James Taylor [Guitar, Vocal]

I remember Richard Nixon back in '74
And the final scene at the White House door
And the staff lined up to say good-bye
Tiny tear in his shifty little eye
He said nobody knows me
Nobody understands
These little people were good to me
Oh I'm gonna shake some hands

* Somebody line 'em up
Line 'em all up
Line 'em up
Line 'em all up
Line 'em up
Line 'em all up
Line 'em up
Line 'em all up

At that time my heart was all broke
I looked like ashes and smelled like smoke
And I turned away from my loving kind
Try to leave my body and live in my mind
But it's much too much emotion
To hold it in your hand
They've got waves out on the ocean
They're gonna wear away the land

*Repeat

Oh I've seen corn in Kansas
And I've seen picket fences
And certain cowboy dances
I've gone lining up for shows
I've been safely placed in rows
Sure I know how it goes

Another day goes by
Little time machine
I'm breaking my brain
Over what it might mean
Just to claim the time
And to turn away
To make today today

Who waits for you
Lonely tired old toad
It's your life laid out before you
Like the broken white line down the center of the road

*Repeat

Yeah, big moon landing
People all standing up
Smiles for the loved ones
They go walking on down the aisles
Each re-engages stepping into the sun
I watch them turn like pages
One by one by one

*Repeat

Almost Fuck-free.

The sun shines on this funeral
The same as on a birth
The way it shines on everything
That happens here on Earth
It rolls across the western sky
And back into the sea
And spends the day퉠 last rays
Upon this fucked-up family
So long old pal

The last time I saw Alice
She was leaving Santa Fe
With a bunch of round-eyed Buddhists
In a killer Chevrolet
Said they turned her out of Texas
Yeah she burned 'em down back home
Now she's wild with expectation
On the edge of the unknown

* Oh it's enough to be on your way
It's enough just to cover ground
It's enough to be moving on
Home, build it behind your eyes
Carry it in your heart
Safe among your own

They brought her back on a Friday night
Same day I was born
We sent her up the smoke stack
And back into the storm
She blew up over the San Juan mountains
And spent herself at last
The threat of heavy weather
That was what she knew the best

*Repeat

It woke me up on a Sunday
An hour before the sun
It had me watching the headlights
Out on highway 591
'Til I stepped into my trousers
'Til I pulled my big boots on
I walked out on the Mesa
And I stumbled on this song

*Repeat

JT on Sony.com: Yer love jones.
Gotta watchdog watching me
Watching me packing my bags
He knows I'm leaving town
I can see that it's a drag
Why leave the life I love
Here in the great state of Maine
Just to ride that shining rail
Just to size that ball and chain

Gotta spend just a little more time with you
That's why
Gotta spend just a little more time with you
Oh oh oh
Gotta spend just a little more time with you
Yes I do, yes I do
Gotta spend just a little more time with you
Oh oh oh oh oh

I passed on the cocaine
Said bye-bye to my methadone
Put down the bottle for one more day
Backing off of my Tobacco Jones
Still I feel like a hopeless junkie
Like a man who can't say no
I look back and there's that monkey
Rascal won't let go

Gotta spend just a little more time with you

I get high and I can't come down
I get high just hanging around
I get high, I go lost and found
I get high oh I oh I

Gotta spend just a little more time with you

JT on Sony.com: There is a theory suggested by the planetologist John Lovelock, that life (on earth) is one inter connected, self regulating organism (watch out). He named it the GAIA theory after the ancient Greek earth goddess (evidently).
Your basic tree huggers anthem.

The sky was light and the land all dark
The sun rose up over Central Park
I was walking home from work
GAIA
The petal sky and the rosy dawn
The world turning on the burning sun
Sacred wet green one we live on
GAIA
Run run run run said the automobile and we ran
Run for your life take to your heels
Foolish school of fish on wheels
GAIA
Turn away from your animal kind
Try to leave your body just to live in your mind
Leave your cold cruel mother earth behind
GAIA
As if you were your own creation
As if you were the chosen nation
And the world around you just a rude and
Dangerous invasion
GAIA

Someone's got to stop us now
Save us from us Gaia
No one's gonna stop us now

We thought we ought to walk awhile
So we left that town in a single file
Up and up and up mile after mile after mile

We reached the tree line and I dropped my pack
Sat down on my haunches and I looked back down
Over the mountain
Helpless and speechless and breathless

GAIA

Pray for the forest pray to the tree
Pray for the fish in the deep blue sea
Pray for yourself and for God's sake
Say one for me
Poor wretched unbeliever

Someone's got to stop us now
Save us from us Gaia
No one's gonna stop us now

Je t'aime encore means I love you still, c'est pour toujours means I always will.
Tu me manquais trop means I missed you much, je fait ce qu'il faut means I'll do what I must.

Me voici a ta fenetre tous les gens me voient ici.
Here I am at your window darling for all your people to see me.

Ananas laisse moi une fois laisse moi te voir, let me one more time, Ananas.
Ananas, I'm loping along, hoping you're home, open up and let me on in.

