text
stringlengths 0
3.8k
|
---|
I awoke today and found the frost
Perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky, then it
Gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold and all
The trees are shivering in a naked row
I get the urge for going
But I never seem to go
I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter
Is closing in
I had me a man in summertime
He had summer-colored skin
And not another girl in town
My darlings heart could win
But when the leaves fell on the ground
Bully winds came around, pushed them face
Down in the snow
He got the urge for going
And I had to let him go
He got the urge for going
When the meadow grass was turning brown
Summertime was falling down and winter
Was closing in
Now the warriors of winter they gave a
Cold triumphant shout
And all that stays is dying and all that
Lives is getting out
See the geese in chevron flight flapping
And racing on before the snow
They got the urge for going
And they got the wings so they can go
They get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter
Is closing in
Ill ply the fire with kindling now
Ill pull the blankets up to my chin
Ill lock the vagrant winter out and
Ill fold my wandering in
Id like to call back summertime
Have her stay for just another
Month or so
But shes got the urge for gong
So I guess shell have to go
She gets the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
All her empires falling down
And winters closing in
And I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
And summertime is falling down |
Out on some borderline
Some mark of in between
I lay down golden-in time
And woke up vanishing
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
Golden in time
Cities under the sand
Power, ideals and beauty
Fading in everyones hand
Give me some time
I feel like Im 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
Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching
Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching |
The priest sat in the airport bar
He was wearing his fathers 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
He said, You wouldnt like it here
No, its 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
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 lets run from this ring were in
Where the Christians clap and the Germans grin
Saying let them lose, crying let them win
Oh make them both confess |
Light up light up
Light up your lazy blue eyes
Moons 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
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
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
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 |
Lesson in Survival
Spinning out on turns
That gets you tough
Guru books-the Bible
Only a reminder
That youre 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
Thats 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
Maybe its paranoia
Maybe its sensitivity
Your friends protect you
Scrutinize me
I get so damn timid
Not at all the spirit
Thats inside of me
Oh baby I cant seem to make it
With you socially
Theres this reef around me
Im looking way out at the ocean
Love to see that green water in motion
Im 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
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
Im 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 |
I wonder who they are
The men who really run this land
And I wonder why they run it
With such a thoughtless hand
Tell me what are their names
And on what street do they live?
Id like to ride right over
This afternoon and give
Them a piece of my mind
About peace for mankind
Peace is not
An awful lot
To ask |
There was a moon and a street lamp
I didnt 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
Im not above gossip
But Ill sit on a secret where honor is at stake!
Or we could talk about power
About Jesus and Hitler and Howard Hughes
Or Charlie Chaplins movies
Or Bergmans 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-Id 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 its 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!
Im always talking!
Chicken squawking!
Please talk to me |
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
Suntans in reservation dining rooms
Pale miners in their lantern rays
Night, night and day
Hostage smile on presidents
Freedom scribbled in the subway
Its 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
Critics of all expression
Judges in black and white
Saying its wrong, saying its 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 |
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
Its pleasure to try em
Its trouble to keep em
Cause it seems like youve gotta give up
Such a piece of your soul
When you give up the chase
Feeling it hot and cold
Youre in rock n roll
Its the nature of the race
Its the unknown child
So sweet and wild
Its youth
Its too good to waste
She tapes her regrets
To the microphone stand
She says, You cant 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 |
Papas faith is people
Mama she believes in cleaning
Papas faith is in people
Mama shes always cleaning
Papa brought home the sugar
Mama taught me the deeper meaning
She dont like my kick pleat skirt
She dont like my eyelids painted green
She dont like me staying up late
In my high-heeled shoes
Living for that RocknRoll dancing scene
Papa says Leave the girl alone, Mother
Shes looking like a Movie Queen
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
Its a rough road to travel
Mama let go now
Its 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
Im a wild seed again
Let the wind carry me |
Caught in the middle
Carol, were middle class
Were middle aged
We were wild in the old days
Birth of rock n roll days
Now your kids are coming up straight
My childs 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 Café
Wed be dreaming on our dimes
Wed be playing, Oh my love, my darling
One more time
Uranium money
Is booming in the old home town now
Its 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
Down at the Chinese Café
Wed be dreaming on our dimes
Wed be playing, You give your love so sweetly
One more time
Christmas is sparkling
Out on Carols 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 Café
Wed be dreaming on our dimes
Wed be playing, Oh my love, my darling
Ive 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) |
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 its undermined
Id still like to see you sometime
Im feeling so good
And my friends all tell me
That Im looking fine
I run in the woods
I spring from the boulders
Like a mama lion
Im not ready to
Change my name again
But you know Im not after
A piece of your fortune
And your fame
Cause I tasted mine
Id just like to see you sometime
Pack your suspenders
Ill come meet your plane
No need to surrender
I just want to see you again
Were 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 couldnt take them all on then
With a headful of questions and hypes
So when the hopes got so slim
I just resigned
But Id still like to see you sometime
Id sure like to see you |
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 shes enlightened
As she totals your bill
You say Show me the way
To Barangrill
Well some say its in service
They say Humble Makes Pure
Youre hoping its near Folly
Cause youre headed that way for sure
And you just have to laugh
Cause its all so crazy
Ah, her minds on her boyfriend
And eggs over easy
Its just a trick on you
Her mirrors and your will
So you ask the truck driver
On the way to the till
But hes just a slave
To Barangrill
The guy at the gaspumps
Hes 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 hes 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, Wheres Barangrill? |
I was an unmarried girl
Id 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
Id be cast in shame
Into the Magdalene Laundries
Most girls come here pregnant
Some by their own fathers
Bridget got that belly by her parish priest
Were trying to get things white as snow
All of us woe-begotten daughters
In the streaming stains
Of the Magdalene Laundries
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!
