-------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- Cactus Tree -------- [Verse 1] There's a man who's been out sailing In a decade full of dreams And he takes her to a schooner And he treats her like a queen Bearing beads from California With their amber stones and green He has called her from the harbor He has kissed her with his freedom He has heard her off to starboard In the breaking and the breathing Of the water weeds While she was busy being free [Verse 2] There's a man who's climbed a mountain And he's calling out her name And he hopes her heart can hear three thousand miles He calls again He can think her there beside him He can miss her just the same He has missed her in the forest While he showed her all the flowers And the branches sang the chorus As he climbed the scaly towers Of a forest tree While she was somewhere being free [Verse 3] There's a man who's sent a letter And he's waiting for reply He has asked her of her travels Since the day they said goodbye He writes "Wish you were beside me We can make it if we try" He has seen her at the office With her name on all his papers Through the sharing of the profits He will find it hard to shake her From his memory And she's so busy being free [Verse 4] There's a lady in the city And she thinks she loves them all There's the one who's thinking of her There's the one who sometimes calls There's the one who writes her letters With his facts and figures scrawl She has brought them to her senses They have laughed inside her laughter Now she rallies her defenses For she fears that one will ask her For eternity And she's so busy being free [Verse 5] There's a man who sends her medals He is bleeding from the war There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store There's a drummer and a dreamer And you know there may be more She will love them when she sees them They will lose her if they follow And she only means to please them And her heart is full and hollow Like a cactus tree While she's so busy being free [Outro] Like a cactus tree Being free -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- I Had a King -------- [Verse 1] I had a king in a tenement castle Lately he's taken to painting the pastel walls brown He's taken the curtains down He's swept with the broom of contempt And the rooms have an empty ring He's cleaned with the tears Of an actor who fears for the laughter's sting- [Chorus] I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the door You know my thoughts don't fit the man They never can, they never can [Verse 2] I had a king dressed in drip-dry and paisley Lately he's taken to saying I'm crazy and blind He lives in another time Ladies in gingham still blush While he sings them of wars and wine But I in my leather and lace I can never become that kind [Chorus] I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the door You know my thoughts don't fit the man They never can, they never can [Verse 3] I had a king in a salt-rusted carriage Who carried me off to his country for marriage too soon Beware of the power of moons There's no one to blame No there's no one to name as a traitor here The king's on the road And the queen's in the grove till the end of the year [Chorus] I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the door You know my thoughts don't fit the man They never can, they never can -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- Marcie -------- [Verse 1] Marcie in a coat of flowers Steps inside a candy store Reds are sweet and greens are sour Still no letter at her door So she'll wash her flower curtains Hang them in the wind to dry Dust her tables with his shirt and Wave another day goodbye [Verse 2] Marcie's faucet needs a plumber Marcie's sorrow needs a man Red is autumn green is summer Greens are turning and the sand All along the ocean beaches Stares up empty at the sky Marcie buys a bag of peaches Stops a postman passing by And summer goes Falls to the sidewalk like string and brown paper Winter blows Up from the river there's no one to take her To the sea [Verse 3] Marcie dresses warm its snowing Takes a yellow cab uptown Red is stop and green's for going Sees a show and rides back down Down along the Hudson River Past the shipyards in the cold Still no letter's been delivered Still the winter days unfold Like magazines Fading in dusty grey attics and cellars Make a dream Dream back to summer and hear how He tells her Wait for me [Outro] Marcie leaves and doesn't tell us Where or why she moved away Red is angry green is jealous That was all she had to say Someone thought they saw her Sunday Window shopping in the rain Someone heard she bought a one-way ticket And went west again -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- Michael from Mountains -------- [Verse 1] Michael wakes you up with sweets He takes you up streets and the rain comes down Sidewalk markets locked up tight And umbrellas bright on a grey background There's oil on the puddles in taffeta patterns That run down the drain In colored arrangements That Michael will change with a stick that he found [Chorus] Michael from mountains Go where you will go to Know that I will know you Someday I may know you very well [Verse 2] Michael brings you to a park He sings and its dark when the clouds come by Yellow slickers up on swings Like puppets on strings hanging in the sky They'll splash home to suppers in wallpapered kitchens Their mothers will scold But Michael will hold you To keep away cold till the sidewalks are dry- [Chorus] Michael from mountains Go where you will go to Know that I will know you Someday I may know you very well [Chorus] Michael leads you up the stairs He needs you to care and you know you do Cats come crying to the key And dry you will be in a towel or two There's rain in the window There's sun in the painting that smiles on the wall You want to know all But his mountains have called so you never do- [Outro] Michael from mountains Go where you will go to Know that I will know you Someday I may know you very well Someday I will know you very well -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- Nathan La Franeer -------- [Verse 1] I hired a coach to take me from confusion to the plane And though we shared a common space I know I'll never meet again The driver with his eyebrows furrowed in the rear-view mirror I read his name and it was plainly written Nathan La Franeer I asked him would he hurry But we crawled the canyons slowly Through the buyers and the sellers Through the burglar bells and the wishing wells With gangs and girly shows The ghostly garden grows [Verse 2] The cars and buses bustled thru the bedlam of the day I looked through window-glass at streets and Nathan grumbled at the grey I saw an aging cripple selling Superman balloons The city grated through chrome-plate The clock struck slowly half-past-noon Through the tunnel tiled and turning Into daylight once again I am escaping Once again goodbye To symphonies and dirty trees With parks and plastic clothes The ghostly garden grows [Verse 3] He asked me for a dollar more He cursed me to my face He hated everyone who paid to ride And share his common space I picked my bags up from the curb And stumbled to the door Another man reached out his hand Another hand reached out for more And I filled it full of silver And I left the fingers counting And the sky goes on forever Without meter maids and peace parades [Outro] You feed it all your woes The ghostly garden grows You feed it all your woes The ghostly garden grows -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- Night in the City -------- [Verse 1] Light up light up Light up your lazy blue eyes Moon's up nights up Takin' the town by surprise Night time night time Day left an hour ago City light time Must you get ready so slow There are places to come from and places to go [Chorus] Night in the city looks pretty to me Night in the city looks fine Music comes spilling out into the street Colors go flashing in time [Verse 2] Take off take off Take off your stay-at-home shoes Break off shake off Chase off those stay-at-home blues Stairway stairway Down to the crowds in the street They go their way Looking for faces to greet But we run on laughing with no one to meet [Chorus 2] Night in the city looks pretty to me Night in the city looks fine Music comes spilling out into the street Colors go waltzing in time -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- Sisotowbell Lane -------- [Verse 1] Sisotowbell Lane Noah is fixing the pump in the rain He brings us no shame We always knew that he always knew Up over the hill Jovial neighbours come down when they will With stories to tell Sometimes they do Yes sometimes we do We have a rocking chair Each of us rocks his share Eating muffin buns and berries By the steamy kitchen window Sometimes we do Our tongues turn blue [Verse 2] Sisotowbell Lane Anywhere else now would seem very strange The seasons are changing Everyday in everyway Sometimes it is spring Sometimes it is not anything A poet can sing Sometimes we try Yes we always try We have a rocking chair Somedays we rock and stare At the woodlands and the grasslands and the badlands 'cross the river Sometimes we do We like the view [Verse 3] Sisotowbell Lane Go to the city you'll come back again To wade through the grain You always do Yes we always do Come back to the stars Sweet well water and pickling jars We'll lend you the car We always do Yes sometimes we do We have a rocking chair Someone is always there Rocking rhythms while they're waiting with the candle in the window Sometimes we do We wait for you -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- Song to a Seagull -------- [Verse 1] Fly silly seabird No dreams can possess you No voices can blame you For sun on your wings My gentle relations Have names they must call me For loving the freedom Of all flying things My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of reach out of cry [Verse 2] I came to the city And lived like old Crusoe On an island of noise In a cobblestone sea And the beaches were concrete And the stars paid a light bill And the blossoms hung false On their store window trees My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of reach out of cry [Verse 3] Out of the city And down to the seaside To sun on my shoulders And wind in my hair But sandcastles crumble And hunger is human And humans are hungry For worlds they can't share My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of reach Out of cry [Verse 4] I call to a seagull Who dives to the waters And catches his silver-fine Dinner alone Crying where are the footprints That danced on these beaches And the hands that cast wishes That sunk like a stone My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of reach Out of cry -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- The Dawntreader -------- [Verse 1] Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions Gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor Treasure somewhere in the sea and he will find where Never mind their questions there's no answer for The roll of the harbour wake The songs that the rigging makes The taste of the spray he takes And he learns to give He aches and he learns to live He stakes all his silver On a promise to be free Mermaids live in colonies All his seadreams come to me [Verse 2] City satins left at home I will not need them I believe him when he tells of loving me Something truthful in the sea your lies will find you Leave behind your streets he said and come to me Come down from the neon nights Come down from the tourist sights Run down till the rain delights you You do not hide Sunlight will renew your pride Skin white by skin golden Like a promise to be free Dolphins playing in the sea All his seadreams come to me [Verse 3] Seabird I have seen you fly above the pilings I am smiling at your circles in the air I will come and sit by you while he lies sleeping Fold your fleet wings I have brought some dreams to share A dream that you love someone A dream that the wars are done A dream that you tell no one but the grey sea They'll say that you're crazy And a dream of a baby Like a promise to be free Children laughing out to sea All his seadreams come to me All his seadreams come to me -------- 1968 Song to a Seagull -------- -------- The Pirate of Penance -------- [Verse 1] The pirate anchored on a Wednesday And why he came to port I wonder To see a lady so my friends say She dances for the sailors In a smoky cabaret bar underground Down in a cellar in a harbour town I know he told her love was treasure And they would reap the fullest bounty He only comes to port for pleasure So when the winds of morning Blew the curtains in she woke and found he'd gone I saw his sails unfurling Thursday dawn The pirate he will sink you with a kiss He'll steal your heart and sail away Saturday early we met in the cove near the forest He'll leave you drowning in the flotsam Of a broken promise in the bay Dancing we wakened the dawn and the birds into chorus He came again to see her Yes I think they told me it was Saturday Ask Penance Crane she was out in her garden she saw us I was at sea then [Verse 2] I didn't see them I don't believe what you are saying It isn't true I hardly knew him Is this some game that you are playing Go ask the dancer she's the one who saw him last The one who drew him here He hasn't come to me since spring last year There was a time when he would Bring me silks and sandalwood and Persian lace Then came another "goodbye" and another "Please don't go" And he would hold me close And tell my sailing stories by the fireplace All night I dance and all day I keep watch with my sorrow I was at sea I tell you I was Nowhere near the mentioned murder place Searching for sails that don't come And I guess but I don't know [Outro] Go ask the dancer She knows the answer I don't know She knows the answer I don't know She knows the answer I don't know -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- Both Sides Now -------- [Intro] [Verse 1] Rows and floes of angel hair And ice cream castles in the air And feather canyons everywhere I've looked at clouds that way [Verse 2] But now they only block the sun They rain and snow on everyone So many things I would have done But clouds got in my way [Chorus] I've looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down, and still somehow It's cloud illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all [Verse 3] Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels The dizzy dancing way you feel As every fairy tale comes real I've looked at love that way [Verse 4] But now it's just another show You leave 'em laughing when you go And if you care, don't let them know Don't give yourself away [Chorus] I've looked at love from both sides now From give and take, and still somehow It's love's illusions I recall I really don't know love at all [Verse 5] Tears and fears and feeling proud To say "I love you" right out loud Dreams and schemes and circus crowds I've looked at life that way [Verse 6] But now old friends are acting strange They shake their heads, they say I've changed Well something's lost, but something's gained In living every day [Chorus] I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life At all [Chorus] I've looked at life from both sides now From up and down and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life At all -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- Chelsea Morning -------- [Verse 1] Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning And the first thing that I heard Was a song outside my window And the traffic wrote the words It came ringing up like Christmas bells And rapping up like pipes and drums [Chorus] Oh, won't you stay We'll put on the day And we'll wear it till the night comes [Verse 2] Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning And the first thing that I saw Was the sun through yellow curtains And a rainbow on the wall Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you Crimson crystal beads to beckon [Chorus] Oh, won't you stay We'll put on the day There's a sun show every second [Bridge] Now the curtain opens On a portait of today And the streets are paved with passersby And pigeons fly And papers lie Waiting to blow away [Verse 3] Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning And the first thing that I knew There was milk and toast and honey And a bowl of oranges, too And the sun poured in like butterscotch And stuck to all my senses [Chorus] Oh, won't you stay We'll put on the day And we'll talk in present tenses [Outro] When the curtain closes And the rainbow runs away I will bring you incense owls by night By candlelight By jewel-light If only you will stay Pretty baby, won't you Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- I Don't Know Where I Stand -------- [Verse 1] Funny day, looking for laughter and finding it there Sunny day, braiding wild flowers and leaves in my hair Picked up a pencil and wrote "I love you" in my finest hand Wanted to send it, but I don't know where I stand [Verse 2] Telephone, even the sound of your voice is still new All alone in California and talking to you And feeling too foolish and strange to say the words that I had planned I guess it's too early, 'cause I don't know where I stand [Verse 3] Crickets call, courting their ladies in star-dappled green Thickets tall, until the morning comes up like a dream All muted and misty, so drowsy now I'll take what sleep I can I know that I miss you, but I don't know where I stand I know that I miss you, but I don't know where I stand -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- I Think I Understand -------- [Verse 1] Daylight falls upon the path, the forest falls behind Today I am not prey to dark uncertainty The shadow trembles in its wrath, I've robbed its blackness blind And tasted sunlight as my fear came clear to me [Chorus] I think I understand Fear is like a wilderland Stepping stones or sinking sand [Verse 2] Now the way leads to the hills, above the steeple's chime Below me sleepy rooftops round the harbor It's there I'll take my thirsty fill of friendship over wine Forgetting fear but never disregarding her [Chorus] Oh, I think I understand Fear is like a wilderland Stepping stones and sinking sand [Verse 3] Sometime voices in the night will call me back again Back along the pathway of a troubled mind When forests rise to block the light that keeps a traveler sane I'll challenge them with flashes from a brighter time [Chorus] Oh, I think I understand Fear is like a wilderland Stepping stones or sinking sand -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- Roses Blue -------- [Verse 1] I think of tears, I think of rain on shingles I think of rain, I think of roses blue I think of Rose, my heart begins to tremble To see the place she's lately gotten to Gotten to, gotten to [Verse 2] She's gotten to mysterious devotions She's gotten to the zodiac and Zen She's gotten into tarot cards and potions She's laying her religion on her friends On her friends, on her friends [Verse 3] Friends who come to ask her for their future Friends who come to find they can't be friends Because of signs and seasons that don't suit her She'll prophesy your death, she won't say when Won't say when, won't say when [Verse 4] When all the black cards come you cannot barter No, when all your stars are stacked you cannot win She'll shake her head and treat you like a martyr It is her blackest spell she puts you in Puts you in, puts you in [Verse 5] In sorrow she can lure you where she wants you Inside your own self-pity there you swim In sinking down to drown her voice still haunts you And only with your laughter can you win Can you win, can you win [Verse 6] You win the lasting laurels with your laughter It reaches like an arm before you sink To win the solitary truth you're after You dare not ask the priestess how to think How to think, how to think [Verse 7] I think of tears, I think of rain on shingles I think of rain, I think of roses blue I think of Rose, my heart begins to tremble To see the place she's lately gotten to Gotten to, gotten to -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- Songs To Aging Children Come -------- [Verse 1] Through the windless wells of wonder By the throbbing light machine In a tea leaf trance or under Orders from the king and queen [Chorus] Songs to aging children come Aging children, I am one [Verse 2] People hurry by so quickly Don't they hear the melodies In the chiming and the clicking And the laughing harmonies [Chorus] Songs to aging children come Aging children, I am one [Verse 3] Some come dark and strange like dying Crows and ravens whistling Lines of weeping, strings of crying So much said in listening [Chorus] Songs to aging children come Aging children, I am one [Verse 4] Does the moon play only silver When it strums the galaxy Dying roses will they will their Perfumed rhapsodies to me [Outro] Songs to aging children came This is one -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- That Song about the Midway -------- [Verse 1] I met you on a midway at a fair last year And you stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear You were playin' on the horses; you were playin' on the guitar strings; You were playin' like a devil wearin' wings Wearin' wings, you looked so grand wearin' wings Do you tape them to your shoulders just to sing? Can you fly? I heard you can, can you fly? Like an eagle doin' your huntin' from the sky [Verse 2] I followed with the sideshows to another town And I found you in a trailer on the camping grounds You were betting on some lover; you were shaking up the dice; And I thought I saw you cheatin' once or twice Once or twice, I heard your bid once or twice Were you wond'rin' was the gamble worth the price? Pack it in, I heard you did, pack it in Was it hard to fold a hand you knew could win? [Verse 3] So lately you've been hidin', it was somewhere in the news; And I'm still at these races with my ticket stubs and my blues; And a voice calls out the numbers and it sometimes mentions mine; And I feel like I've been workin' overtime Over time, I've lost my fire, over time [Verse 4] Always playin' one more hand for one more dime Slowin' down, I'm gettin' tired, slowin' down; And I envy you the valley that you've found Cause I'm midway down the midway Slowin' down Down, down, down -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- The Fiddle And The Drum -------- [Intro] And so once again My dear Johnny my dear friend And so once again you are fightin' us all And when I ask you why You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall Oh, my friend How did you come To trade the fiddle for the drum [Verse 1] You say I have turned Like the enemies you've earned But I can remember All the good things you are And so I ask you please Can I help you find the peace and the star Oh, my friend What time is this To trade the handshake for the fist [Verse 2] And so once again Oh, America my friend And so once again You are fighting us all And when we ask you why You raise your sticks and cry and we fall Oh, my friend How did you come To trade the fiddle for the drum [Outro] You say we have turned Like the enemies you've earned But we can remember All the good things you are And so we ask you please Can we help you find the peace and the star Oh my friend We have all come To fear the beating of your drum -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- The Gallery -------- [Verse 1] When I first saw your gallery I liked the ones of ladies Then you began to hang up me You studied to portray me In ice and greens And old blue jeans And naked in the roses Then you got into funny scenes That all your work discloses [Chorus 1] "Lady, don't love me now I am dead I am a saint, turn down your bed I have no heart," that's what you said You said, "I can be cruel But let me be gentle with you" [Verse 2] Somewhere in a magazine I found a page about you I see that now it's Josephine Who cannot be without you I keep your house in fit repair I dust the portraits daily Your mail comes here from everywhere The writing looks like ladies' [Chorus 2] "Lady, please love me now, I am dead I am a saint, turn down your bed I have no heart," that's what you said You said, "I can be cruel But let me be gentle with you" [Verse 3] I gave you all my pretty years Then we began to weather And I was left to winter here While you went west for pleasure And now you're flying back this way Like some lost homing pigeon They've monitored your brain, you say And changed you with religion [Chorus 3] "Lady, please love me now I was dead I am no saint, turn down your bed Lady, have you no heart," that's what you said Well, I can be cruel But let me be gentle with you [Outro] When I first saw your gallery I liked the ones of ladies But now their faces follow me And all their eyes look shady -------- 1969 Clouds -------- -------- Tin Angel -------- [Verse 1] Varnished weeds in window jars Tarnished beads on tapestries Kept in satin boxes are Reflections of love's memories Letters from across the seas Roses dipped in sealing wax Valentines and maple leaves Tucked into a paperback Guess I'll throw them all away I found someone to love today [Verse 2] Dark with darker moods is he Not a golden Prince who's come Through columbines and wizardry To talk of castles in the sun Still I'll take a chance and see I found someone to love today [Verse 3] There's a sorrow in his eyes Like the angel made of tin What will happen if I try To place another heart in him In a Bleecker Street cafe I found someone to love today I found someone to love today -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- Big Yellow Taxi -------- [Verse 1] They paved paradise and put up a parking lot With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot [Chorus] Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop) [Verse 2] They took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em [Chorus] Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop) [Verse 3] Hey farmer, farmer, put away the DDT now Give me spots on my apples But leave me the birds and the bees, please [Chorus] Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop) [Verse 4] Late last night, I heard the screen door slam And a big yellow taxi took away my old man [Chorus] Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop) I said, don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop) They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop) They paved paradise, put up a parking lot -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- Blue Boy -------- [Verse 1] Lady called the blue boy, love She took him home Made himself an idol, yes So he turned to stone Like a pilgrim she travelled To place her flowers Before his granite grace And she prayed aloud for love To waken in his face In his face, oh [Verse 2] Sometimes in the evening He would read to her Roll her in his arms And give his seed to her She would wake in the morning Without him And go to the window And look out through the pane But the statue in her garden He always looked the same He looked the same, ah [Verse 3] Bring her boots of leather And she will dance for him Shyly from a feather fan She'll glance for him Here he comes after midnight To find her again He will come few times more Till he finds a lady statue Standing in a door In her door -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- Conversation -------- [Verse 1] He comes for conversation I comfort him sometimes Comfort and consultation He knows that's what he'll find I bring him apples and cheeses He brings me songs to play He sees me when he pleases I see him in cafes And I only say, "Hello" And turn away before his lady knows How much I want to see him She removes him, like a ring To wash her hands She only brings him out to show her friends I want to free him [Verse 2] Secrets and sharing soda That's how our time began Love is a story told to a friend It's second hand But I'll listen to his questions I'll give my answers when they're found He says she keeps him guessing But I know she keeps him down She speaks in sorry sentences Miraculous repentances I don't believe her Tomorrow he will come to me And he'll speak his sorrows endlessly and he'll ask me why Why can't I leave her? [Outro] He comes for conversation I comfort him sometimes Comfort and consultation He knows that's what he'll find He knows that's what... he'll find -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- For Free -------- [Verse 1] I slept last night in a good hotel I went shopping today for jewels The wind rushed around in the dirty town And the children let out from the schools I was standing on a noisy corner Waiting for the walking green Across the street he stood And he played real good On his clarinet for free [Verse 2] Now me I play for fortunes And those velvet curtain calls I got a black Limousine and two gentlemen Escorting me to the halls And I'll play if you have the money Or if you're a friend to me But the one man band By the quick lunch stand He was playing real good for free [Verse 3] Nobody stopped to hear him Though he played so sweet and high They knew he had never been on their TV So they passed his music by I meant to go over and ask for a song Maybe put on a harmony I heard his refrain As the signal changed He was playing real good for free -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- Ladies of the Canyon -------- [Verse 1] Trina wears her wampum beads She fills her drawing book with lines Sewing lace on widows weeds And filigree on leaf and vine Vine and leave are filigree And her coat's a second hand one Trimmed with antique luxury She is a lady of the canyon [Verse 2] Annie sits you down to eat She always makes you welcome in Cats and babies round her feet And all are fat and none are thin None are thin and all are fat She may bake some brownies today Saying "You are welcome back" She is another canyon lady [Verse 3] Estrella, circus girl Comes wrapped in songs and gypsy shawls Songs like tiny hammers hurled At bevelled mirrors in empty halls Empty halls and bevelled mirrors Sailing seas and climbing banyans Come out for a visit here To be a lady of the canyon [Verse 4] Trina takes her pins and her threads And she weaves a pattern all her own Annie bakes her cakes and her breads And she gathers flowers for her home For her home she gathers flowers And Estrella, dear companion Colors up the sunshine hours Pouring music down the canyon Coloring the sunshine hours They are the ladies of the canyon -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- Morning Morgantown -------- [Verse 1] When morning comes to Morgantown The merchants roll their awnings down The milk trucks make their morning rounds In morning Morgantown We'll rise up early, with the sun To ride the bus while everyone is yawning And the day is young In morning Morgantown [Chorus] Morning Morgantown Buy your dreams, a dollar down Morning any town you name Morning's just the same [Verse 2] We'll find a table in the shade And sip our tea and lemonade And watch the morning on parade In morning Morgantown Ladies in their rainbow fashions Colored stop and go lights flashing We'll wink at total strangers passing In morning Morgantown [Chorus] Morning Morgantown Buy your dreams, a dollar down Morning in any town you name Morning's just the same [Verse 3] I'd like to buy you everything A wooden bird with painted wings A window full of colored rings In morning Morgantown But the only thing I have to give To make you smile, to win you with Are all the mornings still to live In morning Morgantown [Chorus] Morning Morgantown Buy your dreams, a dollar down Morning any town you name Morning's just the same Morning's just the same -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- Rainy Night House -------- [Verse 1] It was a rainy night We took a taxi to your mother's home She went to Florida and left you With you father's gun, alone Upon her small white bed I fell into a dream You sat up all the night and watched me To see, who in the world I might be [Verse 2] I am from the Sunday school I sing soprano in the upstairs choir You are a holy man On the FM radio I sat up all the night and watched thee To see, who in the world you might be [Verse 3] You called me beautiful You called your mother - she was very tanned So you packed your tent and went To live out in the Arizona sand You are a refugee From a wealthy family You gave up all the golden factories To see, who in the world you might be -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- The Arrangement -------- [Chorus] You could have been more than a name on the door On the thirty-third floor in the air More than a credit card Swimming pool in the backyard [Verse 1] While you still have the time you could get away and find A better life, you know the grind Is so ungrateful Racing cars, whisky bars No one cares who you really are [Verse 2] You're the keeper of the cards Yes I know it gets hard Keeping the wheels turning And the wife she keeps the keys She is so pleased to be A part of the arrangement [Chorus] You could have been more than a name on the door On the thirty-third floor in the air More than a consumer Lying in some room trying to die More than a credit card Swimming pool in the backyard [Outro] You could have been more than a name on the door You could have been more than a name on the door You could have been more You could have been more You could have been more -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- The Circle Game -------- [Verse 1] Yesterday a child came out to wander Caught a dragonfly inside a jar Fearful when the sky was full of thunder And tearful at the falling of a star [Chorus] And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game [Verse 2] Then the child moved ten times round the seasons Skated over ten clear frozen streams Words like "when you're older" must appease him And promises of someday make his dreams [Chorus] And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game [Verse 3] Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town And they tell him take your time it won't be long now Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down [Chorus] And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game [Verse 4] So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty Before the last revolving year is through [Chorus] And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game And go round and round and round In the circle game -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- The Priest -------- [Verse 1] The priest sat in the airport bar He was wearing his father's tie And his eyes looked into my eyes so far Whenever the words ran dry Behind the lash and the circles blue He looked as only a priest can: through And his eyes said me and his eyes said you And my eyes said, "Let us try" [Verse 2] He said, "You wouldn't like it here No, it's no place you should share The roof is ripped with hurricanes And the room is always bare I need the wind and I seek the cold" He reached past the wine for my hand to hold And he saw me young, and he saw me old And he saw me sitting there [Verse 3] Then he took his contradictions out And he splashed them on my brow So which words was I then to doubt When choosing what to vow Should I choose them all-should I make them mine The sermons, the hymns and the valentines And he asked for truth and he asked for time And he asked for only now Now the trials are trumpet scored Oh will we pass the test Or just as one loves more and more Will one love less and less Oh come let's run from this ring we're in Where the Christians clap and the Germans grin Saying let them lose, crying let them win Oh make them both confess -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- Willy -------- [Verse 1] Willy is my child, he is my father I would be his lady all my life He says he'd love to live with me But for an ancient injury That has not healed He said I feel once again Like I gave my heart too soon He stood there looking through the lace At the face on the conquered moon And counting all the cars up the hill And the stars on my window sill There are still more reasons why I love him [Verse 2] Willy is my joy, he is my sorrow Now he wants to run away and hide He says our love cannot be real He cannot hear the chapel's pealing silver bells But you know it's hard to tell When you're in the spell if it's wrong or if it's real But you're bound to lose If you let the blues get you scared to feel And I feel like I'm just being born Like a shiny light breaking in a storm There are so many reasons why I love him Willy is my child, he is my father -------- 1970 Ladies of the Canyon -------- -------- Woodstock -------- [Verse 1] I came upon a child of God He was walking along the road And I asked him, "Where are you going?" And this he told me I'm going on down to Yasgur's Farm I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band I'm gonna camp out on the land I'm gonna get my soul free [Chorus] We are stardust We are golden And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden [Verse 2] Then can I walk beside you? I have come here to lose the smog And I feel to be a cog in something turning Well maybe it is just the time of year Or maybe it's the time of man I don't know who I am But you know life is for learning [Chorus] We are stardust We are golden And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden [Bridge] By the time we got to Woodstock We were half a million strong And everywhere there was song and celebration And I dreamed I saw the bombers Riding shotgun in the sky And they were turning into butterflies Above our nation [Chorus] We are stardust Billion year old carbon We are golden Caught in the devil's bargain And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden (To some semblance of a garden.) -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- A Case of You -------- [Verse 1] Just before our love got lost you said "I am as constant as a northern star" And I said, "Constantly in the darkness Where's that at? If you want me I'll be in the bar" On the back of a cartoon coaster In the blue TV screen light I drew a map of Canada Oh, Canada With your face sketched on it twice [Chorus] Oh, you are in my blood like holy wine You taste so bitter and so sweet Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling And I would still be on my feet Oh, I would still be on my feet [Verse 2] Oh, I am a lonely painter I live in a box of paints I'm frightened by the devil And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid I remember that time you told me, you said "Love is touching souls" Surely you touched mine 'Cause part of you pours out of me In these lines from time to time [Chorus] Oh, you are in my blood like holy wine You taste so bitter and so sweet Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling Still I'd be on my feet I would still be on my feet [Verse 3] I met a woman She had a mouth like yours She knew your life She knew your devils and your deeds And she said "Go to him, stay with him if you can But be prepared to bleed" [Chorus] Oh, but you are in my blood, you are my holy wine You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling Still I'd be on my feet I would still be on my feet -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- All I Want -------- [Verse 1] I am on a lonely road and I am traveling Traveling, traveling, traveling Looking for something, what can it be? Oh, I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some Oh, I love you when I forget about me I want to be strong, I want to laugh along I want to belong to the living Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive I want to wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive Do you want, do you want, do you want to dance with me, baby? Do you want to take a chance On maybe finding some sweet romance with me, baby? Well, come on [Verse 2] All I really, really want our love to do Is to bring out the best in me and in you too All I really, really want our love to do Is to bring out the best in me and in you I want to talk to you, I want to shampoo you I want to renew you again and again Applause, applause, life is our cause When I think of your kisses, my mind see-saws Do you see, do you see, do you see how you hurt me, baby? So I hurt you too Then we both get so blue [Verse 3] I am on a lonely road and I am traveling Looking for the key to set me free Oh, the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling It's the unraveling And it undoes all the joy that could be I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun Want to be the one that you want to see I want to knit you a sweater Want to write you a love letter I want to make you feel better I want to make you feel free Want to make you feel free I want to make you feel free -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- Blue -------- [Verse 1] Blue Songs are like tattoos You know I've been to sea before Crown and anchor me Or let me sail away [Verse 2] Hey, blue There is a song for you Ink on a pin Underneath the skin An empty space to fill in [Bridge] Well, there's so many sinking now You gotta keep thinking You can make it through these waves Acid, booze, and ass Needles, guns, and grass Lots of laughs Lots of laughs Everybody's saying that Hell's the hippest way to go Well, I don't think so But I'm gonna take a look around it, though Blue, I love you [Verse 3] Blue, there is a shell for you Inside you'll hear a sigh A foggy lullaby There is your song from me -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- California -------- [Verse 1] Sitting in a park in Paris, France Reading the news and it sure looks bad They won't give peace a chance That was just a dream some of us had Still a lot of lands to see But I wouldn't wanna stay here It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here [Chorus] Oh, but California California, I'm coming home I'm going to see the folks I dig I'll even kiss a Sunset pig California, I'm coming home [Verse 2] I met a redneck on a Grecian isle Who did the goat dance very well He gave me back my smile But he kept my camera to sell Oh, the rogue, the red red rogue He cooked good omelets and stews And I might have stayed on with him there [Chorus] But my heart cried out for you, California Oh, California, I'm coming home Oh, make me feel good rock 'n roll band I'm your biggest fan California, I'm coming home [Bridge] Oh, it gets so lonely When you're walking And the streets are full of strangers All the news of home you read Just gives you the blues Just gives you the blues [Verse 3] So I bought me a ticket I got on a plane to Spain Went to a party down a red dirt road There were lots of pretty people there Reading Rolling Stone, reading Vogue They said, "How long can you hang around?" I said a week, maybe two Just until my skin turns brown Then I'm going home to California California, I'm coming home Oh, will you take me as I am Strung out on another man California, I'm coming home Oh, it gets so lonely When you're walking And the streets are full of strangers All the news of home you read More about the war And the bloody changes Oh, will you take me as I am? Will you take me as I am? Will you? Will you take me as I am? Hmmm mmmmm Take me as I am -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- Carey -------- [Verse 1] The wind is in from Africa Last night I couldn't sleep Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here, Carey But it's really not my home My fingernails are filthy I got beach tar on my feet And I miss my clean white linen And my fancy French cologne [Chorus] Oh, Carey, get out your cane And I'll put on some silver Oh, you're a mean old Daddy But I like you fine [Verse 2] Come on down to the Mermaid Cafe and I will Buy you a bottle of wine And we'll laugh and toast to nothing And smash our empty glasses down Let's have a round for these freaks and these soldiers A round for these friends of mine Let's have another round for the bright red devil Who keeps me in this tourist town [Chorus] Come on, Carey, get out your cane I'll put on some silver Oh, you're a mean old Daddy But I like you I like you, I like you, I like you [Verse 3] Maybe I'll go to Amsterdam Or maybe I'll go to Rome And rent me a grand piano And put some flowers 'round my room But let's not talk about fare-thee-wells now The night is a starry dome And they're playin' that scratchy rock and roll Beneath the Matala Moon [Chorus] Come on, Carey, get out your cane And I'll put on some silver You're a mean old Daddy But I like you [Verse 4] The wind is in from Africa Last night I couldn't sleep Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here But it's really not my home Maybe it's been too long a time Since I was scramblin' down in the street Now they got me used to that clean white linen And that fancy French cologne [Chorus] Oh, Carey, get out your cane I'll put on my finest silver We'll go to the Mermaid Cafe Have fun tonight I said, oh, you're a mean old Daddy But you're out of sight -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- Little Green -------- [Verse 1] Born with the moon in Cancer Choose her a name she will answer to Call her green and the winters cannot fade her Call her green for the children who've made her Little green, be a gypsy dancer [Verse 2] He went to California Hearing that everything's warmer there So you write him a letter and say "Her eyes are blue" He sends you a poem and she's lost to you Little green, he's a non-conformer [Chorus] Just a little green Like the color when the spring is born There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow Just a little green Like the nights when the Northern lights perform There'll be icicles and birthday clothes And sometimes there'll be sorrow [Verse 3] Child with a child pretending Weary of lies you are sending home So you sign all the papers in the family name You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed Little green, have a happy ending [Chorus] Just a little green Like the color when the spring is born There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow Just a little green Like the nights when the Northern lights perform There'll be icicles and birthday clothes And sometimes there'll be sorrow -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- My Old Man -------- [Verse 1] My old man He's a singer in the park He's a walker in the rain He's a dancer in the dark [Chorus] We don't need no piece of paper From the city hall Keeping us tied and true My old man Keeping away my blues [Verse 2] He's my sunshine in the morning He's my fireworks at the end of the day He's the warmest chord I ever heard Play that warm chord, play and stay, baby [Chorus] We don't need no piece of paper From the city hall Keeping us tied and true My old man Keeping away my blues [Bridge] But when he's gone Me and them lonesome blues collide The bed's too big The frying pan's too wide [Verse 3] Then he comes home And he takes me in his loving arms And he tells me all his troubles And he tells me all my charms [Chorus] We don't need no piece of paper From the city hall Keeping us tied and true, no My old man Keeping away my blues [Bridge] But when he's gone Me and them lonesome blues collide The bed's too big The frying pan's too wide [Verse 4] My old man He's a singer in the park He's a walker in the rain He's a dancer in the dark [Chorus] We don't need no piece of paper From the city hall Keeping us tied and true, no My old man Keeping away my lonesome blues -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- River -------- [Verse 1] It's coming on Christmas They're cutting down trees They're putting up reindeer And singing songs of joy and peace Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on [Verse 2] But it don't snow here It stays pretty green I'm gonna make a lot of money Then I'm gonna quit this crazy scene I wish I had a river I could skate away on [Chorus] I wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on I made my baby cry [Verse 3] He tried hard to help me You know, he put me at ease And he loved me so naughty Made me weak in the knees Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on [Verse 4] I'm so hard to handle I'm selfish and I'm sad Now I've gone and lost the best baby That I ever had I wish I had a river I could skate away on [Chorus] I wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on I made my baby say goodbye [Verse 5] It's coming on Christmas They're cutting down trees They're putting up reindeer And singing songs of joy and peace I wish I had a river I could skate away on -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- The Last Time I Saw Richard -------- [Verse 1] The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68 And he told me, "All romantics meet the same fate someday Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe "You laugh," he said, "you think you're immune Go look at your eyes, they're full of moon You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you All those pretty lies, pretty lies When you gonna realize they're only pretty lies? Only pretty lies, just pretty lies" [Verse 2] He put a quarter in the Wurlitzer And he pushed three buttons and the thing began to whirr And a bar maid came by in fishnet stockings and a bow tie And she said "Drink up now, it's gettin' on time to close." "Richard, you haven't really changed," I said, it's just that Now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head You got tombs in your eyes, but the songs you punched are dreamy Listen, they sing of love so sweet, love so sweet When you gonna get yourself back on your feet? Oh and love can be so sweet, love so sweet [Verse 3] Richard got married to a figure skater And he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on And all the house lights left up bright I'm gonna blow this damn candle out I don't want nobody comin' over to my table I got nothing to talk to anybody about All good dreamers pass this way someday Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes Dark cafes, only a dark cocoon Before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away Only a phase, these dark cafe days -------- 1971 Blue -------- -------- This Flight Tonight -------- [Verse 1] Look out the left, the captain said The lights down there, that's where we'll land I saw a falling star burn up Above the Las Vegas sands It wasn't the one that you gave to me That night down south between the trailers Not the early one That you can wish upon Not the northern one That guides in the sailors [Chorus] Oh, starbright, starbright You've got the lovin' that I like all right Turn this crazy bird around I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight [Verse 2] You got the touch so gentle and sweet But you've got that look so critical Now I can't talk to you, baby, I get so weak Sometimes I think love is just mythical Up there's the heavens Down there's a town Blackness everywhere and little lights shine Oh, blackness, blackness dragging me down Come on, light the candle in this poor heart of mine [Chorus] Oh, starbright, starbright You've got the lovin' that I like all right Turn this crazy bird around I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight [Verse 3] I'm drinking sweet champagne Got the headphones up high Can't numb you out Can't drum you out of my mind They're playing "Goodbye, baby Baby, goodbye Ooh ooh, love is blind" Up go the flaps, down go the wheels I hope you got your heat turned on, baby I hope they finally fixed your automobile I hope it's better when we meet again, baby [Chorus] Starbright, starbright You've got the lovin' that I like all right Turn this crazy bird around Shouldn't have got on this flight tonight -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Banquet -------- [Verse 1] Come to the dinner gong The table is laden high Fat bellies and hungry little ones Tuck your napkins in And take your share Some get the gravy And some get the gristle Some get the marrow bone And some get nothing Though there's plenty to spare [Chorus 1] I took my share down by the sea Paper plates and Javex bottles on the tide Seagulls come down And they squawk at me Down where the water-skiers glide [Verse 2] Some turn to Jesus And some turn to heroin Some turn to rambling round Looking for a clean sky And a drinking stream Some watch the paint peel off Some watch their kids grow up Some watch their stocks and bonds Waiting for that big deal American Dream [Chorus 2] I took my dream down by the sea Yankee yachts and lobster pots and sunshine And logs and sails And Shell Oil pails Dogs and tugs and summertime Back in the banquet line Angry young people crying [Outro] Who let the greedy in And who left the needy out Who made this salty soup Tell him we're very hungry now For a sweeter fare In the cookie I read "Some get the gravy And some get the gristle Some get the marrow bone And some get nothing Though there's plenty to spare" -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Barangrill -------- [Verse 1] Three waitresses all wearing Black diamond earrings Talking about zombies And Singapore slings No trouble in their faces Not one anxious voice None of the crazy you get From too much choice The thumb and the satchel Or the rented Rolls-Royce And you think she knows something By the second refill You think she's enlightened As she totals your bill You say "Show me the way To Barangrill" [Verse 2] Well some say it's in service They say "Humble Makes Pure" You're hoping it's near Folly 'Cause you're headed that way for sure And you just have to laugh 'Cause it's all so crazy Ah, her mind's on her boyfriend And eggs over easy It's just a trick on you Her mirrors and your will So you ask the truck driver On the way to the till But he's just a slave To Barangrill [Verse 3] The guy at the gaspumps He's got a lot of soul He sings Merry Christmas for you Just like Nat King Cole And he makes up his own tune Right on the spot About whitewalls and windshields And this job he's got And you want to get moving And you want to stay still But lost in the moment Some longing gets filled And you even forget to ask "Hey, Where's Barangrill?" -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Blonde in the Bleachers -------- [Verse 1] The blonde in the bleachers She flips her hair for you Above the loudspeakers You start to fall She follows you home But you miss living alone You can still hear sweet mysteries Calling you The bands and the roadies Lovin' 'em and leavin' 'em It's pleasure to try 'em It's trouble to keep 'em 'Cause it seems like you've gotta give up Such a piece of your soul When you give up the chase Feeling it hot and cold You're in rock 'n' roll It's the nature of the race It's the unknown child So sweet and wild It's youth It's too good to waste [Verse 2] She tapes her regrets To the microphone stand She says, "You can't hold the hand Of a rock 'n' roll man Very long Or count on your plans With a rock 'n' roll man Very long Compete with the fans For your rock 'n' roll man For very long The girls and the bands And the rock 'n' roll man" -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire -------- [Verse 1] Cold Blue Steel out of money One eye for the beat police Sweet Fire calling "You can't deny me Now you know what you need" Underneath the jungle gym Hollow-grey-fire-escape-thief Looking for Sweet Fire Shadow of Lady Release [Chorus] "Come with me I know the way" she says "It's down, down, down the dark ladder Do you want to contact somebody first? Leave someone a letter? You can come now Or you can come later" [Verse 2] A wristwatch, a ring, a downstairs screamer Edgy - black cracks of the sky "Pin-cushion-prick- Fix this poor bad dreamer!" "Money" cold shadows reply Pawnshops crisscrossed and padlocked Corridors spit on prayers and pleas Sparks fly up from Sweet Fire Black soot of Lady Release [Chorus] "Come with me I know the way" she says "It's down, down, down the dark ladder Do you want to contact somebody first? Does it really matter You can come now Or you can come later?" [Verse 3] Red water in the bathroom sink Fever and the scum brown bowl Blue Steel still begging But it's indistinct Someone's HI-Fi drumming Jelly Roll Concrete concentration camp Bashing in veins for peace Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire Fall into Lady Release [Chorus] "Come with me I know the way" she says "It's down, down, down the dark ladder Do you want to contact somebody first? I mean what does it really matter? You're going to come now Or you're going to come later" -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Electricity -------- [Verse 1] The Minus is loveless He talks to the land And the leaves fall And the pond over-ices She don't know the system, Plus She don't understand She's got all the wrong fuses and splices She's not going to fix it up Too easy [Verse 2] The masking tape tangles It's sticky and black And the copper Proud headed Queen Lizzie Conducts little charges That don't get charged back Well the technical manual's busy She's not going to fix it up too easy And she holds out her flashlight And she shines it on me She wants me to tell her What the trouble might be Well I'm learning It's peaceful With a good dog and some trees Out of touch with the breakdown Of this century They're not going to fix it up Too easy [Verse 3] We once loved-together And we floodlit that time Input-output-electricity But the lines overloaded And the sparks started flying And the loose wires Were lashing out at me She's not going to fix that up Too easy But she holds out her candle And she shines it in And she begs him to show her How to fix it again While the song that he sang her To soothe her to sleep Runs all through her circuits Like a heartbeat She's not going to fix it up Too easy -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- For the Roses -------- [Verse 1] I heard it in the wind last night It sounded like applause Did you get a round resounding for you Way up here It seems like many dim years ago Since I heard that face to face Or seen you face to face Though tonight I can feel you here I get these notes On butterflies and lilac sprays From girls who just have to tell me They saw you somewhere [Verse 2] In some office sits a poet And he trembles as he sings And he asks some guy To circulate his soul around On your mark red ribbon runner The caressing rev of motors Finely tuned like fancy women In thirties evening gowns Up the charts Off to the airport Your name's in the news Everything's first class The lights go down And it's just you up there Getting them to feel like that [Verse 3] Remember the days when you used to sit And make up your tunes for love And pour your simple sorrow To the soundhole and your knee And now you're seen On giant screens And at parties for the press And for people who have slices of you From the company They toss around your latest golden egg Speculation well who's to know If the next one in the nest Will glitter for them so [Verse 4] I guess I seem ungrateful With my teeth sunk in the hand That brings me things I really can't give up just yet Now I sit up here the critic And they introduce some band But they seem so much confetti Looking at them on my TV set Oh the power and the glory Just when you're getting a taste for worship They start bringing out the hammers And the boards And the nails [Outro] I heard it in the wind last night It sounded like applause Chilly now End of summer No more shiny hot nights It was just the arbutus rustling And the bumping of the logs And the moon swept down black water Like an empty spotlight -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune) -------- [Verse 1] No tongue in the bell And the fishwives yell But they might as well be mute So you get to keep the pictures That don't seem like much Cold white keys under your fingers Now you're thinking "That's no substitute It just don't do it Like the song of a warm warm body Loving your touch" [Verse 2] In the court they carve your legend With an apple in its jaw And the women that you wanted They get their laughs Long silk stockings On the bedposts of refinement You're too raw They think you're too raw It's the judgement of the moon and stars Your solitary path Draw yourself a bath Think what you'd like to have For supper Or take a walk A park A bridge A tree A river Revoked but not yet cancelled The gift goes on In silence In a bell jar Still a song [Verse 3] You've got to shake your fists at lightning now You've got to roar like forest fire You've got to spread your light like blazes All across the sky They're going to aim the hoses on you Show 'em you won't expire Not till you burn up every passion Not even when you die Come on now You've got to try If you're feeling contempt Well then you tell it If you're tired of the silent night Jesus well then you yell it Condemned to wires and hammers Strike every chord that you feel That broken trees And elephant ivories conceal -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Lesson In Survival -------- [Verse 1] Lesson in Survival Spinning out on turns That gets you tough Guru books-the Bible Only a reminder That you're just not good enough You need to believe in something Once I could in our love Black road Double yellow line Friends and kin Campers in the kitchen That's fine sometimes But I know my needs My sweet tumbleweed I need more quiet times By a river flowing You and me Deep kisses And the sun going down [Verse 2] Maybe it's paranoia Maybe it's sensitivity Your friends protect you Scrutinize me I get so damn timid Not at all the spirit That's inside of me Oh baby I can't seem to make it With you socially There's this reef around me I'm looking way out at the ocean Love to see that green water in motion I'm going to get a boat And we can row it If you ever get the notion To be needed by me Fresh salmon frying And the tide rolling in [Verse 3] I went to see a friend tonight 'Was very late when I walked in My talking as it rambled Revealed suspicious reasoning The visit seemed to darken him I came in as bright As a neon light And I burned out Right there before him I told him these things I'm telling you now Watched them buckle up In his brow When you dig down deep You lose good sleep And it makes you Heavy company I will always love you Hands alike Magnet and iron The souls -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Let The Wind Carry Me -------- [Verse 1] Papa's faith is people Mama she believes in cleaning Papa's faith is in people Mama she's always cleaning Papa brought home the sugar Mama taught me the deeper meaning She don't like my kick pleat skirt She don't like my eyelids painted green She don't like me staying up late In my high-heeled shoes Living for that Rock'n'Roll dancing scene Papa says "Leave the girl alone, Mother She's looking like a Movie Queen" [Verse 2] Mama thinks she spoilt me Papa knows somehow he set me free Mama thinks she spoilt me rotten She blames herself But papa he blesses me It's a rough road to travel Mama let go now It's always called for me Sometimes I get that feeling And I want to settle And raise a child up with somebody I get that strong longing And I want to settle And raise a child up with somebody But it passes like the summer I'm a wild seed again Let the wind carry me -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- See You Sometime -------- [Verse 1] Where are you now Are you in some hotel room Does it have a view? Are you caught in a crowd Or holding some honey Who came on to you? Why do you have to be so jive Ok hang up the phone It hurts But something survives Though it's undermined I'd still like to see you sometime [Verse 2] I'm feeling so good And my friends all tell me That I'm looking fine I run in the woods I spring from the boulders Like a mama lion I'm not ready to Change my name again But you know I'm not after A piece of your fortune And your fame Cause I tasted mine I'd just like to see you sometime [Bridge] Pack your suspenders I'll come meet your plane No need to surrender I just want to see you again [Verse 3] We're in for more rain I could sure use some sunshine on my apple trees It seems such a shame We start out so kind and end so heartlessly I couldn't take them all on then With a headful of questions and hypes So when the hopes got so slim I just resigned But I'd still like to see you sometime I'd sure like to see you -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- Woman of Heart and Mind -------- [Verse 1] I am a woman of heart and mind With time on her hands No child to raise You come to me like a little boy And I give you my scorn and my praise You think I'm like your mother Or another lover or your sister Or the queen of your dreams Or just another silly girl When love makes a fool of me [Verse 2] After the rush when you come back down You're always disappointed Nothing seems to keep you high Drive your bargains Push your papers Win your medals Fuck your strangers Don't it leave you on the empty side I'm looking for affection and respect A little passion And you want stimulation-nothing more That's what I think But you know I'll try to be there for you When your spirits start to sink [Verse 3] All this talk about holiness now It must be the start of the latest style Is it all books and words Or do you really feel it? Do you really laugh? Do you really care? Do you really smile When you smile? You criticize and you flatter You imitate the best And the rest you memorize You know the times you impress me most Are the times when you don't try When you don't even try -------- 1972 For the Roses -------- -------- You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio -------- [Verse 1] If you're driving into town With a dark cloud above you Dial in the number Who's bound to love you Oh honey, you turn me on I'm a radio I'm a country station I'm a little bit corny I'm a wildwood flower Waving for you I'm a broadcasting tower Waving for you And I'm sending you out This signal here I hope you can pick it up Loud and clear [Verse 2] I know you don't like weak women You get bored so quick And you don't like strong women 'Cause they're hip to your tricks It's been dirty for dirty Down the line But you know I come when you whistle When you're loving and kind But if you've got too many doubts If there's no good reception for me Then tune me out, 'cause honey Who needs the static It hurts the head And you wind up cracking And the day goes dismal From "Breakfast Barney" To the sign-off prayer What a sorry face you get to wear [Verse 3] I'm going to tell you again now If you're still listening there If you're driving into town With a dark cloud above you Dial in the number Who's bound to love you If you're lying on the beach With the transistor going Kick off the sandflies, honey The love's still flowing If your head says forget it But your heart's still smoking Call me at the station The lines are open -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Car on a Hill -------- [Verse 1] I've been sitting up waiting for my sugar to show I've been listening to the sirens and the radio He said he'd be over three hours ago I've been waiting for his car on the hill He makes friends easy He's not like me I watch for judgement anxiously Now where in the city can that boy be [Chorus] Waiting for a car Climbing Climbing Climbing the hill [Verse 2] He's a real good talker, I think he's a friend Fast tires come screaming around the bend But there's still no buzzer, they roll on And I'm waiting for his car on the hill It always seems so righteous at the start When there's so much laughter When there's so much spark When there's so much sweetness in the dark [Chorus] Waiting for a car Climbing Climbing Climbing the hill -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Court and Spark -------- [Verse 1] Love came to my door With a sleeping roll And a madman's soul He thought for sure I'd seen him Dancing up a river in the dark Looking for a woman To court and spark [Verse 2] He was playing on the sidewalk For passing change When something strange happened Glory train passed through him So he buried the coins he made In People's Park And went looking for a woman To court and spark [Chorus 1] It seemed like he read my mind He saw me mistrusting him and still acting kind