Maybe I rise and maybe I fall, maybe you lie underneath it all,
I ain't got nothing but for what you see, even my own heart don't belong to me.
Got your river running in my blood, got your fire burning in my heart.
You got me falling like a shooting star, just like some tragic work of art.

Ananas laisse moi une fois laisse moi te voir, let me one more time, Ananas.
Ananas, I'm loping along, hoping you're home, open up and let me on in.
Here I am at your window baby, for all your people to see.
Howling like a dog in the moonlight, won't you have pity on me?

JT on Sony.com: Lilly was not at all sure we could just "set ol' Dan
free" like that. I told her Dan was a huge invisible rat with magical
powers. That seems to have shut her up.
This land is a lovely green
It reminds me of my own home
Such children I've seldom seen
Even in my own home
The sky so bright and clean
Just like my home
Kind people as have ever been
Won't you take me back to my own home

* Jump up behind me my love
Jump up behind me
Old Dan can bear us both
Jump up behind me
We follow this road 'til we reach the sea
Jump up behind me
We'll catch the tide and set Dan free
Jump up behind me

I've been in this world awhile
And I've seen a lot of country
Many days and many miles
All various and sundry
I've had my way and I've had my fun
And I've had my chance to run free
Burning hot beneath the sun
Freezing cold and wintry

*Repeat

I know now
Only one thing matters in these days
One thing, true love
Love and love alone
True love

I came out of a dream last night
Thought I was back in my old home
Mom and Dad were both still alive
And the babies not yet born, no
Felt like a festival
Felt like a Christmas morning
Felt the darkness fall away
Even as the world was turning

JT on Sony.com: The song's been waiting for a verse since 1985 when I first put it down at Air Studios, Montserrat. Frank was at the console then too.
Wake up Suzy
Put your shoes on
Walk with me into this light
Finally this morning
I'm feeling whole again
It was a hell of a night

Just to be with you by my side
Just to have you near in my sight
Just to walk a while in this light
Just to know that life goes on

Wake up Suzy
Put your shoes on
Walk with me into this light

Another night has gone
Life goes on
Another dawn is breaking
Turn and face the sun
One by one
The world outside is waking

Morning light has driven away
All the shadows that hide your way
And night has given away
To the promise of another day

Another day
Another chance that we may
Finally find our way
Another day

The sun has begun
To melt all our fears away
Another day
Another day

Oh wake up Suzy
Put your shoes on
Walk with me into this light

We were walking in paradise
Never did notice
Blind in the Buddha land
Looking for solace
We had been told of a place
Far beyond this vale of tears
We could never have guessed
We were already blessed
There we were, where we are
In the garden

Didn't we climb on up er mei
Temple to temple
Yes and all and all along the way
The day was simple
Didn't we reach the top
Didn't we gain our goal
Did we finally stop
Surprised by the cold

We were walking in paradise
Never did tumble
Blind in the Buddha land
Looking for trouble
We had been told of a place
Far beyond this vale of tears
We could never have guessed
We were already blessed
There we were, where we are
In the garden

So much for your moment of prayer
God's not at home
There is no there there
Lost in the stars
That's what you are
Left here on your own

You can only hope to live on this earth
This here is it, for all it's worth
Nothing else awaits you
No second birth
No starry crown

For an un-believer like you
There's not much they can do
It would turn you away
Though I hate to see you surrender
You need to surrender
We must find you a way to


CHORUS:
Look up from your life
Up from your life
Look on up from your life
Look up from your life


There's a river running under your feet
Under this house
Under this street
Straight from the heart
Ancient and sweet
On its way back home

Even in the middle of your sadness
The everyday madness
The ongoing game
Even when you can't find a reason
Still there is a reason
You don't need to name it
Look on up


Look up from your life


Only for a minute
To find yourself in it
To wait by the stream
To drop out of your dream
Look on up


Look up from your life

Oh boy, Botany Bay
Watching the water go by
Here's your home so far away
Here is a tear for your eye
Here is a vast and unknown land
Here are the strangers on the sand
Oh, seeds of the universe ever endeavor to grow
Tiny pieces of everything into the water they go
Everything changes for the strangers on the shore
They are blue and green no more
They are yellow and rose

Down under got the south side
This groovy crazy planet
Watching from the outside
It's as smooth as a gravy sandwich
People play music night for day
One caught the sun in a sekere

Seeds of the universe ever endeavor to grow
Tiny pieces of everything into the water they go
Everything changes for the strangers on the shore
They are blue and green no more
They are yellow and rose

Remember when we thought we were in California
We thought it was the eye of the hurricane
Old gypsy woman she tried to warn you
"You'll be back this way again
Hungry for the rain
It's written in your hand, plain"

Seeds of the universe ever endeavor to grow
Tiny pieces of everything into the water they go
Everything changes for the strangers on the shore
They are blue and green no more
They are yellow and rose


Yellow and Rose
Yellow and Rose
Yellow and Rose

Hearts were exploding around us
As we drifted south down the bay
The gray up above and gray down below
Left us with nothing to say

