Townes Van Zandt - For The Sake Of The Song (1968) by Townes Van Zandt (보컬) on maniadb.com

Why does she sing
Her sad songs for me,
I'm not the one
To tenderly bring
Her soft sympathy
I've just begun
To see my way clear
And it's plain,
If I stop I will fall
I can lay down a tear
For her pain,
Just a tear and that's all.

What does she want me to do?
She says that she knows
That moments are rare
I suppose that it's true
Then on she goes
To say I don't care,
And she knows
That I do

Maybe she just has to sing, for the sake of the song
And who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong.

She'd like to think that I'm cruel,
But she knows that's a lie
For I would be
No more than a tool
If I allowed her to cry
All over me.

Oh my sorrow is real
Even though
I can't change my plan
If she could see how I feel
Then I know
That she'd understand

Oh does she actually think I'm to blame?
Does she really believe
That some word of mine
Can relieve
All her pain?
Can't she see that she grieves
Just because she's been blindly deceived
By her shame?

Nothin's what it seems,
Maybe she'll start someday
To realize
If she abandons her dreams,
Then all the words she can say
Are only lies
When will she see
That to gain
Is only to lose?
All that she offers me
Are her chains,
I got to refuse

Oh but it's only to herself that she's lied
She likes to pretend
It's something that she must defend,
With her pride
And I don't intend
To stand her and be the friend
From whom she must hide

The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her

She came from Spencer
Across the hill
She said her pa had sent her
'cause the coal was low
And soon the snow
Would turn the skies to winter

She said she'd come
To look for work
She was not seeking favors
And for a dime a day
And a place to stay
She'd turn those hands to labor

But the times were hard, Lord,
The jobs were few
All through Tecumseh valley
But she asked around
And a job she found
Tending bar at Gypsy Sally's

She saved enough to get back home
When spring replaced the winter
But her dreams were denied
Her pa had died
The word come down from Spencer

So she turned to whorin' out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
And it was many a man
Returned again
To lay himself beside her

They found her down beneath the stairs
That led to Gypsy Sally's
In her hand when she died
Was a note that cried
Fare thee well
Tecumseh valley

The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her

[Chorus:]
It's many a fine lady has laid down beside me
With their flesh made of velvet and their eyes made of rain
Some tried to hold me, to hurt me, to hide me
Some turned away, not to look back again

One stood among them, I remember most clearly
Her sorrows were heavy, and her laughter was slow
I courted her gently, for I loved her most dearly
And I came her majestic reflections to know

Her words, like the mountain, stood lonely and lofty
With her face like a daydream and her hair like the shawl
Worn by a mourner, who steals away softly
From those that would have him mourn nothing at all

Endlessly sorrow rode high on the north wind
Slashing and slicing to take him his toll
Endlessly creatures of darkness were cutting
Their paths through the walls that shelter the soul

No longer gypsy-like sadness unending
Her eyes - they lie hollow and her face petrified
Some will go laughing and others condemning
But who there among you could have told her goodbye?

[Chorus]