These bloodless brides of Jesus
If they had just once glimpsed their groom
Then theyd know, and theyd drop the stones
Concealed behind their rosaries
They wilt the grass they walk upon
They leech the light out of a room
Theyd like to drive us down the drain
At the Magdalene Laundries
Peg OConnell died today
She was a cheeky girl
A flirt
They just stuffed her in a hole!
Surely to God youd think at least some bells should ring!
One day Im going to die here too
And theyll 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 |
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
Come in
Come in from the cold
We were so young
Oh come in
Come in from the cold
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
Come in from the cold
We were so sure
Oh come in
Come in from the cold
I feel your legs under the table
Leaning into mine
I feel renewed
I feel disabled
By these bonfires in my spine
I dont know who the arsonist was
Which incendiary soul
But all I ever wanted
Was just to come in from the cold
Come in from the cold
You were too warm
Oh come in
Come in from the cold
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
Come in from the cold
I was so low
Oh come in
Come in from the cold
Is this just vulgar electricity
Is this the edifying fire
It was so pure
Does your smiles 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
Come in from the cold
It was so pure
Please come in
Come in from the cold
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
Come in
Come in from the cold
When the moon shines
Oh come in
Come in from the cold
When I thought life had some meaning
When I thought Id 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
Come in from the cold
You were so kind
Please come in
Come in from the cold
Oh Come in come in
Come in from the cold
Oh Come in come in
Come in from the cold
Please come in
Come in from the cold ... |
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 youre 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
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant 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 wont 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
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant 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
Therell 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
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game |
Through the windless wells of wonder
By the throbbing light machine
In a tea leaf trance or under
Orders from the king and queen
Songs to aging children come
Aging children, I am one
People hurry by so quickly
Dont they hear the melodies
In the chiming and the clicking
And the laughing harmonies
Songs to aging children come
Aging children, I am one
Some come dark and strange like dying
Crows and ravens whistling
Lines of weeping, strings of crying
So much said in listening
Songs to aging children come
Aging children, I am one
Does the moon play only silver
When it strums the galaxy
Dying roses will they will their
Perfumed rhapsodies to me
Songs to aging children came
This is one |
The Minus is loveless
He talks to the land
And the leaves fall
And the pond over-ices
She dont know the system, Plus
She dont understand
Shes got all the wrong fuses and splices
Shes not going to fix it up
Too easy
The masking tape tangles
Its sticky and black
And the copper
Proud headed Queen Lizzie
Conducts little charges
That dont get charged back
Well the technical manuals busy
Shes 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 Im learning
Its peaceful
With a good dog and some trees
Out of touch with the breakdown
Of this century
Theyre not going to fix it up
Too easy
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
Shes 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
Shes not going to fix it up
Too easy |
Im down to a roll of dimes
Im stalking the slot thats 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
Im losing my taste for fruit
Watching the dry cleaner do it
Like Midas in a polyester suit
Its all luck, its 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 couldnt lose there
Its all luck, its just luck
Des Moines was stacking the chips
Raking off the tables
Ringing the bandits bells
This is a story thats 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, its just luck
Lucky, lucky, so lucky, real lucky
That cats got luck
That cats got luck
That cats got luck
That cats got luck
That cats got luck
Really lucky
Lucky
Lucky
Lucky
Lucky, lucky, lucky
Lucky, lucky, lucky
Lucky
Lucky
Lucky, lucky
Lucky, lucky
Lucky |
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
Its 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
Its very unlikely well be driven out of town
Or be hung in a tree
Thats 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 Charlies bass and Lesters saxophone
In taxi horns and brakes
Now Charlies down in Mexico
With the healers
So the sidewalk leads us with music
To two little dancers
Dancing outside a black bar
Theres a sign up on the awning
It says Pork Pie Hat Bar
And theres black babies dancing...
Tonight! |
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
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 its 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
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
Shaped like a lion
It has the head of a man
With a gaze as blank
And pitiless as the sun
As its moving its slow thighs
Across the desert sands
Through dark indignant
Reeling falcons
Surely some revelation is at hand
Surely its 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
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 its 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 |
Im Don Juans 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 didnt 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!
Youre a coward against the altitude--
Youre 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
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
Were going to come up to the eyes of clarity
And well 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 |
Its coming on Christmas, theyre cutting down trees
Putting up reindeer, singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river, I could skate away on
Yeah, but it dont snow here, it stays pretty green
You want to make a lot of money and split this crazy scene
I wish I had a river and I could skate away on
Oh, I wish I had a river so high
I could teach my feet to fly away, yeah
I wish I had a river, I could skate away on
But Im so hard to handle, Im selfish and Im sad
And I think, yours the only best baby that I ever had
Oh, I wish I had a river, I could skate away on
She tried hard to help me, tried to put me at ease
She loved me so naughty, made me weak in my knees
Yeah, I wish I had a river, I could skate away on
And I made baby cry, and I made my baby say goodbye
And I wish I had a river, I could skate away on
I could skate away on, I could skate away on |
I hired a coach to take me from confusion to the plane
And though we shared a common space I know Ill 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
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
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
You feed it all your woes
The ghostly garden grows
You feed it all your woes
The ghostly garden grows |
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
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
Sisotowbell Lane
Go to the city youll 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
Well lend you the car
We always do
Yes sometimes we do
We have a rocking chair
Someone is always there
Rocking rhythms while theyre waiting with the candle in the window
Sometimes we do
We wait for you |
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?
Ive lost all taste for life
Im 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 dont come near
(We dont 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
And shattering me
(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?
