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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 darling's heart could win But when the leaves fell on the ground Boy 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 camping 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 Apply the fire with kindling now I'll pull the blankets up to my chin I"ll lock the vagrant winter out and I'll fold my wandering in I'd like to call back summertime Have her stay for just another month or so But she's got the urge for gong So I guess she'll have to go She gets the urge for going When the meadow grass is turning brown All her empire's falling down And winter's closing in And I get the urge for going When the meadow grass is turning brown And summertime is falling down |
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Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel
in the Broadway bridge we are crawling on our knees we've got flashlights and batteries we got cold cuts from the fridge 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 they're waggin' on the phones all their doors are locked God she can't even come to our house But I know where she'll go 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 13 it's like a minefield walking to the door going out to get your 3rd degree and comin' in you get the 3rd 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 we're crawling on our knees I've got Archie and Silver Screen I know where she is She's in the place where you can stand and press your hands like it was bubble bath in dust piled high as me down under the street my friend Cherokee Louise Oh Cheeroke Louise, poor Cherokee Louise Cherokee Louise, Cherokee Louise |
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Ray's Dad's Cadillac
Rollin' past the rink Past the record shack Pink fins in the falling rain Rollin' To the blue lights past the water mains Ray's Dad's Cadillac Weekends we'd get Ray's Dad's Cadillac Rock 'n roll in the dashboard Romance in the back of Ray's Dad's Cadillac Ray's dad teaches math Zero I'm a dunce I'm a decimal in his class Last night's kisses won't erase Zero I just can't keep the numbers in their place Ray's Dad's Cadillac Last night we had Ray's Dad's Cadillac Rock 'n roll in the dashboard Romance in the back of Ray's Dad's Cadillac When it comes to mathematics I got static in the attic "No sir, nothin's clear!" I'll be blackboard blind on Monday Dreamin' of blue runways On the edge of here A little atmosphere Blue lights out on airport road Motown, in a field in a farmer's grove Big planes comin' overhead Lowdown You can see the bolts You can see the tire treads Ray's Dad's Cadillac Weekends we'd get Ray's Dad's Cadillac Oh, little darlin' Rock 'n roll in the dashboard Romance in the back of Ray's Dad's Cadillac Ray's Dad's Cadillac Ray's Dad's Cadillac Ray's Dad's Cadillac |
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Papa's faith is people
Mama she believes in cleaning Papa's faith is in people Mama she's always cleaning Papa brought home the sugar Mama taught me the deeper meaning She don't like my kick pleat skirt She don't like my eyelids painted green She don't like me staying up late In my high-heeled shoes Living for that Rock'n'Roll dancing scene Papa says "Leave the girl alone, Mother She's looking like a Movie Queen" Mama thinks she spoilt me Papa knows somehow he set me free Mama thinks she spoilt me rotten She blames herself But papa he blesses me It's a rough road to travel Mama let go now It's always called for me Sometimes I get that feeling And I want to settle And raise a child up with somebody I get that strong longing And I want to settle And raise a child up with somebody But it passes like the summer I'm a wild seed again Let the wind carry me |
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I'm Don Juan's reckless daughter
I came out two days on your tail Those two bald-headed days in November Before the first snowflakes sail Out on the vast and subtle plains of mystery A split tongue spirit talks Noble as a nickel chief Striking up an old juke box And he says: "Snakes along the railroad tracks." He says, "Eagles in jet trails ..." He says, "Coils around feathers and talons on scales ... Gravel under the belly plates ..." He says, "Wind in the Wings ..." He says, "Big bird dragging its tail in the dust ... Snake kite flying on a string." I come from open prairie Given some wisdom and a lot of jive! Last night the ghosts of my old ideas Reran on channel five And it howled so spooky for its eagle soul I nearly broke down and cried But the split tongue spirit laughed at me He says, "Your serpent cannot be denied." Our serpents love the whisky bars They love the romance of the crime But didn't I see a neon sign Fester on your hotel blind And a country road come off the wall And swoop down at the crowd at the bar And put me at the top of your danger list Just for being so much like you are! You're a coward against the altitude-- You're a coward against the flesh-- Coward--caught between yes and no Reckless this time on the line for yes, yes, yes! Reckless brazen in the play Of your changing traffic lights Coward--slinking down the hall to another restless night As we center behind the eight ball As we rock between the sheets As we siphon the colored language Off the farms and the streets Here in Good-Old-God-Save-America the home of the brave and the free We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards Of some duality Of restless multiplicity (Oh say can you see) Restless for streets and honky tonks Restless for home and routine Restless for country-safety-and her Restless for the likes of reckless me Restless sweeps like fire and rain Over virgin wilderness It prowls like hookers and thieves Through bolt locked tenements Behind my bolt locked door The eagle