the sands
Back Into Dry County
Back to where it all began
(Down in Dry County)
So many looking for a reason to live
Too many finding a reason to die
We gotta hang on
We gotta stay alive
(Down in Dry County)
No use tryin' to pretend
This is where it began
And this is where its gonna end

The howling wind of the desert
Can't match the howling in my mind
I can see the faces, the flames
Sometimes I wish it was me that died
My memories burn me
Every night I lay down to sleep
on the cold, hard ground
You ask why my bed is burning
It was on fire when I layed down

They wanted our blood for oil
But all that's in the past
I'm stronger now
Now I'm going back

Chorus:
I'm going
Back Into Dry County
Heading back to the sands
Back Into Dry County
Back to where it all began
(Down in Dry County)
So many looking for a reason to live
Too many finding a reason to die
We gotta hang on
We gotta stay alive
(Down in Dry County)
No use tryin' to pretend
This is where it began
And this is where its gonna end

I saw the sign
Dry County limit
Never saw the car
But I felt the hit
Looking up into the sky
Now I know
This is it
And now it makes more sense to me
Finally it all fits
This is it
I'm Back In Dry County