He saw how I worried, sometimes I worry sometimes [Verse 3] "All the guilty people," he said "They've all seen the stain On their daily bread On their Christian names I cleared myself, I sacrificed my blues And you could complete me I'd complete you." [Verse 4] His eyes were the color of the sand And the sea And the more he talked to me, you know The more he reached me But I couldn't let go of L.A City of the fallen angels -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Down to You -------- [Verse 1] Everything comes and goes Marked by lovers and styles of clothes Things that you held high And told yourself were true Lost or changing as the days come down to you Down to you Constant stranger You're a kind person You're a cold person too It's down to you It all comes down to you [Verse 2] You go down to the pick up station Craving warmth and beauty You settle for less than fascination A few drinks later you're not so choosy When the closing lights strip off the shadows On this strange new flesh you've found Clutching the night to you like a fig leaf You hurry To the blackness And the blankets To lay down an impression And your loneliness [Verse 3] In the morning there are lovers in the street They look so high You brush against a stranger And you both apologize Old friends seem indifferent You must have brought that on Old bonds have broken down Love is gone Oooh love is gone Written on your spirit this sad song Love is gone [Verse 4] Everything comes and goes Pleasure moves on too early And trouble leaves too slow Just when you're thinking You've finally got it made Bad news comes knocking At your garden gate Knocking for you Constant stranger You're a brute you're an angel You can crawl you can fly too It's down to you It all comes down to you -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Free Man in Paris -------- [Verse 1] The way I see it he said You just can't win it Everybody's in it for their own gain You can't please 'em all There's always somebody calling you down I do my best and I do good business There's a lot of people asking for my time They're trying to get ahead They're trying to be a good friend of mine [Chorus] I was a free man in Paris I felt unfettered and alive There was nobody calling me up for favours And no one's future to decide You know I'd go back there tomorrow But for the work I've taken on Stoking the star maker machinery Behind the popular song [Verse 2] I deal in dreamers And telephone screamers Lately I wonder what I do it for If l had my way I'd just walk through those doors And wander down the Champs-Elysees Going cafe to cabaret Thinking how I'll feel when I find That very good friend of mine [Chorus] I was a free man in Paris I felt unfettered and alive Nobody was calling me up for favours No one's future to decide You know I'd go back there tomorrow But for the work I've taken on Stoking the star maker machinery Behind the popular song -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Help Me -------- [Verse 1] Help me, I think I'm falling in love again When I get that crazy feeling, I know I'm in trouble again I'm in trouble 'cause you're a rambler and a gambler And a sweet taIking ladies man and you love your lovin' But not like you love your freedom [Verse 2] Help me, I think I'm falling in love too fast It's got me hoping for the future and worrying about the past 'Cause I've seen some hot hot blazes Come down to smoke and ash We love our lovin' but not like we love our freedom [Verse 3] Didn't it feel good, we were sitting there talking Or lying there not talking, didn't it feel good You dance with the lady with the hole in her stocking Didn't it feel good Didn't it feel good [Verse 4] Help me, I think I'm falling in love with you Are you going to let me go there by myself That's such a lonely thing to do Both of us flirting around flirting and flirting, hurting too We love our lovin' but not like we love our freedom -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Just Like This Train -------- [Verse 1] I'm always running behind the time Just like this train Shaking into town With the brakes complaining I used to count lovers like railroad cars I counted them on my side Lately I don't count on nothing I just let things slide [Chorus 1] The station master's shuffling cards Boxcars are banging in the yards Jealous lovin'll make you crazy If you can't find your goodness 'Cause you lost your heart [Verse 2] I went looking for a cause Or a strong cat without claws Or any reason to resume And I found this empty seat In this crowded waiting room Everybody waiting Old man sleeping on his bags Women with that teased up kind of hair Kids with the jitters in their legs And those wide, wide open stares [Chorus 2] And the kids got Cokes and chocolate bars There's a thin man smoking a fat cigar Jealous lovin'll make you crazy If you can't find your goodness 'Cause you've lost your heart [Bridge] What are you going to do now You've got no one To give your love to [Verse 3] Well I've got this berth and this pull down blind I've got this fold up sink And these rocks and these cactuses going by And a bottle of German wine to drink Settle down into the clickety clack With the clouds and the stars to read Dreaming of the pleasure I'm going to have Watching your hairline recede, my vain darling [Chorus 3] Watching your hair and clouds and stars I'm rocking away in a sleeping car This jealous lovin's bound to make me crazy I can't find my goodness I lost my heart Oh, sour grapes because I lost my heart -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- People's Parties -------- [Verse 1] All the people at this party They've got a lot of style They've got stamps of many countries They've got passport smiles Some are friendly, some are cutting Some are watching it from the wings Some are standing in the centre Giving to get something [Verse 2] Photo beauty gets attention Then her eye paint's running down She's got a rose in her teeth And a lampshade crown One minute she's so happy Then she's crying on someone's knee Saying laughing and crying You know it's the same release [Verse 3] I told you when I met you I was crazy Cry for us all beauty Cry for Eddie in the corner Thinking he's nobody And Jack behind his joker And stone-cold Grace behind her fan And me in my frightened silence Thinking I don't understand [Verse 4] I feel like I'm sleeping Can you wake me You seem to have a broader sensibility I'm just living on nerves and feelings With a weak and a lazy mind And coming to people's parties Fumbling deaf dumb and blind [Verse 5] I wish I had more sense of humor Keeping the sadness at bay Throwing the lightness on these things Laughing it all away Laughing it all away Laughing it all away -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Raised on Robbery -------- [Verse 1] He was sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel He was drinking for diversion He was thinking for himself A little money riding on the Maple Leafs Along comes a lady in lacy sleeves She says: "Let me sit down You know, drinkin' alone's a shame (It's a shame, it's a crying shame) Look at those jokers Glued to that damn hockey game Hey honey, you've got lots of cash Bring us 'round a bottle And we'll have some laughs [Chorus 1] Gin's what I'm drinking I was raised on robbery" [Verse 2] I'm a pretty good cook I'm sitting on my groceries Come up to my kitchen I'll show you my best recipe I try and I try but I can't save a cent I'm up after midnight cooking Trying to make my rent [Chorus 2] I'm rough but I'm pleasin' I was raised on robbery [Verse 3] We had a little money once They were pushing through a four lane highway Government gave us three thousand dollars You should have seen it fly away First he bought a '57 Biscayne He put it in a ditch He drunk up all the rest That son of a bitch [Chorus 3] His blood's bad whiskey I was raised on robbery [Verse 4] You know you ain't bad looking I like the way you hold your drinks Come home with me honey I ain't asking for no full length mink Hey, where you going? Don't go yet Your glass ain't empty and we just met [Chorus 4] You're mean when you're loaded I was raised on robbery -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Same Situation -------- [Verse 1] Again and again the same situation For so many years Tethered to a ringing telephone In a room full of mirrors A pretty girl in your bathroom Checking out her sex appeal I asked myself when you said you loved me Do you think this can be real? [Verse 2] Still I sent up my prayer Wondering where it had to go With heaven full of astronauts And the Lord on death row While the millions of his lost and lonely ones Call out and clamour to be found Caught in their struggle for higher positions And their search for love that sticks around [Verse 3] You've had lots of lovely women Now you turn your gaze to me Weighing the beauty and the imperfection To see if I'm worthy Like the church, like a cop, like a mother You want me to be truthful Sometimes you turn it on me like a weapon though And I need your approval [Verse 4] Still I sent up my prayer Wondering who was there to hear I said, "Send me somebody Who's strong and somewhat sincere" With the millions of the lost and lonely ones I called out to be released Caught in my struggle for higher achievements And my search for love That don't seem to cease -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Trouble Child -------- [Verse 1] Up in a sterilized room Where they let you be lazy Knowing your attitude's all wrong And you got to change And that's not easy Dragon shining with all values known Dazzling you, keeping you from your own Where is the lion in you To defy him when you're this weak And this spacey [Verse 2] So what are you going to do about it You can't live life and you can't leave it Advice and religion, you can't take it You can't seem to believe it The peacock is afraid to parade You're under the thumb of the maid You really can't give love in this condition Still you know how you need it [Verse 3] They open and close you Then they talk like they know you They don't know you They're friends and they're foes too Trouble child Breaking like the waves at Malibu [Verse 4] So why does it come as such a shock To know you really have no one Only a river of changing faces Looking for an ocean They trickle through your leaky plans Another dream over the dam And you're lying in some room Feeling like your right to be human Is going over too Well, some are gonna knock you And some'll try and clock you You know it's really hard to talk sense to you Trouble child Breaking like the waves at Malibu -------- 1974 Court and Spark -------- -------- Twisted -------- [Chorus 1] My analyst told me That I was right out of my head The way he described it He said I'd be better dead than live I didn't listen to his jive I knew all along That he was all wrong And I knew that he thought I was crazy but I'm not Oh no [Chorus 2] My analyst told me That I was right out of my head He said I need treatment But I'm not that easily led He said I was the type That was most inclined When out of his sight To be out of my mind And he thought I was nuts No more ifs or ands or buts [Verse 1] They say as a child I appeared a little bit wild With all my crazy ideas But I knew what was happening I knew I was a genius What's so strange when you know That you're a wizard at three I knew that this was meant to be [Verse 2] Now I heard little children Were supposed to sleep tight That's why I got into the vodka one night My parents got frantic Didn't know what to do But I saw some crazy scenes Before I came to Now do you think I was crazy I may have been only three But I was swinging [Verse 3] They all laugh at angry young men They all laughed at Edison and also at Einstein So why should I feel sorry If they just couldn't understand The idiomatic logic That went on in my head I had a brain, it was insane Oh, they used to laugh at me When I refused to ride On those double decker buses All because there was no driver on the top [Chorus 3] My analyst told me That I was right out of my head But I said, "Dear doctor I think that it's you instead Because I, I got a thing That's unique and new To prove it I'll have The last laugh on you 'Cause instead of one head I got two And you know two heads are better than one" -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- Don't Interrupt the Sorrow -------- [Chorus 1] Don't interrupt the sorrow Darn right In flames our prophet witches Be polite A room full of glasses He says, "Your notches, liberation doll" And he chains me with that serpent To that Ethiopian wall [Verse 1] Anima rising Queen of Queens Wash my guilt of Eden Wash and balance me Anima rising Uprising in me tonight She's a vengeful little goddess With an ancient crown to fight [Verse 2] Truth goes up in vapors The steeples lean Winds of change patriarchs Snug in your bible belt dreams God goes up the chimney Like childhood Santa Claus The good slaves love the good book A rebel loves a cause [Verse 3] I'm leaving on the 1:15 You're darn right Since I was seventeen I've had no one over me He says "Anima rising- So what- Petrified wood process Tall timber down to rock!" [Chorus 2] Don't interrupt the sorrow Darn right He says, "We walked on the moon You be polite" Don't let up the sorrow Death and birth and death and birth and death and birth He says, "Bring that bottle kindly And I'll pad your purse- I've got a head full of quandary And a mighty, mighty, mighty thirst" [Verse 4] Seventeen glasses Rhine wine Milk of the Madonna Clandestine He don't let up the sorrow He lies and he cheats It takes a heart like Mary's these days When your man gets weak -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- Edith and the Kingpin -------- [Verse 1] The big man arrives Disco dancers greet him Plainclothes cops greet him Small town, big man, fresh lipstick glistening Sophomore jive From victims of typewriters The band sounds like typewriters The big man he's not listening His eyes hold Edith His left hand holds his right What does that hand desire That he grips it so tight [Verse 2] Edith in the ring The passed-over girls are conferring The man with the diamond ring is purring All claws for now withdrawn One by one they bring His renegade stories to her His crimes and his glories to her In challenge they look on Women he has taken grow old too soon He tilts their tired faces Gently to the spoon [Verse 3] Edith in his bed A plane in the rain is humming The wires in the walls are humming Some song - some mysterious song Bars in her head Beating frantic and snowblind Romantic and snowblind She says - his crime belongs Edith and the Kingpin Each with charm to sway Are staring eye to eye They dare not look away You know they dare not look away -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- Harry's House/Centerpiece -------- [Verse 1] Heatwaves on the runway As the wheels set down He takes his baggage off the carousel He takes a taxi into town Yellow schools of taxi fishes Jonah in a ticking whale Caught up at the light in the fishnet windows Of Bloomingdale's Watching those high fashion girls Skinny black models with Raven curls Beauty parlor blonds with credit card eyes Looking for the chic and the fancy To buy [Verse 2] He opens up his suitcase In the continental suite And people thirty stories down Look like colored currents in the street A helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof Like a dragonfly on a tomb And business men in button downs Press into conference rooms Battalions of paper-minded males Talking commodities and sales While at home their paper wives And paper kids Paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid [Verse 3] Yellow checkers for the kitchen Climbing ivy for the bath She is lost in House and Gardens He's caught up in Chief of Staff He drifts off into the memory Of the way she looked in school With her body oiled and shining At the public swimming pool [Chorus 1] The more I'm with you, pretty baby The more I feel my love increase I'm building all my dreams around you Our happiness will never cease Cause nothing's any good without you Baby you're my centerpiece [Chorus 2] We'll find a house and garden somewhere Along a country road a piece A little cottage on the outskirts Where we can really find release Cause nothing's any good without you Baby you're my centerpiece [Outro] Shining hair and shining skin Shining as she reeled him in To tell him like she did today Just what he could do with Harry's House And Harry's take home pay -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- In France They Kiss on Main Street -------- [Verse 1] Downtown My darling dime store thief In the War of Independence Rock 'n' roll rang sweet as victory Under neon signs A girl was in bloom And a woman was fading In a suburban room I said take me to the dance Do you want to dance? I love to dance And I told him They don't take chances They seem so removed from romance They've been broken in churches & schools And molded to middle class circumstance [Chorus] And we were rollin' Rollin' Rock 'n' rollin' [Verse 2] Downtown The dance halls and cafes Feel so wild you could break somebody's heart Just doing the latest dance craze Gail and Louise In those push up brassieres Tight dresses and rhinestone rings Drinking up the band's beers Young love was kissing under bridges Kissing in cars Kissing in cafes And we were walking down Main Street Kisses like bright flags hung on holidays In France they kiss on Main Street Amour, mama, not cheap display [Chorus] And we were rollin' Rollin' Rock 'n' rollin' [Verse 3] Downtown In the pinball arcade With his head full of pool hall pitches And songs from the hit parade He'd be singing "Bye, Bye, Love" While he's racking up his free play Let those rock 'n' roll choir boys Come and carry us away Sometimes Chickie had the car Or Ron had the car Or Lead Foot Melvin with his hotwire head We'd all go looking for a party Looking to raise Jesus up from the dead And I'd be kissing in the back seat Thrilling to the Brando-like things that he said [Chorus] And we'd be rollin' Rollin' Rock 'n' rolling [Outro] Rollin' Rollin' Rock 'n' rollin' Rollin' Rollin' Rock 'n' rollin' -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- Shades of Scarlett Conquering -------- [Verse 1] Out of the fire like Catholic saints Comes Scarlett and her deep complaint Mimicking tenderness she sees In sentimental movies A celluloid rider comes to town Cinematic lovers sway Plantations and sweeping ballroom gowns Take her breath away [Verse 2] Out in the wind in crinolines Chasing the ghosts of Gable and Flynn Through stand-in boys and extra players Magnolias hopeful in her auburn hair She comes from a school of southern charm She likes to have things her way Any man in the world holding out his arm Would soon be made to pay Friends have told her not so proud Neighbors trying to sleep and yelling "not so loud" [Verse 3] Lovers in anger "block of ice" Harder and harder just to be nice Given in the night to dark dreams From the dark things she feels She covers her eyes in the x-rated scenes Running from the reels [Verse 4] Beauty and madness to be praised 'cause it is not easy to be brave To walk around in so much need To carry the weight of all that greed Dressed in stolen clothes she stands Cast iron and frail With her impossibly gentle hands And her blood-red fingernails [Outro] Out of the fire and still smoldering She says "a woman must have everything" Shades of scarlett conquering She says "a woman must have everything" -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- Shadows and Light -------- [Verse 1] Every picture has its shadows And it has some source of light Blindness, blindness and sight The perils of benefactors The blessings of parasites Blindness, blindness and sight Threatened by all things Devil of cruelty Drawn to all things Devil of delight Mythical devil of the ever-present laws Governing blindness, blindness and sight [Verse 2] Suntans in reservation dining rooms Pale miners in their lantern rays Night, night and day Hostage smile on presidents Freedom scribbled in the subway It's like night, night and day Threatened by all things God of cruelty Drawn to all things God of delight Mythical god of the everlasting laws Governing day, day and night [Verse 3] Critics of all expression Judges in black and white Saying it's wrong, saying it's right Compelled by prescribed standards Or some ideals we fight For wrong, wrong and right Threatened by all things Man of cruelty - mark of Cain Drawn to all things Man of delight - born again, born again Man of the laws, the ever-broken laws Governing wrong, wrong and right Governing wrong, wrong and right Wrong and right -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- Sweet Bird -------- [Chorus 1] Out on some borderline Some mark of in between I lay down golden-in time And woke up vanishing [Verse 1] Sweet bird you are Briefer than a falling star All these vain promises on beauty jars Somewhere with your wings on time You must be laughing Behind our eyes Calendars of our lives Circled with compromise Sweet bird of time and change You must be laughing Up on your feathers laughing [Chorus 2] Golden in time Cities under the sand Power, ideals and beauty Fading in everyone's hand [Verse 2] Give me some time I feel like I'm losing mine Out here on this horizon line With the earth spinning And the sky forever rushing No one knows They can never get that close Guesses at most Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching [Outro] Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- The Boho Dance -------- [Verse 1] Down in the cellar in the Boho Zone I went looking for some sweet inspiration, oh well Just another hard-time band With Negro affectations I was a hopeful in rooms like this When I was working cheap It's an old romance, the Boho dance It hasn't gone to sleep [Chorus] But even on the scuffle The cleaner's press was in my jeans And any eye for detail Caught a little lace along the seams [Verse 2] And you were in the parking lot Subterranean by your own design The virtue of your style inscribed On your contempt for mine Jesus was a beggar, he was rich in grace And Solomon kept his head in all his glory It's just that some steps outside the Boho dance Have a fascination for me [Chorus] A camera pans the cocktail hour Behind a blind of potted palms And finds a lady in a Paris dress With runs in her nylons [Verse 3] You read those books where luxury Comes as a guest to take a slave Books where artists in noble poverty Go like virgins to the grave Don't you get sensitive on me 'Cause I know you're just too proud You couldn't step outside the Boho dance now Even if good fortune allowed [Chorus] Like a priest with a pornographic watch Looking and longing on the sly Sure it's stricken from your uniform But you can't get it out of your eyes [Chorus] Nothing is capsulized in me On either side of town The streets were never really mine Not mine these glamour gowns -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- The Hissing Of Summer Lawns -------- He bought her a diamond for her throat He put her in a ranch house on a hill She could see the valley barbecues From her window sill See the blue pools in the squinting sun Hear the hissing of summer lawns He put up a barbed wire fence To keep out the unknown And on every metal thorn Just a little blood of his own She patrols that fence of his To a latin drum And the hissing of summer lawns Darkness Wonder makes it easy Darkness With a joyful mask Darkness Tube's gone, darkness, darkness, darkness No color no contrast A diamond dog Carrying a cup and a cane Looking through a double glass Looking at too much pride and too much shame There's a black fly buzzing There's a heat wave burning in her master's voice Hissing summer lawns He gave her his darkness to regret And good reason to quit him He gave her a roomful of Chippendale That nobody sits in Still she stays with a love of some kind It's the lady's choice The hissing of summer lawns -------- 1975 The Hissing of Summer Lawns -------- -------- The Jungle Line -------- [Verse 1] Rousseau walks on trumpet paths Safaris to the heart of all that jazz Through I bars and girders-through wires and pipes The mathematic circuits of the modern nights Through huts, through Harlem, through jails and gospel pews Through the class on Park and the trash on Vine Through Europe and the deep deep heart of Dixie blue Through savage progress cuts the jungle line [Verse 2] In a low-cut blouse she brings the beer Rousseau paints a jungle flower behind her ear Those cannibals-of shuck and jive They'll eat a working girl like her alive With his hard-edged eye and his steady hand He paints the cellar full of ferns and orchid vines And he hangs a moon above a five-piece band He hangs it up above the jungle line [Verse 3] The jungle line, the jungle line Screaming in a ritual of sound and time Floating, drifting on the air-conditioned wind And drooling for a taste of something smuggled in Pretty women funneled through valves and smoke Coy and bitchy, wild and fine And charging elephants and chanting slaving boats Charging, chanting down the jungle line [Verse 4] There's a poppy wreath on a soldier's tomb There's a poppy snake in a dressing room Poppy poison-poppy tourniquet It slithers away on brass like mouthpiece spit And metal skin and ivory birds Go steaming up to Rousseau's vines They go steaming up to Brooklyn Bridge Steaming, steaming, steaming up the jungle line -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- A Strange Boy -------- [Verse 1] A strange boy is weaving A course of grace and havoc On a yellow skateboard Thru midday sidewalk traffic Just when I think he's foolish and childish And I want him to be manly I catch my fool and my child Needing love and understanding [Verse 2] What a strange strange boy He still lives with his family Even the war and the navy Couldn't bring him to maturity [Verse 3] He keeps referring back to school days And clinging to his child Fidgeting and bullied His crazy wisdom holding onto something wild He asked me to be patient Well I failed "Grow up!" I cried And as the smoke was clearing he said "Give me one good reason why" [Verse 4] What a strange strange boy He sees the cars as sets of waves Sequences of mass and space He sees the damage in my face [Verse 5] We got high on travel And we got drunk on alcohol And on love the strongest poison and medicine of all See how that feeling comes and goes Like the pull of moon on tides Now I am surf rising Now parched ribs of sand at his side [Verse 6] What a strange strange boy I gave him clothes and jewelry I gave him my warm body I gave him power over me [Verse 7] A thousand glass eyes were staring In a cellar full of antique dolls I found an old piano And sweet chords rose up in waxed New England halls While the boarders were snoring Under crisp white sheets of curfew We were newly lovers then We were fire in the stiff blue-haired house rules -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- Amelia -------- [Verse 1] I was driving across the burning desert When I spotted six jet planes Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain It was the hexagram of the heavens It was the strings of my guitar Amelia it was just a false alarm [Verse 2] The drone of flying engines Is a song so wild and blue It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you Then your life becomes a travelogue Of picture post card charms Amelia it was just a false alarm [Verse 3] People will tell you where they've gone They'll tell you where to go But till you get there yourself you never really know Where some have found their paradise Others just come to harm Oh, Amelia it was just a false alarm [Verse 4] I wish that he was here tonight It's so hard to obey His sad request of me to kindly stay away So this is how I hide the hurt As the road leads cursed and charmed I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm [Verse 5] A ghost of aviation She was swallowed by the sky Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly Like Icarus ascending On beautiful foolish arms Amelia it was just a false alarm [Verse 6] Maybe I've never really loved I guess that is the truth I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude And looking down on everything I crashed into his arms Amelia it was just a false alarm [Verse 7] I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel To shower off the dust And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust I dreamed of 747s Over geometric farms Dreams Amelia - dreams and false alarms -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- Black Crow -------- [Verse 1] There's a crow flying Black and ragged Tree to tree He's black as the highway that's leading me Now he's diving down To pick up on something shiny I feel like that black crow Flying In a blue sky [Verse 2] I took a ferry to the highway Then I drove to a pontoon plane I took a plane to a taxi And a taxi to a train I've been traveling so long How'm I ever going to know my home When I see it again I'm like a black crow flying In a blue blue sky [Verse 3] In search of love and music My whole life has been Illumination Corruption And diving diving diving diving Diving down to pick up on every shiny thing Just like that black crow flying In a blue sky [Verse 4] I looked at the morning After being up all night I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light I looked out the window And I saw that ragged soul take flight I saw a back crow flying In a blue sky Oh I'm like a black crow flying In a blue sky -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- Blue Motel Room -------- [Verse 1] I've got a blue motel room With a blue bedspread I've got the blues inside and outside my head Will you still love me When I call you up when I'm down Here in Savannah it's pouring rain Palm trees in the porch light like slick black cellophane Will you still love me When I call you up when I get back to town I know that you've got all those pretty girls coming on Hanging on your boom-boom-pachyderm Will you tell those girls that you've got German Measles Honey, tell them you've got germs I hope you'll be thinking of me Because I'll be thinking of you While I'm traveling home alone Tell those girls that you've got Joni She's coming back home [Verse 2] I've got road maps From two dozen states I've got coast to coast just to contemplate Will you still love me When I get back to town It's funny how these old feelings hang around You think they're gone No, no They just go underground Will you still love me When I get back to L.A. town You and me, we're like America and Russia We're always keeping score We're always balancing the power And that can get to be a cold cold war We're going to have to hold ourselves a peace talk In some neutral cafe You lay down your sneaking round the town honey And I'll lay down the highway [Verse 3] I've got a blue motel room With a blue bedspread I've got the blues inside and outside my head Will you still love me When I get back to town -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- Coyote -------- [Verse 1] No regrets Coyote We just come from such different sets of circumstance I'm up all night in the studios And you're up early on your ranch You'll be brushing out a broodmare's tail While the sun is ascending And I'll just be getting home with my reel-to-reel There's no comprehending Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes And the lips you can get And still feel so alone And still feel related Like stations in some relay You're not a hit and run driver no no Racing away You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway [Verse 2] We saw a farmhouse burning down In the middle of nowhere In the middle of the night And we rolled right past that tragedy Till we turned into some road house lights Where a local band was playing Locals were up kicking and shaking on the floor And the next thing I know That coyote's at my door He pins me in a corner and he won't take no He drags me out on the dance floor And we're dancing close and slow Now he's got a woman at home He's got another woman down the hall He seems to want me anyway Why'd you have to get so drunk And lead me on that way You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway [Verse 3] I looked a coyote right in the face On the road to Baljennie near my old home town He went running thru the whisker wheat Chasing some prize down And a hawk was playing with him Coyote was jumping straight up and making passes He had those same eyes just like yours Under your dark glasses Privately probing the public rooms And peeking thru keyholes in numbered doors Where the players lick their wounds And take their temporary lovers And their pills and powders to get them thru this passion play No regrets Coyote I just get off up aways You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway [Verse 4] Coyote's in the coffee shop He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs He picks up my scent on his fingers While he's watching the waitresses' legs He's too far from the Bay of Fundy From appaloosas and eagles and tides And the air conditioned cubicles And the carbon ribbon rides Are spelling it out so clear Either he's going to have to stand and fight Or take off out of here I tried to run away myself To run away and wrestle with my ego And with this flame You put here in this Eskimo In this hitcher In this prisoner Of the fine white lines Of the white lines on the free free way -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- Furry Sings The Blues -------- [Verse 1] Old Beale Street is coming down Sweeties' Snack Bar boarded up now And Egles the Tailor and the Shine Boy's gone Faded out with ragtime blues Handy's cast in bronze And he's standing in a little park With a trumpet in his hand Like he's listening back to the good old bands And the click of high heeled shoes Old Furry sings the blues Propped up in his bed With his dentures and his leg removed And Ginny's there For her kindness and Furry's beer She's the old man's angel overseer [Verse 2] Pawn shops glitter like gold tooth