and the serpent are at war in me The serpent fighting for blind desire The eagle for clarity What strange prizes these battles bring These hectic joys-these weary blues Puffed up and strutting when I think I win Down and shaken when I think I lose There are rivets up here in this eagle There are box cars down there on your snake And we are twins of spirit No matter which route home we take Or what we forsake We're going to come up to the eyes of clarity And we'll go down to the beads of guile There is danger and education In living out such a reckless life style I touched you on the central plains It was plane to train my twin It was just plane shadow to train shadow But to me it was skin to skin The spirit talks in spectrums He talks to mother earth to father sky Self indulgence to self denial Man to woman Scales to feathers You and I Eagles in the sky You and I Snakes in the grass You and I Crawl and fly You and I |
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He was sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel
He was drinking for diversion, he was thinking for himself A little money riding on the Maple Leafs Along comes a lady in lacy sleeves She says, let me sit down, you know drinking alone's a shame, it's a shame, it's a crying shame Look at those jokers glued to that damn hockey game Hey honey, you've got lots of cash Bring us down a bottle and we'll have some laughs Gin's what I'm drinking, I was raised on robbery I'm a pretty good cook, sitting on my groceries Come up to my kitchen, I'll show you my best recipe I try and I try but I can't save a cent I'm up after midnight cooking, trying to make my rent I'm rough but I'm pleasing, I was raised on robbery We had a little money once, they were pushing through a four lane highway Government gave us three thousand dollars, you should have seen it fly away First he bought a '57 Biscayne, he put it in the ditch He drunk up all the rest, that son of a bitch His blood's bad whiskey, I was raised on robbery You know you ain't bad looking, I like the way you hold your drinks Come home with me honey, I ain't asking for no full-length mink Hey, where you going, don't go yet Your glass ain't empty and we just met You're mean when you're loaded, I was raised on robbery |
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It fell from midnight skies
It drummed on the galvanized In the washroom, women tracked the rain Up to the make-up mirror Liquid soap and grass And Jungle Gardenia crash On Pine-Sol and beer ... It's stifling in here ... I've got to get some air ... I'm going outside to get some air Back in my hometown They would have cleared the floor Just to watch the rain come down! They're such sky oriented people-- Geared to changing weather ... I'm floating off in time I'm floating off I'm floating off in time When I was three feet tall And wide eyed open to it all With their tasseled teams they came To McGee's General Store All in their beaded leathers I would tie on colored feathers And I'd beat the drum like war ... I would beat the drum like war I'd beat the drum I'd beat the drum like war But when the church got through They traded their beads for bottles Smashed--on Railway Avenue And they cut off their braids And lost some link with nature I'm floating into dreams I'm floating off I'm floating into my dreams I dream paprika plains Vast and bleak and God forsaken Paprika plains And a turquoise river snaking (Where crows gaze--vigilant on wires Where cattle graze the grasses Far from the digits of business hours The moon clock wanes and waxes-- But here all time is stripped away Nowhere on these plains Is a sprout or an egg in evidence To measure loss or gain ... Only a little Indian band Come down from some windy mesa No women to make them food and child No expressions on their faces I'm low in a helicopter And the wind from whirling blades Flaps their woven blankets And flags their raven braids How came they to this emptiness? How came they to this dream? How came I to this view From a flying machine Of earth and air and water And a band of Indian men Without herds or flocks or crops Or families or fires to tend? Like a phoenix up from ashes now A blanket figure springs With a fist raised up to turquoise skies Like liberty And at the point of vanishing Where the sky and the earth meet A bomb blooms Deadly mushroom White Gold Heat Like a phoenix up from ashes Up from violent mysteries And growing 'till the giant blast Is to it like a golfer's tee there comes a child's beach ball And memory takes me back to the beach to toss it up to the garage to get it patched A pink and yellow beach ball Rolling Grand Detached Turning the blues and greens of earth From space probe photographs I float out of the hovercraft Naked as infancy And weightless And drifting Horizontally Like a filing to a magnet Like the long descent of rain I am drawn I fall against the ball And lose paprika plains I suckle at my mother's breast I embrace my mother earth I remember perforated blinds Over the crib of my birth And just as Eve succumbed To reckless curiosity I take my sharpest fingernail And slash the globe to see Below me-- Vast Paprika plains And the snake the river traces And a little band of Indian men With no expressions on their faces.) The rain retreats Like troops to fall on other fields and streets Meanwhile they're sweet talking and name calling And brawling on the fringes of the floor I spot you through the smoke With your eyes on fire From J&B and coke As I'm coming through the door I'm coming back I'm coming back for more! The band plugs in again You see that mirrored ball begin to sputter lights And spin Dizzy on the dancers Geared to changing rhythms No matter what you do I'm floating back I'm floating back to you! |
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I went to Staten Island.