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, theyre leaning on their spades
(Man is the sire of sorrow
Sure as the sparks ascend)
Where is hope while youre 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
Help me understand
What is the reason for your heavy hand?
(Youre 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?
Everything I dread and everything I fear come true
Oh you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true |
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 them 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
But I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favors
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
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
I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
Nobody was calling me up for favors
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 |
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 ...
Its stifling in here ...
Ive got to get some air ...
Im going outside to get some air
Back in my hometown
They would have cleared the floor
Just to watch the rain come down!
Theyre such sky oriented people--
Geared to changing weather ...
Im floating off in time
Im floating off
Im floating off in time
When I was three feet tall
And wide eyed open to it all
With their tasseled teams they came
To McGees General Store
All in their beaded leathers
I would tie on colored feathers
And Id beat the drum like war ...
I would beat the drum like war
Id beat the drum
Id 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
Im floating into dreams
Im floating off
Im 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
Im 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 golfers tee
There comes a childs 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 mothers 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 theyre 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 Im coming through the door
Im coming back
Im 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
Im floating back
Im floating back to you! |
Dont interrupt the sorrow
Youre 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
Anima rising
Queen of Queens
Wash my guilt of Eden
Wash and balance me, oh
Anima rising
Uprising in you tonight
A vengeful little goddess
With an ancient crown to fight
Truth goes up in vapors
The steeples lean
Wind 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
Im leaving on the 1:15
Youre darn right
Since I was seventeen
Ive had no one over me
I say, Anima rising
But so what?
Petrified wood process
Tall timber down to rock!
Dont interrupt the sorrow
Darn right
We walked on the moon
Just lookin for light
Dont you see the sorrow
Of death and birth and death and birth?
Bring that bottle kindly
And Ill pad your purse
Ive got a head full of quandary
And a mighty, mighty, thirst
Seventeen glasses
Rhine wine
Milk of the Madonna
Clandestine
Dont let up the sorrow
All lies, lies and cheats
You need a heart like Marys should your man get weak |
They paved paradise, they put up a parking lot
A pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot
Dont it always go to show
You never know what you got till its gone ?
They paved paradise, they put up a parking lot
They took all the trees, they put them in a tree museum
They charged the people a dollar and a half just to see them
Dont it always go to show
You never know what you got till its gone ?
They paved paradise, they put up a parking lot
Hey farmer, farmer, put away that D.D.T
Give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees, please
Dont it always go to show
You never know what you got till its gone ?
They paved paradise, they put up a parking lot
Late last night I heard my screen door slam
A big yellow bulldozer took away my house and land
Dont it always go to show
You never know what you got till its gone ?
They paved paradise, they put up a parking lot |
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 hed gone
I saw his sails unfurling Thursday dawn
The pirate he will sink you with a kiss
Hell steal your heart and sail away
Saturday early we met in the cove near the forest
Hell 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
I didnt see them
I dont believe what you are saying
It isnt true I hardly knew him
Is this some game that you are playing
Go ask the dancer shes the one who saw him last
The one who drew him here
He hasnt 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 dont 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 dont come
And I guess but I dont know
Go ask the dancer
She knows the answer
I dont know
She knows the answer
I dont know
She knows the answer
I dont know |
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
Hula girls
And caterpillar tractors in the sand
The ukulele man
The fireworks
This 4th of July
Night ride home
I love the man beside me
We love the open road
No phones til Friday
Far from the overkill
Far from the overload
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
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
I love the man beside me
We love the open road
No phones til Friday
Far from the undertow
Far from the overload
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 |
He is three
Ones 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!
Ones so sweet
So overly loving and gentle
He lets people in
To his innermost sacred temple
Blind faith to care
Blind rage to kill
Whyd 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 hed want the world to see
Well, world opinions not a lot of help
When a mans 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 |
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 Yasgurs farm
I‘m going to join in a rock ‘n roll band
Ive got to get back to the land
And set my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve 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 its the time of man
I dont know who I am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve 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 devils bargain
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden |
Marlena under Foster Grants
Shes undercover from the dawns advance
That girl is travel-drained
And the neon mercury vapor stained
Miami sky
Its red as meat
Its a cheap pink rose
Otis in the drivers 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
Theyve 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 ...
Theyve come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington ...
Marlena, white as stretcher sheet
Watches it all from her 10th floor balcony
Like its 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
Its all a dream
She has awake
Checked into Miami Royal
Where theyve come for fun and sun
While Muslims hold up Washington ...
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on |
Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
Feather canyons everywhere
Ive looked at clouds that way
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
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
Its clouds illusions I recall
I really dont know clouds at all
Moons, and Junes, and ferris wheels
The dizzy, dancing way you feel
When every fairy tale comes real
Ive looked at love that way
Now its just another show
You leave em laughing when you go
And if you care dont let them know
Dont give yourself away
Ive looked at love from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really dont know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
Ive looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads
They say Ive changed
Well somethings lost and somethings gained in living every day
Ive looked at life from both sides now
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
Its clouds illusions I recall
I really dont know clouds at all
I really dont know life at all |
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
Its 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
Its very unlikely well be driven out of town
Or be hung in a tree
Thats 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 Charlies bass and Lesters saxophone
In taxi horns and brakes
Now Charlies down in Mexico
With the healers
So the sidewalk leads us with music
To two little dancers
Dancing outside a black bar
Theres a sign up on the awning
It says Pork Pie Hat Bar
And theres black babies dancing...
