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1. |
The Resurrection
04:24
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THE RESURRECTION
There was something heavy coming down like Easter in the air
He woke up Sunday morning with a flower in his hair
Lookin like the face of Jesus in his final agony
They found on that old winding sheet way off in Italy
He was gone home, he was whole when they rolled away the stone
There was something come-a shinin' through that smoky little room
It was like a million candles in a Middle Eastern tomb
While the Angel on the matress spoke of history and death
Through the perfume in her lingerie and the whiskey on her breath
He was gone home, he was whole when they rolled away the stone
And they found him in the desert picking flowers for the Muse
Sometimes he’s the fire, sometimes he’s the fuse
He’s a-loadin up his saddle bags out on the edge of wonder
One is filled with music and the other’s full of thunder
He was gone home, he was whole when they rolled away the stone
Well I never thought to ask him, but the chance seemed pretty slim
Did he ever much believed in God or God believed in him
But they both believed in beauty and the truth could set him free
To win her love and celebrate their lives in poetry
He was gone home, he was whole when they rolled away the stone
Well they say somebody’s comin but they don’t say who it is
The judgement could be yours or mine, the voices could be his
It might be William Bonney, Mescalito or El Cid
It might be Hangin Johnny and it might be Captain Kidd
But he’ll be gone home, he’ll be whole when they roll away the stone
And they’ll find him in the desert pickin flowers for the Muse
Sometimes he’ll be the fire, sometimes he’ll be the fuse
He’ll be loadin up his saddlebags out on the edge of wonder
One be full of music and the other full of thunder
He’ll be gone home, he’ll be whole when they roll away the stone
He’ll be gone home, he’ll be whole when they roll away the stone
He’ll be gone home, he’ll be whole when they roll away the stone
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2. |
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RICK BLAINE RETIRES TO LUCKENBACH TO CULTIVATE THE MIDDLE WAY
Silly little people, silly little world
Silly little globe where silly boy meets silly girl
Silly little appetites and silly little scene
None of it amounting to a silly hill of beans
O golly gee, why don’t we act our age
We’re only bloody actors on a silly cosmic stage
Just hangin out at Sardi’s while we wait for our reviews
Too trivial for tragedy and too big for the blues
Silly old gestapo, going to extremes
Gonna do the mess around in everybody’s dreams
Just a woogie-boogie man, he’s reallly nothing clear
Move out to Sedona if it ever happens here
O mercy me, what’s become of us?
The last plane left for Lisbon and there’s no room on the bus
Just a world so doggone weary it can barely tie its shoes
Too trivial for tragedy and too big for the blues
Nothin to get up for, that’s the way it goes
Lie around and contemplate the stardust on my toes
Leave it to the fat man, he can settle my affairs
Send a car from Brazzaville to anyone who cares
O glory be, son of a gun
The human race is over and I plumb forgot to run
Now I’ll never get my picture in the Sunday Sporting News
Too trivial for tragedy and too big for the blues
Silly little people, silly little world
Silly little globe where silly boy meets silly girl
Silly little appetites and silly little scene
None of it amounting to a silly hill of beans
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3. |
A Candle For Durruti
04:50
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A CANDLE FOR DURRUTI
Well the headline on the paper said the good guys won the war
And the red star won't be shinin' over Moscow anymore
My heart fell like a sparrow in the depth of my despair
When I saw La Pasionaria with a flower in her hair
In a postcard by Picasso, so defiant and serene
With the mercy of a mother and as grand as any queen
She had gathered all her children under many different drums
In the power of her promise when the revolution comes
In the darkness and disorder, in the fire of our fears
She had bound our broken bodies in the rainbow of her tears
In the hour of our triumph, with a promise to prevail
And another for the future in the hour that we failed
And so my friend and comrade, as you go across the sea
I ask no shining souvenirs, but only send to me
The finest rum of Cuba from the finest sugar cane
And a postcard by Picasso when you reach the coast of Spain
And remember 'til tomorrow as we leave our banners furled
That it only took six days to make, and ten to shake the world
Light a candle for Dorruti and we'll honor all the brave
With a rollcall of the fallen in the dust on Franco's grave
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4. |
This Little Heart
03:41
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THIS LITTLE HEART
