Thursday, August 29, 2013

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.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

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.




Wednesday, August 7, 2013

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.

Friday, August 2, 2013

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.