Tonight! |
Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel
In the Broadway bridge
We are crawling on our knees
Weve got flashlights and batteries
We 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
Theyre waggin on the phones
All their doors are locked
God she cant even come to our house
But I know where shell go
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
Ever since we turned thirteen
Its like a minefield
Walking to the door
Going out to get your 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 rolled by
We were jumpin round like fools
Going Look no heads or tails
Going Look my lucky prize
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
Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel
In the Broadway bridge
Were crawling on our knees
Ive got Archie and Silver Screen
I know where she is
Shes 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
Oh Cheeroke Louise, poor Cherokee Louise
Cherokee Louise, Cherokee Louise |
Its 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 cooks got a carnival song
Were going to lay down someplace shady
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland
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
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland
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
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland
Tar baby and the Great White Wonder
Talking over a glass of rum
Burning on the inside
With the knowledge of things to come
Theres gambling out on the terrace
And midnight ramblin on the lawn
As they lead toward temptation
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland
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 Myrtles lawn
As they push the recline buttons down
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland
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
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland |
Its comin on Christmas, theyre cuttin down trees
Theyre puttin up reindeer and singin songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
But it dont snow here, it stays pretty green
Im going to make a lot of money, and then Im going to quit this crazy scene
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
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
He tried hard to help me, you know, he put me at ease
He loved me so naughty, made me weak in the knees
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Im so hard to handle, Im selfish and Im sad
Now Ive gone and lost the best baby that I ever had
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
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
Its comin on Christmas, theyre cuttin down trees
Theyre puttin up reindeer and singin songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river I could skate away on |
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
Keep on movin Dan
Some devils had a plan
Buried poison in the sand
Dont drink it man
Its in the water
Cool clear water
In my mind I see
A big green tree
And a river flowin free
Waitin up ahead
For you and me
Cool clear water
The nights are cool and Im a fool
Each star is a pool of water
Cool water
But come the dawn
We carry on
We wont last long without water
Cool clear water
Keep on movin Dan
Were still in no-mans land
Dry bones and sand
People never planned here for water
Cool clear water
In my mind I see
A big green tree
And a river flowin free
Waiting up ahead for you and me
Cool clear water
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
Theres good water
Cool clear water
Songwriter: Bob Nolan |
I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
Frightened by the devil
Drawn to those who aint afraid
Remember when you told me youre not that lost you said, baby
I had you girl
I been touching your soul
Part of you pours out of me
Come on, baby, lets go
You are in my body like holy wine
So bitter, so sweet
I drink a case of you
Still be on my feet
Still be on my feet |
Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Ive 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
Its cloud illusions I recall
I really dont know clouds at all
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
But now its just another show
You leave em laughing when you go
And if you care, dont let them know
Dont give yourself away
Ive looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
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 say Ive changed
Well something’s lost, but somethings gained
In living every day
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its life’s illusions I recall
I really dont know life
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life
At all |
Blue, songs are like tattoos
You know Ive been to sea before
Crown and anchor me
Or let me sail away
Blue, there is a song for you
Ink on a pin
Underneath the skin
An empty space to fill in
Well, theres 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
Everybodys saying that
Hells the hippest way to go
Well, I dont think so, but Ill take a look around it, though
Blue, I love you
Blue, here is a shell for you
Inside youll hear a sigh
A foggy lullaby
There is your from me |
Its coming on Christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Theyre putting up reindeer
Singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
But it dont snow here
It stays pretty green
Im going to make a lot of money
Then Im going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
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
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
Im so hard to handle
Im selfish and Im sad
Now Ive gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
Oh, 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
Its coming on Christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Theyre putting up reindeer
Singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river
I could skate away on |
She pulls the shade
Its 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
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 streetlights still burning
She always misses
But the day she hits
Thats the day shell leave
That one little victory, thats all she needs
She pulls the shade
Its just another sunny Monday
She waits for the night to fall |
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?
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 wouldnt let him near
Hed piss in their fireplace
Hed drag them through Turbulent Indigo
Im 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 |
Youre my thrill
You do something to me
You send chills right through me
When I look at you
Cause youre my thrill
Youre my thrill
How my pulse increases
I just go to pieces
Every time I look at you
I cant keep still
Nothing seems to matter
Heres 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 cant keep still
Youre my thrill
Oh wheres my will
Why this strange desire
Flaming higher and higher
Every time I look at you
I cant keep still
Oh youre my thrill |
My secret
My secret
Im going to take you to my special place
Its a place that you
Like no one else I know
Might appreciate
I dont go there with anyone, but
Youre a special case
For my special place
My special place
For my secret place
My secret
My secret place
For my secret place
My secret
My secret place
For my secret place
People talk to tell you something
Or to take up space
Guess Im only talking
To be talking to your pretty face
I dont talk much to anyone, but
Youre a special case
My special place
My secret place
I was born and raised in New York City
Im 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?
My secret
My secret place
For my secret place
My secret
My secret place
For my secret place
Im going to take you to my special place
Its 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
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 |
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
Wont you tell me how Ive gone astray
Please answer me my love
If youre happier without me
Ill try not to care
But if you still think about me
Please listen to my prayer
You must know that Ive been true
Wont you say that we can start anew
In my sorrow now I turn to you
Please answer me my love
If youre happier without me
Ill try not to care
But if you still think about me
Please listen to my prayer
You must know that Ive been true
Wont you say that we can start anew
In my sorrow now I turn to you
Please answer me my love
Answer me my love |
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
Youre 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 |
Yesterday a child came out to wonder
He caught a dragonfly inside a jar
And fearful when the sky was full of thunders
And tearful at the falling of a star
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return, we can only look behind from where we came
And go round and round in the circle game
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
And skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when youre older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him : Take your time, it wont be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
The painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return, we can only look behind from where we came
And go 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
Therell be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
And the seasons they go round and round
Painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return, we can only look behind from where we came
And go round and round in the circle game
And go round and round
And go round and round in the circle game |
Ill try to keep myself open up to you
Thats 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
Ill 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 Ill give you mine
Sweet darling, its a rich exchange
It seems to me
Its a warm arrangement!