This little heart went home to mother,
This little heart was left alone
This little heart has found another
This little heart ain’t got no home
This little heart out on the highway
is like a dustbowl refugee
This little heart ain’t really sorry
even though it wants to be
This little heart is like the swallow
This little heart is like the sky
This heart is full and this one’s hollow
This little heart just said goodbye
This little heart was made for dancing
This little heart has one good shoe
This little heart just wants somebody
to come along and make it two
This little heart was once a poem
This little heart is just a word
This little heart once said I love you
This little heart just never heard
This little heart is made of silver
This little heart is made of gold
This little heart is made of money
hard as ice and just as cold
This little heart went home to mother
This little heart was left alone
This little heart has found another
This little heart ain’t got no home
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5. |
The Rose Of Newfoundland
04:37
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THE ROSE OF NEWFOUNDLAND
Come you lads and come you lasses
You who love from faraway
Gather round and fill your glasses
Listen to the words I say
It was in another country
I, a traveler on my way
Saw her once and fell forever
Lost my heart but failed to stay
Will she bide or will she go
Will she love me? I don’t know
Foreign flower among my heather
Honey sweet and wild as weather
For I let our duty bind me
And I did not tarry there
Only left my heart behind me
Tangled in her falling hair
For love is death and fond desire
As the arrow loves the lark
Even as the heart of fire
Brings its gladness to the dark
Will she bide or will she go
Will she love me? I don’t know
Foreign flower among my heather
Honey sweet and wild as weather
So may health betide her
I will give up all I own
Just to lay me down beside her
Though the bed be hard as stone
For like the sky with no horizon
Like the sea without the strand
While I live I’ll long forever
For the Rose of Newfoundland
Will she bide or will she go
Will she love me? I don’t know
Foreign flower among my heather
Honey sweet and wild as weather – ohh
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6. |
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THE MIDSHIPMAN AND THE MAID
As I went a-walkin down by the seaside
I spied a young couple all alone hand in hand
One was a midshipman in a tunic of blue
And the other was a young maid and fresh as the dew
Oh the waters run high and the waters run low
I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go
For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear
At the end of the world, at the turn of the year
There was music and song in the sway of her hips
And the hint of a tremble along her sweet lips
For he pulled out a wild rose from a fold in his cloak
And a tear fell upon it with the words that he spoke
Oh the waters run high and the waters run low
I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go
For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear
At the end of the world, at the turn of the year
Then says he "Lovely Nancy, I’m called to the war
That has been the misfortune of many before
And the gift of your love now will not be remiss
It’ll gently be taken and sealed with a kiss"
Oh the waters run high and the waters run low
I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go
For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear
At the end of the world, at the turn of the year
And she answered him “Willie, say not a word more
I’ve none of your roses and less of your war
And I love when you take it, you’ll seal with a ring
That’ll shine like the shilling you took from the King”
Oh the waters run high and the waters run low
I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go
For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear
At the end of the world, at the turn of the year
"For if danger awaits you on far distant shores
It’s of perfumes and petticoats, harlots and whores
But I’ll love and I’ll trust and I know you’ll be true
For my brother, the Captain, will see that you do”
And the waters run high and the waters run low
I’ll think of my darlin wherever I go
For the waters run cloudy and ever so clear
At the end of the world, at the turn of the year
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7. |
Old Jack Of Hearts
05:35
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OLD JACK OF HEARTS
It’s time for us to leave her, Johnny, leave her
Unwind your aching body from the sea
O, Jack of Hearts, you’re every inch a sailor
Just waiting for the wind to set you free
It’s taken over twenty years to roll the woodpile down
Now we’re headed for the harbour and the houses in the town
Singin haul away the moon until tomorrow
The wind’s in love and lucky like a prayer