caps In the grey decay They chew the last few dollars off Old Beale Street's carcass Carrion and mercy Blue and silver sparkling drums Cheap guitars eye shades and guns Aimed at the hot blood of being no one Down and out in Memphis Tennessee Old Furry sings the blues You bring him smoke and drink and he'll play for you Lt's mostly muttering now and sideshow spiel But there was one song he played I could really feel [Verse 3] There's a double bill murder at the New Daisy The old girl's silent across the street She's silent waiting for the wrecker's beat Silent staring at her stolen name Diamond boys and satin dolls Bourbon laughter ghosts history falls To parking lots and shopping malls As they tear down old Beale Street Old Furry sings the blues He points a bony finger at you and says "I don't like you" Everybody laughs as if it's the old man's standard joke But it's true We're only welcome for our drink and smoke [Verse 4] W. C. Handy I'm rich and I'm fey And I'm not familiar with what you played But I get such strong impressions of your hey day Looking up and down old Beale Street Ghosts of the darktown society Come right out of the bricks at me Like it's a Saturday night They're in their finery Dancing it up and making deals Furry sings the blues Why should I expect that old guy to give it to me true Fallen to hard luck And time and other thieves While our limo is shining on his shanty street Old Furry sings the blues -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- Hejira -------- [Verse 1] I'm traveling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars That shell shock love away There's comfort in melancholy When there's no need to explain It's just as natural as the weather In this moody sky today In our possessive coupling So much could not be expressed So now I'm returning to myself These things that you and I suppressed I see something of myself in everyone Just at this moment of the world As snow gathers like bolts of lace Waltzing on a ballroom girl [Verse 2] You know it never has been easy Whether you do or you do not resign Whether you travel the breadth of extremities Or stick to some straighter line Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock They're either going to thaw out or freeze Listen Strains of Benny Goodman Coming through the snow and the pinewood trees I'm porous with travel fever But you know I'm so glad to be on my own Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger Can set up trembling in my bones I know no one's going to show me everything We all come and go unknown Each so deep and superficial Between the forceps and the stone [Verse 3] Well I looked at the granite markers Those tribute to finality to eternity And then I looked at myself here Chicken scratching for my immortality In the church they light the candles And the wax rolls down like tears There's the hope and the hopelessness I've witnessed thirty years We're only particles of change I know I know Orbiting around the sun But how can I have that point of view When I'm always bound and tied to someone White flags of winter chimneys Waving truce against the moon In the mirrors of a modern bank From the window of a hotel room [Verse 4] I'm traveling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars Until love sucks me back that way -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- Refuge of the Roads -------- [Verse 1] I met a friend of spirit He drank and womanized And I sat before his sanity I was holding back from crying He saw my complications And he mirrored me back simplified And we laughed how our perfection Would always be denied "Heart and humor and humility" He said "Will lighten up your heavy load" I left him for the refuge of the roads [Verse 2] I fell in with some drifters Cast upon a beachtown Winn Dixie cold cuts and highway hand me downs And I wound up fixing dinner For them and Boston Jim I well up with affection Thinking back down the roads to then The nets were overflowing In the Gulf of Mexico They were overflowing in the refuge of the roads [Verse 3] There was spring along the ditches There were good times in the cities Oh radiant happiness It was all so light and easy Till I started analyzing And I brought on my old ways A thunderhead of judgment was Gathering in my gaze And it made most people nervous They just didn't want to know What I was seeing in the refuge of the roads [Verse 4] I pulled off into a forest Crickets clicking in the ferns Like a wheel of fortune I heard my fate turn turn turn And I went running down a white sand road I was running like a white-assed deer Running to lose the blues To the innocence in here These are the clouds of Michelangelo Muscular with gods and sungold Shine on your witness in the refuge of the roads [Verse 5] In a highway service station Over the month of June Was a photograph of the earth Taken coming back from the moon And you couldn't see a city On that marbled bowling ball Or a forest or a highway Or me here least of all You couldn't see these cold water restrooms Or this baggage overload Westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads -------- 1976 Hejira -------- -------- Song For Sharon -------- [Verse 1] I went to Staten Island, Sharon To buy myself a mandolin And I saw the long white dress of love On a storefront mannequin Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars All for something lacy Some girl's going to see that dress And crave that day like crazy [Verse 2] Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada They can balance and they can climb Like their fathers before them They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline Shine your light on me Miss Liberty Because as soon as this ferry boat docks I'm headed to the church To play Bingo Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks [Verse 3] I can keep my cool at poker But I'm a fool when love's at stake Because I can't conceal emotion What I'm feeling's always written on my face There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street I went in to see her as a kind of joke And she lit a candle for my love luck And eighteen bucks went up in smoke [Verse 4] Sharon, I left my man At a North Dakota junction And I came out to the "Big Apple" here To face the dream's malfunction Love's a repetitious danger You'd think I'd be accustomed to Well I do accept the changes At least better than I used to do [Verse 5] A woman I knew just drowned herself The well was deep and muddy She was just shaking off futility Or punishing somebody My friends were calling up all day yesterday All emotions and abstractions It seems we all live so close to that line And so far from satisfaction [Verse 6] Dora says "Have children" Mama and Betsy say "Find yourself a charity Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology" Well there's a wide wide world of noble causes And lovely landscapes to discover But all I really want to do right now Is find another lover [Verse 7] When we were kids in Maidstone, Sharon I went to every wedding in that little town To see the tears and the kisses And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown And walking home on the railroad tracks Or swinging on the playground swing Love stimulated my illusions More than anything [Verse 8] And when I went skating after Golden Reggie You know it was white lace I was chasing Chasing dreams Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans He showed me first you get the kisses And then you get the tears But the ceremony of the bells and lace Still veils this reckless fool here [Verse 9] Now there are twenty-nine skaters on Wollman Rink Circling in singles and in pairs In this vigorous anonymity A blank face at the window stares and Stares and stares and stares and stares And the power of reason And the flowers of deep feeling Seem to serve me Only to deceive me [Verse 10] Sharon you've got a husband And a family and a farm I've got the apple of temptation And a diamond snake around my arm But you still have your music And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky You sing for your friends and your family I'll walk green pastures by and by -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- I'm Don Juan's reckless daughter I came out two days on your tail Those two bald-headed days in November Before the first snowflakes sail Out on the vast and subtle plains of mystery A split tongue spirit talks Noble as a nickel chief Striking up an old juke box And he says: "Snakes along the railroad tracks." He says, "Eagles in jet trails ..." He says, "Coils around feathers and talons on scales ... Gravel under the belly plates ..." He says, "Wind in the Wings ..." He says, "Big bird dragging its tail in the dust ... Snake kite flying on a string." I come from open prairie Given some wisdom and a lot of jive! Last night the ghosts of my old ideas Reran on channel five And it howled so spooky for its eagle soul I nearly broke down and cried But the split tongue spirit laughed at me He says, "Your serpent cannot be denied." Our serpents love the whisky bars They love the romance of the crime But didn't I see a neon sign Fester on your hotel blind And a country road come off the wall And swoop down at the crowd at the bar And put me at the top of your danger list Just for being so much like you are! You're a coward against the altitude-- You're a coward against the flesh-- Coward--caught between yes and no Reckless this time on the line for yes, yes, yes! Reckless brazen in the play Of your changing traffic lights Coward--slinking down the hall To another restless night As we center behind the eight ball As we rock between the sheets As we siphon the colored language Off the farms and the streets Here in Good-Old-God-Save-America The home of the brave and the free We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards Of some duality Of restless multiplicity (Oh say can you see) Restless for streets and honky tonks Restless for home and routine Restless for country-safety-and her Restless for the likes of reckless me Restless sweeps like fire and rain Over virgin wilderness It prowls like hookers and thieves Through bolt locked tenements Behind my bolt locked door The eagle and the serpent are at war in me The serpent fighting for blind desire The eagle for clarity What strange prizes these battles bring These hectic joys-these weary blues Puffed up and strutting when I think I win Down and shaken when I think I lose There are rivets up here in this eagle There are box cars down there on your snake And we are twins of spirit No matter which route home we take Or what we forsake We're going to come up to the eyes of clarity And we'll go down to the beads of guile There is danger and education In living out such a reckless life style I touched you on the central plains It was plane to train my twin It was just plane shadow to train shadow But to me it was skin to skin The spirit talks in spectrums He talks to mother earth to father sky Self indulgence to self denial Man to woman Scales to feathers You and I Eagles in the sky You and I Snakes in the grass You and I Crawl and fly You and I -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- Dreamland -------- [Verse 1] It's a long, long way from Canada A long way from snow chains Donkey vendors slicing coconut No parkas to their name Black babies covered in baking flour The cook's got a carnival song We're going to lay down someplace shady With dreamland coming on [Refrain] Dreamland, dreamland Dreamland, dreamland [Verse 2] Walter Raleigh and Chris Columbus Come a-marching out of the waves And claim the beach and all concessions In the name of the suntan slave I wrapped that flag around me Like a Dorothy Lamour sarong And I lay down thinking national With dreamland coming on [Refrain] Dreamland, dreamland Dreamland, dreamland [Verse 3] Goodtime Mary and a fortune hunter All dressed up to follow the drums Mary in a feather hula-hoop Miss Fortune with a rose on her big game gun All saints, all sinners shining Heed those trumpets all night long Propped up on a samba beat With dreamland coming on [Refrain] Dreamland, dreamland Dreamland, dreamland [Verse 4] Tar baby and the Great White Wonder Talking over a glass of rum Burning on the inside With the knowledge of things to come There's gambling out on the terrace And midnight ramblin' on the lawn As they lead toward temptation With dreamland coming on [Refrain] Dreamland, dreamland Dreamland, dreamland [Verse 5] In a plane flying back to winter In shoes full of tropic sand A lady in a foreign flag On the arm of her Marlboro Man The hawk howls in New York City Six foot drifts on Myrtle's lawn As they push the recline buttons down With dreamland coming on [Refrain] Dreamland, dreamland Dreamland, dreamland [Verse 6] La, la, la la Da, da, da, da African sand on the trade winds And the sun on the Amazon As they push the recline buttons down With dreamland coming on [Refrain] Dreamland, dreamland Dreamland, dreamland -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- Jericho -------- I'll try to keep myself open up to you That's a promise that I made to love When it was new "Just like Jericho" I said "Let these wall come tumbling down" I said it like I finally found the way To keep the good feelings alive I said it like it was something to strive for I'll try to keep myself open up to you And approve your self expression I need that, too I need your confidence, baby And the gift of your extra time In turn I'll give you mine Sweet darling, it's a rich exchange It seems to me It's a warm arrangement! Anyone will tell you Just how hard it is to make and keep a friend Maybe they'll short sell you Or maybe it's you Judas, in the end When you just can no longer pretend That you're getting what you need Or you're giving out anything for them to grow and feed on I'll try to keep myself open up to you It gets easier and easier to do Just like Jericho Let these walls come tumbling down now Let them fall right on the ground Let all these dogs go running free The wild and the gentle dogs Kenneled in me -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- Off Night Backstreet -------- Maybe I'm just kidding myself when I say I love you I don't know-- Loving without trusting You get--frostbite and sunstroke I wish I felt nothing! You pimp--laughing and strutting her to my chartered seat Your old off night back street It's been stinger to stinger, darling It's been heart to heart You still keep me from finishing Any new love I start Now she's moved in with you She's keeping your house neat And your sheets sweet And I'm your off night back street I can feel your fingers Feeling my face There are some lines you put there And some you erase Maybe I'm just dramatizing I don't care It's home--it can be heaven When we play fair But these sentimental journeys Late at night-- High in some back room you're calling me To be your off night back street You give me such pleasure You bring me such pain Who left her long black hair In our bathtub drain? -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- Otis And Marlena -------- Marlena under Foster Grants She's undercover from the dawns advance That girl is travel-drained And the neon mercury vapor stained Miami sky It's red as meat It's a cheap pink rose Otis in the driver's seat Watches the street lights fade away On louvered blocks in green sea air In fluorescent fossil yards Slippers are shuffling into folding chairs Freckled hands are shuffling cards They've come for fun and sun While Muslims stick up Washington ... Otis empties out the trunk On the steps of that celebrated dump Sleazing by the sea Bow down to her royal travesty-- In her ballrooms heads of state-- In her bedrooms rented girls-- Always the grand parades of cellulite Jiggling to her golden pools Through flock and cupid colonnades They jiggle into surgery Hopefully beneath the blade They dream of golden beauty ... They've come for fun and sun While Muslims stick up Washington ... Marlena, white as stretcher sheet Watches it all from her 10th floor balcony Like it's her opera box All those Pagliacci summer frocks Otis is fiddling with the TV dial All he gets are cartoons and reruns She taps her glass with an emery file Watching three rings in the sun The golden dive, the fatted flake And sizzle in the mink oil It's all a dream She has awake Checked into Miami Royal Where they've come for fun and sun While Muslims hold up Washington ... Dream on Dream on Dream on Dream on Dream on -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- Overture - Cotton Avenue -------- [Verse 1] A red sun came rolling down a grey sky And the frogs and dogs and night birds then Started up singing sweet country lullaby You see that patch of city lights Somewhere in there's Cotton Avenue That's where I'm going to take myself tonight With a spit shine on my dancing shoes [Chorus] If you got a place like that to go You just have to go there If you got no place special Well then, you just go no place special [Verse 2] I guess it's just the summer in the young blood Ripe and juicy in the young blood Teasing to go down to Cotton Avenue To hear the shiny shiny music See all the shiny people dancing to it Anytime you go to Cotton Avenue [Chorus] If you got a place like that to go You know you got to go there If you got no place special Well then you just go no place special [Verse 3] You see that summer storm brewing in the southern sky By the time it hits here I'll be dancing high and dry To rhythm and blues on Cotton Avenue Poor boys'll be hanging around outside in the street They got all the latest words They're dancing to the latest beat While they're hustling and sizing you On Cotton Avenue [Chorus] If you got a place like that to go You just have to go there If you've got no place special Well my dear You just go no place special -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- Paprika Plains -------- It fell from midnight skies It drummed on the galvanized In the washroom, women tracked the rain Up to the make-up mirror Liquid soap and grass And Jungle Gardenia crash On Pine-Sol and beer ... It's stifling in here ... I've got to get some air ... I'm going outside to get some air Back in my hometown They would have cleared the floor Just to watch the rain come down! They're such sky oriented people-- Geared to changing weather ... I'm floating off in time I'm floating off I'm floating off in time When I was three feet tall And wide eyed open to it all With their tasseled teams they came To McGee's General Store All in their beaded leathers I would tie on colored feathers And I'd beat the drum like war ... I would beat the drum like war I'd beat the drum I'd beat the drum like war But when the church got through They traded their beads for bottles Smashed--on Railway Avenue And they cut off their braids And lost some link with nature I'm floating into dreams I'm floating off I'm floating into my dreams I dream paprika plains Vast and bleak and God forsaken Paprika plains And a turquoise river snaking (Where crows gaze--vigilant on wires Where cattle graze the grasses Far from the digits of business hours The moon clock wanes and waxes-- But here all time is stripped away Nowhere on these plains Is a sprout or an egg in evidence To measure loss or gain ... Only a little Indian band Come down from some windy mesa No women to make them food and child No expressions on their faces I'm low in a helicopter And the wind from whirling blades Flaps their woven blankets And flags their raven braids How came they to this emptiness? How came they to this dream? How came I to this view From a flying machine Of earth and air and water And a band of Indian men Without herds or flocks or crops Or families or fires to tend? Like a phoenix up from ashes now A blanket figure springs With a fist raised up to turquoise skies Like liberty And at the point of vanishing Where the sky and the earth meet A bomb blooms Deadly mushroom White Gold Heat Like a phoenix up from ashes Up from violent mysteries And growing 'till the giant blast Is to it like a golfer's tee There comes a child's beach ball And memory takes me back To the beach to toss it up To the garage to get it patched A pink and yellow beach ball Rolling Grand Detached Turning the blues and greens of earth From space probe photographs I float out of the hovercraft Naked as infancy And weightless And drifting Horizontally Like a filing to a magnet Like the long descent of rain I am drawn I fall against the ball And lose paprika plains I suckle at my mother's breast I embrace my mother earth I remember perforated blinds Over the crib of my birth And just as Eve succumbed To reckless curiosity I take my sharpest fingernail And slash the globe to see Below me-- Vast Paprika plains And the snake the river traces And a little band of Indian men With no expressions on their faces.) The rain retreats Like troops to fall on other fields and streets Meanwhile they're sweet talking and name calling And brawling on the fringes of the floor I spot you through the smoke With your eyes on fire From J&B and coke As I'm coming through the door I'm coming back I'm coming back for more! The band plugs in again You see that mirrored ball begin to sputter lights And spin Dizzy on the dancers Geared to changing rhythms No matter what you do I'm floating back I'm floating back to you! -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- Talk To Me -------- There was a moon and a street lamp I didn't know I drank such a lot 'Till I pissed a tequila-anaconda The full length of the parking lot! Oh, I talk too loose Again I talk too open and free I pay a high price for my open talking Like you do for your silent mystery Come and talk to me Please talk to me Talk to me, talk to me Mr. Mystery We could talk about Martha We could talk about landscapes I'm not above gossip But I'll sit on a secret where honor is at stake! Or we could talk about power About Jesus and Hitler and Howard Hughes Or Charlie Chaplin's movies Or Bergman's nordic blues Please just talk to me Any old theme you choose Just come and talk to me Mr. Mystery, talk to me You could talk like a fool-I'd listen You could talk like a sage Anyway the best of my mind All goes down on the strings and the page That mind picks up all these pictures It still gets my feet up to dance Even though it's covered with keyloids From the "slings and arrows of outrageous romance" I stole that from Willy the Shake! You know--"Neither a borrower nor a lender be" Romeo, Romeo talk to me! Is your silence that golden? Are you comfortable in it? Is it the key to your freedom Or is it the bars on your prison? Are you gagged by your ribbons? Are you really exclusive or just miserly? You spend every sentence as if it was marked currency! Come and spend some on me-- Shut me up and talk to me! I'm always talking! Chicken squawking! Please talk to me -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- The Silky Veils Of Ardor -------- I am a poor wayfaring stranger Traveling through all these highs and lows I heard there was no sickness And no toil or danger Just mercy and plenty Where peaceful waters flow Where peaceful waters flow Come all you fair and tender school girls Be careful now--when you court young men They are like the stars On a summer morning They sparkle up the night And they're gone again Daybreak--gone again If I'd only seen through the silky veils of ardor What a killing crime this love can be I would have locked up my heart In a golden sheath of armor And kept its crazy beating Under strictest secrecy High security I wish I had the wings Of Noah's pretty little white dove So I could fly this raging river To reach the one I love But I have no wings And the water is so wide We'll have to row a little harder It's just in dreams we fly In my dreams we fly! -------- 1977 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -------- -------- The Tenth World -------- Baila mi rumba Batela, goza y mira mama Baila, mira mama Batela, goza, mira eh Rumbando bello es que yo voy Bailala bailala bailala Bailala baila baila Eh eh mama [??????] Baila baila my rumbo[?] Ele eh ele eh Bailala bailala baila Din din baragadin dan dan [this is onomatopoeia] Baila baila baila baila Venezolano en Nueva York En California y en todos lados Te la traigo Para que vos...para que gozes gozes cosa buena Gozes con todo el mundo El africano y todo el mundo Bailala Bailala Bailala Bailala Bailala Gringos! Izquierdo! Izquierdo! Vamos, oye! [onomatopoeic sounds, interjections, sighs, whistling, bits of dialogue among the musicians that sound like instructions or encouragement to keep on playing and dancing] Me voy Me voy Me voy Me voy Me voy Me voy Me voy Me voy [More chanting and onomatopoeia] [Translation:] Dance to my rumba Beat it [maybe a drum?], enjoy, look mama [maybe meaning "look at me and learn the steps."] Dance, look mama Beat it, enjoy, look Dancing the rumba beautifully. That's how I go Hey hey mama Dance to it, dance Dance Dance this way [This a tentative translation, the expression I hear is actually unidiomatic] Dance to it, dance A Venezuelan in New York [maybe referring to himself] In California and everywhere I bring it to you [the rumba] So that you will enjoy a good thing Enjoy it with the rest of the world With the African and the rest of the world Dance to it Gringos! [This is funny. "Gringo" is a pejorative way that some South Americans have to refer to Anglo-Saxons. It's clear that some North Americans are actually dancing to the music in] -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- Chair in the Sky -------- The rain Slammed hard As bars It caught me By surprise Mutt of the planet And Shook Me Down For alibis I'm waiting For the keeper to release me Debating this sentence Biding my time In memories Of old friends of mine... In daydreams of Birdland I see my soul on fire Burning up the bandstand Next time I'll be bigger I'll be better than ever I'll be happily attached To my cold hard cash But now Manhattan holds me To a chair in the sky With the Bird in my ears And boats in my eyes Going By There's things I wish I'd done Old friends I'm gonna miss Beautiful lovers I Never Got the chance To kiss... Daydreamin' drugs the pain of living Processions of missing Lovers and friends Fade in And they fade out again In Daydreams of rebirth I see myself in style Raking in what I'm worth Next time I'll be bigger I'll be better than ever I'll be resurrected royal I'll be rich as Standard Oil But now Manhattan holds me To a chair in the sky With the Bird in my ears And boats in my eyes Going by -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- Coin In The Pocket (Rap) -------- Charles: "I never hit too, too hard, uh, y'know. All my life, uh y'know, just everything I touched, turned to gold. I'm not, I'm not rich but, y'know, I've always had a few, some dollars in my pockets" -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- Funeral (Rap) -------- "..led an enormous band." Swede: "Oh, But I know he's very lucky too, because when Mingus dies there's gonna be the same funeral they had for Duke Ellington... in a big church and the whole country's going to say, wow, he was so far out, you know what i mean?" Charles: "No man, no big church! I'm going to be buried man - I got my shit all figured out!" Swede: "You're going to get a big funeral - you're famous!" Charles: "Vedanta Society, India, I'm going to be buried in India!" Swede: "I know, but you're going to get a big funeral in this country, and they'll play your music for two days" Charles: "Who's going to do that?" Swede: "It's far out isn't it, y'know what I mean?" Charles: "...You want me to hurry up, man" Swede: "No I don't want you to hurry up, but in the future, I know you're going to get a beautiful funeral - I can see it!" Charles: "But I got it all planned, man!" Swede: "...You're going to be here many more years." Charles: "You know the Vedanta Society in India.. Yuga?" Swede: "Yeah" Charles: "Well I'm going to be buried by that church" Swede: "Yeah?" Charles: "So they gotta find another place to do it, that's all." Swede: "...Plenty of time to go. You have another fifty years... you're lucky!" Charles: "Uh, Duke lived to be 77 years old right?" Swede: "Right!" Charles: "I'm gonna cut him!" Swede: "Coltrane was very strong, you know..." Charles: "I'm gonna cut Duke!" -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- God Must Be a Boogie Man -------- He is three One's in the middle unmoved Waiting To show what he sees To the other two To the one attacking--so afraid And the one that keeps trying to love and trust And getting himself betrayed In the plan--oh The divine plan God must be a boogie man! One's so sweet So overly loving and gentle He lets people in To his innermost sacred temple Blind faith to care Blind rage to kill Why'd he let them talk him down To cheap work and cheap thrills In the plan--oh The insulting plan God must be a boogie man! Which would it be Mingus one or two or three Which one do you think he'd want the world to see Well, world opinion's not a lot of help When a man's only trying to find out How to feel about himself! In the plan-oh The cock-eyed plan God must be a boogie man! He is three -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- Goodbye Pork Pie Hat -------- When Charlie speaks of Lester You know someone great has gone The sweetest swinging music man Had a Porkie Pig hat on A bright star In a dark age When the bandstands had a thousand ways Of refusing a black man admission Black musician In those days they put him in an Underdog position Cellars and chittlins' When Lester took him a wife Arm and arm went black and white And some saw red And drove them from their hotel bed Love is never easy It's short of the hope we have for happiness Bright and sweet Love is never easy street! Now we are black and white Embracing out in the lunatic New York night It's very unlikely we'll be driven out of town Or be hung in a tree That's unlikely! Tonight these crowds Are happy and loud Children are up dancing in the streets In the sticky middle of the night Summer serenade Of taxi horns and fun arcades Where right or wrong Under neon Every feeling goes on! For you and me The sidewalk is a history book And a circus Dangerous clowns Balancing dreadful and wonderful perceptions They have been handed Day by day Generations on down We came up from the subway On the music midnight makes To Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone In taxi horns and brakes Now Charlie's down in Mexico With the healers So the sidewalk leads us with music To two little dancers Dancing outside a black bar There's a sign up on the awning It says "Pork Pie Hat Bar" And there's black babies dancing... Tonight! -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- Happy Birthday 1975 (Rap) -------- Man: "Ready?" Sue: "Alright!" Chorus: "Happy Birthday to Charles, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Charles..." Sue: "Play that weird minor chord..." Chorus: "Happy birthday to you..." Sue: "Play that minor chord!" Charles & Chorus: "How old are you, How old are you" Charles: "Fifty-four, motherfucker" Chorus: ha-ha-ha-ha-ha- Sue: "Fifty-three" Charles Singing: "How old are you?" Sue: "Fifty-three Charles!" Charles: "Fifty-four!" Sue: "Fifty-three" Swede: "How old are you now - tell me honestly..." Sue: "Fifty-three! He was born in 1922" Swede: "1922.." -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- I's A Muggin' (Rap) -------- I's a muggin, boom bada yada Bom ba doo boo, we boopa dooboop I's a muggin' -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- Lucky (Rap) -------- Charles: "I was lucky, man. God blessed me, y'know? I was blessed by God." -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- Sweet Sucker Dance -------- I almost closed the door Cancelled on everything we opened up for Tonight the shadows had their say Their sad notions of the way Things really are Damn these blues! They'd turn my heart against you Since I was fool enough To find romance I'm trying to convince myself This is just a dance! We move in measures Through loves' changing faces Needy and nonchalant Greedy and gracious Through petty dismissals And grand embraces Like it was only a dance! We are survivors Some get broken Some get mended Some can't surrender They're too well defended Some get lucky Some are blessed And some pretend This is only a dance! We're dancing fools You and me Tonight it's a dance of insecurity It's my solo While you're away Shadows have the saddest thing to say Love We can't live without it Why do we go out and get it Just to turn around and doubt it LIke we're scared to care It's hard to talk about it Aw--it's only a dance Tonight the shadows had their say There's a sucker born a day I heard them say Born to lose Am I a sucker to love you? You're such a sweet love You're a proud man You're a treasure Time passes gracefully Living can be such a pleasure You make it easy to take it in measures Like it was only a dance! We're dancing fools You and me Tonight it's a dance of insecurity It's my solo Blue way And shadows have the saddest things to say We are survivors Some get broken Some get mended Some can't surrender They're too well defended Some get lucky Some are blessed And some pretend It's only a dance! -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines -------- I'm down to a roll of dimes I'm stalking the slot that's hot I keep hearing bells all around me Jingling in the lucky jackpots They keep you tantalized They keep you reaching for your wallet Here in fools' paradise! I talked to a cat from Des Moines He said he ran a cleaning plant That cat was clanking with coin Well, he must have had a genie in a lamp 'Cause every time, I dropped a dime, I blew it He kept ringing bells Nothing to it! He got three oranges Three lemons Three cherries Three plums I'm losing my taste for fruit Watching the dry cleaner do it Like Midas in a polyester suit It's all luck! It's just luck! You get a little lucky and you make a little money! I followed him down the strip He picked out a booth at Circus Circus Where the cowgirls fill the room With their big balloons The Cleaner was pitching with purpose! He had Dinos