Anyone will tell you
Just how hard it is to make and keep a friend
Maybe theyll short sell you
Or maybe its you
Judas, in the end
When you just can no longer pretend
That youre getting what you need
Or youre giving out anything for them to grow and feed on
Ill 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 |
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
If you can wait
And not get tired of waiting
And when lied about
Stand tall
Dont deal in lies
And when hated
Dont give in to hating back
Dont need to look so good
Dont need to talk too wise
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
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
Thats telling you to hold on!
Hold on!
If—
If you can bear to hear
The truth youve spoken
Twisted and misconstrued
By some smug fool
Or watch your lifes work
Torn apart and broken down
And still stoop to build again
With worn out tools
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
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 thats in it
But more than that
I know
Youll be alright
Youll be alright
Cause youve got the fight, youve got the insight
Youve got the fight, youve got the insight
Youve got the fight, youve got the insight |
Oh, let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
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
Oh, let your little light shine
Oh, let your little light shine
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
Oh, let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
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
Oh, let your little light shine
Shine, shine, shine
Let your little light shine
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 gods name!
Shine on the pioneers
Those seekers of mental health
Craving simplicity
They traveled inward
Past themselves
May all their little lights shine
May all their little lights shine |
Magdalene is trembling
Like a washing on a line
Trembling and gleaming
Never before was a man so kind
Never so redeeming
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?
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
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?
Enter the multitudes
The walking wounded
They come to this diver of the heart
Of the multitudes
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
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 Ive wandered
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?
Enter the multitudes
The walking wounded
They come to this diver of the heart
Of the multitudes
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
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
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? |
Of the darkness in mens minds
What can you say
That wasnt 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 dont seem to care
For derelicts or ladies of the night
Theyre weeds for yanking out of sight
If youre smart or rich or lucky
Maybe youll 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 |
So heres to you
May your dreams come true
May old Father Time
Never be unkind
And through the years
Save your smiles and your tears
Theyre just souvenirs
Theyll make music in your heart
Remember this
Each new day is a kiss
Sent from up above
With an angels love
So heres to you
May your skies be blue
And your love blessed
Thats my best to you
Remember this
Each new day is a kiss
Sent from up above
With an angels love
So heres to you
May your skies be blue
And your love blessed
Thats my very best to you |
Its coming on Christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Theyre putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
But it dont snow here
It stays pretty green
Im going to make a lot of money
Then Im going to quit this crazy scene
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Oh, I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry
She tried hard to help me
You know, she put me at ease
And she loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Im so hard to handle
Im selfish and Im sad
Now Ive gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Oh, I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye
Its coming on Christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Theyre putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on... |
1, 2, 3...
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
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
Its a tough one for me to sing
Hard as the squawk and the flap
And the beat of, the beat of black wings
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
They gave me a gun, he said
They gave me a mission
For the power and the glory
Propaganda, piss on em
Theres a war zone inside me
I can feel things exploding
I cant even hear the fucking music playing
For the beat of
The beat of black wings.
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
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!
Shed been to some clinic
Oh, the beat of black wings.
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
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
Thats the whole heartless thing
The old pick the wars
We die in em
To the beat of, the beat of black wings.
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
Theres 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 cant feel anything
Im just a chalk mark in a rainstorm
Im just the beat of black wings.
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel
Johnny Angel |
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
Its a tough one for me to sing
Hard as the squawk and the flap
And the beat of, the beat of black wings
They gave me a gun, he said
They gave me a mission
For the power and the glory
Propaganda, piss on em
Theres a war zone inside me
I can feel things exploding
I cant even hear the fucking music playing
For the beat of
The beat of black wings.
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!
Shed been to some clinic
Oh, the beat of black wings.
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
Thats the whole heartless thing
The old pick the wars
We die in em
To the beat of, the beat of black wings.
Theres 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 cant feel anything
Im just a chalk mark in a rainstorm
Im just the beat of black wings. |
I slept last night in a good hotel
I went shopping today for jewels
The wind rushed around this dirty town
The children let out from their schools
I was standing on a noisy corner
Waiting for the walking green
Across the street he stood
And he played real good
And he was playin real good for free
Me I play for fortunes
And these velvet curtain calls
I got a black limousine and the finest ladies
Escorting me to these halls
And Ill play if you have some money
Or if youre a friend to me
But that one-man band by the quick lunch stand
He was just playin rеal good for free
And nobody, nobody stopped to hear him
Though he playеd so sweet and so high
They knew he had never been on the TV screen
So they passed his music by
I meant to go over and ask for a song
Maybe put on a harmony
I still hear his refrain as the signal changed
He was just playin real good for free |
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 theyre gone again
Daybreak--gone again
If Id 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 Noahs 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
Well have to row a little harder
Its just in dreams we fly
In my dreams we fly! |
Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Ive 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
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud illusions that I recall
I really dont know clouds at all
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way that you feel
And every fairy tale comes real
Ah, I looked at love that way
But now its just another show
You leave em laughing when you go
And if you care, dont let them know
Dont give yourself away
Ive looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions that I recall
No, I really dont know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
Ive looked at life that way
Oh but now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say Ive changed
Well somethings lost, but somethings gained
In living every day
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its lifes illusions that I recall
No, I really dont know life at all
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
No, I really dont know life at all
I really dont know life at all |
Jag steg och föll med skjutna vingar
Genom glass-slott i aprilskyar
Och fjädergrottor överallt
Har sett de bästa moln
Men nu skymmer de solen
De regnar och snöar på varenda en
Och allt jag borde ha gjort men
Moln kom ivägen
Jag har sett på moln från båda sidor nu
Från in och ut, och ändå ser jag nu bara molnillusioner
Och nu minns jag: Jag har aldrig förstått mig på moln
Inte det minsta
Kom sommarnätter under stjärnor, kom
Med ensamhet dör dagen och
Om du behöver den finns aldrig gryningen
Har sett hur kärlek vunnit
Försvunnit och förlorat
Du lämnar nån skrattande när du gått
Och om du brydde dig, säg inte till nån
Ge inte bort dig själv
Jag har sett kärlek från båda sidor nu
Från att ge och ta, och ändå ser jag bara kärleksillusioner
Och nu minns jag: Jag förstår inte kärlek
Inte det minsta
Och jag skulle ha ringt dig ikväll
Men handen fastnade framför mig
Och jag skulle sagt att jag älskar dig
Men stolthet kom i vägen
Du eller jag, vem är konstigast?
