Fences on the Highway

 

They put up fences on the highway

They put up fences on the highway

 

They put up fences on the highway

But not to help the little deer

They put up fences on the highway

So the little deer can’t get in here

 

They don’t want the little deer eating the corn

Of the big fat deer that they plan to kill

So they put up fences on the highway

Where the little deer become road-kill

 

They put up fences on the highway

Long and straight and laser-taut

They put up fences on the highway

Where the little deer are the ones who get caught

 

They put up fences on the highway

They put up fences on the highway

 

I was driving one night in Bandera

We’d been dancing all night at the Cabaret Hall

I dropped my girlfriend back at her trailer

Headed west to my motel in the dark

 

I was straight, I was sober, I was cool, I could drive

But he came out of the shadows on the hill over the rise

And the only thing that I remember seeing

Is the fear of death in that little deer’s eyes

 

They put up fences on the highway

Long and straight and laser-taut

They put up fences on the highway

Where the little deer are the ones who get caught

 

They put up fences on the highway

They put up fences on the highway

 

I was driving one night in Bandera

The sky was high and the night was clear

Driving Highway 46 one night in Bandera
I damn-near killed that little deer

 

They put up fences on the highway

They put up fences on the highway (The fear of death in that little deer’s eyes)

 

© 2000. Billy Marabella.

NOTES ON THIS SONG
Some guys who hunt in Bandera, men whom I respect very much, clued me into the reason behind the fences on the highway. I hope they are not offended by my namby-pamby story about the plight of the little deer out in the Texas Hill Country. I don’t eat ‘em, I don’t kill ‘em. That’s my philosophy.

P.S. I don’t think it’s the Cabaret Dance Hall. For accuracy’s sake, please correct me if I’m wrong.