That gambles all its grace to be closer to her face
And tangle up its fingers in her hair
They never would’ve called you Jack, the dandy
The man who taught a foxtrot to the whales
But still, Old Jack, you’re every inch a tailor
In dungarees that used to be your sails
There’s fire in the fo’c’sle and the old man doesn’t know
There’s fire in the belly and fire down below
Singin haul away the moon until tomorrow
Too far away from heaven much to care
Since heaven found a home in the fingers of a comb
That hide away so homely in her hair
Then cast your awful eyes across the harbour
Wonder if it rains in Zanzibar
Remembering how forty years a whaler
Were empty as a wish without a star
Now all the lovesick mermaids on the coast of Labrador
Say “Throw your arms around her, Jack, and go to sea no more”
And we’ll haul away the moon until tomorrow
Tonight the stars are falling everywhere
There’s such a pretty stain on the fingers of the rain
That hang in tiny ribbons in her hair
It’s time for us to leave her, Johnny, leave her
Unwind your aching body from the sea
O, Jack of Hearts, you’re every inch a sailor
Be grateful to the love that sets you free
O, Jack of Hearts, you’re every inch a sailor
Be grateful to the love that sets you free
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8. |
Our Lady, The Buddha
05:43
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OUR LADY, THE BUDDHA
Though the Valley of the Shadow may be bleak and hard to view
It’s the Alleys of the Living I have trouble walking through
At times I lose the fire, I can barely find a spark
Though I dream of you as angels dream of honey in the dark
And there you are – shining through the madness
Like a star cooling every bruise
And every star
Hanging like your mother’s only pearl
Pouring out your mercy on the world
I see hours when I wonder if you see me on my knees
When your favours fall on others and you leave me here to freeze
While I hunger like a bridegroom for the body of the bride
Never filled but not forsaken, all alone and mystified
And there you are – shining through the madness
Like a star cooling every bruise
And every star
Hanging like your mother’s only pearl
Pouring out your mercy on the world
And like a rebel in the outland when the revolution fails
Like a ship out on the ocean with no shiver in the sails
Like the ailing eyes of Noah looking seaward to the dove
Like an answer in the silence I will rise again to love
And there you are – shining through the madness
Like a star cooling every bruise
And every star
Hanging like your mother’s only pearl
Pouring out your mercy on the world
And when the world resigns and withers
and the time has come to go
With an invitation written like a fire in the snow
As the hours of my exile dance away into the past
With my cares among the lilies
I’ll be going home at last
And there you are – shining through the madness
Like a star cooling every bruise
And every star
Hanging like your mother’s only pearl
Pouring out your mercy on the world
And like a rebel in the outland when the revolution fails
Like a ship out on the ocean with no shiver in the sails
Like the ailing eyes of Noah looking seaward to the dove
Like an answer in the silence I will rise again to love
And there you are – shining through the madness
Like a star cooling every bruise
And every star
Hanging like your mother’s only pearl
Pouring out your mercy on the world
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9. |
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HIGH NOON IN THE WASTELAND
Hey what you doin here, girl
How’d you get to my heart?
Have you got some business you ain’t finished
Or some you want to start?
Come a little bit closer
Have I got something you want?
Are you just some fallen angel
Looking for a place to haunt
Or are you just passing through, girl
Or are you planning to stay?
Did you have some clear intention
When you took my breath away?
I could wait for the answers
But that could take a long time
And I’d only end up wanting you
and that’d be some kind of crime
Because the hands on my wristwatch
And the clock on the wall
Say it’s high noon in the wasteland
Push is coming down to shove
Get out of here before I fall in love
Are you the man in the moon, girl
Or did you come from a star?
I could figure out just what I’m feeling
If I knew just what you are
Cause anything that I call you
Ain’t always all that it seems
I know you ain’t no girl, you ain’t no baby
You’re the woman in my dreams
And I’ve been dreaming all day, girl
I’ve been dreaming all year
But I never dreamed I’d wake up dreaming
And I’d see you sitting here
But every dream is a tangle
And there’s no way to romance
When the band’s all done rehearsing
And they’re calling off the dance
We’re heading out for the border
We’re going over the wall
And it’s high noon in the wasteland
Push is coming down to shove
Get out of here before I fall in love
Am I awake or asleep, girl
Am I dreaming your smile?
