Not a knife throw from here you can hear the night train passing That's the sound somebody makes when they're getting away Leaving next week's hanging jury far behind them Prisoner only of the choices they have made
Night Train... Night Train...
Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight The moon is floating somewhere out at sea On an island in the blur of noise and color Alcatraz, St. Alina, Patmos and the Chateau D'if
Night Train... Night Train...
And everyone's an island edged with sand A temporary refuge where somebody else can stand Till the sea that binds us like the forced tie of a blood oath Will wear it down, dissolve it, recombine it
Anyone can die here they do it every day It doesn't take much effort though it goes against the grain And the ultimate forgetfulness of violence Sweeps the landscape like a headlight of a train
Night Train...
Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight Starlight shines like glass shards in dark hair And the mind's eye tumbles out along the steel track Fixing every shadow with its stare
Night Train... Night Train...
And in the absence of a vision there are nightmares And in the absence of compassion there is cancer Whose banner waves over palaces and mean streets And the rhythm of the night train is a mantra
(I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers It didn't take long - I don't know much about Turkish drummers - But it made me think of Germany and the guy who sold me cigarettes Who'd been in the Afghan secret police Who made the observation That it's hard To live
Then I was reminded of the proprietor of a Vietnamese restaurant in Quebec who used to be head of the secret police in Da Nang - and it occurred to me I was thinking about all this stuff to keep from thinking about something else... Isn't that just what secret police are all about???)
Somebody stands in a window Watches the river roll Trains rumble in the foreground With the weight of approaching dawn
Flames from the refinery Rise broken, red and riveting And the high vault of heaven Looks far away and cold
There's howling in the factory yard There's pounding in my head I'm swollen up with unshed tears Bloated like the dead...
(Instrumental break)
Blood and ashes - time burning On the skyline dark against the stars A solitary horseman - waiting
Lashed to the wheel Whipping into the storm Get up, Jonah It's your time to be born
Sunset is an angel weeping Holding out a bloody sword No matter how I squint I cannot Make out what it's pointing toward Sometimes you feel like you live too long Days drip slowly on the page You catch yourself Pacing the cage
I've proven who I am so many times The magnetic strip's worn thin And each time I was someone else And every one was taken in Hours chatter in high places Stir up eddies in the dust of rage Set me to pacing the cage
I never knew what you all wanted So I gave you everything All that I could pillage All the spells that I could sing It's as if the thing were written In the constitution of the age Sooner or later you'll wind up Pacing the cage
Sometimes the best map will not guide you You can't see what's round the bend Sometimes the road leads through dark places Sometimes the darkness is your friend Today these eyes scan bleached-out land For the coming of the outbound stage. Pacing the cage. Pacing the cage.
All day the mountains rose behind a veil of smoke from burning fields And road dust dyeing black skin bronze and the road rolling like a rough sea It's quiet now, just crickets and a dog fight somewhere in the far away In my heart I hold your photograph And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains
Hot breeze ran its fingers through the long grass of a thatched roof eave They stuck me in the only chair they had while they cooked cassava And a luckless hen They asked for one well three lanterns and 200 litres of fuel and I said, "Who, me?" And the time for planting's coming soon And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains
In the town neon flickers in the ruins Seven crows swoop past the luscious moon If I had wings like those there'd be no waiting I'd come panting to your door and slide like smoke into your room
All day the mountains rose behind a veil of smoke from burning fields And road dust dyeing black skin bronze and the road rolling like a rough sea It's quiet now, just crickets and a dog fight somewhere in the far away
In my heart I hold your photograph And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains
And the time for planting's coming soon And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains
Birmingham Just behind the mountain Sparse streelamps glow in hot half-moon haze Shadows shorten into little black pools that elongate behind We walk, talk some, laugh some Worked hard, now wired, and hanging out I'm curious what you might be all about Curious, too, what that dark-shape in the hard shining cruiser might do And you have no idea what you're getting out of of your own curiosity and tense energy Tattoo on chest like the key to the puzzle of your pumping heart Wearing your shadows all over your sleeve Wearing the role of young upstart
Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
Under velvet trees, towering like the sides of a well Before the empty two office blocks Which we're admonished not to enter Policeman studies us, finds us confusing More amusing than threat Moves on, bemused Pavement spirals down ahead like the fossil of a giant shell Along the kingdom's midnight marches I wear my shadows where they're harder to see But they follow me everywhere I guess that should tell me that I'm travelling toward light I guess something you sang made me remember that I guess I'm saying thanks for that
Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night At home in the darkness, but hungry for dawn I only remember scenes, never the stories I live The good things about that is, it's easy to forgive Can't make assumptions about any of this We're nomads following our own songlines Who knows what could strike before we meet again? But if I fall down and die Without saying goodbye I give you this: you'll have lost a friend
Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you
See you standing in the door against the dark Fireflies around you like a crown of sparks You blow me a kiss that blurs my vision Blurs the human condition
You're the ocean ringing in my brain You are my island ripe with cane Catch the scent of strange flowers when you pass Fluid motion like the wind in grass
It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time
Light me like incense in the night Light me like a candle burning bright Light me like a searchlight in the sky Time means nothing when I look in your eyes
It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time
It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time
Big city Europa - July of 64 - It's 5AM Weather blowing bitter off the Baltic.