and Pooh Bears And lions, pink and blue there He couldn't lose there! Des Moines was stacking the chips Raking off the tables Ringing the bandit's bells This is a story that's a drag to tell (In some ways) Since I lost every dime I laid on the line But the cleaner from Des Moines Could put a coin In the door of a John And get twenty for one It's just luck! -------- 1979 Mingus -------- -------- The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey -------- Of the darkness in men's minds What can you say That wasn't marked by history Or the T.V. news today He gets away with murder The blizzards come and go The stab and glare and buckshot Of the heavy heavy snow It comes and goes It comes and goes His grandpa loved an empire His sister loved a thief And lindsey loved the ways of darkness Beyond belief Girls in chilly blouses The blizzards come and go The stab and glare and buckshot Of the heavy heavy snow It comes and goes It comes and goes The cops don't seem to care For derelicts or ladies of the night They're weeds for yanking out of sight If you're smart or rich or lucky Maybe you'll beat the laws of man But the inner laws of spirit And the outer laws of nature No man can No--no man can There lives a wolf in Lindsey That raids and runs Through the hills of Hollywood And the downtown slums He gets away with murder The blizzards come and go The stab and glare and buckshot Of the heavy heavy snow It comes and goes It comes and goes -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- (You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care -------- You're so square--baby You're so square . . Oh, you don't like greasy diners You don't like sleazy bands You just want to go To a movie show And sit there holding hands You're so square Baby I don't care You don't like going to parties To toot and talk all night long You just want to park Where it's nice and dark And kiss me, sweet and strong You're so square Baby I don't care You don't know any dance steps That are new But nobody else can love me Like you do I don't know why my heart flips I only know it does I wonder why I love you baby I guess it's just because You're so square Darlin' I don't care Oh, I don't know why my heart flips I only know it does I wonder why I love you baby I guess it's just because You're so square I don't care You're so square -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Be Cool -------- If there's one rule to this game Everybody's gonna name It's... be cool If you're worried or uncertain If your feelings are hurtin' You're a fool If you can't keep cool Charm 'em Don't alarm 'em Keep things light Keep your worries out of sight And play it cool Play it cool Fifty-fifty Fire and ice If your heart is on the floor 'Cause you've just seen your lover Comin' through the door with a new fool Be cool Don't you sweat it Start right in right now tryin' to forget it Be cool Don't get riled Smile keep it light Be your own best friend tonight And play it cool Play it cool Fifty-fifty Fire and ice Don't get jealous Don't get over-zealous Keep your cool Don't whine Kiss off that flaky valentine You're nobody's fool Be cool fool Be cool (Lots of other fish in the sea) Play it cool Play it cool Fifty-fifty Fire and ice So if there's one rule to this game Everybody's gonna name It's... be cool If you're worried or uncertain If your feelings are hurtin' You're a fool if you can't keep cool They want you to Charm 'em Don't alarm 'em Keep things light Keep your worries out of sight And play it cool Play it cool Fifty-fifty Fire and ice -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Chinese Cafe / Unchained Melody -------- [Verse 1] Caught in the middle Carol, we're middle class We're middle aged We were wild in the old days Birth of rock n' roll days Now your kids are coming up straight My child's a stranger, I bore her But I could not raise her Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long [Chorus] Down at the Chinese Cafe We'd be dreaming on our dimes We'd be playing, "Oh my love, my darling" One more time [Verse 2] Uranium money Is booming in the old home town now It's putting up sleek concrete Tearing the old landmarks down now Paving over brave little parks Ripping off Indian land again How long, how long Short-sighted business man Ah nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long [Chorus] Down at the Chinese Cafe We'd be dreaming on our dimes We'd be playing, "You give your love so sweetly" One more time [Verse 3] Christmas is sparkling Out on Carol's lawn This girl of my childhood games With kids nearly grown and gone Grown so fast Like the turn of a page We look like our mothers did now When we were those kids' age Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long [Chorus] Down at the Chinese Cafe We'd be dreaming on our dimes We'd be playing, "Oh my love, my darling I've hungered for your touch A long lonely time And time goes by so slowly And time can do so much Are you still mine? I need your love I need your love God speed your love to me" [Outro] (Time goes - where does the time go I wonder where the time goes) -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Ladies Man -------- Well, I've heard of heartbreakers But you take the cake Ladies' man You could charm the diamonds Off a rattlesnake Ladies' man Ladies bring it on over When you give 'em the glance They don't stand a chance First, you unfold them Then you pigeon-hole 'em Ladies' man Well it sure takes a lot of Good natured self-control Ladies' man When I'm so hot for you and You're so cold, so cold Ladies' man Why do you keep on trying to Make a man of me Couldn't you just love me-- Like you love cocaine Cocaine head games Cross my heart I swear I'm not trying to trick you No tricks Ladies' man It's just a straight ahead feeling I have for you Nothing slick Ladies' man I guess you learn to refuse What you think you can't handle You're acting like a vandal Wrecking the dream At the first bad scene Ladies' man Ladies' man Ladies' man Ladies' man -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Love -------- Although I speak in tongues Of men and angels I'm just sounding brass And tinkling cymbals without love Love suffers long Love is kind! Enduring all things Love has no evil in mind If I had the gift of prophecy And all the knowledge And the faith to move the mountains Even if I understood all of the mysteries If I didn't have love I'd be nothing Love never looks for love Love's not puffed up Or envious Or touchy Because it rejoices in the truth Not in iniquity Love sees like a child sees As a child I spoke as a child I thought and I understood as a child But when I became a woman I put away childish things And began to see through a glass darkly Where as a child I saw it face to face Now I only know it in part Fractions in me Of faith and hope and love And of these great three Love's the greatest beauty Love Love Love -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Man To Man -------- No demands Just pleasurable sensations Hand in hand No far reaching plans No, no-hand in hand Well I keep on trying to understand Daylight bright How come I keep moving From man to man to man? Giving my sweet love-- Tasting sweet love-- Woman to man Sometimes it's easy You drift with the empty gladness Like it all belongs Sometimes it's low down sadness Like it's all gone so wrong When I saw you standing there I said to myself M-m-m here's a place I could break down and care I'll give him my sweet love-- Taste his sweet love-- Real sweet love-- Woman to man I don't like to lie But I sure can be phony when I get scared I put my nose up in the air Stoney, stoney when I get scared When I saw you standing there I was scared I thought Oh--I hope he can care-- I sure hope I can care-- I hope we can really care-- And share woman to man Cause I've been moving Man to man to man to man to man Oh what am I looking for? Man to man to man to man A lot of good guys gone through my door Man to man to man to man To man to man to man Man to man to man to man Woman to man -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Moon At The Window -------- It takes cheerful resignation Heart and humility That's all it takes A cheerful person told me Nobody's harder on me than me How could they be And, nobody's harder on you than you Betsy's blue She says-"Tell me something good!" You know I'd help her out if I only could Oh, but sometimes the light Can be so hard to find At least the moon at the window-- The thieves left that behind People don't know how to love They taste it and toss it Turn it off and on Like a bathtub faucet Oh sometimes the light Can be so hard to find-- At least the moon at the window-- The thieves left that behind I wish her heart I know these battles Deep in the dark When the spooks of memories rattle Ghosts of the future Phantoms of the past Rattle, rattle, rattle In the spoon and the glass Is it possible to learn How to care and yet not care-- Since love has two faces Hope and despair And pleasure always turns to fear I find-- At least the moon at the window-- The thieves left that behind At least they left the moon Behind the blind Moon at the window -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Solid Love -------- We got a break Unbelievable We got a break Right in the middle of this Hollywood heartache We got this solid love All around the town Good hearts are going under Love bandits con and plunder Let nobody put asunder this solid love . . We got a chance Hot dog darlin' We got a chance No more, no more Fly-by-night romance We got this solid love Love has always made me Feel so uneasy I couldn't relax and just be me More like some strange disease Than this solid love . . Tested and blessed, darlin' I'm gonna give you my very best You're my hope You're my happiness You Open my heart you do You open my heart You do Yes you do We got a break Unbelievable We got a break Right in the middle of this Hollywood heartache We got this solid love All around the town Good hearts are going under Love bandits con and plunder Let nobody put asunder this solid love . . We got a chance Hot dog darlin' We got a chance No more, no more Fly-by-night romance We got this solid love Love has always made me Feel so uneasy I couldn't relax and just be me More like some strange disease Than this solid love . . Tested and blessed, darlin' I'm gonna give you my very best You are my happiness You Open my heart up you do -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Underneath The Streetlight -------- Yes I do--I love you! I swear on the stars above I do! I swear on the streetlight on the corner Shoving back the shadows! One shadow cursing Another shadow laughing Underneath the streetlight I don't know where they're coming from I just see 'em passing Underneath the streetlight . . Yes I do--I love you! I swear on the buildings above I do! I swear on a billion yellow and T.V. blue windows! Gayboys with their pants so tight Out in the neon light Underneath the street light A m- m- madman-madman Kicking over garbage cans Underneath the streetlight . . Yes I do--I love you! I swear on the blinkin' planes above I do! I swear on the truck at the stoplight With his airbrakes moaning! All night the trucks roll Up to the tunnel-toll Underneath the streetlight They come rollin', rollin' Rollin' for a living Underneath the streetlight . . Yes I do--I love you! I swear on the disco sparkle dark I do! I swear on the be-bop boys Chasing the black bird Rock 'n' roll broadcast Movin' up now full blast Underneath the streetlight They come dancin', dancin' Really rock 'n rollin' Underneath the streetlight Yes I do--I love you I really love you Yes I do--yes I do I love you! -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- Wild Things Run Fast -------- He came, she smiled She thought she had him tamed But he was just as wild Eating from her hand at last Wild things run fast In the dark he could see The trap that was lying In her sweet company Eating from her hand at last Wild things run fast Winter beat the pines about He heard the heater Cutting in and out While she dreamed away In the night, it snowed Fast tracks in the powder white Leading out to the road Winding from her tender grasp Wild things run fast Wild things run fast Wild things run fast What makes you run? Wild thing, I thought you loved me -------- 1982 Wild Things Run Fast -------- -------- You Dream Flat Tires -------- It came to pass Like lightening striking from above Electric flash Just like lightening striking from above Struck by precious love Precious, precious love So hopeless and so inspired Why do you dream flat tires When you dream flat tires? You dream flat tires With a jack and a spare you're there Trying to get to where love is Coming in on a wing and a prayer Trying to get to where love is 'Cause love is precious love You said it was precious When first you felt my fire Before you dreamed flat tires You dreamed flat tires You dream flat tires "Woman she bounce back easy But a man could break both his legs" Are you telling me that to tease me? Or just to hear me beg "Please don't go!" Cause I know that you love me But, when are you going to let love be Just a vague flirtation Or extra special company? 'Cause love is precious love Everybody knows it's precious When first they feel that fire Before they dream flat tires They dream flat tires They dream flat tires "Woman she bounce back easy But a man could break both his legs" Do you tell me that to tease me Or just to hear me beg "Please don't be cold" I know that you love me But, what are you going to let love do? (Flat tires, love, love is precious, flat tires Love, love is precious, flat tires, love Love is precious) -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Dog Eat Dog -------- [Intro] Dog eat dog [Verse 1] It's dog eat dog I'm just waking up The dove is in the dungeon And the white-washed hawks pedal hate and call it love [Verse 2] Dog eat dog Holy hope in the hands of Snakebite evangelists and racketeers And big wig financiers [Verse 3] Dog eat dog On prime time crime the victim begs Money is the road to justice And power walks it on crooked legs [Verse 4] Prime time crime Holy hope in the hands of Snakebite evangelists and racketeers And big wig financiers [Bridge] Where the wealth's displayed Thieves and sycophants parade And where it's made The slaves will be taken Some are treated well In these games of buy and sell And some like poor beast Are burdened down to breaking [Verse 5] Dog eat dog It's dog eat dog, ain't it flim flam, man Dog eat dog, you can lie, cheat, skim, scam Beat 'em any way you can [Verse 6] Dog eat Dog You'll do well in this land of Snakebite evangelists and racketeers You could get to be A big wig financier [Bridge] Land of snap decisions Land of short attention spans Nothing is savored Long enough to really understand In every culture in decline The watchful ones among the slaves Know all that is genuine will be Scorned and conned and cast away [Outro] Dog eat dog People looking, seeing nothing Dog eat dog People listening, hearing nothing Dog eat dog People lusting, loving nothing Dog eat dog People stroking, touching nothing Dog eat dog Knowing nothing Dog eat dog -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Ethiopia -------- Hot winds and hunger cries--Ethiopia Flies in your babies' eyes--Ethiopia Walking sticks on burning plains Betrayed by politics Abandoned by the rains On and on--the human need On and on--the human greed profanes Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia Your top soil flies away--Ethiopia We pump ours full of poison spray--Ethiopia Between the brown skies and sprinkling lawns I hear the whine of chain saws Hacking rain forests down On and on--insanities On and on--Short sighted greed abounds Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia Little garden planet-oasis in space Some hearts hurt--they can hardly stand it Famine phantoms at the garden gates Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia Every Sunday on T.V.--Ethiopia You suffer with such dignity--Ethiopia A T.V. star with a P.R. smile Calls your baby "it" while strolling Through your tragic trials On and on--stupidity On and on--the basic needs are defiled Good air--good water--good earth Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia Little garden planet--oasis in space Some hearts hurt--they can hardly stand the waste Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Fiction -------- I can't decide I don't know Which way to go? The options multiply The choices grow Which way to go? What should I buy? What should I be? Which way to go? (Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief) So much comes at you Too much for me Which way to go? Elusive dreams and vague desires Fanned to fiery needs by golden boys In ad empires Fiction Truth Fiction Truth Fiction Truth Fiction Fiction of the boob tube Fiction of the papers Fiction of the image and the image makers Fiction of the magazines Fiction of the movies Fiction of the "Buy me," "Watch me," "Listen to me" I can't decide I'm so confused Which way to go? I'm being useful here I'm being used Which way to go? Some line gets drawn What line is this? Which way to go? Could be a threshold or a precipice Which way to go? Elusive dreams and vague desires Fanned to fiery needs by sexy boys In flaming T.V. fires Fiction Truth Fiction Truth Fiction Truth Fiction Fiction of obedience Fiction of rebellion Fiction of the goody-goody and the hellion Fiction of destroyers Fiction of preservers Fiction of peacemakers and shit disturbers Fiction of the moralist Fiction of the nihilist Fiction of the innovator and the stylist Fiction of the killjoy Fiction of the charmer Fiction of the clay feet and the shining armour Fiction of the declaimers Fiction of the rebukers Fiction of the pro and the no nukers Fiction of the gizmo Fiction of the data Fiction of the this is this and that is that -- Ahh! I can't decide I don't know Which way to go? The more you learn The less you know Which way to go? Some follow blind And never know Which way to go? To lead you need some place to go Which way to go? Elusive dreams and vague desires Fanned to fiery needs by deadly deeds In falling empires Fiction Truth Fiction Truth Fiction Truth Fiction Fiction of the diplomat Fiction of the critic Fiction of the Pollyanna and the cynic Fiction of the coward Fiction of the hero Fiction of the monuments reduced to zero ........ -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Good Friends (demo) -------- I have to come and see you Maybe once or twice a year I think nothing would suit me better right now Than some downtown atmosphere Sitting with you in some local zoo Not another job would do Synchronized and vital Good friends, me and you The sun goes down in Jersey Rises over Little Italy We could talk it up 'til the block gets up Swapping stories Kicking on down to Chinatown Kicking 'em at the OTB Always synchronized and vital Good friends, you and me No hearts of gold, no nerves of steel No blame for what we can and cannot feel Now it's cloak and dagger Walk on eggshells and analyze Every particle of difference Gets like mountains in our eyes So far off, so frequently Always synchronized and vital No hearts of gold, no nerves of steel No blame for what we can and cannot feel Sometimes change comes at you Like a broadside accident We get minor cuts and bruises We could hammer out these dents Sitting around in some local zoo Watching it like a movie Always synchronized and vital Good friends, you and me No hearts of gold, no nerves of steel No blame for what we can and cannot feel -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Good Friends -------- I have to come and see you Maybe once or twice a year I think nothing would suit me better right now Than some downtown atmosphere In the dance halls and the galleries Or betting in the OTB Synchronized like magic Good friends, you and me The sun goes down in Jersey Rises over Little Italy We could talk it up till the block gets up Swapping stories Sitting around in some all night zoo Watching it run like a movie Synchronized like magic Good friends, you and me No hearts of gold, no nerves of steel No blame for what we can and cannot feel But now it's cloak and dagger Walk on eggshells and analyze Every particle of difference Gets like mountains in our eyes You say, "You're unscrupulous!" You say, "You're naive!" Synchronized like magic Good friends, you and me No hearts of gold, no nerves of steel No blame for what we can and cannot feel Sometimes change comes at you Like a broadside accident There is chaos to the order Random things you can't prevent There could be trouble around the corner There could be beauty down the street Synchronized like magic Good friends, you and me No hearts of gold, no nerves of steel No blame for what we can and cannot feel No nerves of steel, no hearts of gold No blame for what we can and can't control Good friends, you and me Good friends, you and me -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Impossible Dreamer -------- The street was loud From an angry crowd and I thought of you, I thought of you Dreamer Land of the free No hungry bellies Impossible Impossible dreamer In the darkest part of the night Blue shadows conjure you And in the brightest height of the daylight Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you Dreaming like you do The moon was bright Like day for night And I thought of you I thought of you Dreamer No acid rain Love without pain Impossible Impossible Dreamer In the darkest part of the night Blue shadows conjure you And at the brightest height of the daylight Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you Dreaming like you do The room was dark And full of sharks And I thought of you I thought of you Dreamer Give peace a chance Don't think just dance Impossible Impossible dreamer In the darkest part of the night Blue shadows conjure you And at the brightest height of the daylight Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you Dreaming like you do -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Lucky Girl -------- I'm a lucky girl I found my friend I've been all around the world Mission Impossible Chasing the rainbow's end Wise guys Shy guys And sly lover boys With big bad bedroom eyes ... I never loved a man I trusted As far as I could pitch my shoe 'Til I loved you You're my lucky star You're my magician You make the night prowling disappear Vanished from the star-war-bars Empty repetition I get my heart full here Playboys Stray boys And "Say, hey, hey" boys'll treat you like a toy I never loved a man I trusted As far as I could pitch my shoe 'Til I loved you Cheaters Woman beaters And Huck Finn shucksters hopping parking meters I never loved a man I trusted As far as I could pitch my shoe 'til I loved you I'm a lucky girl I found my friend I been all around the world Mission Impossible Chasing the rainbow's end Wise guys Booby-prize guys And sly lover boys With big bad bedroom eyes ... I never loved a man I trusted As far as I could throw my shoe 'Til I loved you -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Shiny Toys -------- Shiny toys (right on time) Shiny toys (right on time) Shiny toys I'm reading people rags in the checkout lane Look, here's a hunk, here's a honey! Celebrated people and their claims to fame Here's a boy and his money And pictures of the winners in the latest Ratepoll games Whatever makes you "Yahoo!" Whatever makes your time feel satisfyin' Whatever makes you ("oh, I'm so excited") Whatever makes you feel like you're right on time Party night Good bands all over town (good, good, good) Mega lights and supersonic sounds (good, good, good) Flashy boys and girls that really play (good, good, good) Shiny toys When it's over don't you hate to have to put your toys away? Shiny toys ("I love my Porsche") Shiny toys ("I love my Porsche") Shiny toys Simple joys Walking on the beach at the end of the day Between the sand and the seagulls Watching the glorious sun setting on the bay Here comes a boy and his beagle Walking with a man in a toupee And a man with his head shaved Whatever makes you ("mmm, mmm!") Whatever makes your time feel satisfyin' Whatever makes you ("mmmm, mmmmm!") Whatever makes you feel like you're right on time Party night Super bands all over town (good, good, good) Super lights and supersonic sounds (good, good, good) Flashy boys and girls that really play (good, good, good) Shiny toys When it's over don't you hate to have to put your toys away? Shiny toys (right on time) Shiny toys (right on time) Shiny toys (right on time) Shiny toys (right on time) -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Smokin' (Empty, Try Another) -------- Nicotine Attack! Nicotine, Nicotine! Try Another Try Another Try Another Empty, empty try another -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- Tax Free -------- [Verse] Front rooms Back rooms Slide into tables Crowd into bathrooms Joke around Cheap talk Deep talk Talk, talk, talk around the clock Crawl home Lie down Teeth chatter Heart pounds I don't feel so good I don't feel so good Push a button to escape [Pre-Chorus: Joni Mitchell & evangelist] Preacher on the tube crying "Lord!" There's evil in this land Rock and roll music! "Cast down these dope-fiends And there noisy bands!" Damn their souls! [Chorus] Preacher preaching love like vengeance Preaching love like hate Calling for large donations Promising estates Rolling lawns and angel bands Behind the pearly gates You know, he will have his in this life But yours will have to wait He's immaculately tax free [Post-Chorus: Joni Mitchell, evangelist & man] Multiple hundreds of thousands of Tax free Hundreds of millions of dollars Tax free A hundred billion dollars! And who is paying the price? Who, who Your children are [Verse: Joni Mitchell & evangelist] Pissed off Jacked up Scream into the mic Spit into the loving cup Strut like a rooster March like a man God's hired hands and the devil bands Packing the same grandstands Different clothes (pot in their pockets!) Different hair (sexually active!) Raise a screaming guitar or a bible in the air Theatre of anguish Theatre of glory God's hired hands and the devil bands [Pre-Chorus] Oh come let us adore me! Lord, there's danger in this land You get witch hunts and wars When church and state hold hands (Fuck it!) [Chorus] Tonight I'm going dancing With the drag queens and the punks Big beat deliver me From this sanctimonious skunk We're no flaming angels And he's not heaven sent How can he speak for the Prince of Peace When he's hawk-right militant And he's immaculately tax free [Post-Chorus: Joni Mitchell & evangelist] Our nation has lost its guts! Save me Our nation has lost its strength Tax free Our nation has whimpered and cried Save me And petted the Castros Tax free The Khomeinis' and the Kaddafis' Save me For so long Tax free That we don't know how to act like a man Save me I think that we should turn the United States Marines Loose on that little island south of Florida and Stop that problem! I am preachin' love, I am! -------- 1985 Dog Eat Dog -------- -------- The Three Great Stimulants -------- I picked the morning paper off the floor It was full of other people's little wars Wouldn't they like their peace Don't we get bored And we call for the three great stimulants Of the exhausted ones Artifice, brutality and innocence Artifice and innocence No tanks have ever rumbled through these streets And the drone of planes at night has never frightened me I keep the hours and the company that I please And we call for the three great stimulants Of the exhausted ones Artifice, brutality and innocence Artifice and innocence Oh and deep in the night Our appetites find us Release us and bind us Deep in the night While madmen sit up building bombs And making laws and bars They'd like to slam free choice behind us I saw a little lawyer on the tube He said, "it's so easy now, anyone can sue" "Let me show you how your petty aggravations can profit you!" Call for the three great stimulants Of the exhausted ones Artifice, brutality and innocence Artifice and innocence Oh and deep in the night Appetites find us Release us and blind us Deep in the night While madmen sit up building bombs And making laws and bars They're gonna slam free choice behind us Last night I dreamed I saw the planet flicker Great forests fell like buffalo Everything got sicker And to the bitter end Big business bickered And they call for the three great stimulants Of the exhausted ones Artifice, brutality and innocence Artifice and innocence Oh these times, these times Oh these changing times Change in the heart of all mankind Oh these troubled times -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- A Bird That Whistles -------- [Verse] I took a house by the water Took a man on a mountainside Pretty house by the water Lovely lover by the waterside Last time I saw that man He hung down his head and cried [Chorus] Corrina, Corrina Do you have to go Corrina, Corrina Tell me why do you have to go Just made me come to love you girl Now you pack your things and go Leave me this bird that whistles Leave me this bird that sings [Outro] I got a bird that whistles I got a bird that's singin' If I don't have you darlin' Birds don't mean nothin' -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- Cool Water -------- [Verse 1] All day I face the barren waste Without a taste of water Cool water Old Dan and I Our throats slate dry Our spirits cry out for water Cool clear water [Verse 2] Keep on movin' Dan Some devils had a plan Buried poison in the sand Don't drink it man It's in the water Cool clear water [Verse 3] In my mind I see A big green tree And a river flowin' free Waitin' up ahead For you and me Cool clear water [Verse 4] The nights are cool and I'm a fool Each star is a pool of water Cool water But come the dawn We carry on We won't last long without water Cool clear water [Verse 5] Keep on movin' Dan We're still in no-man's land Dry bones and sand People never planned here for water Cool clear water [Verse 6] In my mind I see A big green tree And a river flowin' free Waiting up ahead for you and me Cool clear water [Verse 7] The shadows sway They seem to say Tonight we pray for water Cool water And way up there If you care Please show us where There's good water Cool clear water Songwriter: Bob Nolan -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- Dancin' Clown -------- No, you couldn't call Jesse a babe in the woods He's just weak in self-defense 'Cause he's so thin skinned He can't take a joke at his expense "You're a push button window," says Rowdy Yates "I can run you up and down Anytime I want I can make you my dancin'-- My dancin' clown!" You're my dancin' clown Dancin' dancin' My dancin' clown Dancin' You're my dancin' clown Dancin' dancin' dancin' My dancin' clown Rowdy Yates is as bold as Jove-- He's all chide and snide and bluff-- Stuck in the romantic tradition Of acting rough and tough "You're always charging thru," says Jesse Nervous, lookin' all around-- To see who's seein' him bein' a dancin' A dancin' clown He's a dancin' clown Dancin' dancin' A dancin' clown Dancin' He's a dancin' clown Dancin' dancin' dancin' A dancin' clown Cherchez la femme Whenever love comes around Someone's a dancin' clown Cherchez la femme Whenever hearts start to pound Someone's a dancin' clown Down the street comes last-word Suzie-- She's high yellow--lookin' top nice You hear the swoosh of jungle blades And the crackle of northern ice "Hot damn!" says Rowdy--lookin' up "Yum!" says Jesse lookin' down "How would you like to be her dancin' Her dancin' clown?" Be her dancin' clown Dancin' dancin' Her dancin' clown Dancin' Be her dancin' clown Dancin' dancin' dancin' Her dancin' clown Cherchez la femme Whenever love comes to town Someone's a dancin' clown Cherchez la femme Wherever hearts start to pound Someone's a dancin' clown -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- Lakota -------- I am Lakota! Lakota! Looking at money man-- Diggin' the deadly quotas-- Out of balance-- Out of hand We want the land! Lay down the reeking ore! Don't you hear the shrieking in the trees? Everywhere you touch the earth--she's sore Every time you skin her all things weep Your money mocks us-- Restitution--what good can it do?-- Kennelled in metered boxes Red dogs in debt to you I am Lakota! Lakota! Fighting among ourselves All we can say with one whole heart Is we won't sell-- No we'll never sell We want the land! The lonely coyote calls In the woodlands--footprints of the deer In the barrooms--poor drunk bastard falls In the courtrooms--deaf ears--sixty years You think we're sleeping--but Quietly like rattlesnakes and stars We have seen the trampled rainbows In the smoke of cars I am Lakota Brave Sun pity me I am Lakota Broken Moon pity me I am Lakota Grave Shadows stretching Lakota Oh pity me I am Lakota Weak Grass pity me I am Lakota Faithful Rocks pity me I am Lakota Meek Standing water Lakota Oh pity me I am Lakota! Lakota! Standing on sacred land We never sold these Black Hills To the missile-heads-- To the power plants We want the land! The bullet and the fence--broke Lakota The black coats and the booze--broke Lakota Courts that circumvent--choke Lakota Nothing left to lose Tell me grandfather You spoke the fur and feather tongues-- Do you hear the whimpering waters When the tractors come? Repeat Chorus Sun pity me Mother earth Mother Moon pity me Father sky Father Shadows Stretching on the forest floor Mother earth Oh pity me Father sky Father Grass pity me Mother earth Mother Rocks pity me Father sky Father Water Standing in a wakan manner Mother earth Oh pity me -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- My Secret Place -------- [Intro] My secret My secret [Verse 1: Joni Mitchell] I'm going to take you to my special place It's a place that you Like no one else I know Might appreciate [Chorus: Joni Mitchell and Peter Gabriel] I don't go there with anyone, but You're a special case For my special place My special place For my secret place [Refrain: Joni Mitchell] My secret My secret place For my secret place My secret My secret place For my secret place [Verse 2: Joni Mitchell] People talk to tell you something Or to take up space Guess I'm only talking To be talking to your pretty face [Pre-Chorus: Joni Mitchell and Peter Gabriel] I don't talk much to anyone, but You're a special case My special place My secret place [Bridge: Joni Mitchell] I was born and raised in New York City I'm just getting used to Colorado Oh street bravado Carry me Why did you bring me to a place so wild and pretty? Are there pigeons in this park? Muggers after dark? In these golden trees In the secret place? [Refrain: Joni Mitchell] My secret My secret place For my secret place My secret My secret place For my secret place [Verse 3: Peter Gabriel and Joni Mitchell] I'm going to take you to my special place It's a place no amount of hurt and anger can deface I put things back together there It all falls right in place In my special space My special place [Bridge: Joni Mitchell] Once I saw a film in New York City That was shot in Colorado Girl meets desperado In the trembling mountain trees Out of all of the girls that you see In bleachers and cafe windows Sitting--flirting with someone Looking to have some fun Why did you pick me? For the secret place -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- Number One -------- Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Number one, number one Honey tell me when your working day is done Were you reaching for the high rung Reaching to be number one? Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher You get a car, you want a boat You want an eenie-meenie-miney, miney-moe Oh, there must be more to living Than a mortgage and a lawn to mow Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Sweaty work and lucky breaks And blood and tears is all it takes to be a winner! Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher People cheer and people gasp People want your autograph when you're a winner Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Got to be a winner, trophy winner Get to hold your head up higher Win or lose, win or lose To the loser for the heartsy blue To the victor [?] spoiler Honey, did you win or lose? Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Sweaty work and lucky breaks And blood and tears is all it takes to be a winner! Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher People cheer and people gasp People want your autograph when you're a winner Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher (number one) Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Run, run, run, run, let's see you run We'll be betting by the starting gun Shall we shower you with flowers Or shall we shun ya when your race is run? Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Will we shower you with flowers Or will we shun ya when your race is run? Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher Will they shower you with flowers Or will they shun ya when your race is run? (Number one) Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher (number one) Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher (number one) Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher (number one) Got to be a winner, trophy winner (number one) Get to hold your head up higher (number one) -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- Snakes and Ladders -------- [Verse 1] He In a shopping mall Finally met the perfect girl She is all that matters The only one in all the world Like a Barbie doll Oh love is snakes and ladders Snakes and ladders [Verse 2] She Just to have and hold Is the perfect air-brushed angel Makes you hot just looking at her Stapled into all his braincells Like a centerfold Oh love is snakes and ladders Snakes and ladders [Chorus] Get to the top and slide back down Get to the bottom climb back up Buy the townhouse Call the preacher Get to the bottom climb back up Get to the top and slide back down Get to the bottom climb back up Set up credit for the lovely creature The lovely creature [Verse 3] He On a corporate climb Set his sights on power for her On a silver platter He gave up happy hour for her Perrier and lime Oh love is snakes and ladders Snakes and ladders [Verse 4] She In a handsome world Put her mind to social graces All the privileged chatter Setting pretty table places For the girls in pearls Oh love is snakes and ladders Snakes and ladders [Chorus] Get to the top and slide back down Get to the bottom climb back up Buy the carphone Call the broker Get to the bottom climb back up Get to the top and slide back down Get to the bottom climb back up Buy the wife a diamond choker A diamond choker [Bridge] True love true love true love He's so nervous New love new love new love When he's with her Oh he's wasting away True love true love true love It's so curious New love new love new love Just to kiss her To kiss her to kiss her to kiss her To kiss her to kiss her to kiss her To kiss her he has to shave [Verse 5] She In the gilded mirrors In the swing of fancy places Where the black ties flatter Started seeing other faces Young fogie financiers Oh love is snakes and ladders Snakes and ladders [Verse 6] See In the crimes of time How the seasons steal away How the rungs are shattered First you're green then you're grey Still the snakes unwind Still playin' snakes and ladders Snakes and ladders [Chorus] Get to the top and slide back down Get to the bottom climb back up Sell the vineyard Call the lawyer Get to the bottom climb back up Get to the top and slide back down Get to the bottom climb back up Gather garbage to destroy her To destroy her [Outro] Ladders ladders ladders The perfect girl Ladders ladders ladders The paper chase Love is snakes and ladders Ladders ladders ladders The social whirl Ladders ladders The rat race Barbie doll -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- The Beat of Black Wings -------- [Verse 1] I met a young soldier He said his name was Killer Kyle He was shakin' all over Like a night-frightened child This is his story It's a tough one for me to sing Hard as the squawk and the flap And the beat of, the beat of black wings [Verse 2] "They gave me a gun," he said "They gave me a mission For the power and the glory Propaganda, piss on 'em There's a war zone inside me I can feel things exploding I can't even hear the fucking music playing For the beat of The beat of black wings." [Verse 3] He said, "I never had nothin' Nothin' I could believe in My girl killed our unborn child Without even grievin'! I put my hands on her belly To feel the kid kickin', damn! She'd been to some clinic Oh, the beat of black wings." [Verse 4] "They want you, they need you They train you to kill To be a pin on some map Some vicarious thrill The old hate the young That's the whole heartless thing The old pick the wars We die in 'em To the beat of, the beat of black wings." [Verse 5] There's a man drawing pictures On the sidewalk with chalk Just as fast as he draws 'em Rain come down and wash 'em off "Keep the drinks comin' girl 'Til I can't feel anything I'm just a chalk mark in a rainstorm I'm just the beat of black wings." -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- The Reoccurring Dream -------- This is the reoccurring dream Born in the dreary gap between What we have now And what we wish we could have More fulfilling--and less frustrating! Out of the envy in our eyes Look! Glamorous picture people rise Radiant! Gleaming down from screens and pages Ooh--glamour--before your very eyes! Isn't it true--isn't it true? Good question--I know--who cares Look here they tell you If you had this If you had that Latest styles and colors If we had that for us mmmmm Wouldn't it be fabulous If you had that house, car, bottle, jar Your lovers would look like movie stars Movie stars, movie stars, movie stars Order your youth secrets of the stars Call now--just $9.99 Our discontent is their delight They offer relief for the purchase price Love in a bottle Love on four wheels Is that our new car Charles? Isn't it true--isn't it true? We guarantee it--pick up your phone and dial See here they sell you If you had this If you had that I want a new truck!--More power! If you use this shampoo True love will come to you If you had that house, car, bottle, jar Your lovers would look like movie stars Movie stars, movie stars, movie stars Hollywood's greatest legends Recognize this? Dreamer Soft sexy hair Dream on He's going to love me in this ruby, ruby lipstick Others will notice!--Sexy!--Who cares! Recognize this? Dreamer Latest styles and colors Oh, dream on, dream on, dream on The fashion looks you've been hoping for Sexy--sexy Recognize this? Dreamer So special Dream on We will have happiness in heaven The place you dreamed of retiring to-- Who cares Recognize this? Dreamer I know that glamour is--sexy Oh dream on dreamer What could go wrong? Dream on Who cares! Recognize this? Dreamer I'm afraid I can't go below two million Dream on Life would be easy if I had that new appliance Food processors for all of us Who cares! Recognize this? Dreamer There are lots of strings Dream on We can solve everything in science Naturally Science It's a picture of how to get what you want out of life Recognize this? I love it Dreamer Isn't there some other way? Who cares! -------- 1988 Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm -------- -------- The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms) -------- [Intro] Study war no more Lay down your arms Study war no more Lay 'em down lay 'em down now Study war no more Lay down your arms Study war no more [Verse 1] Newsreels rattle the Nazi dread The able-bodied have shipped away Molly McGee gets her tea-leaves read You'll be married in a month they say "These leaves are crazy! Look at this town there's no men left! Just frail old boys and babies Talking to teacher in the treble clef" [Chorus] She plants her garden in the spring She does the winter shovelling Tokyo Rose on the radio She says she's leavin' but she don't go [Verse 2] Out of the blue just passin' thru A young flight sergeant, on two weeks leave Says "Molly McGee no one else will do!" And seals the tea-leaf prophecy Oh these nights are strong and soft Private passions and secret storms Nothin' about him ticks her off And he looks so cute in his uniform [Chorus] She plants her garden in the spring He does the winter shovelling But summer's just a sneeze In a long long bad winter cold She says "I'm leavin' here" but she don't go [Verse 3] "Sleep little darlin'! This is your happy home Hiroshima cannot be pardoned! Don't have kids when you get grown Because this world is shattered The wise are mourning The fools are joking Oh what does it matter? The wash needs ironing And the fire needs stoking" [Chorus] She plants her garden in the spring He does the winter shovelling The three of 'em laughing 'round the radio She says "I'm leavin' here" but she don't go [Chorus] She plants her garden in the spring They do the winter shovelling They sit up late and watch "The Johnny Carson Show" She says "I'm leavin' here but she don't go" -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- Cherokee Louise -------- [Verse 1] Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel In the Broadway bridge We are crawling on our knees We've got flashlights and batteries We got cold cuts from the fridge [Chorus] Last year about this time We used to climb up in the branches Just to sway there in some breeze Now the cops on the street They want Cherokee Louise [Verse 2] People like to talk Tongues are waggin' over fences They're waggin' on the phones All their doors are locked God she can't even come to our house But I know where she'll go [Chorus] To the place where you can stand And press your hands like it was bubble bath In dust piled high as me Down under the street My friend Cherokee Louise [Bridge] Ever since we turned thirteen It's like a minefield Walking to the door Going out to get your third degree And comin' in you get the Third World War [Verse 3] Tuesday after school We put our pennies on the rails And when the train rolled by We were jumpin' round like fools Going "Look no heads or tails" Going "Look my lucky prize" [Chorus] Then she runs home to her foster dad He open up his zipper And he yanks her to her knees Oh please be here - please My friend Cherokee Louise [Verse 4] Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel In the Broadway bridge We're crawling on our knees I've got Archie and Silver Screen I know where she is [Chorus] She's in the place where you can stand And press your hands like it was bubble bath In dust piled high as me Down under the street My friend, poor Cherokee Louise [Outro] Oh Cheeroke Louise, poor Cherokee Louise Cherokee Louise, Cherokee Louise -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- Come In From the Cold -------- [Verse 1] Back in 1957 We had to dance a foot apart And they hawk-eyed us from the sidelines Holding their rulers without a heart And so with just a touch of our fingers Ah, it could make our circuitry explode All we ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold [Chorus] Come in Come in from the cold We were so young Oh come in Come in from the cold [Verse 2] We really thought we had a purpose We were so anxious to achieve We had hope The world held promise For a slave to liberty Freely I slaved away for something better And I was bought and sold And all I ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold [Chorus] Come in Come in from the cold We were so sure Oh come in Come in from the cold [Verse 3] I feel your legs under the table Leaning into mine I feel renewed I feel disabled By these bonfires in my spine I don't know who the arsonist was Which incendiary soul But all I ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold [Chorus] Come in Come in from the cold You were too warm Oh come in Come in from the cold [Verse 4] I am not some stone commission Like a statue in a park I am flesh and blood and vision I am howling in the dark Long blue shadows of the jackals Are falling on a pay phone by the road Oh, all they ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold [Chorus] Come in Come in from the cold I was so low Oh come in Come in from the cold [Verse 5] Is this just vulgar electricity Is this the edifying fire It was so pure Does your smile's covert complicity Debase as it admires Just a flu with a temperature Are you just checking out your mojo Or am I just fighting off growing old Just a high fever All I ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold [Chorus] Come in Come in from the cold It was so pure Please come in Oh come in Come in from the cold [Verse 6] I know we never will be perfect Never entirely clear When the moon shines We get hurt and we just panic And we strike out Out of fear You were only being kind I fear the sentence of this solitude Two hundred years on hold For my loving crime Oh and all we ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold [Chorus] Come in Come in from the cold When the moon shines Oh come in Come in from the cold [Verse 7] When I thought life had some meaning When I thought I had some choice I was running blind And I made some value judgments In a self-important voice I was outta' line, outta line But then absurdity came over me And I longed to lose control Into no mind Oh all I ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold [Chorus] Come in Come in from the cold Come in You were so kind Please come in So kind Come in from the cold Come in come in Come in from the cold -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- It's All over Now, Baby Blue -------- You better leave now, take what you need, the past is past Whatever you wanna keep, you better grab it fast Over there's your orphan with her gun Cryin' like a fire in the sun Look out the saints are comin' through Ohh and it's all over now, Baby Blue The highway is for gamblers, better use good sense Take what you have gathered from coincidence The empty-handed painter from your streets Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets The sky of blue is moving over you Ohh it's all over now, Baby Blue All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home Your reindeer navigators, they are going home The vagabond who's rapping at your door Is standing in the clothes that you once wore Strike another match go start anew Ohh because it's all over now, Baby Blue Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you Pities against no mind, they will not follow you Your lover fool has just walked through the door Has taken all his blankets from your floor Your fancy rug is moving under you Ohh and it's all over now, Baby Blue -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- Night Ride Home -------- [Verse 1] Once in a while In a big blue moon There comes a night like this Like some surrealist Invented this 4th of July Night ride home [Verse 2] Hula girls And caterpillar tractors in the sand The ukulele man The fireworks This 4th of July Night ride home [Chorus] I love the man beside me We love the open road No phones 'til Friday Far from the overkill Far from the overload [Verse 3] Back at the bar The band tears down But out here in the headlight beams The silver powerlines Gleam On this 4th of July Night ride home [Verse 4] Round the curve And a big dark horse Red taillights on his hide Is keeping right alongside Rev for stride 4th of July Night ride home [Chorus] I love the man beside me We love the open road No phones 'til Friday Far from the undertow Far from the overload [Outro] Once in awhile In a big blue moon There comes a night like this Like some surrealist Invented this 4th of July Night ride home -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- Nothing Can Be Done -------- [Verse 1] Must I forgive you Each time And say you don't know what your're doing There are no victimless crimes I know of Out here in these graffiti ruins My love [Verse 2] Oh I am not old I'm told But I am not young Oh and nothing can be done Don't start My heart Is a smoking gun Oh and nothing can be done [Verse 2] I heard you leaving Late last night I heard you screaming down the mountain Like you were running red lights (Red lights) You had some trash-can-rock-band pounding [Chorus] Oh I am not old I'm told But I am not young Oh and nothing can be done Don't start My heart Is a smoking gun Oh and nothing can be done [Verse 3] Must I surrender With grace The things I loved when I was younger (Sweet embrace) Must I remember your face So well What do I do here with this hunger [Chorus] Oh I am not old I'm told But I am not young Oh and nothing can be done Don't start My heart Is a smoking gun Oh and nothing can be done [Outro] Nothing can be done Nothing can be done Oh nothing can be done -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- Passion Play (When All the Slaves Are Free) -------- [Verse 1] Magdalene is trembling Like a washing on a line Trembling and gleaming Never before was a man so kind Never so redeeming [Chorus 1] Enter the multitudes In Exxon blue In radiation rose Ecstasy Now you tell me Who you gonna get to do the dirty work When all the slaves are free? (Who're you gonna get) [Verse 2] I am up a sycamore Looking through the leaves A sinner of some position Who in the world can this heart healer be This magical physician [Chorus 2] Enter the multitudes In Exxon blue In radiation rose Misery Now you tell me Who you gonna get to do the dirty work When all the slaves are free? (Who're you gonna get) [Refrain] Enter the multitudes The walking wounded They come to this diver of the heart Of the multitudes Thy kingdom come Thy will be done [Verse 3] Oh, climb down, climb down he says to me From the middle of unrest They think is light is squandered But he sees a stray in the wilderness And I see how far I've wandered [Chorus 3] Enter the multitudes In Exxon blue In radiation rose Apathy Now you tell me Who you gonna get to do the dirty work When all the slaves are free? (Who're you gonna get) [Refrain] Enter the multitudes The walking wounded They come to this diver of the heart Of the multitudes Thy kingdom come Thy will be done [Verse 4] Oh, all around the marketplace The buzzing of the flies The buzzing and the stinging Divinely barren And wickedly wise The killer nails are ringing [Chorus 4] Enter the multitudes In Exxon blue In radiation rose Tragedy Now you tell me Who you gonna get to do the dirty work When all the slaves are free? (Who're you gonna get) -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- Ray's Dad's Cadillac -------- [Intro] Ray's Dad's Cadillac Ray's Dad's Cadillac [Verse 1] Ray's Dad's Cadillac Rollin' past the rink Past the record shack Pink fins in the falling rain Rollin' To the blue lights past the water mains [Chorus] Ray's Dad's Cadillac Weekends we'd get Ray's Dad's Cadillac Rock 'n roll in the dashboard Romance in the back of Ray's Dad's Cadillac [Verse 2] Ray's dad teaches math Zero I'm a dunce I'm a decimal in his class Last night's kisses won't erase Zero I just can't keep the numbers in their place [Chorus] Ray's Dad's Cadillac Last night we had Ray's Dad's Cadillac Rock 'n roll in the dashboard Romance in the back of Ray's Dad's Cadillac Ray's Dad's Cadillac [Bridge] When it comes to mathematics I got static in the attic "No sir, nothin's clear!" I'll be blackboard blind on Monday Dreamin' of blue runways On the edge of here A little atmosphere [Verse 3] Blue lights out on airport road Motown, in a field in a farmer's grove Big planes comin' overhead Lowdown You can see the bolts You can see the tire treads [Chorus] Ray's Dad's Cadillac Weekends we'd get Ray's Dad's Cadillac Oh, little darlin' Rock 'n roll in the dashboard Romance in the back of Ray's Dad's Cadillac [Outro] Ray's Dad's Cadillac Ray's Dad's Cadillac Ray's Dad's Cadillac -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- Slouching Towards Bethlehem -------- [Verse 1] Turning and turning Within the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart The centre cannot hold And a blood dimmed tide Is loosed upon the world [Verse 2] Nothing is sacred The ceremony sinks Innocence is drowned In anarchy The best lack conviction Given some time to think And the worst are full of passion Without mercy [Chorus] Surely some revelation is at hand Surely it's the second coming And the wrath has finally taken form For what is this rough beast Its hour come at last Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born [Verse 3] Hoping and hoping As if with my weak faith The spirit of this world Would heal and rise Vast are the shadows That straddle and strafe And struggle in the darkness Troubling my eyes [Verse 4] Shaped like a lion It has the head of a man With a gaze as blank And pitiless as the sun As it's moving its slow thighs Across the desert sands Through dark indignant Reeling falcons [Chorus] Surely some revelation is at hand Surely it's the second coming And the wrath has finally taken form For what is this rough beast Its hour come at last Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born Head of a man, shape of a lion [Verse 5] Raging and raging It rises from the deep Opening its eyes After twenty centuries Vexed to a nightmare Out of a stony sleep By a rocking cradle By the Sea of Galilee [Chorus] Surely some revelation is at hand Surely it's the second coming And the wrath has finally taken form For what is this rough beast Its hour come at last Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born Head of a man, shape of a lion -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- The Only Joy in Town -------- [Verse 1] I want to paint a picture Botticelli style Instead of Venus on a clam I'd paint this flower child "You are the air my flowers breathe" He calls, and the ladies turn around On the first day of Spring I'm looking at the only joy around [Chorus] He's the only joy around (The Botticelli black boy) The only joy I found (The Botticelli black boy) The only joy in town [Verse 2] The Spanish steps are crowded Bunch of bodies brooding there Dead pan side-walk vendors Hustling vacant stares Making all the more exceptional This fool in a flower crown On the first day of Spring I'm looking at the only joy in town [Chorus] He's the only joy around (The Botticelli black boy) The only joy I found (The Botticelli black boy) The only joy in town (The Botticelli black boy) (The Botticelli black boy) [Verse 3] With the fuchias in his hair Is breathing in women like oxygen On the Spanish stairs In my youth I would have followed him All through this terra-cotta town On the first day of Spring We'd dance and sing And be the only joy around [Chorus] We'd be the only joy around (The Botticelli black boy) The only joy in town (The Botticelli black boy) He's the only joy I've found All day [Verse 4] At night these streets are empty Where does everybody go Where are the brash and tender rooms In Roman candle glow Where are Fellini's circus' La Dolce Vita clowns On the first day of Spring I'm looking At the only joy around [Chorus] The only joy around (The Botticelli black boy) The only joy I found (The Botticelli black boy) He's the only joy in town [Outro] (The Botticelli black boy) He is the only joy in town (The Botticelli black boy) The only joy I found (The Botticelli black boy) The only joy I found (The Botticelli black boy) He is the only joy in town (The Botticelli black boy) -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- The Windfall (Everything for Nothing) -------- [Intro] So you want me to buy you a car Why? Because Elvis did? Darlin' come on [Verse 1] Because Elvis gave 'em cars You think I'm cheap And you're hard done by Look-you live here like a star Rent free suite Big blue pool that you sun by Trips to tropic shores Clothes from fancy stores You want too much You want too badly You want everything for nothing [Verse 2] Going to the church You chant For my downfall Chanting for my house My friends You want it all The pillows on my bed The visions in my head You want too much You want too badly You want everything for nothing [Chorus] In the land of litigation The courts are like game shows Take what's behind the curtain The jury cries I'm not going to be the jackpot At the end of your perjured rainbow Not if local justice has even one good eye [Verse 3] Oh it's not like I was blind I saw But I took no action As you began to climb Green clawed Dissatisfaction It wasn't hard to guess That the end would be a mess You want too much You want too badly You want everything for nothing [Chorus] In the land of mass frustration The judges are sleeping Counting wooly little lawyers And grinding their teeth Outside my sleepless window The Hollywood sirens are shrieking While down some searchlit alley runs Some lost belief [Outro] Oh I'm tangled in your lies Your scam Your spider web Spit spun between the trees Doors slam You want my head You'd eat your young alive For a jaguar in the drive You lie too much You lie too badly You want everything for nothing -------- 1991 Night Ride Home -------- -------- Two Grey Rooms -------- [Verse 1] Tomorrow is Sunday Now there's only one day left to go Till you walk by Below my window The weekends drive me mad Holidays are oh too sad 'Cause you don't go Below my window [Chorus] No one knows I'm here One day I just disappeared And I took these two grey rooms up here With a view When you walk by Below my window [Verse 2] You look so youthful Time has been untruthful Heaven knows I loved you 30 years ago Hot days your shirt's undone Rainy days you run Oh and then you fade so fast Below my window [Chorus] No one knows I'm here One day I just disappeared And I took these two grey rooms up here With a view Only when you walk by Below my window When you walk by [Outro] Below my window Below my window Hey hey Below my window Below my window Below my window -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- Borderline -------- [Verse 1] Everybody looks so ill at ease So distrustful so displeased Running down the table I see a borderline Like a barbed wire fence Strung tight, strung tense Prickling with pretense A borderline [Verse 2] Why are you smirking at your friend? Is this to be the night when All well-wishing ends? All credibility revoked? Thin skin, thick jokes! Can we blame it on the smoke This borderline? [Verse 3] Every bristling shaft of pride Church or nation Team or tribe Every notion we subscribe to Is just a borderline Good or bad, we think we know As if thinking makes things so! All convictions grow along a borderline [Verse 4] Smug in your jaded expertise You scathe the wonder world And you praise barbarity In this illusionary place This scared hard-edged rat race All liberty is laced with Borderlines [Verse 5] Every income, every age Every fashion-plated rage Every measure, every gauge Creates a borderline Every stone thrown through glass Every mean-streets-kick ass Every swan caught on the grass Will draw a borderline [Verse 6] You snipe so steady You snub so snide So ripe and ready To diminish and deride You're so quick to condescend My opinionated friend All you deface, all you defend Is just a borderline Just a borderline Another borderline Just a borderline -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- How Do You Stop -------- [Verse 1: Joni Mitchell] Hard bodies Soft emotions So fast So smart The world is at your feet But what about your heart? Fame and fortune can't hold you tight In the late late hours of the night [Chorus: Joni Mitchell and Seal] How do you stop How do you stop Before it's too late? You choose and you lose If you hesitate How do you stop How do you stop Before it's too late? You think love will wait So you don't hold on And then it's gone How do you stop [Verse 2: Joni Mitchell] You've had success Lots of fancy friends You've tasted the good life You thought it would never end One day you're too young Then you're in your prime Then you're looking back at the hands of time [Chorus: Joni Mitchell and Seal] How do you stop How do you stop Before it's too late? You choose and you lose If you hesitate How do you stop How do you stop Before it's too late? Late You think love will wait So you don't hold on And then it's gone How do you stop [Bridge: Joni Mitchell and Seal] How do you stop a runaway train? How do you stop How do you stop the driving rain? How do you stop the ripening corn? How do you stop How do you stop a baby being born? [Chorus: Joni Mitchell and Seal] How do you stop Before it's too late? Too late You choose and you lose If you hesitate How do you stop How do you stop Before it's too late? How do you stop? How do you stop You're lost if you hesitate How do you stop How do you stop Love from slipping away? How do you stop How do you stop Before it's too late? -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- Last Chance Lost -------- [Verse 1] Last chance lost In the tyranny of a long good-bye Last chance lost We talk of us with deadly earnest eyes Last chance lost We talk of love in terms of sacrifice and compromise Last chance Last chance lost [Verse 2] Last chance lost The hero cannot make the change Last chance lost The shrew will not be tamed Last chance lost They bicker on the rifle range Blame takes aim Last chance Last chance lost -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- Not to Blame -------- [Verse 1] The story hit the news From coast to coast They said you beat the girl You loved the most Your charitable acts Seemed out of place With the beauty With your fist marks on her face Your buddies all stood by They bet their fortunes And their fame That she was out of line And you were not to blame [Verse 2] Six hundred thousand doctors Are putting on rubber gloves And they're poking At the miseries made of love They say they're learning How to spot The battered wives Among all the women They see bleeding through their lives I bleed For your perversity These red words that make a stain On your white-washed claim that She was out of line And you were not to blame [Verse 3] I heard your baby say When he was only three "Daddy, let's get some girls One for you and one for me." His mother had the frailty You despise And the looks You love to drive to suicide Not one wet eye around Her lonely little grave Said: "He was out of line, girl You were not to blame." -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- Sex Kills -------- [Verse 1] I pulled up behind a Cadillac We were waiting for the light I took a look at his license plate It said 'Just Ice' Is justice just ice? Governed by greed and lust Just the strong doing what they can And the weak suffering what they must [Chorus] Oh, and the gas leaks And the oil spills And sex sells everything Sex kills Oh, sex kills [Verse 2] Doctors' pills give you brand new ills And the bills bury you like an avalanche And lawyers haven't been this popular Since Robespierre slaughtered half of France And Indian chiefs with their old beliefs Know the balance is undone, crazy ions You can feel it out in traffic Everyone hates everyone [Chorus] And the gas leaks And the oil spills And sex sells everything Sex kills Oh, sex kills [Verse 3] All these jack-offs at the office The rapist in the pool Oh, and the tragedies in the nurseries Little kids packing guns to school The ulcerated ozone These tumors of the skin This hostile sun beating down On the massive mess we're in [Chorus] And the gas leaks And the oil spills And sex sells everything Sex kills Sex kills Sex kills Oh, sex kills Sex kills -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- Sunny Sunday -------- [Verse 1] She pulls the shade It's just another sunny Sunday She dodges the light like Blanche DuBois Bright colors fade away on such a Sunny Sunday She waits for the night to fall [Verse 2] Then she points a pistol through the door And she aims at the streetlight While the freeway hisses Dogs bark as the gun falls to the floor The streetlight's still burning She always misses But the day she hits That's the day she'll leave That one little victory, that's all she needs [Verse 3] She pulls the shade It's just another sunny Monday She waits for the night to fall -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- The Magdalene Laundries -------- [Verse 1] I was an unmarried girl I'd just turned