First I’m lookin at the Mona Lisa then the Empress of the Nile
There’s a beautiful daughter
And some heavenly queen
There’s this scarlet whore of Babylon
And every woman in between
They’ve come to sweeten my sorrow
They come to wash it away
But I’ve heard the mermaids singing
And they sound like Lady Day
So don’t you make it all shine, girl
Don’t you make it complete
Cause the mob outside is howlin
They want gunsmoke in the streets
And now the cop on the corner
And the clock in the hall
Say it’s high noon in the wasteland
Push is coming down to shove
Get out of here before I fall in love
Come here and tell me again, girl
I guess I kinda forget
Was it just last week
Or in some other lifetime that we met?
It’s been a mighty long time, girl
Since we were innocent teens
But you can still put on your high heeled sneakers
And your rolled up Levi jeans
And call me boy if you want to
And I’ll be calling you girl
And at dancetime you can be my baby
And I’ll be your Duke of Earl
But something’s going all wrong, girl
I feel alone and aloof
Cause the sky is clear, there ain’t no thunder
But there’s rain upon the roof
It’s coming down for the deluge
And coming after the fall
And it’s high noon in the wasteland
Push is coming down to shove
Get out of here before I fall in love
Get out of here before I fall in love
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10. |
Burgundy Cider
04:13
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BURGUNDY CIDER
A Pocahontas trembled and she flew like a bee
And the Nina and the Pinta and the Sault St Marie
Sailed into the harbour from over the sea
So she went and told her daddy and the neighbourhood chief
Take the Chamber of Commerce off of relief
There’s a wagonload of thirsty sailors out on Marie
Fill em up with burgundy cider
And we’ll all have a ball
Hold a big reception in the new City Hall
Sell a load of totem poles and cheap souvenirs
For the biggest heap of profits in 70 years
Get busy with the banners and the buttons that say:
Welcome Christopher Columbus to the beautiful town of Bombay
Oh, old Uncle Charlie got a terrible fright
Couldn’t get religion on a Saturday night
He went to the whiskey but he couldn’t get tight
So the family doctor said put him to bed
Cause a sinner when he’s sober is better off dead
But he went off to Texas, got married instead
Now he’s drinking burgundy cider from a glass through a straw
Doesn’t hate his neighbour or his mother in law
A month from next Sunday, he’s a hundred and four
And his twenty-seven children on the living room floor
You gotta give the credit where the credit is due
Talk civil to the Indians, maybe they’ll give it to you
And Luther’s cousin, Junior, was-a ballin the jack
With a load of White Lightnin ridin high in the back
He met the county sheriff at the end of the track
Well Junior got nervous and started to run
The sheriff said “Hold it!” and went for his gun
He said “Something smells suspicious,
I think we’d better look at it, son”
But it changed to burgundy cider to the sheriff’s surprise
Bubblin and a-sparklin right in front of his eyes
Junior went a running on back to the farm
Like a spotted dalmatian to a fire alarm
Mama said “Junior, it’s the work of the Lord,
But just in case it isn’t, son, you’d better get rid of that board.”