Car slows beside him as he walks Hubcaps slow revolution Jaundiced-looking pockmarked face, round in window Short greasy black beard
Couple of language stabs, settle on English "It's cold - I give you ride. Don't you want to kiss me?"
This goes on halfway across the cobbled bridge Driver pulls ahead - gets out by the construction fence Ambles towards him rubbing the bulge in his pants
In his jacket is the revolver The hand is already in the pocket for warmth and fingers slide easily around wood grips
Slow as that predator's footsteps the gun comes out Arm straightens, sight blade bisecting yellow forehead Wind - blue metal streetlight - Faint twilight shining on the corners of stones.
Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night
Slow revolution - 1985 - crosswise in a hammock in the hot volcanic hills Its 3AM the night after the air raid From the ridge she watched A37s, like ugly gulls, Make a dozen swooping passes over some luckless town Maybe ten kliks beyond the border In the distance the Pacific glimmered silver
Now lascivious laughter floats on the darkness from the police post next door- Male voices - and a woman's - Little clouds of desire painted around the edges with rum In the muddy street a pig suddenly screams
Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night
Pacific glimmers silver Moon full over shadow mansion West coast - Can't say when There is incense and the heat-driven scent of flowers
Tongue slides over soft skin Love pounds in veins brains buzzing balls of lust Fingers twine in wet hair Limbs twist and roll
On the dresser wax drips in slow motion down the long side of A black candle Ecstatic halo of flame and pheromone-
Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night
Used to have a town but the factory moved away Down to Mexico where they work for hardly any pay Used to have a country but they sold it down the river Like a repossessed farm auctioned off to the highest bidder
Mighty trucks of midnight Moving on Moving on
Wave a flag, wave the bible, wave your sex or your business degree Whatever you want but don't wave that thing at me The tide of love can leave your prizes scattered But when you get to the bottom it's the only thing that matters
Mighty trucks of midnight Moving on Moving on
I believe it's a sin to try and make things last forever Everything that exists in time runs out of time some day Got to let go of the things that keep you tethered Take your place with grace and then be on your way
Evening sun slants across the road Painting everything with gold I'm headed for home, got a woman there I can barely wait to hold Got wind in my hair, got the heat inside Heart jumping up and down An empty head and a messed-up bed I'll be floating just above the ground
Great big love Sweeping across the sky
Seen a lot of things in the world outside Some bad but some good stuff too Felt the touch of love in the works of God And now and then in what people do Never had a lot of faith in human beings But sometimes we manage to shine Like a light on a hill beaming out to space From somewhere hard to find
Great big love Sweeping across the sky
I ride and I shoot and I play guitar And I like my life just fine If you try to take one of these things from me Then you're no friend of mine Got a woman I love and she loves me And we live on a piece of land I never know quite how to measure these things But I guess I'm a happy man
Guess I'd get along without you If I had no choice It's taken me this long to find you
Done a lot of getting ready for this Some things we learn so slow But look at you, you've got plenty behind you
There's lots of ways to hit the ground Not many answers to be found We're faced with mysteries profound And this is one of the best ones
There are eight million mysteries In the naked body Can't even sight on some distant horizon
Like the nine billion names of God Don't bring you any closer To anyone you can simply set eyes on
But in the same way it's as real Don't always recognize what I feel But of the dancing scenes that life reveals This is one of the best ones
Say what you will There's no snake oil or pill Can make love less painful or fine There's no theatre Even of the absurd Can express what goes on in this meeting of hearts and minds
Guess I'd get along without you If I had no choice But please never make it so I have to
Paid a lot of dues to get here And after all this life I'm a loser if I don't live with you
There's lots of ways to hit the ground Not many answers to be found We're faced with mysteries profound And this is one of the best ones
Somebody touched me Making everything new Somebody touched me I didn't know what to do Burned through my life Like a bolt from the blue Somebody touched me I know it was you
Somebody touched me Deep in my bones Turned a key in the hole There was somebody home Some would say that I'm dreaming But I swear that it's true Somebody touched me I know it was you
Somebody touched me Like the rain on the wind Left me alone Feeling like I'd been skinned But I know you're with me Whatever I go through Somebody touched me I know it was you
Mary grows a child without the help of a man Joseph get upset because he doesn't understand Angel comes to Joseph in a powerful dream Says "God did this and you're part of his scheme" Joseph comes to Mary with his hat in his hand Says "forgive me I thought you'd been with some other man" She says "what if I had been - but I wasn't anyway and guess what I felt the baby kick today" Like a stone on the surface of a still river Driving the ripples on forever Redemption rips through the surface of time In the cry of a tiny babe The child is born in the fullness of time Three wise astrologers take note of the signs Come to pay their respects to the fragile little king Get pretty close to wrecking everything 'Cause the governing body of the whole land Is that of Herod, a paranoid man Who when he hears there's a baby born King of the Jews Sends death squads to kill all male children under two But that same bright angel warns the parents in a dream And they head out for the border and get away clean Like a stone on the surface of a still river Driving the ripples on forever Redemption rips through the surface of time In the cry of a tiny babe There are others who know about this miracle birth The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth For it isn't to the palace that the Christ child comes But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums And the message is clear if you've got ears to hear That forgiveness is given for your guilt and your fear It's a Christmas gift you don't have to buy There's a future shining in a baby's eyes Like a stone on the surface of a still river Driving the ripples on forever Redemption
