| Disc 1 | ||||||
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| 1. |
| 5:01 | 
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No regrets Coyote
We just come from such different sets of circumstance I'm up all night in the studios And you're up early on your ranch You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail While the sun is ascending And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel There's no comprehending Just how close to the bone & the skin & the eyes And the lips you can get And still feel so alone And still feel related Like stations in some relay You're not a hit and run driver No no Racing away You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway We saw a farmhouse burning down In the middle of nowhere In the middle of the night And we rolled right past that tragedy Till we turned into some road house lights Where a local band was playing Locals were up kicking and shaking on the floor And the next thing I know That coyote's at my door He pins me in a corner and he won't take no He drags me out on the dance floor And we're dancing close and slow Now he's got a woman at home He's got another woman down the hall He seems to want me anyway Why'd you have to get so drunk And lead me on that way You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway I looked a coyote right in the face On the road to Baljennie near my old home town He went running through the whisker wheat Chasing some prize down And a hawk was playing with him Coyote he's jumping straight up & making passes He had those same eyes just like yours Under your dark glasses Privately probing the public rooms And peeking through keyholes in numbered doors Where the players lick their wounds And take their temporary lovers Their pills & powders to get them through this passion play I'll have no regrets Coyote I just get off up aways You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway Coyote's in the coffee shop He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs He picks up my scent on his fingers While he's watching the waitresses' legs He's too far from the Bay of Fundy From appaloosas and eagles and tides And the air conditioned cubicles And the carbon ribbon rides I'm spelling it out so clear Either he's going to have to stand & fight Or take off out of here I tried to run away myself To run away and wrestle with my ego And with this flame He put here in this Eskimo In this hitcher In this prisoner Of the fine white lines Of the white lines on the free free way |
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| 2. |
| 6:02 |
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I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain It was the hexagram of the heavens It was the strings of my guitar Amelia it was just a false alarm The drone of flying engines Is a song so wild & blue It scrambles time & seasons if it gets through to you Then your life becomes a travelogue Of picture post card charms Oh Amelia it was just a false alarm People'll tell you where they've gone They'll tell you where to go But till you get there yourself you'll never really know Where some have found their paradise Other's just come to harm Oh Amelia it was just a false alarm I wish that he was here tonight It's so hard to obey His sad request of me to kindly stay away So this is how I hide the hurt As the road leads cursed and charmed I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm A ghost of aviation She was swallowed by the sky Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly Like Icarus ascending On beautiful foolish arms Amelia it was just a false alarm Maybe I've never really loved I guess that is the truth I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude And looking down on everything I crashed into his arms Amelia it was just a false alarm I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel To shower off the dust And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust I dreamed of 747s Over geometric farms Dreams Amelia Dreams & false alarms |
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| 3. |
| 5:08 |
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Old Beale Street is coming down
Sweeties' Snack Bar, boarded up now And Egles The Tailor and the Shine Boy's gone Faded out with ragtime blues Handy's cast in bronze And he's standing in a little park With a trumpet in his hand Like he's listening back to the good old bands And the click of high heeled shoes Old Furry sings the blues Propped up in his bed With his dentures and his leg removed And Ginny's there For her kindness and Furry's beer She's the old man's angel overseer Pawn shops glitter like gold tooth caps In the grey decay They chew the last few dollars off Old Beale Street's carcass Carrion and mercy Blue and silver sparkling drums Cheap guitars, eye shades and guns Aimed at the hot blood of being no one Down and out in Memphis Tennessee Old Furry sings the blues You bring him smoke and drink and he'll play for you lt's mostly muttering now and sideshow spiel But there was one song he played I could really feel There's a double bill murder at the New Daisy The old girl's silent across the street She's silent - waiting for the wrecker's beat Silent - staring ar her stolen name Diamond boys and satin dolls Bourbon laughter- ghosts - history falls To parking lots and shopping malls As they tear down old Beale Street Old Furry sings the blues He points a bony finger at you and "I don't like you" Everybody laughs as if it's the old man's standard joke But it's true We're only welcome for our drink and smoke W.C. Handy I'm rich and I'm fay And I'm not familiar with what you played But I get such strong impressions of your hey day Looking up and down old Beale Street Ghosts of the darktown society Come right out of the bricks at me Like it's a Saturday night They're in their finery Dancing it up and making deals Furry sings the blues Why should I expect that old guy to give it to me true Fallen to hard luck And time and other thieves While our limo is shining on his shanty street Old Furry sings the blues |
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| 4. |
| 4:19 |
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A strange boy is weaving
A course of grace and havoc On a yellow skateboard Thru midday sidewalk traffic Just when I think he's foolish and childish And I want him to be manly I catch my fool and my child Needing love and understanding What a strange, strange boy He still lives with his family Even the war and the navy couldn't bring him to maturity He keeps referring back to school days And clinging to his child Fidgeting and bullied His crazy wisdom holding onto something wild He asked me to be patient Well I failed "Grow up!" I cried And as, the smoke was clearing he said "Give me one good reason why!" What a strange, strange boy He sees the cars as sets of waves Sequences of mass and space He sees the damage in my face We got high on travel And we got drunk on alcohol And on love the strongest poison and medicine of all See how that feeling comes and goes Like the pull of moon on tides Now I am surf rising Now parched ribs of sand at his side What a strange, strange boy I gave him clothes and jewelry I gave him my warm body I gave him power over me A thousand glass eyes were staring In a cellar full of antique dolls I found an old piano And sweet chords rose up in waxed New England halls While the boarders were snoring Under crisp white sheets of curfew We were newly lovers then We were fire in the stiff-blue-haired-house-rules |