twenty-seven When they sent me to the sisters For the way men looked at me Branded as a jezebel I knew I was not bound for Heaven I'd be cast in shame Into the Magdalene Laundries [Verse 2] Most girls come here pregnant Some by their own fathers Bridget got that belly by her parish priest We're trying to get things white as snow All of us woe-begotten daughters In the streaming stains Of the Magdalene Laundries [Verse 3] Prostitutes and destitutes And temptresses like me Fallen women Sentenced into dreamless drudgery Why do they call this heartless place Our Lady of Charity? Oh charity! [Verse 4] These bloodless brides of Jesus If they had just once glimpsed their groom Then they'd know, and they'd drop the stones Concealed behind their rosaries They wilt the grass they walk upon They leech the light out of a room They'd like to drive us down the drain At the Magdalene Laundries [Verse 5] Peg O'Connell died today She was a cheeky girl A flirt They just stuffed her in a hole! Surely to God you'd think at least some bells should ring! One day I'm going to die here too And they'll plant me in the dirt Like some lame bulb That never blooms come any spring Not any spring No, not any spring Not any spring -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song) -------- [Verse 1] Let me speak, let me spit out my bitterness Born of grief and nights without sleep and festering flesh Do you have eyes? Can you see like mankind sees? Why have you soured and curdled me? [Refrain] Oh you tireless watcher What have I done to you? That you make everything I dread And everything I fear Come true? [Verse 2] Once I was blessed I was awaited like the rain Like eyes for the blind Like feet for the lame Kings heard my words And they sought out my company But now the janitors of Shadowland flick their brooms at me [Refrain] Oh you tireless watcher What have I done to you? That you make everything I dread And everything I fear Come true? [Verse 3] (Man is the sire of sorrow) I've lost all taste for life I'm all complaints Tell me why do you starve the faithful? Why do you crucify the saints? And you let the wicked prosper You let their children frisk like deer And my loves are dead or dying, or they don't come near (We don't despise your chastening God is correcting you) Oh and look who comes to counsel my deep distress Oh, these pompous physicians What carelessness! (Oh all this ranting, all this wind Filling our ears with trash) Breathtaking ignorance adding insult to injury! They come blaming and shaming (Evil doer) And shattering me (This vain man wishes to seem wise A man born of asses) [Refrain] Oh you tireless watcher What have I done to you? That you make everything I dread And everything I fear Come true? [Verse 4] Already on a bed of sighs and screams And still you torture me with visions You give me terrifying dreams! Better I was carried from the womb straight to the grave I see the diggers waiting, they're leaning on their spades (Man is the sire of sorrow Sure as the sparks ascend) Where is hope while you're wondering what went wrong? Why give me light and then this dark without a dawn? ( Evil is sweet in your mouth Hiding under your tongue) Show your face (What a long fall from grace) Help me understand What is the reason for your heavy hand? (You're stumbling in shadows You have no name now) Was it the sins of my youth? [Refrain] What have I done to you? That you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true? (Oh your guilt must weigh so greatly) Everything I dread and everything I fear come true (Man is the sire of sorrow) Oh you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- Turbulent Indigo -------- [Verse 1] You wanna make Van Goghs Raise 'em up like sheep Make 'em out of Eskimos And women if you please Make 'em nice and normal Make 'em nice and neat You see him with his shotgun there? Bloodied in the wheat? Oh what do you know about Living in Turbulent Indigo? [Verse 2] Brash fields, crude crows In a scary sky In a golden frame Roped off Tourists guided by Tourists talking about the madhouse Talking about the ear The madman hangs in fancy homes They wouldn't let him near He'd piss in their fireplace He'd drag them through Turbulent Indigo [Verse 3] "I'm a burning hearth" he said "People see the smoke But no one wants to warm themselves Sloughing off a coat And all my little landscapes All my yellow afternoons Stack up around this vacancy Like dirty cups and spoons No mercy Sweet Jesus No mercy from Turbulent Indigo" -------- 1994 Turbulent Indigo -------- -------- Yvette In English -------- [Verse 1] He met her in a French cafe She slipped in sideways like a cat Sidelong glances What a wary little stray! She sticks in his mind like that Saying, "Avez-vous un allumette?" With her lips wrapped around a cigarette Yvette in English saying "Please have this Little bit of instant bliss." [Verse 2] He's fumbling with her foreign tongue; Reaching for words and drawing blanks A loud mouth is stricken deaf and dumb In a bistro on the left bank "If I were a painter," Picasso said "I'd paint this girl from toe to head!" Yvette in English saying "Please have this Little bit of instant bliss." [Verse 3] Burgundy nocturne tips and spills They trot along nicely in the spreading stain New chills, new thrills For the old uphill battle How did he wind up here again? Walking and talking Touched and scared Uninsulated wires left bare Yvette in English going "Please have this Little bit of instant bliss." [Verse 4] What blew her like a leaf his way? (Up in the air and down to Earth) First she flusters Then she frays So quick to question her own worth Her cigarette burns her fingertips As it falls like fireworks she curses it Then sweetly in English she says "Please have this Little bit of instant bliss." [Verse 5] He sees her turn and walk away Skittering like a cat on stone Her high heels clicking What a wary little stray! She leaves him by the Seine alone With the black water and the amber lights And the bony bridge between left and right Yvette in English saying "Please have this Little bit of instant bliss." -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- Face Lift -------- I went so numb on Christmas day I couldn't feel my hands or feet I shouldn't have come She made me pay For gleaming with Donald down her street She put blame on him And shame on me She made it all seem so tawdry and cheap "Oh, let's be nice, Mama, open up your gifts You know, happiness is the best facelift" I mean, after all, she introduced us Oh, but she regrets that now Shacked up downtown Making love without a license Same old sacred cow She said, "Did you come home to disgrace us?" I said, "Why is this joy not allowed? For God's sake, I'm middle-aged, Mama And time moves swift And you know happiness is the best facelift" Oh, love takes so much courage Love takes so much shit He said "You've seen too many movies, Joni" She said "Snap out of it!" Oh, the cold winds blew at our room with a view All helpful and hopeful and candlelit We kissed the angels and the moon eclipsed You know, Happiness is the best facelift We pushed the bed up to the window To see the Christmas lights On the east bank across the steaming river Between the bridges lit up Paris-like This river has run through both our lives Between these banks of our continuing delights Bless us, don't let us lose the drift You know, Happiness is the best facelift -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- Harlem In Havana -------- [Verse 1] At the far end of the midway By the double ferris wheel There's a band that plays so snakey You can't help how you feel Emmie Mae ran away With a man as dark as night You can see him, if you go there Second trumpet to the right They play "Night Train" So snakey Black girls dancing Long and lanky Barkers barking Step right up, folks [Chorus] The show is about to begin It's Harlem in Havana time Step right in Silver spangles See 'em dangle in the farm boy's eyes Hootchie kootchie Auntie Ruthie would've cried If she knew we were on the inside [Verse 2] When Emmie Mae ran away She came back a bottle blonde God! The gossips had a gourmet feast Chomping on how she was born But miracle of miracles 'Cause we were underage She got us nearly front row seats To the right side of the stage See that tall girl? That's a man That one, too Big yellow feather fan Barkers barking Step right up, folks [Chorus] The show is about to begin It's Harlem in Havana time Step right in! Silver spangles See 'em dangle in the farm boy's eyes Hootchie kootchie Auntie Ruthie would've died If she knew we were on the inside -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- Lead Balloon -------- [Verse 1] "Kiss my ass!" I said And I threw my drink Tequila trickling Down his business suit Must be the Irish blood Fight before you think Turn it now You can't cowtow You can't undo it [Chorus] It's his town And that went down Like a lead balloon Lead lead lead lead balloon He said "Sic her, Rover" That went over Like a lead balloon Lead lead lead lead balloon Lead balloon [Verse 2] An angry man is just an angry man But an angry woman Bitch! I had to ask him for a helping hand It came with the heart Of a Bonaparte Of a frozen fish [Chorus] It's his town And that went down Like a lead balloon Lead lead lead lead balloon He said "Sic her, Rover" That went over Like a lead balloon Lead lead lead lead balloon Lead balloon [Chorus] Lead balloon, lead lead lead lead balloon Lead balloon, lead lead lead lead balloon Lead balloon, lead lead lead lead balloon Lead balloon [Chorus] It's his town And that went down Like a lead balloon Lead lead lead balloon He said "Sic her, Rover" That went over Like a lead balloon Lead lead lead lead balloon Lead balloon Lead lead lead lead balloon Lead lead lead lead balloon Lead balloon -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- Love Puts On A New Face -------- [Verse 1] He said "You think you're a lady But I know you're a woman We are as young as the night" I said "No telephones ringing No company coming Just the lap of the lake and the firelight" And the lonely loon and the crescent moon What a pocket of heavenly grace [Refrain] But in France they say Everyday Love puts on a new face Love has many faces [Verse 2] About a month or so later he said "Why can't you be happy You make me feel helpless when you get this way" I said "I'm up to my neck in alligators Jaws gnashing at me Each one trying to pull a piece away" Darling, you can't slay these beasts of prey Some bad dreams even love can't erase [Refrain] But in France they say Everyday Love puts on a new face Love has many faces [Verse 3] He said "I wish you were with me here The leaves are electric They burn on the river bank Countless heatless flames" I said "Send me some pictures then And I'll paint pyrotechnic Explosions of your autumn till we meet again I miss your touch and your lips so much I long for our next embrace" [Refrain] But in France they say Everyday Love puts on a new face Love puts on a new face Love has many faces Many many faces -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- Man From Mars -------- [Verse 1] Since I lost you I can't get through the day Without at least one big boo-hoo The pain won't go away What am I gonna do? Man from Mars This time you went too far [Verse 2] I fall apart Everytime I think of you Swallowed by the dark There is no center to my life now No grace in my heart Man from Mars This time you went too far [Verse 3] I call and call The silence is so full of sounds You're in them all I hear you in the water And the wiring in the walls Man from Mars This time you went too far -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- My Best To You -------- [Verse 1] So here's to you May your dreams come true May old Father Time Never be unkind And through the years Save your smiles and your tears They're just souvenirs They'll make music in your heart Remember this Each new day is a kiss Sent from up above With an angel's love So here's to you May your skies be blue And your love blessed That's my best to you [Verse 2] Remember this Each new day is a kiss Sent from up above With an angel's love So here's to you May your skies be blue And your love blessed That's my very best to you -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- No Apologies -------- [Verse 1] The general offered No apologies He said "The soldiers erred in judgement They should have hired a hooker" No apologies To the outraged Japanese No "Sorry little girl" The pigs just took her [Refrain] Tire skids and teethmarks What happened to this place? Lawyers and loan sharks Are laying America to waste [Verse 2] Freddie said that "Juan thinks, I think He's the devil" What a lofty title For such a petty little tyrant Bigger beasts abound And they kick this world around At this crazy speed With violence and greed [Refrain] Tire skids and teethmarks What happened to this place? Lawyers and loan sharks Are laying America to waste [Verse 3] So what makes a man a man In these tough times As drug lords buy up the banks And war lords radiate the oceans Ecosystems fail Snakes and snails and puppy tails Are wagging in the womb Beneath the trampled moon [Refrain] Tires kids and teethmarks What happened to this place? Lawyers and loan sharks Are laying America to waste [Outro] The general offered No apologies -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- Stay In Touch -------- This is really something People will be envious But our roles aren't clear So we musn't rush Still, we're burning brightly Clinging like fire to fuel I'm grinning like a fool Stay in touch We should stay in touch Oh! Stay in touch In touch Part of this is permanent Part of this is passing So we must be loyal and wary Not to give away too much Til we build a firm foundation And empty out old habits Old habits Stay in touch We should stay in touch Oh! Stay in touch In touch During times like these The wise or influential They can bear the imperfections They can keep the money No doubt about it No doubt that's essential No doubt that's always been a tricky one for me So, we should just surrender Let fate and duty shape us Let light hearts remake us Let the worries hush In the middle of this continent In the middle of our time on Earth We perceive one another Stay in touch We should stay in touch Oh! Stay in touch In touch -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- Taming The Tiger -------- [Verse 1] I stepped outside to breathe the air And stare up at the stars Big dipper hanging there Over the rented car Over the rented car I'm a runaway from the record biz From the hoods in the hood and the whiny white kids [Chorus] Boring, the old man is snoring And I'm taming the tiger (You can't tame the tiger) Tiger, tiger burning bright Nice, kitty kitty Tiger, tiger burning bright [Verse 2] Sophia says "It's hard to catch And harder still to ride The time to watch the beast the best Is when it's purring at your side" Purring at your side Accolades and honors One false move and you're a goner [Chorus] Boring, the old man is snoring And I'm taming the tiger (You can't tame the tiger) Tiger, tiger burning bright Nice, kitty kitty Tiger, tiger burning bright [Verse 3] The moon shed light On my hopeless plight As the radio blared so bland Every disc, a poker chip Every song just a one night stand Formula music, girly guile Genuine junkfood for juveniles Up and down the dial Mercenary style [Verse 4] I watched the stars chuck down their spears And a plane went blinking by And I thought of Anna Wild and dear Like fireworks in the sky Fireworks in the sky I'm so sick of this game It's hip, it's hot Life's too short, the whole thing's gotten [Chorus] Boring, the old man is snoring And I'm taming the tiger (You can't tame the tiger) Tiger, tiger burning bright Nice, kitty kitty (Boring) Tiger, tiger burning bright (You can't tame the tiger) Oh, be nice, kitty kitty (Boring) Tiger, tiger burning bright Nice, kitty kitty (Boring, boring) Tiger, tiger burning bright (Fight to the light, fight to the light) In the forest of the night -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- The Crazy Cries Of Love -------- It was a dark and a stormy night Everyone was at the wing-ding They weren't the wing-ding type So they went up on the train bridge Where the weather was howling And oh, oh, my my When that train comes rolling by No paper thin walls, no folks above No one else can hear The crazy cries of love They were laughing, they were dancing in the rain They knew their love was a strong one When they heard the far off whistle of a train They were hoping it was going to be a long one Cuz oh, oh, my my When that train comes rolling by No paper thin walls, no folks above No one else can hear The crazy cries of love In the back booth of an all night cafe Two dripping raincoats are hanging Outside in the weather The shade on the streetlight is clanging And they smile ear to ear and eye to eye Ice cream is melting on a piece of pie Oh, my my No one else can hear The cries of love Every kiss was sweet and strong Every touch was totally tandem As the train come a-rumbling along They sang a lover's song of wild abandon And oh, oh, my my When that train comes rolling by No paper thin walls, no folks above No one else can hear The crazy cries of love No paper thin walls, no folks above No one else can hear The crazy cries of love -------- 1998 Taming the Tiger -------- -------- Tiger Bones -------- [Instrumental] -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- A Case of You [Both Sides Now Version] -------- Sorry, we didn't mean for that to happen! -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- Answer Me, My Love -------- Answer me Oh my love Just what sin have I been guilty of Tell me how I came to lose your love Please answer me sweetheart You were mine yesterday I believed that love was here to stay Won't you tell me how I've gone astray Please answer me my love If you're happier without me I'll try not to care But if you still think about me Please listen to my prayer You must know that I've been true Won't you say that we can start anew In my sorrow now I turn to you Please answer me my love If you're happier without me I'll try not to care But if you still think about me Please listen to my prayer You must know that I've been true Won't you say that we can start anew In my sorrow now I turn to you Please answer me my love Answer me my love -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- At Last -------- At last, my love has come along My lonely days are over, and life is like a song At last,the skies above are blue My heart was wrapped in clover The night I looked at you I found a dream that I could speak to A dream that I could call my own I found a thrill to press my cheek to A thrill I'd never known You smiled, and then the spell was cast And here we are in Heaven, for you are mine at last I found a dream that I could speak to A dream that I could call my own I found a thrill to press my cheek to A thrill that I had never known You smiled, and then the spell was cast And here we are in Heaven For you are mine at last -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- Both Sides Now (Orchestral Version 2000) -------- Rows and flows of angel hair And ice cream castles in the air And feather canyons everywhere I've looked at clouds that way But now they only block the sun They rain and snow on everyone So many things I would have done But clouds got in my way I've looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down, and still somehow It's cloud illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all Moons and Junes and ferris wheels The dizzy dancing way that you feel As every fairy tale comes real; I've looked at love that way But now it's just another show You leave 'em laughing when you go And if you care, don't let them know Don't give yourself away I've looked at love from both sides now From give and take, and still somehow It's love's illusions that I recall I really don't know I really don't know love at all Tears and fears and feeling proud To say "I love you" right out loud Dreams and schemes and circus crowds I've looked at life that way But now old friends are acting strange They shake their heads, they tell me that I've changed Well something's lost but something's gained in living every day I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose, and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life I really don't know life at all -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- Comes Love -------- Comes a rain storm Put your rubbers on your feet Comes a snow storm You can get a little heat Comes love Nothing can be done Comes a fire Firemen come and rescue me Blow a tire You can patch the inner tube Comes love Nothing can be done Don't try hidin' 'Cause it isn't any use You'll just start slidin' When your heart turns on the juice Comes a heat wave You can hurry to the store Come a summons Hide yourself behind a door Comes love Nothing can be done Comes a headache You can lose it in a day Comes a toothache See your dentist right away Comes love Nothing can be done Comes the measles You can quarrantine the room Comes a mousie You can chase it with a broom Comes love Nothing can be done That's all brother If you've ever been in love That's all brother And you know just what I'm speakin' of Comes a nightmare You can always stay awake Comes depression You could get another break Comes love Nothing can be done Nothing can be done -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- Don't Go To Strangers -------- Build your dreams To the stars above But when you need someone true to love Don't go to strangers Lover come to me Play with fire Get your fingers burned But when there's no place left to turn Don't go to strangers Lover come to me You give the call to follow your heart You'll follow your heart, I know I've been around I'm an old hand I'll understand if you have to go So make your mark For your friends to see But when you need more than company Don't go to strangers Lover come to me Don't go to strangers Lover come to me -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- Don't Worry 'bout Me -------- Don't worry 'bout me I'll get along Forget about me Just be happy my love Let's say that our little show is over And so the story ends Why not call it a day the sensible way And still be friends Look out for yourself That should be the rule Give your heart and your love To whomever you love Darlin' don't be a fool Why do we cling to this old faded thing That used to be So if you can forget Then don't worry 'bout me Why should we cling to some old faded thing That used to be So if you can forget Then you don't worry 'bout me -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- I Wish I Were In Love Again -------- The sleepless nights The daily fights The quick toboggan when you reach the heights I miss the kisses and I miss the bites I wish I were in love again The broken dates The endless waits The lovely loving and the hateful hates The conversations with the flying plates I wish I were in love again No more pain No no more strain Now I'm sane But I'd rather be punch drunk The flying fur of cat and cur The fine mismatching of a him and her I've learned my lesson but I wish I were in love again The furtive sigh The blackened eye The words I love you 'til the day I die The self-deception that believes that lie I wish I were in love again When love congeals It soon reveals The faint aroma of performing seals The double-crossing of a pair of heels I wish I were in love again No more care No more despair Now I'm all there But I'd rather be punch drunk Believe me sir, I much prefer The classic battle of a him and her I don't like quiet and I wish I were In love again In love again -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- Sometimes I'm Happy -------- Sometimes I'm happy Sometimes I'm blue My disposition depends on you I never mind the rain from the skies As long as I have the sun in your eyes Sometimes I love you Sometimes I hate you When I hate you It's because I love you That's how I am So what can I do I'm happy when I'm with you Sometimes I'm happy Sometimes I'm blue My disposition depends on you I never mind the rain from the skies As long as I have the sun in your eyes Sometimes I love you Sometimes I hate you When I hate you It's because I love you That's how I am So what can I do I'm happy when I'm with you I'm happy when I'm with you I'm happy when I'm with you I'm happy when I'm with you I'm happy when I'm with you -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- Stormy Weather -------- Don't know why There's no sun up in the sky Stormy weather Since my man and I ain't together Keeps rainin' all of the time Life is bare Gloom and misery everywhere Stormy weather Just can't get my poor self together I'm so weary all the time All the time So weary all the time Since you went away The blues stepped up and met me If they're here to stay That old rocking chair's going to get me Every night I pray That the Lord above will let me Walk in the sunlight once more I can't go on Everything I had is gone Stormy weather Since my man and I, we ain't together Keeps rainin' all the time Keeps rainin' all the time -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- You're My Thrill -------- You're my thrill You do something to me You send chills right through me When I look at you 'Cause you're my thrill You're my thrill How my pulse increases I just go to pieces Every time I look at you I can't keep still Nothing seems to matter Here's my heart on a silver platter Oh where is my will Why this strange desire Flaming higher and higher Every time I look at you I can't keep still You're my thrill Oh where's my will Why this strange desire Flaming higher and higher Every time I look at you I can't keep still Oh you're my thrill -------- 2000 Both Sides Now -------- -------- You've Changed -------- You've changed The sparkle in your eyes is gone Your smile is just a careless yawn You're breaking my heart You've changed You've changed Your kisses now are so blase You're bored with me in every way I can't understand You've changed You've forgotten the words I love you And the memories that we've shared You've ignored all the stars up above you I can't realize that you ever cared You've changed You're not the angel I once knew No need to tell me, I know we're through It's all over now You've changed You've forgotten the words I love you And the memories that we've shared You ignore all the stars up above you I can't realize that you ever cared You've changed You're not the angel I once knew No need to tell me, I know we're through It's all over now You've changed -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Amelia -------- [Verse 1] I was driving across the burning desert When I spotted six jet planes Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain It was the hexagram of the heavens It was the strings of my guitar Amelia it was just a false alarm [Verse 2] The drone of flying engines Is a song so wild & blue It scrambles time & seasons if it gets through to you Then your life becomes a travelogue Of picture post card charms Oh Amelia, it was just a false alarm [Verse 3] People'll tell you where they've gone They'll tell you where to go But till you get there yourself you'll never really know Where some have found their paradise Other's just come to harm Oh Amelia, it was just a false alarm [Verse 4] I wish that he was here tonight It's so hard to obey His sad request of me to kindly stay away So this is how I hide the hurt As the road leads cursed and charmed I tell "Amelia, it was just a false alarm" [Verse 5] A ghost of aviation She was swallowed by the sky Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly Like Icarus ascending On beautiful foolish arms Amelia, it was just a false alarm [Verse 6] Maybe I've never really loved I guess that is the truth I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude And looking down on everything I crashed into his arms Amelia, it was just a false alarm [Verse 7] I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel To shower off the dust And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust I dreamed of 747s Over geometric farms Dreams, Amelia Dreams and false alarms -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Be Cool -------- If there's one rule to this game Everybody's gonna name It's be cool If you're worried or uncertain If your feelings are hurtin' You're a fool if you can't keep cool Charm 'em Don't alarm 'em Keep things light Keep your worries out of sight And play it cool Play it cool Fifty-fifty Fire and ice If your heart is on the floor Cause you've just seen your lover Comin' through the door with a new fool Be cool Don't get riled Smile-keep it light Be your own best friend tonight And play it cool Play it cool Fifty-fifty Fire and ice Don't get jealous Don't get over-zealous Keep your cool Don't whine Kiss off that flaky valentine You're nobody's fool Be cool fool Be cool (Lots of other fish in the sea) Play it cool Play it cool Fifty-fifty Fire and ice So if there's one rule to this game Everybody's gonna name It's--be cool If you're worried or uncertain If your feelings are hurtin' You're a fool if you can't keep cool They want you to Charm 'em Don't alarm 'em Keep things light Keep your worries out of sight And play it cool Play it cool Fifty-fifty Fire and ice -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Borderline -------- Everybody looks so ill at ease So distrustful so displeased Running down the table I see a borderline Like a barbed wire fence Strung tight strung tense Prickling with pretense A borderline Why are you smirking at your friend? Is this to be the night when All well-wishing ends? All credibility revoked? Thin skin thick jokes! Can we blame it on the smoke This borderline? Every bristling shaft of pride Church or nation Team or tribe Every notion we subscribe to Is just a borderline Good or bad we think we know As if thinking makes things so! All convictions grow along a borderline Smug in your jaded expertise You scathe the wonder world And you praise barbarity In this illusionary place This scared hard-edged rat race All liberty is laced with Borderlines Every income every age Every fashion-plated rage Every measure every gauge Creates a borderline Every stone thrown through glass Every mean-streets-kick ass Every swan caught on the grass Will draw a borderline You snipe so steady You snub so snide So ripe and ready To diminish and deride! You're so quick to condescend My opinionated friend All you deface all you defend Is just a borderline Just a borderline Another borderline Just a borderline -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Cherokee Louise -------- Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel In the Broadway bridge We're crawling on our knees We've got flashlights and batteries We've got cold cuts from the fridge Last year about this time We used to climb up in the branches Just to sway there in some breeze Now the cops on the street They want Cherokee Louise People like to talk Tongues are waggin' over fences Waggin' over phones All their doors are locked God she can't even come to our house But I know where she'll go To the place where you can stand And press your hands like it was bubblebath In dust piled high as me Down under the street My friend Poor Cherokee Louise Ever since we turned thirteen It's like a minefield Walking to the door Going out you get the third degree And comin' in you get the third world war Tuesday after school We put our pennies on the rails And when the train went by We were jumpin' round like fools Goin' "Look no heads or tails" Goin' "Look my lucky prize" She runs home to her foster dad He opens up a zipper And he yanks her to her knees Oh please be here please My friend Poor Cherokee Louise Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel In the Broadway bridge We're crawling on our knees We've got Archie and Silver Screen I know where she is The place where you can stand And press your hand like it was bubblebath In dust piled high as me Down under the street My friend Poor Cherokee Louise Oh Cherokee Louise -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Chinese Cafe -------- Caught in the middle Carol we're middle class We're middle aged We were wild in the old days Birth of rock 'n' roll days Now your kids are coming up straight And my child's a stranger I bore her But I could not raise her Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Down at the Chinese Cafe We'd be dreaming on our dimes We'd be playing "Oh my love, my darling" One more time Uranium money Is booming in the old home town now It's putting up sleek concrete Tearing the old landmarks down now Paving over brave little parks Ripping off Indian land again How long how long Short sighted business men Ah nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Down at the Chinese Cafe We'd be dreaming on our dimes We'd be playing "You give your love, so sweetly" One more time Christmas is sparkling Out on Carol's lawn This girl of my childhood games With kids nearly grown and gone Grown so fast Like the turn of a page We look like our mothers did now When we were those kids' age Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Nothing lasts for long Down at the Chinese Cafe We'd be dreaming on our dimes We'd be playing "Oh my love, my darling I've hungered for your touch A long lonely time And time goes by so slowly And time can do so much Are you still mine? I need your love I need your love God speed your love to me" (Time goes - where does the time go I wonder where the time goes) -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- For the Roses -------- I heard it in the wind last night It sounded like applause Did you get a round resounding for you Way up here It seems like many dim years ago Since I heard that face to face Or seen you face to face Though tonight I can feel you here I get these notes On butterflies and lilac sprays From girls who just have to tell me They saw you somewhere In some office sits a poet And he trembles as he sings And he asks some guy