E                           E
Mama told her baby, "Girl, take it real slow"
         E
Girl told her mama, "Hey, I really gotta go
           C#m
He's waitin' in the car"
                          A
Mama said, "Girl, you won't get far"


[Verse 2]
   E
Thus are the dreams of an average Jane
        E
Ninety miles an hour down a lover's lane
        C#m
On a tank of dreams
                         A
Oh, if she could have only seen
         B                 F#m        E
That fates got cards that it don't wanna show


[Chorus]
     B              E
That boy's just a walkaway Joe
                               C#m
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word "go,"
                                    A                 D
Destined to deceive her, he's the wrong kind of paradise
               A                    B                       E
She's gonna know it in a matter of time, that boy's just a walkaway Joe


[Verse 3]
   E
Now just a little while into Abilene
     E
He pulls into a station and he robs it clean
         C#m
She's waitin' in the car
                    A
Oh underneath the Texaco star


[Verse 4]
     E
She only wanted love, didn't bargain for this
     E
She can't help but love him for the way he is
         C#m
She's only seventeen
      A
And there ain't no reasoning
            B               F#m      G#m
So she'll ride this ride as far as it can go

A
[Chorus]
     B                      E
'Cause that boy's just a walkaway Joe
                               C#m
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word "go,"
                                     A                 D
Destined to deceive her, he's the wrong kind of paradise
              A                       B                     E
She's gonna know it in a matter of time, that boy's just a walkaway Joe

F#m7 C#m D F#m C#m A B

[Verse 4]
   E
Somewhere in a roadside motel room
                                                   C#m
Alone in the silence she wakes up too soon and reaches for his arms
                       A
But she'll just keep reachin' on
                B                F#m      Em      A      B
Before the cold hard truth revealed what it had known


[Chorus]
                     E
That boy was just a walkaway Joe
                                C#m
Born to be a leaver, tell you from the word "go,"
     C#m                            A                 D
Destined to deceive her, he's the wrong kind of paradise
            A                          B                     E             C#m
But it was just another lesson in life, that boy's just a walkaway Joe


[Outro]
                    E
All he was was a walkaway Joe
         C#m          E
Just a walkaway Joe