DON'T FOLLOW ME

Song w/o Music 5

Thirty coming into town

sixty heading out

Couldn't leave fast enough

on any highway route

A one hearse town

with a crappy whiskey bar

Near enough to everyplace

and ugly as a scar

         Thirty coming into town

         Sixty heading out

Get drunk, got drunk, gone

how'd you get next to me

Past the city limits

you still won't feel free

         Thirty coming into town

         Sixty heading out

         Ninety on the straightaway

I watched her watch the road

with that smile on her face

Didn't see the hairpin curve

'til we launched out into space

         Thirty coming into town

         Sixty heading out

         Ninety on the straightaway

         Weightless

Ain't no parachute to save our skin

Won't get out the trouble we been in

Just another lousy weekend binge

And she meant less to me than a shot of gin

         Thirty coming into town

         Sixty heading out

         Ninety on the straightaway

         Weightless

         Blind

Don't give it too much thought

how I might of wrote this song

You think the bottom's coming up

But it's still a long way down.

         Thirty coming into town

         Sixty heading out

         Ninety on the straightaway

         Weightless

         Blind

                  and dead.

Older and Colder

Song w/o Music 4

Come over here, brother

pull up a stool

have a drink

that's ok, I'll get it

I just need to talk

you might lend me your ear

I know, it's Shakespeare that said it.

See that big old map hanging on the wall

shows every place I've been

and there's stars up there on those little towns -

heartbreak, misery, and sin.

Miriam was in Louisville

and Linda lived up north

there was Susie in my own home town

Crazy Mamie was the fourth.

I married every one of those girls

wasn't one that I liked best

but they all had arms

growing out of their charms

and they all put bars

up around the nest.

I left those women far behind

without a phone call or a note

and headed down to Mexico

with some money and some hope

I'd find a better place

where people prayed

on their knees - just like they meant it

and forgiveness would come

like a sweet sweet gift

a merciful God would send it.

But it weren't in the cards

it didn't happen

even though I prayed it would

so I came back north

with my hat in my hands

to try to make up

or try to make good.

I was soon to learn

that too much time

had passed and you know I let it

and if you're not on time

the people you hurt

won't let you forget it.

It's a hard and wicked world, my friend

full of roads that never end

and there ain't no truck that's long enough

to haul the hurtin' I been in.

Now I got me a room

in a skid road crash

and a job that don't really pay

that keeps me floating on whiskey fumes

and a couple of meals a day

I'd like to change my life

and do a few good things

don't know how, I'd like to try

but I'm afraid the sweet and the holy might be

too soft for hands like mine.

Thanks a lot, brother

let me get you another

there's some reason you're sitting here

but you don't have to say

and you don't have to pay

and you don't have to shed a tear.

There is one kind favor

I ask of you

think of me down the road

'cause the days are short

and the nights are long

and the older you get

the more you feel the cold

yeah, the older you get

the more you feel the cold.

A Quietly Disappearing Slow Dance

Song w/o Music 3

I'm just as dry as I can be

and run right out of happiness

The signals that you're sending

are of shipwreck and distress

I swear your midnight Hoodoo

has crept into the day

and makes it hard and all the harder

for me to stay.

If there was a bus

I'd take it

If there was a train

I'd get on board

But there's nothing here but us

and the absence of the Lord.

We used to live in some place safe

where God's creatures had a chance

And where every invitation

didn't lead to the last dance

It wasn't paradise, I know

still we acted like it was

and you took me disappearing

down your back roads.

Now all that's come tumbling down

we're caught in misery and strife

And I'd sell off everything I own

to buy a different kind of life

and if there was a bus

I'd take it

If there was a train

I'd get on board

But there's nothing here but us

and the absence of the Lord,

the absence of the Lord.

A Blues for Coyote

(Vaguely to It Takes a lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry)

Song w/o Music 2

A BLUES FOR COYOTE

He's a coyote, baby                       

            out lookin' for a thrill                       

Just a trickster, honey                                   

            sittin' on top of the hill                       

He stays up all night                                   

            singing coyote songs                       

Travels through time                                   

            brings his friends along           

He's a coyote, baby                                                           

            out lookin' for a thrill                       

He's always been here

            ain't nothin' that he hasn't seen

Yeah, he's always been here

            standin' just betwixt and between

He's a rambler and a roamer

All around the universe

He might be greeted with a prayer

            might be greeted with a curse

He's always been here

            ain't nothin' that he hasn't seen

Now I met him in Jerusalem

I met him in old Santa Fe

We been in situations

            where we didn't want to stay

I seen him in a nightclub

I seen him in a church

I seen him in a hotel room

            and places much much worse

He's everywhere, baby

We even had a drink in Paris, France

He's a hungry critter

            he never gets his fill

He's a varmint, babe

            circlin' 'round the kill

He might be hunting

            'cause he's starving

Might be hunting

            'cause he's bored

If he's in your dreams, honey

            better try to find the door

'Cause he's hungry, baby

            he never gets his fill

He's a coyote, baby                                   

            out lookin' for a thrill                       

Just a coyote, honey                                   

            sittin' on top of the hill                       

He stays up all night                                   

            singing coyote songs                       

Travels through time                                   

            brings his friends along           

He's a trickster, baby                                                           

            out lookin' for a thrill.