To circulate his soul around On your mark red ribbon runner The caressing rev of motors Finely tuned like fancy women In thirties evening gowns Up the charts Off to the airport Your name's in the news Everything's first class The lights go down And it's just you up there Getting them to feel like that Remember the days when you used to sit And make up your tunes for love And pour your simple sorrow To the soundhole and your knee And now you're seen On giant screens And at parties for the press And for people who have slices of you From the company They toss around your latest golden egg Speculation well who's to know If the next one in the nest Will glitter for them so I guess I seem ungrateful With my teeth sunk in the hand That brings me things I really can't give up just yet Now I sit up here the critic And they introduce some band But they seem so much confetti Looking at them on my TV set Oh the power and the glory Just when you're getting a taste for worship They start bringing out the hammers And the boards And the nails I heard it in the wind last night It sounded like applause Chilly now End of summer No more shiny hot nights It was just the arbutus rustling And the bumping of the logs And the moon swept down black water Like an empty spotlight -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- God Must Be A Boogie Man -------- He is three One's in the middle unmoved Waiting To show what he sees To the other two To the one attacking so afraid And the one that keeps trying to love and trust And getting himself betrayed In the plan oh The divine plan God must be a boogie man! One's so sweet So overly loving and gentle He lets people in To his innermost sacred temple Blind faith to care Blind rage to kill Why'd he let them talk him down To cheap work and cheap thrills In the plan oh The insulting plan God must be a boogie man! Which would it be Mingus one or two or three Which one do you think he'd want the world to see Well world opinion's not a lot of help When a man's only trying to find out How to feel about himself In the plan oh The cock-eyed plan God must be a boogie man! -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Heijira -------- I'm traveling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars That shell shock love away There's comfort in melancholy When there's no need to explain It's just as natural as the weather In this moody sky today In our possessive coupling So much could not be expressed So now I'm returning to myself These things that you and I suppressed I see something of myself in everyone Just at this moment of the world As snow gathers like bolts of lace Waltzing on a ballroom girl You know it never has been easy Whether you do or you do not resign Whether you travel the breadth of extremities Or stick to some straighter line Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock They're either going to thaw out or freeze Listen Strains of Benny Goodman Coming through the snow and the pinewood trees I'm porous with travel fever But you know I'm so glad to be on my own Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger Can set up trembling in my bones I know no one's going to show me everything We all come and go unknown Each so deep and superficial Between the forceps and the stone Well I looked at the granite markers Those tribute to finality to eternity And then I looked at myself here Chicken scratching for my immortality In the church they light the candles And the wax rolls down like tears There's the hope and the hopelessness I've witnessed thirty years We're only particles of change I know I know Orbiting around the sun But how can I have that point of view When I'm always bound and tied to someone White flags of winter chimneys Waving truce against the moon In the mirrors of a modern bank From the window of a hotel room I'm traveling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars Until love sucks me back that way -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune) -------- No tongue in the bell And the fishwives yell But they might as well be mute So you get to keep the pictures That don't seem like much Cold white keys under your fingers Now you're thinking "That's no substitute It just don't do it Like the song of a warm warm body Loving your touch" In the court they carve your legend With an apple in its jaw And the women that you wanted They get their laughs Long silk stockings On the bedposts of refinement You're too raw They think you're too raw It's the judgement of the moon and stars Your solitary path Draw yourself a bath Think what you'd like to have For supper Or take a walk A park A bridge A tree A river Revoked but not yet cancelled The gift goes on In silence In a bell jar Still a song You've got to shake your fists at lightning now You've got to roar like forest fire You've got to spread your light like blazes All across the sky They're going to aim the hoses on you Show 'em you won't expire Not till you burn up every passion Not even when you die Come on now You've got to try If you're feeling contempt Well then you tell it If you're tired of the silent night Jesus well then you yell it Condemned to wires and hammers Strike every chord that you feel That broken trees And elephant ivories conceal -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Just Like This Train -------- I'm always running behind the time Just like this train Shaking into town With the brakes complaining I used to count lovers like railroad cars I counted them on my side Lately I don't count on nothing I just let things slide The station master's shuffling cards Boxcars are banging in the yards Jealous lovin'll make you crazy If you can't find your goodness 'Cause you lost your heart I went looking for a cause Or a strong cat without claws Or any reason to resume And I found this empty seat In this crowded waiting room Everybody waiting Old man sleeping on his bags Women with that teased up kind of hair Kids with the jitters in their legs And those wide, wide open stares And the kids got cokes and chocolate bars There's a thin man smoking a fat cigar Jealous lovin'll make you crazy If you can't find your goodness 'Cause you've lost your heart What are you going to do now You've got no one To give your love too Well I've got this berth and this pull down blind I've got this fold up sink And these rocks and these cactus going by And a bottle of German wine to drink Settle down into the clickety clack With the clouds and the stars to read Dreaming of the pleasure I'm going to have Watching your hairline recede My vain darling Watching your hair and clouds and stars I'm rocking away in a sleeping car This jealous lovin's bound to make me crazy I can't find my goodness I lost my heart Oh sour grapes Because I lost my heart -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Love -------- Although I speak in tongues Of men and angels I'm just sounding brass And tinkling cymbals without love Love suffers long Love is kind! Enduring all things Love has no evil in mind If I had the gift of prophecy And all the knowledge And the faith to move the mountains Even if I understood all of the mysteries If I didn't have love I'd be nothing Love never looks for love Love's not puffed up Or envious Or touchy Because it rejoices in the truth Not in iniquity Love sees like a child sees As a child I spoke as a child I thought and I understood as a child But when I became a woman I put away childish things And began to see through a glass darkly Where as a child I saw it face to face Now I only know it in part Fractions in me Of faith and hope and love And of these great three Love's the greatest beauty Love Love Love -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Otis and Marlena -------- Marlena under Foster Grants She's undercover from the dawns advance That girl is travel drained And the neon mercury vapor stained Miami sky It's red as meat It's a cheap pink rose Otis in the driver's seat Watches the street lights fade away On louvered blocks in green sea air In fluorescent fossil yards Slippers are shuffling into folding chairs Freckled hands are shuffling cards They've come for sun and fun While Muslims stick up Washington Otis empties out the trunk On the steps of that celebrated dump Sleazing by the sea Bow down to her royal travesty In her ballrooms heads of state In her bedrooms rented girls Always the grand parades of cellulite Jiggling to her golden pools Through flock and cupid colonnades They jiggle into surgery Hopefully beneath the blade They dream of golden beauty They've come for sun and fun While Muslims stick up Washington Marlena white as stretcher sheet Watches it all from her tenth floor balcony Like it's her opera box All those Pagliacci summer frocks Otis is fiddling with the TV dial All he gets are cartoons and reruns She taps her glass with an emery file Watching three rings in the sun The golden dive the fatted flake And sizzle in the mink oil It's all a dream She has awake Checked into Miami Royal Where they've come for sun and fun While Muslims hold up Washington Dream on Dream on Dream on Dream on Dream on -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Refuge of the Roads -------- I met a friend of spirit A drunk with sage's eyes And I sat before his sanity I was holding back from crying He saw my complications And he mirrored me back simplified And we laughed how our perfection Would always be denied "Heart and humor and humility" He said "Will lighten up your heavy load" I left him for the refuge of the roads I fell in with some drifters Cast upon a beachtown Winn Dixie cold cuts and highway hand me downs And I wound up fixing dinner For them and Boston Jim I well up with affection Thinking back down the roads to then The nets were overflowing In the Gulf of Mexico They were overflowing in the refuge of the roads There was spring along the ditches There were good times in the cities Oh radiant happiness It was all so light and easy Till I started analyzing And I brought on my old ways A thunderhead of judgment was Gathering in my gaze And it made most people nervous They just didn't want to know What I was seeing in the refuge of the roads I pulled off into a forest Crickets clicking in the ferns Like a wheel of fortune I heard my fate turn turn turn And I went running down a white sand road I was running like a white-assed deer Running to lose the blues To the innocence in here These are the clouds of Michelangelo Muscular with gods and sungold Shine on your witness in the refuge of the roads In a highway service station Over the month of June Was a photograph of the earth Taken coming back from the moon And you couldn't see a city On that marbled bowling ball Or a forest or a highway Or me here least of all You couldn't see these cold water restrooms Or this baggage overload Westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Sex Kills -------- I pulled up behind a Cadillac We were waiting for the light And I took a look at his license plate It said "Just Ice" Is justice just ice? Governed by greed and lust? Just the strong doing what they can And the weak suffering what they must? And the gas leaks And the oil spills And sex sells everything And sex kills Sex kills Doctors' pills give you brand new ills And the bills bury you like an avalanche And lawyers haven't been this popular Since Robespierre slaughtered half of France! And Indian chiefs with their old beliefs know The balance is undone crazy ions You can feel it out in traffic Everyone hates everyone! And the gas leaks And the oil spills And sex sells everything And sex kills Sex kills All these jackoffs at the office The rapist in the pool Oh and the tragedies in the nurseries Little kids packin' guns to school The ulcerated ozone These tumors of the skin This hostile sun beating down on This massive mess we're in! And the gas leaks And the oil spills And sex sells everything And sex kills Sex kills Sex kills Sex kills Sex kills -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Slouching Towards Bethlehem -------- Turning and turning Within the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart The center cannot hold And a blood dimmed tide Is loosed upon the world Nothing is sacred The ceremony sinks Innocence is drowned In anarchy The best lack conviction Given some time to think And the worst are full of passion Without mercy Surely some revelation is at hand Surely it's the second coming And the wrath has finally taken form For what is this rough beast Its hour come at last Slouching toward Bethlehem to be born Slouching toward Bethlehem to be born Hoping and hoping As if by my weak faith The spirit of this world Would heal and rise Vast are the shadows That straddle and strafe And struggle in the darkness Troubling my eyes Shaped like a lion It has the head of a man With a gaze as blank And pitiless as the sun And it's moving its slow thighs Across the desert sands Through dark indignant Reeling falcons Surely some revelation is at hand Surely it's the second coming And wrath has finally taken form For what is this rough beast Its hour come at last Slouching toward Bethlehem to be born Slouching toward Bethlehem to be born Raging and raging It rises from the deep Opening its eyes After twenty centuries Vexed to a nightmare Out of a stony sleep By a rocking cradle By the Sea of Galilee Surely some revelation is at hand Surely it's the second coming And wrath has finally taken form For what is this rough beast Its hour come at last Slouching toward Bethlehem to be born Slouching toward Bethlehem to be born -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- The Circle Game -------- Yesterday a child came out to wonder Caught a dragonfly inside a jar Fearful when the sky was full of thunder And tearful at the falling of a star Then the child moved ten times round the seasons Skated over ten clear frozen streams Words like when you're older must appease him And promises of someday make his dreams And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town And they tell him take your time it won't be long now Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty Before the last revolving year is through And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the carousel of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the circle game -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- The Dawntreader -------- Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions Gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor Treasure somewhere in the sea and he will find where Never mind their questions there's no answer for The roll of the harbor wake The songs that the rigging makes The taste of the spray he takes And he learns to give He aches and he learns to live He stakes all his silver On a promise to be free Mermaids live in colonies All his seadreams come to me City satins left at home I will not need them I believe him when he tells of loving me Something truthful in the sea your lies will find you Leave behind your streets he said and come to me Come down from the neon nights Come down from the tourist sights Run down till the rain delights you You do not hide Sunlight will renew your pride Skin white by skin golden Like a promise to be free Dolphins playing in the sea All his seadreams come to me Seabird I have seen you fly above the pilings I am smiling at your circles in the air I will come and sit by you while he lies sleeping Fold your fleet wings I have brought some dreams to share A dream that you love someone A dream that the wars are done A dream that you tell no one but the grey sea They'll say that you're crazy And a dream of a baby Like a promise to be free Children laughing out to sea All his seadreams come to me -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- The Last Time I Saw Richard -------- The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68 And he told me all romantics meet the same fate someday Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe You laugh he said you think you're immune Go look at your eyes they're full of moon You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you All those pretty lies pretty lies When you gonna realize they're only pretty lies Only pretty lies just pretty lies He put a quarter in the Wurlitzer and he pushed Three buttons and the thing began to whirr And a bar maid came by in fishnet stockings and a bow tie And she said "Drink up now it's getting' on time to close" "Richard, you haven't really changed" I said It's just that now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head You got tombs in your eyes but the songs you punched are dreaming Listen, they sing of love so sweet, love so sweet When you gonna get yourself back on your feet? Oh and love can be so sweet Love so sweet Richard got married to a figure skater And he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on And all the house lights left up bright I'm gonna blow this damn candle out I don't want nobody comin' over to my table I got nothing to talk to anybody about All good dreamers pass this way some day Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes dark cafes Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away Only a phase these dark cafe days -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song) -------- Let me speak let me spit out my bitterness Born of grief and nights without sleep and festering flesh Do you have eyes? Can you see like mankind sees? Why have you soured and curdled me? Oh you tireless watcher! What have I done to you? That you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true? Once I was blessed; I was awaited like the rain Like eyes for the blind, like feet for the lame Kings heard my words, and they sought out my company But now the janitors of Shadowland flick their brooms at me Oh you tireless watcher! What have I done to you? That you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true? (Antagonists: Man is the sire of sorrow) I've lost all taste for life I'm all complaints Tell me why do you starve the faithful? Why do you crucify the saints? And you let the wicked prosper You let their children frisk like deer And my loves are dead or dying, or they don't come near (Antagonists: We don't despise your chastening God is correcting you) Oh and look who comes to counsel my deep distress Oh, these pompous physicians What carelessness! (Antagonists: Oh all this ranting all this wind Filling our ears with trash) Breathtaking ignorance adding insult to injury! They come blaming and shaming (Antagonists: Evil doer) And shattering me (Antagonists: This vain man wishes to seem wise A man born of asses) Oh you tireless watcher! What have I done to you? That you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true? (Antagonists: We don't despise your chastening) Already on a bed of sighs and screams And still you torture me with visions You give me terrifying dreams! Better I was carried from the womb straight to the grave I see the diggers waiting, they're leaning on their spades (Antagonists: Man is the sire of sorrow Sure as the sparks ascend) Where is hope while you're wondering what went wrong? Why give me light and then this dark without a dawn? (Antagonists: Evil is sweet in your mouth Hiding under your tongue) Show your face! (Antagonists: What a long fall from grace) Help me understand! What is the reason for your heavy hand? (Antagonists: You're stumbling in shadows You have no name now) Was it the sins of my youth? What have I done to you? That you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true? (Antagonists: Oh your guilt must weigh so greatly) Everything I dread and everything I fear come true (Antagonists: Man is the sire of sorrow) Oh you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Trouble Child -------- Up in a sterilized room Where they let you be lazy Knowing your attitude's all wrong And you got to change And that's not easy Dragon shining with all values known Dazzling you-keeping you from your own Where is the lion in you to defy him When you're this weak And this spacey So what are you going to do about it You can't live life and you can't leave it Advice and religion you can't take it You can't seem to believe it The peacock is afraid to parade You're under the thumb of the maid You really can't give love in this condition Still you know how you need it They open and close you Then they talk like they know you They don't know you They're friends and they're foes too Trouble child Breaking like the waves at Malibu So why does it come as such a shock To know you really have no one Only a river of changing faces Looking for an ocean They trickle through your leaky plans Another dream over the dam And you're lying in some room Feeling like your right to be human Is going over too Well some are going to knock you And some'll try to clock you You know it's really hard To talk sense to you Trouble child Breaking like the waves at Malibu -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- Woodstock -------- I came upon a child of God He was walking along the road And I asked him where are you going And this he told me I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band I'm going to camp out on the land I'm going to try an' get my soul free We are stardust We are golden And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden Then can I walk beside you I have come here to lose the smog And I feel to be a cog in something turning Well maybe it is just the time of year Or maybe it's the time of man I don't know who I am But you know life is for learning We are stardust We are golden And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden By the time we got to Woodstock We were half a million strong And everywhere there was song and celebration And I dreamed I saw the bombers Riding shotgun in the sky And they were turning into butterflies Above our nation We are stardust Billion year old carbon We are golden Caught in the devil's bargain And we've got to get ourselves Back to the garden -------- 2002 Travelogue -------- -------- You Dream Flat Tires -------- It came to pass Like lightning striking from above Electric flash Just like lightening striking from above Struck by precious love Precious precious love So hopeless and so inspired Why do you dream flat tires When you dream flat tires? You dream flat tires With a jack and a spare you're there Trying to get to where love is Coming in on a wing and a prayer Trying to get to where love is 'Cause love is precious love You said it was precious When first you felt my fire Before you dreamed flat tires You dreamed flat tires You dream flat tires "Woman she bounce back easy But a man could break both his legs" Are you telling me this to tease me? Or just to hear me beg "Please don't go!" Cause I know that you love me But when are you going to let love be Just a vague flirtation Or extra special company? 'Cause love is precious love Everybody knows it's precious When first they feel that fire Before they dream flat tires They dream flat tires They dream flat tires "Woman she bounce back easy But a man could break both his legs" Do you tell me that to tease me Or just to hear me beg "Please don't be cold" I know that you love me But what are you going to let love do? (Flat tires love love is precious flat tires love love is precious flat tires love love is precious) -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- Bad Dreams -------- [Verse 1] The cats are in the flower bed A red hawk rides the sky I guess I should be happy Just to be alive But we have poisoned everything And oblivious to it all The cell phone zombies babble Through the shopping malls [Chorus] While condors fall from Indian skies Whales beach and die in sand Bad dreams are good In the great plan [Verse 2] You cannot be trusted Do you even know you're lying It's dangerous to kid yourself You go deaf and dumb and blind You take with such entitlement You give bad attitude You have no grace No empathy No gratitude [Chorus] You have no sense of consequence Oh my head is in my hands Bad dreams are good In the great plan [Bridge] Before that altering apple We were one with everything No sense of self and other No self-consciousness But now we have to grapple With our man-made world backfiring Keeping one eye on our brother's deadly selfishness [Verse 3] And everyone's a victim! Nobody's hands are clean There's so very little left of wild Eden Earth So near the jaws of our machines We live in these electric scabs These lesions once were lakes No one knows how to shoulder the blame Or learn from past mistakes [Chorus] So who will come to save the day? Mighty Mouse? Superman? Bad dreams are good in the great plan -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- Big Yellow Taxi 2007 -------- [Verse 1] So they paved paradise And put up a parking lot With a pink hotel A boutique And a swinging night spot [Chorus] Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone They paved paradise Put up a parking lot [Verse 2] They took all the trees Put 'em in a tree museum And they charged all the people An arm and a leg just to see 'em [Chorus] Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone They paved paradise Put up a parking lot [Verse 3] Hey farmer Put away your DDT Give me spots on my apples But leave me the birds and bees Please [Chorus] Don't it always seem to go You don't know what you got 'til it's gone They paved paradise And they put up a parking lot [Verse 4] Late last night I heard the screen door slam And a big yellow taxi come and took away my old man [Chorus] Don't it always seem to go You don't know what you got 'til it's gone They paved paradise Put up a parking lot Put up a parking lot -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- Hana -------- [Verse 1] Hana steps out of a storm Into a stranger's warm, but Hard-up kitchen She sees what must be done So she takes off her coat Rolls up her sleeves And starts pitchin' in [Verse 2] Hana has a special knack For getting people back on the right track 'Cause she knows They all matter So she doesn't argue or flatter She doesn't fight the slights She takes it on the chin Like a champ [Verse 3] Hana says when life's a drag Don't cave in Don't put up a white flag Raise up A white banner In this manner- Straighten your back Dig in your heals And get a good grip on your grief! [Verse 4] Hana says, "Don't get me wrong This is no simple Sunday song Where God or Jesus comes along And they save ya." You've got to be braver than that You tackle the beast alone With all its tenacious teeth! Light the lamp -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- If I Had a Heart -------- [Verse 1] Holy war Genocide Suicide Hate and cruelty How can this be holy? If I had a heart I'd cry [Verse 2] These ancient tales The good go to heaven And the wicked ones burn in hell Ring the funeral bells! If I had a heart I'd cry [Chorus] There's just too many people now Too little land Much too much desire You feel so feeble now It's so out of hand Big bombs and barbed wire We've set our lovely sky Our lovely sky On fire! [Chorus] There's just too many people now And too little land Too much rage and desire It makes you feel so feeble now It's so out of hand Big bombs and barbed wire Can't you see Our destiny? We are making this Earth Our funeral pyre! [Outro] Holy Earth How can we heal you? We cover you like a blight Strange birds of appetite If I had a heart I'd cry If I had a heart I'd cry If I had a heart I'd cry -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- If -------- [Verse 1] If you can keep your head While all about you People are losing theirs and blaming you If you can trust yourself When everybody doubts you And make allowance for their doubting too [Verse 2] If you can wait And not get tired of waiting And when lied about Stand tall Don't deal in lies And when hated Don't give in to hating back Don't need to look so good Don't need to talk too wise [Verse 3] If If you can dream And not make dreams your master If you can think And not make intellect your game If you can meet With triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same [Verse 4] If If you can force your heart And nerve and sinew To serve you After all of them are gone And so hold on When there is nothing in you Nothing but the will That's telling you to hold on! Hold on! [Verse 5] If If you can bear to hear The truth you've spoken Twisted and misconstrued By some smug fool Or watch your life's work Torn apart and broken down And still stoop to build again With worn out tools [Verse 6] If If you can draw a crowd And keep your virtue Or walk with Kings And keep the common touch If neither enemies nor loving friends Can hurt you If everybody counts with you But none too much [Verse 7] If If you can fill the journey Of a minute With sixty seconds worth of wonder and delight Then The Earth is yours And Everything that's in it But more than that I know You'll be alright You'll be alright [Outro] Cause you've got the fight, you've got the insight You've got the fight, you've got the insight You've got the fight, you've got the insight -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- Night of the Iguana -------- [Verse 1] The tour bus came yesterday The driver's a mess today It's a dump of a destiny But it's got a view [Verse 2] Now the kid in the see-through blouse She's moving in hard on his holy vows Since the preacher's not dead Dead drunk will have to do! [Chorus] Night of the iguana The jasmine is so mercilessly sweet Night of the iguana Can you hear the castanets? The widow is dancing Down on the beach [Verse 3] The starlight is steaming He'd like to be dreaming His senses are screaming Not to be denied [Verse 4] But if the spell of the night should win He could lose his bus For the same sweet sin That took his church from him Then how will he survive? [Chorus] Night of the iguana The jasmine is so mercilessly sweet Night of the iguana Can you hear the castanets? It's the widow and her lover-boys Down on the beach [Verse 5] Oh, the night is so fragrant These women so flagrant They could make him a vagrant With the flick of a shawl [Verse 6] The devil's in sweet sixteen The widow's good looking but she gets mean He's burning like Augustine With no help from God at all Night of the iguana -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- One Week Last Summer -------- [Instrumental] -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- Shine -------- [Chorus] Oh, let your little light shine Let your little light shine [Verse 1] Shine on Vegas and Wall Street Place your bets Shine on the fishermen With nothing in their nets Shine on rising oceans and evaporating seas Shine on our Frankenstein technologies Shine on science With its tunnel vision Shine on fertile farmland Buried under subdivisions [Chorus] Oh, let your little light shine Oh, let your little light shine [Verse 2] Shine on the dazzling darkness That restores us in deep sleep Shine on what we throw away And what we keep Shine on Reverend Pearson Who threw away The vain old God Kept Dickens and Rembrandt and Beethoven And fresh plowed sod Shine on good earth, good air, good water And a safe place For kids to play Shine on bombs exploding Half a mile away [Chorus] Oh, let your little light shine Let your little light shine [Verse 3] Shine on world-wide traffic jams Honking day and night Shine on another asshole Passing on the right! Shine on the red light runners Busy talking on their cell phones Shine on the Catholic Church And the prisons that it owns Shine on all the Churches They all love less and less Shine on a hopeful girl In a dreamy dress [Chorus] Oh, let your little light shine Shine, shine, shine Let your little light shine [Verse 5] Shine on good humor Shine on good will Shine on lousy leadership Licensed to kill Shine on dying soldiers In patriotic pain Shine on mass destruction In some god's name! Shine on the pioneers Those seekers of mental health Craving simplicity They traveled inward Past themselves [Outro] May all their little lights shine May all their little lights shine -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- Strong and Wrong -------- [Verse 1] Strong and wrong you win Only because That's the way its always been Men love war! That's what history' s for A mass-murder mystery His story [Verse 2] Strong and wrong You lose everything Without the heart You need To hear a robin sing Where have all the songbirds gone? Gone! All I hear are crows in flight Singing might is right Might is right! [Chorus] Oh the dawn of man comes slow Thousands of years And here we are Still worshiping Our own ego [Verse 3] Strong and wrong What is God's will? Onward Christian soldiers Or thou shall not kill Men love war! Is that what God is for? Just a Rabbit's foot? Just a lucky paw For shock and awe? Shock and awe! [Chorus] The dawn of man comes slow Thousands of years Here we are Still worshiping Our own ego [Outro] Strong and wrong Strong and wrong -------- 2007 Shine -------- -------- This Place -------- [Verse 1] Sparkle on the ocean Eagle at the top of a tree Those crazy crows always making a commotion This land is home to me [Verse 2] I was talking to my neighbor He said, "When I get to heaven, if it is not like this I'll just hop a cloud and I'm coming right back down here Back to this heavenly bliss." [Chorus] You see those lovely hills They won't be there for long They're gonna tear 'em down And sell them to California Here come the toxic spills Miners poking all around When this place looks like a moonscape Don't say I didn't warn ya... [Post-Chorus] Money, money, money... Money makes the trees come down It makes mountains into molehills Big money kicks the wide wide world around [Verse 3] Black bear in the orchard At night he's in my garbage cans He's getting so bold but no one wants to shoot him He's got a right to roam this land [Instrumental Bridge] [Verse 4] I feel like Geronimo I used to be as trusting as Cochise But the white eyes lies He's out of whack with nature And look how far his weapons reach! [Verse 5] Spirit of the water Give us all the courage and the grace To make genius of this tragedy unfolding The genius to save this place [Instrumental Outro]