Archimedes and Aristotle went on a spree,
Hitting every bar in Brooklyn til a quarter to three
But the friendship nearly ended when they couldn’t agree
On where to find the water for the Fountain of Youth
Or a proper definition for the ultimate truth
Then they found the answer written in a telephone booth
Archie hollered “Burgundy Cider, Aristotle come quick
When he started drawing diagrammes and waving his stick
They bought some copper tubing and they built them a still
Stuck it in their old jalopy and moved to the hills
They built a little cabin where they live all alone
And they make a little moonshine
They call the Philosopher’s Stone
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11. |
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JESUS LOVES THE WORKING FOLK
He was just a guy who had a job that needed to be done
Come to rob us with a briefcase but he should’ve used a gun
Cause Jesus loves the working folks and all their girls and boys
He never let em take away the baby’s Christmas toys
Daddy always found a way to smile when times were tough
He had a lot of promise, he just never had enough
And he never let the hard work or the hard times get him down
Never let us kids go short when Christmas came around
Then one year a stranger came, a man we didn’t know
And a chill got even colder than the January snow
He said “Your payment’s overdue, it all belongs to me”
He took the wishbone from the turkey and the tinsel from the tree
He took all our Christmas presents, Daddy’s suit and Mama’s shawl
The upholstery from the pickup truck and the paper from the wall
We just stood there in silence as he shook poor Daddy’s hand
He said “It’s nothing personal I hope you’ll understand”
He was just a guy who had a job that needed to be done
Come to rob us with a briefcase but he should’ve used a gun
Cause Jesus loves the working folks and all their girls and boys
He never let em take away the baby’s Christmas toys
Y’see Daddy had a hound dog by the name of Dan’l Boone
He must’ve took that stranger for a possum or a coon
He lit out a running when he heard that fellow sneeze
And left him with a puncture in his satin BVDs
Now Dan’l Boone never did that kind of thing before
That stranger never even stopped to open up the door
Just took off like Santa’s reindeer in a signifying bound
Came down in an outhouse on the other side of town
Scared the livin hell out of poor ol Joe Bob Denton
Who was quietly waiting the imminent revival of the Confederacy
While keeping company with a quart bottle of Christmas whiskey
And contemplating the aesthetic subtleties of the lingerie section
Of the Fall and Winter 1956 edition
Of the Sears and Roebuck mail order catalog may it rest in peace
They say that stranger passed away back in 1962
Just as ornery as he ever was and, if it’s really true
Cause the Devil keeps those special jobs for those he really hates
Now he’s repossessing bibles outside the Pearly Gates
He was just a guy who had a job that needed to be done
Come to rob us with a briefcase but he should’ve used a gun
Cause Jesus loves the working folks and all their girls and boys
He never let em take away the baby’s Christmas toys
Yeah, Jesus loves the working folks and all their girls and boys
He never let em take away the baby’s Christmas toys
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12. |
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SINGING THROUGH THE SLAUGHTER
Stranger at my open door,
Such a shabby troubadour
In your clothes that smell of war, other lands and ocean water,
Is there news of any cheer?
Well there’s some been awful queer
In the wind that brought you here singing through the slaughter
Silly exile, don’t you know
Foreign winds don’t have to blow
Why’d you think you had to go read the dreams of Pharoah’s daughter?
Some day soon she’ll be a queen
She’ll quit asking what they mean
And about the things you’ve seen singing through the slaughter
Beat the Devil, roll the dice
There’s a bridge in Paradise
You don’t get to cross it twice and see her face again
When my lover goes to sleep
Angels at her floral feet
All her sorrows in a heap, all the pleasures love has brought her
And a song of simple prayer
She can use to bless the air
Til the morning finds her there singing through the slaughter
Beat the Devil, roll the dice
There’s a bridge in Paradise
You don’t get to cross it twice and see her face again
Then the kings come out to play
In their coats of blue and grey
Watch 'em slingin, see them sway, hear them teeter, see them totter
One for Abel, two for Cain in the gently falling rain
Nothing but the stars remain singing through the slaughter
One for Abel, two for Cain in the gently falling rain
Nothing but the stars remain singing through the slaughter
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13. |
Sisters Of The Road
05:40
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SISTERS OF THE ROAD
As I lay me down to sleep
here among your broken sheep
Crying out for love to keep
the beaten and the bowed
Lying here with rogues and thieves
someone comes who still believes
Tender arms in folded sleeves
sisters of the road
Nothing here is guaranteed
joy or sorrow, love or greed,
Live the life you're meant to lead
you'll reap the one you’ve sow'd
Heaven helps what heaven heals
and the morning sun reveals
Humble hearts in heaven's wheels
sisters of the road
Though at times you'll stand alone
and your soul grow hard as bone
Still there's water in that stone
as fine as ever flowed
Wish it may and wish it might
lead us kindly through the night
Daily closer to the light
our heroes ever showed
With all that love and grace intend
mile to mile and friend to friend
From Delano to the rainbow's end
sisters of the road
So praised be love
and thanks be said
for the roses and the bread
and the sky above our heads
sweet nature has bestowed
For the crazy world's designing
clever clouds with silver lining
and your presence ever shining
Sisters of the Road
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