Är det bara jag som förändrats?
Ja, nåt är borta, men nåt hittas
Varje dag
Har sett livet från båda sidor nu
Från upp och ner, och ändå ser jag bara livsillusioner
Och nu minns jag: Jag förstår inte livet
Inte det minsta
Har sett allt från båda sidor nu
Från in och ut, och ändå ser jag nu bara illusioner |
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 Im sane
But Id rather be punch drunk
The flying fur of cat and cur
The fine mismatching of a him and her
Ive 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 Im all there
But Id rather be punch drunk
Believe me sir, I much prefer
The classic battle of a him and her
I dont like quiet and I wish I were
In love again
In love again |
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 Id 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 |
Must I forgive you
Each time
And say you dont know what youre doing
There are no victimless crimes
I know of
Out here in these graffiti ruins
My love
Oh I am not old
Im told
But I am not young
Oh and nothing can be done
Dont start
My heart
Is a smoking gun
Oh and nothing can be done
I heard you leaving
Late last night
I heard you screaming down the mountain
Like you were running red lights
You had some trash-can-rock-band pounding
Oh I am not old
Im told
But I am not young
Oh and nothing can be done
Dont start
My heart
Is a smoking gun
Oh and nothing can be done
Must I surrender
With grace
The things I loved when I was younger
Must I remember your face
So well
What do I do here with this hunger
Oh I am not old
Im told
But I am not young
Oh and nothing can be done
Dont start
My heart
Is a smoking gun
Oh and nothing can be done
Nothing can be done
Nothing can be done
Oh nothing can be done |
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 theres Cotton Avenue
Thats where Im going to take myself tonight
With a spit shine on my dancing shoes
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
I guess its 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
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
You see that summer storm brewing in the southern sky
By the time it hits here Ill be dancing high and dry
To rhythm and blues on Cotton Avenue
Poor boysll be hanging around outside in the street
They got all the latest words
Theyre dancing to the latest beat
While theyre hustling and sizing you
On Cotton Avenue
If you got a place like that to go
You just have to go there
If youve got no place special
Well my dear
You just go no place special |
The rain
Slammed hard
As bars
It caught me
By surprise
Mutt of the planet
And
Shook
Me
Down
For alibis
Im 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
Ill be bigger
Ill be better than ever
Ill 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
Theres things I wish Id done
Old friends
Im 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 Im worth
Next time
Ill be bigger
Ill be better than ever
Ill be resurrected royal
Ill 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 |
Blue songs are like tattoos
You know Ive been to sea before
Crown and anchor me
Or let me sail away
Hey Blue, here is a song for you
Ink on a pin
Underneath the skin
An empty space to fill in
Well, therere so many sinking now
Youve got to keep thinking
You can make it through these waves
Acid, booze and ass
Needles, guns and grass
Lots of laughs, lots of laughs
Everybodys saying that hells the hippest way to go
Well, I dont think so
But Im gonna take a look around it, though
Blue, I love you
Blue, here is a shell for you
Inside, youll hear a sigh
A foggy lullaby
There is your song from me |
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.. |
Although I speak in tongues
Of men and angels
Im 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 didnt have love
Id be nothing
Love never looks for love
Loves 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
Loves the greatest beauty
Love
Love
Love |
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
Its an old romance, the Boho dance
Hasnt gone to sleep
But even on the scuffle
The cleaners press was in my jeans
And any eye for detail
Caught a little lace along the seams
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
Its just that some steps outside the Boho dance
Have a fascination for me
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
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
Dont you get sensitive on me
Cause I know youre just too proud
You couldnt step outside the Boho dance now
Even if good fortune allowed
Like a priest with a pornographic watch
Looking and longing on the sly
Sure its stricken from your uniform
But you just cant get it out of your eyes
Nothing is capsulized in me
On either side of town
The streets were never really mine
Not mine, not mine, these glamor gowns
Ah-ah-ah |
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 its cloak and dagger
Walk on eggshells and analyze
Every particle of difference
Gets like mountains in our eyes
You say, Youre unscrupulous!
You say, Youre 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 cant 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 cant control
Good friends, you and me
Good friends, you and me |
Hard bodies
Soft emotions
So fast
So smart
The world is at your feet
But what about your heart?
Fame and fortune cant hold you tight
In the late late hours of the night
How do you stop
How do you stop
Before its too late?
You choose and you lose
If you hesitate
How do you stop
How do you stop
Before its too late?
