Well, I left kentucky back in '49
An' went to detroit
Workin' on a 'sembly line
The first year they had me puttin'
Wheels on cadillacs

Every day I'd watch them
Beauties roll by
And sometimes I'd hang my head and cry
'cause I always wanted me
One that was long and black.

One day I devised myself a plan
That should be the envy of most any man
I'd sneak it out of there
In a lunchbox in my hand
Now gettin' caught meant gettin' fired
But I figured I'd have it all
By the time I retired
I'd have me a car worth
At least a hundred grand.

Chorus
I'd get it one piece at a time
And it wouldn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me
When I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'cause I'll have the only one there is a round.

So the very next day when I punched in
With my big lunchbox
And with help from my friends
I left that day with a lunch box
Full of gears
Now, I never considered myself a thief
Gm wouldn't miss just one little piece
Especially if I strung it out
Over several years.

The first day
I got me a fuel pump
And the next day
I got me an engine and a trunk
Then I got me a transmission
And all of the chrome
The little things I could get
In my big lunchbox
Like nuts, an' bolts,
And all four shocks
But the big stuff we snuck
Out in my buddy's mobile home.

Now, up to now my plan went all right
'til we tried to put it
All together one night
And that's when we noticed
That something was definitely wrong.

The transmission was a '53
And the motor turned out to be a '73
And when we tried to put in the bolts
All the holes were gone.

So we drilled it out
So that it would fit
And with a little bit of help
With an a-daptor kit
We had that engine runnin'
Just like a song
Now the headlight' was another sight
We had two on the left
And one on the right
But when we pulled out
The switch all three of 'em come on.

The back end looked kinda funny too
But we put it together
And when we got thru
Well, that's when we noticed
That we only had one tail-fin
About that time my wife walked out
And I could see in her eyes
That she had her doubts
But she opened the door
And said "honey,
Take me for a spin"

So we drove up town just to get the tags
And I headed her right on down main drag
I could hear everybody laughin'
For blocks around
But up there at the court house
They didn't laugh
'cause to type it up it
Took the whole staff
And when they got through
The title weighed sixty pounds.

Chorus
I got it one piece at a time
And it didn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me
When I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'cause I'll have the only one
There is around.

(spoken) ugh! yow, red ryder
This is the cotton mouth
In the psycho-billy cadillac come on

Huh, this is the cotton mouth
And negatory on the cost
Of this mow-chine there red ryder
You might say I went right up to the factory
And picked it up, it's cheaper that way
Ugh!, what model is it?

Well, it's a '49, '50, '51,
'52, '53, '54, '55, '56
'57, '58' 59' automobile
It's a '60, '61, '62,
'63, '64, '65, '66, '67
'68, '69, '70 automobile.