I once transcripted Jons speeches from a couple of the live recordings of Dry County I had - I'll copy the transcripts below. Call me crazy if you want , I just really liked the song at the time. English is not my mother tongue, so there are probably some errors. There's an 'i)' and an 's)' in front of the texts. Jon either did a speech before the song started, before Richies solo or both. 'i)' means intro speech and 's)' the speech before the solo . '(...)' are the bits that I didn't get.


MUNICH 31-03-1993

i) It's cold sometimes. (...) chasing after something and I wasn't happy sometimes when I was looking back at it. And after all those records and all that fun, all the times traveling around, I wasn't necessarily happy with where we were. Y'know some times when it's lost in the translation, I hope that sometimes when you have been (...) at, part of growing up. And maybe it's a little easier for (...). And if you don't mind, I'd like to take you on the back of my bike and take you down to Dry County.

s) (...) a man has to wake up and face himself in the mirror. He pours himself a coffee (...) and he doesn't like what he sees sometimes. And sometimes he might see a man, sometimes he might see a prince and sometimes he might see a bug. And sometimes that pain in the ass bites when he's staring right back at you and say, good morning ****er. It's another time to go to work, you gotta earn that pay check. You gotta go and slave in the hay. You don't know what you're gonna bring home, just a little bit of something, maybe a lot of nothing. There's a lot of broken hearts out there (...) now baby. And I tell you what, it ain't getting any easier (...), it ain't getting any harder (...).


MILAN 06-04-1993

i) It's cold sometimes. Sometimes it gets so cold when you (...), giving your whole body and soul and sometimes there ain't nobody to give back to you. You gotta reach to a place that sometimes you don't know if it's gonna be there, but you gotta find it. And every night, you try harder and harder and harder. But what makes a boy a man, is when he reaches down and there ain't nothing there, but he comes up, it's just some kind of magic. And if you'll let me, I take you to that place, it's called Dry County.

s) (...). (...) call your number, (...) number one by one. When your number comes up, you wake up, and you just realize that everyday you're just closer to dying. But you don't need to know what it's from. And everyday (...), but you better think about it baby.


COPENHAGEN 12-04-1993

i) Thank you very much. A couple of years ago we took a break. We had to run away from something I think we all loved very much just to see if we liked it anymore. And we went off in our own (...) seperate directions, to work, and to play, and to live life for a change. One of the things that (...) that got lost inside myself, because when you look in the mirror sometimes you didn't like very much what you looked back at. And if you'll let me, I take you on the back of my bike, to a place where, where you all have to go someday. Home in my soul, it's the place called Dry County.

s) (...) a man, turns 18 and put a gun in his head. You're allowed to drive (...), but you even can't buy yourself a drink, cause (...) a criminal who is ****ed up just a little bit. So everyday that little boy has to look in the mirror and he has to think to himself, ****, I ain't even old enough to shave yet. I can't get a job, to support myself, maybe I got to think about that big bad American Dream. Cause me and my dad, if we had us a talk, and he said, hey boy, you wanna cut yourself a piece in that pie, man. You'd better make sure that knife is sharp, y'know what I'm sayin'? He said that you'd better watch your ass, or there ain't nothing to live for!


LONDON 16-05-1993

i) How we doin' so far, OK? (...) I wouldn't ask that question cause I was afraid what the answer was gonna be. (...) cause I didn't know what the answer was. You walk away from something that you love very much just to see, if you like it anymore. And there's always that fear of the truth. If you let me I'll take you on the back of my bike, to a place I found. Someday you might have to go there too, it's called Dry County.


MILTON KEYNES 19-09-1993

i) Thank you. A couple of years ago we took a little bit of a break, we got off the road, we stopped making records, I think for a while we stopped living. All we had to do is run away from something that we loved to see if we liked it anymore. And after living for, I guess at the time about, seven, almost eight years out of a suitcase, we had to go home and see what those four letters meant. When you sit by yourself, when you got a stare in that mirror, you got to see if what you did makes any sense to you. Because if you're not happy, you're in a hell of a lot goin', y'know. All the money in the world don't mean nothing, all the success in the world means even less. And so we all went our seperate ways and we went to go and find something and I got on a motorcycle and I went out and I went to go see the country. What I found, I liked a lot. What I found, was a lot of, a lot of people who were searching for the same kinds of things I was, so it didn't get me down, but it sort of fueled the whole process. And if you'll let me, I take you on the back of my bike. We'll take you to a place, the place is called Dry County.

s) Everyday a man wakes up and everyday a man who has to pour himself a cup of coffee, take a good long hard look in the mirror. And sometimes what he looks at he doesn't like and sometimes what he sees it makes him angry and sometimes what he sees it makes him sad. Sometimes what he sees is himself and that disappointment just gets into you, and it just rips at you, little by little, piece by piece. And sometimes you can just lay down, you can just play the game, you can just take the cards that they deal ya, you can just pretend that it's all over. But not me!


SAO PAULO 15-11-1993

i) This is a little something that is written by a man searching. A man who was searching for body and soul, a man who was searching for his mind, his heart. A man who didn't know quite where to go. Maybe I didn't answer all those questions, but at least I know where to go and find them sometimes, (...) I look with my own eyes in the mirror. And if you'll let me, I'll take you on a ride. To a place I call Dry County.


WERCHTER 17-06-1995

s) No-one's getting out of here, no-one getting out of here, not getting baby. Only the strongest survive, night after night. They bet their lives and their dreams and their homes and their schemes and their lives. That hurts sometimes. And it feels like they're not (...). And it gets deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.


LONDON 25-06-1995

s) (...) times in a man's life, he has to face up to the truth. But it seems in this world, this life is based on two things: love and fear. And there's people out there, in our world, that are gonna question everything you do, every single day, every single night. But when you lay down tonight, you'd better know one thing: if you believe in yourself, there ain't nothing, there ain't nobody gonna tell you that it ain't gonna happen for you. And I tell you one thing right here, right now: I've laid down long and hard enough baby!


JONES BEACH 21-07-1995

s) There comes a time in a man's life, he has to grow up and face the realities of the real world. Sometimes I've seen men (...), not so much to put a flower on the grave. And I've seen other men going to their graves, fighting for something that they believed in. And everybody (...) had told them, it can happen, you got to lay down and die. And I've been there man, I've been fighting all my life. And I ain't (...), I'm (...) for nobody (...) baby!