Janis, Don't Go Back
Janis,
don’t go back to Texas
and give yourself out one more time
I know you grieve for acceptance
But darling can’t you let that old thing die
But
if you should get an invitation
And you feel you really need to go
Maybe at last you’ll find appreciation
But I wouldn’t bet on it being so
Janis
don’t go back to Texas
And let them see from where those blues arise
Remember there are folks along the west
Who don’t ever want to see their Janis cry
Don’t you go and cry
Don’t cry.
^ back top top
Night
on Red River
I
walked out last night along Red River
I walked and I wandered for woe to turn to light
This town she’s lonesome and her people are mean
and cruel
Her windows reflect their grins on seeing me walk away
from you
Walk away from, walk away from you…
So
my steps were slow and my swagger deliberate
And if ever my heart grieved now my body must not confess
it
No she will not fail me for she expresses the very line
–
I’m steady on eyes dead set on – my hips
move left to right
Nelson,
I love you. I do, I do.
Oh, Nelson, remember: To myself I will be true…
And so I walked on...
Past
alleyways where druggers sweat and where whores oily
palms grip
Where runaways lay swollen and the governor come to
spit
They see me come a walking with my figure
so strong and light
I’m walking through everyone out on Red River
tonight
Last
night it was so cold in that low lit
Red River bar
Where by the jukebox I heard my name and laughter’s
heavy fall
Some never look you in the eye
Some only duck and dive
Some come to him with scarlet lips praying out loud
that I should die
Oh my Nelson, I love you and I will love you till the
end
But Nelson, we differ by what we call a friend
It
looks like rane, ah-yen
Blew burn fi-do-nie, ah-yen
Colored lights that bleed, ah-yen
Colored lights that bleed, ah-yen
I
walked out last night along Red River
I walked and I wanted for woe to turn to light
^ back top
Candy
Gold
Uh
oh, Candy Gold, you look so down today
All alone, candy gold it’s gonna be years
before he says:
Candy Gold, you’re the one around which
my planets rotate
Candy Gold just like the sun - burn my wings
on metallic haze
Until
that day, Candy
You’ll just have to be alone
I live with regrets, Candice
The likes of which you’ll never know
Uh
oh, Candy Gold
you stare out into space
All woe, Candy Gold
it’s gonna take some time
to face
I’m looking down on earth
and looking down on them
Candy Gold take my hand.
Our feather’s glow in
your fiery presence
It’s
not such a long day, Candy
So why they gotta take it slow?
I have some news to tell them
Even the stars grow old
It’s not such a long day Candy
Why they gotta take it slow?
I had love to send them
Now just gonna send hello
Until
that day, Candy
You’ll just have to be alone
I live with regrets, Candice
The likes of which you’ll never know
It’s not such a long day, Candy
Why they gotta take it slow?
I had love to send them
Now I’m just gonna let them go
Candy
Gold you’re the one. I live with regrets the likes
of which you’ll never know. I live with regrets.
^ back top top
How
Does a Woman Fall?
How
does a woman fall?
When she knows her art so well
While others bliss out in boudoirs
I glide past those cells
No one ever suspects
It's as though they're too blind to see
And since I know myself so well
These secrets are mine to keep
But I'll tell it now like a tale
You seem so dumb you need to know
First you never leave a trail
You plan the end and from there you go
And
since you've now inquired
How does the fairer sex descend?
Well, if she's plain, careless, and stupid
She'll be fast to meet her end
I once met a man
Who took me for all that I was
But I'll tell you how I had fallen
It was the moment I believed his love
^ back top top
Arrival,
A Rival
In
Texas, many places for a love to roam
Without a trace
So this is Texas, so this is ache
So this is Texas on your knees now don’t you break
Always
knew I’d knew I’d roam
Slip out in the night, get my things and go
So
this is Houston. So this is ache
So this is Midland. On your knees now don’t let
it take
Arrival,
a rival. I didn’t know, came to know
Goodbye
angel city palm trees and cement
I’ll see you again, maybe out on the strip
But
this is challenge and this is change
This is challenge on your knees now don’t you
cave
Arrival,
a rival. I didn’t know, came to know
In
Texas, many places for a love to roam
for a love to roam, for a love to roam
^ back top top
En Route
Texarkana en route to New Orleans
My baby fell from his bike
And I was told he lay conscious
And he knew death would arrive
Ride, ride, ride, ride…
From weeping trees blue bottles hang
And southern grass come covered with mist
Could he not stay on the road we paved?
The dirt devours those who fall adrift.
Ride, ride, ride, ride…
They took his body back to the Golden State
Where his mother wept a sad goodbye
And not a dry eye was to be seen
Unless you looked into my eyes.