You think love will wait
So you dont hold on
And then its gone
How do you stop
Youve had success
Lots of fancy friends
Youve tasted the good life
You thought it would never end
One day youre too young
Then youre in your prime
Then youre looking back at the hands of time
How do you stop
How do you stop
Before its too late?
You choose and you lose
If you hesitate
How do you stop
How do you stop
Before its too late?
Late
You think love will wait
So you dont hold on
And then its gone
How do you stop
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?
How do you stop
Before its too late?
Too late
You choose and you lose
If you hesitate
How do you stop
How do you stop
Before its too late?
How do you stop?
How do you stop
Youre 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 its too late? |
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
Dont try hidin
Cause it isnt any use
Youll 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
Thats all brother
If youve ever been in love
Thats all brother
And you know just what Im 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 |
Dog eat dog
Its dog eat dog
Im just waking up
The dove is in the dungeon
And the white-washed hawks pedal hate and call it love
Dog eat dog
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers
Dog eat dog
On prime time crime the victim begs
Money is the road to justice
And power walks it on crooked legs
Prime time crime
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers
Where the wealths displayed
Thieves and sycophants parade
And where its 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
Dog eat dog
Its dog eat dog, aint it flim flam, man
Dog eat dog, you can lie, cheat, skim, scam
Beat em any way you can
Dog eat Dog
Youll do well in this land of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
You could get to be
A big wig financier
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
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 |
Tomorrow is Sunday
Now theres 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 dont go
Below my window
No one knows Im 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
You look so youthful
Time has been untruthful
Heaven knows I loved you
30 years ago
Hot days your shirts undone
Rainy days you run
Oh and then you fade so fast
Below my window
No one knows Im 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
Below my window
Below my window
Hey hey
Below my window
Below my window
Below my window |
Theres a man whos 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
Theres a man whos climbed a mountain
And hes 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
Theres a man whos sent a letter
And hes 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 shes so busy being free
Theres a lady in the city
And she thinks she loves them all
Theres the one whos thinking of her
Theres the one who sometimes calls
Theres 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 shes so busy being free
Theres a man who sends her medals
He is bleeding from the war
Theres a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store
Theres 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 shes so busy being free
Like a cactus tree
Being free |
Look mummy, theres an aeroplane up in the sky
Did-did-did-did-you see the frightened ones?
Did-did-did-did-you hear the falling bombs?
Did-did-did-did-you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter
When the promise of a brave new world
Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?
Did-did-did-did-you see the frightened ones?
Did-did-did-did-you hear the falling bombs?
The flames are all long gone, but the pain lingers on
Goodbye, blue sky
Goodbye, blue sky
Goodbye
Goodbye
The 11:15 from Newcastle is now approaching
The 11:18 arrival.... |
It takes cheerful resignation
Heart and humility
Thats all it takes
A cheerful person told me
Nobodys harder on me than me
How could they be
And, nobodys harder on you than you
Betsys blue
She says-Tell me something good!
You know Id 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 dont 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 |
Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, Constantly in the darkness
Wheres that at? If you want me Ill 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
Oh, you are in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and you taste so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling
And Id still be on my feet
Id still be on my feet
Oh, I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
Im frightened by the devil
And Im drawn to those ones that aint afraid
I remember that time you told me
Love is touching souls
Well surely you touched mine
Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
Oh, youre in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you
I could drink a case of you, darling
And Id still be on my feet
Id still be on my feet
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
Oh, you are in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and you taste so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling
And Id still be on my feet
Id still be on my feet |
I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other peoples little wars
Wouldnt they like their peace
Dont 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
Theyd like to slam free choice behind us
I saw a little lawyer on the tube
He said, its 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
Theyre 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 |
Youve changed
The sparkle in your eyes is gone
Your smile is just a careless yawn
Youre breaking my heart
Youve changed
Youve changed
Your kisses now are so blasé
Youre bored with me in every way
I cant understand
Youve changed
Youve forgotten the words I love you
And the memories that weve shared
Youve ignored all the stars up above you
I cant realize that you ever cared
Youve changed
Youre not the angel I once knew
No need to tell me, I know were through
Its all over now
Youve changed
Youve forgotten the words I love you
And the memories that weve shared
You ignore all the stars up above you
I cant realize that you ever cared
Youve changed
Youre not the angel I once knew
No need to tell me, I know were through
Its all over now
Youve changed |
Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Ive 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
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud illusions I recall
I really dont know clouds at all
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
Ive looked at love that way
But now its just another show
You leave em laughing when you go
And if you care, dont let them know
Dont give yourself away
Ive looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really dont know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
Ive looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say Ive changed
Well somethings lost, but somethings gained
In living every day
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life
At all
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life at all |
Its coming on Christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Theyre putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Well, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
But it dont snow here
Stays pretty green
Im going to make a lot of money
Then Im going to quit this crazy scene
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry
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
Well, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Im so hard to handle
You know, Im selfish and Im sad
Now Ive gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
Well, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Well, I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye
Well, its coming on Christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Well, I wish I had a river I could skate away on |
Its coming on Christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Theyre putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
But it dont snow here
It stays pretty green
Im going to make a lot of money
Then Im going to quit this crazy scene
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry
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
Im so hard to handle
Im selfish and Im sad
Now Ive gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Oh I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye
Its coming on Christmas
Theyre cutting down trees
Theyre putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I could skate away on |
Build your dreams
To the stars above
But when you need someone true to love
Dont go to strangers
Lover come to me
Play with fire
Get your fingers burned
But when theres no place left to turn
Dont go to strangers
Lover come to me
You give the call to follow your heart
Youll follow your heart, I know
Ive been around
Im an old hand
Ill understand if you have to go
So make your mark
For your friends to see
But when you need more than company
Dont go to strangers
Lover come to me
Dont go to strangers
Lover come to me |
Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Ive 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
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud’s illusions I recall
I really dont know clouds, at all
Moons and Jewels and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale looks real
Ive looked at love that way
But now love’s just another show
You leave em laughing then you go
And if you care, dont let them know
Dont give yourself away
Ive looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really dont know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
Ive looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, and say Ive changed
Well somethings lost, but somethings gained
In living every day
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life at all
I dont know life
And I dont know life
I dont know life I dont know life I dont know life at all
I dont know life I dont know life I dont know life at all
I dont know life I dont know life I dont know life at all
It’s allright |
Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, Constantly in the darkness
Wheres that at?
