America
Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together
I’ve got some real estate here in my bag
So we bought a pack of cigarettes, and Mrs. Wagner pies
And we walked off to look for America
Cathy, I said, as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
And I’ve come to look for America
Laughin’ on the bus, playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gaberdine suit was a spy
I said be careful, his bowtie is really a camera
Toss me a cigarette, I think there’s one in my raincoat
We smoked the last one an hour ago
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field
Cathy, I’m lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I’m empty and I’m aching and I don’t know why
Countin’ the cars on the New Jersey turnpike
They’ve all come to look for America, all come to look for America
A Road Song
We’re still in Wisconsin
As far as I know
Today was Green Bay
And tomorrow’s Chicago
Wish I was lying
But there isn’t much to report
My phone is dying
So I’ve got to keep it short
I just wanted to say
Hey, I’ve been writing you a road song
It’s a clich
But hey
That doesn’t make it so wrong
And in between the stops at the Cracker Barrel
And forty movies with Will Farrell
I need some way to occupy my time
So I’m writing you a road song
I sure hope you don’t mind
I bought you
A light blue T-shirt last night
From some band
I couldn’t stand but their logo is all right
Some kid threw a bottle on stage
He had an arm like a pro
I know it’s getting late
I guess I should let you go
But did I happen to say
Hey, I’ve been writing you a road song
Don’t run away
Because, hey
I promise it won’t be too long
And I know it’s not what you’d call necessary
And I know that I’m no Steve Perry
And even if you roll your eyes and groan
I’m still writing you a road song
That you can call your own
Woodstock
I came upon a child of God
She was walking along the road
And I asked her, “Where are you going?”
This she told me
Said, I’m going on down to Yasgur’s farm
Gonna join a rock ‘n’ roll band
I’m gonna camp out on the land
Gonna try and set my soul free
We are stardust, we are golden
And we’ve 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
Yeah, maybe it’s just the time of year
Or maybe it’s the time of man
I don’t know who I am but life is for learning
We are stardust, we are golden
And we’ve 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 celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
Turning into butterflies above our nation
We are stardust, we are golden
(Billion year old carbon)
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden
We are stardust, we are golden
(Caught in the devil’s bargain)
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden
Caroline, No
Where did your long hair go
Where is the girl I used to know
How could you lose that happy glow
Oh, Caroline no
Who took that look away
I remember how you used to say
You’d never change, but that’s not true
Oh, Caroline you
Break my heart
I want to go and cry
It’s so sad to watch a sweet thing die
Oh, Caroline why
Could I ever find in you again
Things that made me love you so much then
Could we ever bring ’em back once they have gone
Oh, Caroline no
Break my heart
I want to go and cry
It’s so sad to watch a sweet thing die
Oh, Caroline why
Someday We’ll Know
90 miles outside Chicago
Can’t stop driving
I don’t know why
So many questions
I need an answer
Two years later
You’re still on my mind
Whatever happened to Amelia Earhart?
Who holds the stars up in the sky?
Is true love just once in a lifetime?
Did the captain of the Titanic cry?
Someday we’ll know if love can move a mountain
Someday we’ll know why the sky is blue
Someday we’ll know why I wasn’t meant for you
Does anybody know the way to Atlantis
Or what the wind says when she cries?
I’m speeding by the place that I met you
For the 97th time tonight
Someday we’ll know if love can move a mountain
Someday we’ll know why the sky is blue
Someday we’ll know why I wasn’t meant for you
Someday we’ll know why Samson loved Delilah
One day I’ll go dancing on the moon
Someday you’ll know that I was the one for you
I bought a ticket to the end of the rainbow
I watched the stars crash in the sea
If I could ask God just one question
Why aren’t you here with me tonight?
Someday we’ll know if love can move a mountain
Someday we’ll know why the sky is blue
Someday we’ll know why I wasn’t meant for you
Someday we’ll know why Samson loved Delilah
One day I’ll go dancing on the moon
Someday you’ll know that I was the One for you
Sailing To Philadelphia
I am Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I’ll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth
He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky
They’d cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker’s boy from the West Country
Would join the Royal Society
We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the Coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia to draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line
Now you’re a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you’ll make me mad
The west will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty
How can America be free?
