Lost & Found

I’d heard the tale so many times
I knew the story well
There weren’t no way
You could separate
The Blues from Slide Cotrelle

To follow in his footsteps
Well, I planned to take a trip
I left the coast
And chased his ghost
Straight up the Mississip’

I’d just about begun to doubt
I’d ever find out more
When to my surprise
It caught my eyes
I swear it hadn’t been there before

Down a dark forgotten alley
Stood an old and weathered door
That led the way
Into a stray
Second hand used record store

A sign out front said “OPEN”
No talk of hours or of days
The door opened wide
I stepped inside
What seemed an endless maze

I think every record ever made
Waited here for the “right” price
The clerk stood by
With hungry eyes
Hoping I would be enticed

It could have been just minutes
Maybe days or even years
I don’t recall
How long I stalled
Browsing through the tiers

When finally, I asked the clerk
If he’d heard of Slide Cotrelle
Glancing down
He turned around
And said, “I got a story to tell.”

Seems he’d been selling records
From the day that time began
And he could count
When he’d been asked about
Slide, on just one hand

He said there were two albums
The first was cut somewhere down south
But the one made here
He said he feared
Left a bad taste in his mouth

He pointed back behind me
To a rack I’d just gone through
I almost cried
Because there was Slide
Sitting plainly, right in view

I didn’t waste a moment
I grabbed it right away
T'was called Lost and Found
The clerk just frowned
I stepped to the counter to pay

He said "I can’t take your money,
That record can’t be sold"
To his dismay
He had to give it away
Least that’s what he’d been told

Then he said if I was finished
I wasn’t welcome any more
As I took my find
And left him behind
He cried, “Get the hell out of my store!”

I stepped back out to the alley
Turned around to shout my thanks
But I doubt my words
Would have been heard
The wall I faced was blank

There was no sign, there was no door
And I began to understand
I would have lost a fight
For my soul that night
But for the record in my hand