To buy myself a mandolin And I saw the long white dress of love On a storefront mannequin Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars... All for something lacy Some girl's going to see that dress And crave that day like crazy Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada They can balance and they can climb Like their fathers before them They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline Shine your light on me Miss Liberty Because as soon as this ferry boat docks I'm headed to the church To play Bingo Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks I can keep my cool at poker But I'm a fool when love's at stake Because I can't conceal emotion What I'm feeling's always written on my face There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street I went in to see her as a kind of joke And she lit a candle for my love luck And eighteen bucks went up in smoke Sharon, I left my man At a North Dakota junction And I came out to the "Big Apple" here To face the dream's malfunction Love's a repetitious danger You'd think I'd be accustomed to Well, I do accept the changes At least better than I used to do A woman I knew just drowned herself The well was deep and muddy She was just shaking off futility Or punishing somebody My friends were calling up all day yesterday All emotions and abstractions It seems we all live so close to that line And so far from satisfaction Dora says, "Have children!" Mama and Betsy say-"Find yourself a charity." Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology." Well, there's a wide wide world of noble causes And lovely landscapes to discover But all I really want right now Is...find another lover When we were kids in Maidstone, Sharon I went to every wedding in that little town To see the tears and the kisses And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown And walking home on the railroad tracks Or swinging on the playground swing Love stimulated my illusions More than anything And when I went skating after Golden Reggie You know it was white lace I was chasing Chasing dreams Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans He showed me first you get the kisses And then you get the tears But the ceremony of the bells and lace Still veils this reckless fool here Now there are 29 skaters on Wolmann rink Circling in singles and in pairs In this vigorous anonymity A blank face at the window stares and stares and stares and stares And the power of reason And the flowers of deep feeling Seem to serve me Only to deceive me Sharon you've got a husband And a family and a farm I've got the apple of temptation And a diamond snake around my arm But you still have your music And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky You sing for your friends and your family I'll walk green pastures by and by |
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It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on But it don't snow here, it stays pretty green I'm gonna make a lot of money, then I'm gonna quit this crazy scene I wish I had a river I could skate away on 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 But I'm so hard to handle, I'm selfish and I'm sad Now I've gone and lost the best baby that I ever had 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 It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees They're putting up reindeer, singing songs of joy and peace I wish I had a river I could skate away on |
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At the far end of the midway
by the double ferris wheel There's a band that plays so snakey You can't help how you feel Emmie Mae ran away With a man as dark as night You can see him, if you go there Second trumpet to the right They play "Night Train" So snakey Black girls dancing Long and lanky Barkers barking Step right up, folks! The show is about to begin It's Harlem in Havana time Step right in! Silver spangles See 'em dangle in the farm boy's eyes Hootchie kootchie Auntie Ruthie would've cried If she knew we were on the inside. When Emmie Mae ran away She came back a bottle blonde God! The gossips had a gourmet feast Chomping on how she was born But miracle of miracles Cuz we were underage She got us nearly front row seats To the right side of the stage See that tall girl? That's a man That one, too Big yellow feather fan Barkers barking Step right up, folks! The show is about to begin It's Harlem in Havana time Step right in! Silver spangles See 'em dangle in the farm boy's eyes Hootchie kootchie Auntie Ruthie would've died If she knew we were on the inside. |
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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 I 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 Come in from the cold (we were so sure) Oh come in Come in from the cold I feel your leg under the table Leaning into mine I feel renewed I feel disabled By these bonfires in my spine I don't know who the arsonist was Which incendiary soul But all I ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold Come in Come in from the cold (you were so 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 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 smile's covert complicity Debase as it admires (just a flu with a temperature) Are you just checking out your mojo Or am I just fighting off growing old (just a high fever) All I ever wanted Was just to come in from the cold Come in Come in from the cold (it was so pure) Oh 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 200 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 Then I thought I had some choice (I was running blind) And I made some value judgments In a self-important voice (I was outa 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 Come in from the cold (you were so kind) Please come in (so kind) Come in from the cold Come in come in Come in from the cold |
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