A Geordie and a baker’s boy
In the forest of the Iroquois
And now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning has begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here
We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the Coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia to draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line, the Mason-Dixon line
Crying in My Sleep
I took a walk around the yard
Dug the flowers til it got too hard
I smoked my first pack of cigarettes today
And I watched the children play
And then I went down, down to Lucy’s old Cafe
Put a half a case away
I took a sleeping pill and tried to watch TV
But you know baby the leading lady looked too much like you for the likes of me
And I woke up crying in my sleep
I was talking to your pillow
And I reached out to touch your hand
And knocked the phone off the nightstand
And the operator said, “May I help you please?”
No thanks baby there’s nothing you can really do for me
I just had a bad dream, that’s all that’s wrong with me
I just had a bad dream
Went out to loosen up the car
Some how I wound up at the rainbow bar
I had a scotch and soda on the run
But I didn’t get too far
And then I ran down, down some friends I used to know
Dragged them out to see the show
I drew myself a bath and I tried to read your book
But you know baby this time it just didn’t seem quite worth the time it took
And I woke up crying in my sleep
I was talking to your pillow
And I reached out to touch your hand
And knocked the phone off the nightstand
And the operator said, “May I help you please?”
No thanks baby there’s nothing you can really do for me
I just had a bad dream, that’s all that’s wrong with me
I just had a bad dream, that’s all that’s wrong with me
Crying in my sleep
Crying in my sleep (I woke up crying)
Crying in my sleep (Crying trying to find her)
Crying in my sleep (I woke up crying)
Crying in my sleep (Crying trying to find her)
Crying in my sleep
Time Of The Season
It’s the time of the season
When the love runs high
In this time give it to me easy
And let me try with pleasured hands
To take you in the sun, to promised lands
To show you every one
It’s the time of the season for loving
What’s your name?
(What’s your name?)
Who’s your daddy?
(Who’s your daddy? He rich?)
Is he rich like me?
Has he taken
(Has he taken)
Any time
(Any time to show)
To show you what you need to live?
Tell it to me slowly
Tell you what?
I really wanna know
It’s the time of the season for loving
What’s your name?
(What’s your name?)
Who’s your daddy?
(Who’s your daddy? He rich?)
Is he rich like me?
Has he taken
(Has he taken)
Any time
(Any time to show)
To show you what you need to live?
Tell it to me slowly
Tell you what?
I really wanna know
It’s the time of the season for loving
Something In The Way She Moves
There’s something in the way she moves
Or looks my way or calls my name
That seems to leave this troubled world behind
And if I’m feeling down and blue
Or troubled by some foolish game
She always seems to make me change my mind
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now
She’s around me now, almost all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time and I feel fine
It isn’t what she’s got to say
Or how she thinks or where she’s been
To me the words are nice, the way they sound
I like to hear them best that way
It doesn’t matter what they mean
Well, she says them mostly just to calm me down
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now
She’s around me now, almost all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time and I feel fine
Every now and then the things I lean on, lose their meaning
And I find myself careening
Into places where I should not let me go, no
She has the power to go where no one else can find me
And to silently remind me of the happiness
And the good times that I know, got to know
It isn’t what she’s got to say
Or how she thinks or where she’s been
To me the words are nice, the way they sound
I like to hear them best that way
It doesn’t matter what they mean
Well, she says them mostly just to calm me down
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now
She’s around me now, almost all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time and I feel fine
On The Way Home
When the dream came
I held my breath with my eyes closed
I went insane
Like a smoke ring day when the wind blows
Now I won’t be back till later on
If I do come back at all
But you know me, and I miss you now
In a strange game
I saw myself as you knew me
When the change came
And you had a chance to see through me
Though the other side is just the same
You can tell my dream is real
Because I love you, can you see me now
Though we rush ahead to save our time
We are only what we feel
And I love you, can you feel it now
Til I Hear It From You
I didn’t ask
They shouldn’t have told me
At first I’d laugh, but now
It’s sinking in fast
Whatever they’ve sold me
Well baby I don’t want to take advice from fools
I’ll just figure everything is cool
Until I hear it from you
It gets hard
The memory’s faded
Who gets what they say
It’s likely they’re just jealous and jaded
Well maybe I don’t want to take advice from fools
I’ll just figure everything is cool
Until I hear it from you
Until I hear it from you
I can’t let it get me off
Or break up my train of thought
As far as I know, nothing’s wrong
Until I hear it from you
Still thinking about not living without it
Outside looking in
Til we’re talking about it, not stepping around it
Maybe I don’t want to take advice from fools
I’ll just figure everything is cool
Until I hear it from you…
My Back Pages
Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ‘neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Half-racked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull, I dreamed
Romantic flanks of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
My guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now