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| 5. |
| 6:43 |
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I'm travelling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars That shell shock love away There's comfort in melancholy When there's no need to explain It's just as natural as the weather In this moody sky today In our possessive coupling So much could not be expressed So now I'm returning to myself These things that you and I suppressed I see something of myself in everyone Just at this moment of the world As snow gathers like bolts of lace Waltzing on a ballroom girl You know it never has been easy Whether you do or you do not resign Whether you travel the breadth of extremities Or stick to some straighter line Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock They're either going to thaw out or freeze Listen... Strains of Benny Goodman Coming through the snow and the pinewood trees I'm porous with travel fever But you know I'm so glad to be on my own Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger Can set up trembling in my bones I know - no one's going to show me everything We all come and go unknown Each so deep and superficial Between the forceps and the stone Well I looked at the granite markers Those tribute to finality - to eternity And then I looked at myself here Chicken scratching for my immortality In the church they light the candles And the wax rolls down like tears There's the hope and the hopelessness I've witnessed thirty years We're only particles of change I know, I know Orbiting around the sun But how can I have that point of view When I'm always bound and tied to someone White flags of winter chimneys Waving truce against the moon In the mirrors of a modern bank From the window of a hotel room I'm travelling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some caf? A defector from the petty wars Until love sucks me back that way |
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| 6. |
| 8:40 |
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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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| 7. |
| 4:23 |
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There's a crow flying
Black and ragged Tree to tree He's black as the highway that's leading me Now he's diving down To pick up on something shiny I feel like that black crow Flying In a blue sky I took the ferry to the highway Then I drove to a pontoon plane I took a plane to a taxi And a taxi to a train I've been traveling so long How'm I ever gonna know my home When I see it again I'm like a black crow flying In a blue blue sky In search of love and music My whole life has been Illumination Corruption And diving diving diving diving Diving down to pick up on every shiny thing Just like that black crow flying In a blue sky I looked at the morning After being up all night I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light I looked out the window And I I saw that ragged soul take flight I saw a back crow flying In a blue sky Oh I'm like a black crow flying In a blue sky |
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| 8. |
| 5:04 |
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I've got a blue motel room
With a blue bedspread I've got the blues inside and outside my head Will you still love me When I call you up when I'm down Here in Savannah it's pouring rain Palm trees in the porch light like slick black cellophane Will you still love me When I call you up when I get back to town I know that you've got all those pretty girls coming on Hanging on your boom-boom-pachyderm Will you tell those girls that you've got German Measles Honey, tell them you've got germs I hope you'll be thinking of me Because I'll be thinking of you While I'm traveling home alone Tell those girls that you've got Joni She's coming back home I've got road maps From two dozen states I've got coast to coast just to contemplate Will you still love me When I get back to town It's funny how these old feelings hang around You think they're gone No, no They just go underground Will you still love me When I get back to L.A. town You and me, we're like America and Russia We're always keeping score We're always balancing the power And that can get to be a cold cold war We're going to have to hold ourselves a peace talk In some neutral cafe You lay down your sneaking round the town, honey And I'll lay down the highway I've got a blue motel room With a blue bedspread I've got the blues inside and outside my head Will you still love me When I get back to town |
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| 9. |
| 6:42 |
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I met a friend of spirit
He drank and womanized And I sat before his sanity I was holding back from crying He saw my complications And he mirrored me back simplified And we laughed how our perfection Would always be denied "Heart and humor and humility" He said "Will lighten up your heavy load" I left him for the refuge of the roads I fell in with some drifters Cast upon a beachtown Winn Dixie cold cuts and highway hand me downs And I wound up fixing dinner For them and Boston Jim I well up with affection Thinking back down the roads to then The nets were overflowing In the Gulf of Mexico They were overflowing in the refuge of the roads There was spring along the ditches There were good times in the cities Oh, radiant happiness It was all so light and easy Till I started analyzing And I brought on my old ways A thunderhead of judgment was Gathering in my gaze And it made most people nervous They just didn't want to know What I was seeing in the refuge of the roads I pulled off into a forest Crickets clicking in the ferns Like a wheel of fortune I heard my fate turn, turn turn And I went running down a white sand road I was running like a white-assed deer Running to lose the blues To the innocence in here These are the clouds of Michelangelo Muscular with gods and sungold Shine on your witness in the refuge of the roads In a highway service station Over the month of June Was a photograph of the earth Taken coming back from the moon And you couldn't see a city On that marbled bowling ball Or a forest or a highway Or me here least of all You couldn't see these cold water restrooms Or this baggage overload Westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads |
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