If you want me, Ill 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
Oh, youre 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
Oh, I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
Im frightened by the devil
And Im drawn to those ones that aint 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
Oh, youre in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling
Still Id be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
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
Oh, but youre in my blood, you are my holy wine
Taste so bitter, bitter and so sweet
I could drink a case of you, darling
Still Id be on my feet
Oh, I would still be on my feet
Ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh |
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
Theres 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
Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well
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
Theyll 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
Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well
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
Theres rain in the window
Theres sun in the painting that smiles on the wall
You want to know all
But his mountains have called so you never do
Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well
Someday I may know you very well |
Di-da, di-da
Di-da-da-da-da-da
Di-da, di-da
Di-da-da-da-da-da-da
Di-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Di-da-da, la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
Di-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da
Di-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Di-da-da, la-la-la-la-la-la
Di-di-di-da-da, la-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-lala-la-lala-la-lala-la-la
Di-da-di-di-di-di-di-di-di-da-da-bum
Di-da, di-da-da-bum
Di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di
Di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di
Di-di-di
Di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di
Di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di
La-la-la
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la
La-lala-la-lala-la-la-la-la
Di-da
La-la-la-di-da-da
Di-da, di-da
Di-da-la-la-ah-la-da
Di-da
La-la-la-di-da-da
Di-da, di-da
Di-da-la-la-ah |
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
And put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
Twenty-five bucks just to see em
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey farmer farmer
Put away your DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Carried off my old man
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot |
Well, I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, tell me where are you going?
This he told me
Said, Im going down to Yasgurs farm
Gonna join in a rock and roll band
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
Well, then can I walk beside you?
I have come to lose the smog
And I feel myself a cog in somethin turning
And maybe its the time of year
But then maybe its the time of man
And I dont know who I am
But life is for learning
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion year old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes
Riding shotgun in the sky
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust, we are golden
We are caught in the devils bargain
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden |
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
While condors fall from Indian skies
Whales beach and die in sand
Bad dreams are good
In the great plan
You cannot be trusted
Do you even know youre lying
Its 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
You have no sense of consequence
Oh my head is in my hands
Bad dreams are good
In the great plan
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 brothers deadly selfishness
And everyones a victim!
Nobodys hands are clean
Theres 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
So who will come to save the day?
Mighty Mouse?
Superman?
Bad dreams are good in the great plan |
Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Ive 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
Ive looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud illusions I recall
I really dont know clouds at all
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
Ive looked at love that way
But now its just another show
You leave em laughing when you go
And if you care, dont let them know
Dont give yourself away
Ive looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really dont know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
The dreams and schemes and circus crowds
Ive looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say Ive changed
Well somethings lost, but somethings gained
In living every day
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life
At all
Ive looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
Its lifes illusions I recall
I really dont know life
At all |
Nå går det mot jul
Treet står der som bestilt
De synger sanger om fred
Alt er av glanspapir og filt
Og jeg ønsker meg ei elv
Hvor jeg kan skyve fra
Og snøen kommer ikke hit
Alt er grønt og bart og kaldt
Om jeg tjente en haug med penger
Skulle jeg kjøpt oss ut av alt
Og jeg ønsker meg ei elv
Hvor jeg kan skyve fra
Og jeg ønsker meg ei elv, ei elv av is
Kjenne svevet når jeg skyver fra
Jeg ønsker meg ei elv av is
Vil fly med skøyter på
Du grein av det jeg sa
Han prøvde bare hjelpe
Han var full når jeg var tom
Og han fikk meg til å kjenne ting
Jeg ikke visste om
Og jeg ønsker meg ei elv
Hvor jeg kan skyve fra
Jeg er aldri helt den samme
Jeg er sta og jeg er sær
Nå har jeg gått i fra den eneste
Som liker den jeg er
Og jeg ønsker meg ei elv
Hvor jeg kan skyve fra
Og jeg ønsker meg ei elv, ei elv av is
Kjenne svevet når jeg skyver fra
Jeg ønsker meg ei elv av is
Vil fly med skøyter på
Jeg fikk deg til å dra |
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
Newsreels rattle the Nazi dread
The able-bodied have shipped away
Molly McGee gets her tea-leaves read
Youll be married in a month they say
These leaves are crazy!
Look at this town theres no men left!
Just frail old boys and babies
Talking to teacher in the treble clef
She plants her garden in the spring
She does the winter shovelling
Tokyo Rose on the radio
She says shes leavin but she dont go
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
She plants her garden in the spring
He does the winter shovelling
But summers just a sneeze
In a long long bad winter cold
She says Im leavin here but she dont go
Sleep little darlin!
This is your happy home
Hiroshima cannot be pardoned!
Dont 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
She plants her garden in the spring
He does the winter shovelling
The three of em laughing round the radio
She says Im leavin here but she dont go
She plants her garden in the spring
They do the winter shovelling
They sit up late and watch The Johnny Carson Show
She says Im leavin here but she dont go |