^ back top top |
Lonesome
Place
(Based on the poetry of Langston
Hughes)
They
took me out to some lonesome place
They asked: “do you believe in the great white
race?”
I said: “Mister, to tell you the truth,
I’d believe in anything if you if just turn me
loose”.
Turn, turn, turn me loose.
The
white man said “boy, can it be-
You’re standing there slandering me?”
Turn, turn, turn me loose.
Do
you see my skin or silhouette?
I only see love in my bed.
They
hit me in the head and then they knocked me down
And then they hit me right there on the ground
And a Klansmen said: “nigger,
Look me in the face, now tell me you believe
In the great white race.
Turn, turn, turn me loose.
Do
you see my skin or silhouette?
I only see love in my bed.
Southern
woman now don’t you swoon
They just hung your Blackman in the light of the moon
They’ve hung him there from some cedar tree
They like to hang them high
They like to watch men bleed
You know Dixie protects its white womanhood
So, Southern belle you be good
You be good, you be good
Do
you see my skin or silhouette?
I only see love in my bed.
^ back top top
Lullaby
for Blacktail
From
my bed, and through this town
You can hear that engine moan
And it's the only sound
That comforts me now
As I spend my time here alone
Lullaby, sweet old engine
Is it you who sings to me tonight
While all else lay quiet?
I
came in off the pacific line and how I bend and snake
and hiss
Are strangers always so slithering wet?
Yes, if you don’t touch them
La, la, la, la
I came in with a song
But like the ones who came before
You knew I’d rattle on
With loneliness a drag on your third coast
Laugh if you like behind my back
I’m the one you envy most
But I’m glad I came here
And its good I leave
California is home
And you take that bar and some dark black souls
And send a kiss form an armadillo
Lullaby,
oh lullaby, oh lullaby
Now sing me your song:
Choo choo, choo choo
Lullaby, lullaby, lullaby
Now sleep little one.
^ back top top
Texas
Midnight Radio
Why
I was just a stranger
There in Travis county
I’d known not a soul
So glad that you found me
It was a lazy summer
The heat heavy like led
And you played the murder record
And we laid upon your bed
Then wiled around the lake
And underneath the bridge
We exchanged loving looks
And books that we’d read
I hold those days close
I take them here I go
Somewhere into dreams
With other lonely things
With them I know I belong
Because I have always been a drifter
And a seeker all my life
Oh I never sought to see so much
That I don’t see now what I leave behind
Oh no
Far
north from San Antone
Approach Wichita Falls
Texas midnight radio
Played a murder song
Oh, I held my heart
And I choked while I steer
To come so far and to give and to give
To watch it now disappear
Well loneliness will bleed you
And make you drift and stray
But it was that very loneliness
That made our hearts first meet
When
I was just a stranger
There in Travis county
I’d known not a soul
So glad that you found me
So glad, So glad.
^ back top top
Hannah
Leah
Rat
a tap tap
Oh don’t you come and ask
Am I a coming back
The sky has gone black on us
Don’t you weep
Blame myself for these things
Known I was stronger than he
And all you weaklings knew it
Toodle loo
They all abandoned you
One bruised and another screwed
But I was the only loved
Oh
Hannah Leah
I was the only love
Keep
that bed
Now brother keep that rug
Lord knows I was given so much
And the devil keeps me fed
On the wall. On the stove -
And in the blank book you draw
There are signs of Hannah Leah
There are signs of our love
Oh
Hannah Leah
There are signs of love
On a black blue night
I go a wandering
Out over Houston
Along Avenue A
Hannah
Leah
On Avenue A
Ku
Klux Klan
There’s evil in every man
Come love her when you can
And see about Hannah Leah
^ back top top
Weeding
Time
I only know them as who they are to me:
Assassins of orchids flowering
Come home on Sunday, come home Tuesday at noon
And leave behind the low down minds
And your lonesome Lone Star tune
I
went out to see what it was all about
Then silence swept over me
It wasn’t lonely like I’d imagined
Just lonely like it’d always been
I
bled for them and I cared for them
And I kept them under glass
But hopes have stems and dainty blooms
That wither much too fast
Here’s the road, the lengthy 10 that drove me
here to you
Take it down and go back home now
You go back home black and blue
I
made a decision in a bad situation
I made a decision when nothing was good
And I knew I would lose
Look
up love don’t you see my love
Yellow rose colored sky
The storm that comes a thorn my love
In your sweetheart’s good-bye
“Darling please stay with me now
And don’t say we’re through”
But it’s in my head and not my thumb
And there’s nothing I can do – now, but
cry.
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