So we drifted along in silence
'Til the tickle of life trickled in
And the rhythm began in the hiss of the sand
We were catching fire again

* Oh boatman, I am the river
I am the mountain and the sea
Oh boatman, taker and giver
Can you deliver me
I would forever run free

Yeah we finally caught up with legends
We were walking along side by side
We worked out a plan
To go out hand in hand
But the long trail just wasn't that wide

The water around us was freezing
We just laughed and threw ourselves in
And although we were old
The sting of that cold
Pumped up the feeling, here it is again

*Repeat

Oh I'm a message in a bottle
Drifting along on a deep blue sea
Waiting for some foreign shore
Ready for something to be

No longer afraid of falling
We cut the strings to the sky
We found level ground
And we put ourselves down
Amazing we all didn¹t die

We took each moment as given
By second by second they came
The ice and the sun and the thundering guns
Good God I was finally sane

*Repeat

Gee it's great after staying out late
Walking my baby back home
Arm in arm, over meadow and farm
Walking my baby back home

We go on harmonizing a song
Or she's reciting a poem
Owls fly by and they give me the eye
Walking my baby back home

We stop for awhile
She gives me a smile
And cuddles her cheek to my chest
We start to pet and that's when I get
Her powder all over my vest

After I kind of straighten my tie
She has to borrow my comb
It's one kiss then we continue again
Walking my baby back home

Oh money, oh money, oh where have you gone?
I need me some money to have me some fun
Gonna pick up my guitar and write me some hits
Build me some houses and blow 'em to bits
Gonna furnish them boldly with style and with taste
Generate truckloads of solid waste

Hangnail, hangnail, hangnail, hangnail
Have you ever seen a man with a hangnail?
Hangnail, hangnail, hangnail

Oh money, oh money, oh where have you gone?
I need me some money to have me some fun
Gonna pick up my guitar and write me some hits

Hangnail, hangnail, hangnail, hangnail
Have you ever seen a man with a hangnail?
Hangnail, hangnail, hangnail

Oh money, oh money, oh where have you gone?

Say it's only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me

And it's only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree (oh,yeah)
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me

Without your love
It's a honky-tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in the penny arcade

It's Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be (I know)
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me

I didn't know what time it was,
Then I found you.
Oh, what a lovely time it was,
And sublime it was too.

I didn't know what day it was,
You held my hand.
Warm like the month of May it was,
I'll say it was grand.

It was grand, to be alive, to be young,
To be mad, to be yours alone.
Grand to see your face, feel your touch,
Hear your voice say I'm all your own.

I didn't know what year it was,
Life had no prize.
I wanted love, and here it was,
Shining out of your eyes.

I'm wise,
And I know what time it is now.

So grand, to be alive, to be young,
To be mad, to be yours alone.
Grand to see your face, feel your touch,
Hear your voice say I'm all your own.

I didn't know what year it was,
Life had no prize.
I wanted love, and here it was,
Shining out of your eyes.

I'm wise,
And I know what time it is now.

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
But it don't snow here
It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby cry

He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I'm so hard to handle
I'm selfish and I'm sad
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh I wish I had a river
I made my baby say goodbye

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

There is a young cowboy he lives on the range
His horse and his cattle are his only companions
He works in the saddle and he sleeps in the canyons
Waiting for Summer, his pastures to change

And as the moon rises he sits by his fire
Thinking about women and glasses of beer
And closing his eyes as the doggies retire
He sings out a song which is soft but it's clear
As if maybe someone could hear

(Chorus)
Goodnight you moonlight ladies
Rockabye sweet baby James
Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose
Won't you let me go down in my dreams
And rockabye sweet baby James

Now the first of December was covered with snow
And so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston
Lord, the Berkshires seemed dream-like on account of that frosting
With ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go

There's a song that they sing when they take to the highway
A song that they sing when they take to the sea
A song that they sing of their home in the sky
Maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep
But singing works just fine for me

- Chorus -

Lonely by day, empty and cold, only to say lo and behold.
Deep in the night, down in my dreams, glorious sight this soul has seen.

There's a well on the hill, you just can't kill for Jesus, there's a well on the hill, let it be.
Don't build no heathen temples where the Lord has done laid his hand, now,
there's a well on the hill, let it be

Everyone's talking 'bout the gospel story, some shall sink and some shall rise.
Everyone's talking 'bout the train to glory. Long, long time till it gets here to you, baby.

There's a well on the hill, you just can't kill for Jesus, there's a well on the hill, let it be.
Don't build no heathen temples where the Lord has done laid his hand, now,
there's a well on the hill, let it be

Sunny skies sleeps in the morning, he doesn't know when to rise.
He closes his weary eyes upon the day, look at him yawning, throwing his morning hours away.
He knows how to ease down slowly, everything is fine in the end.
And you will be pleased to know that sunny skies hasn't a friend.

Sunny skies weeps in the evening, it doesn't much matter why.
I guess he just has to cry from time to time, everyone's leaving, sunny skies has to stay behind.

Still he knows how to ease down slowly, everything is fine in the end.
And you will be pleased to know that sunny skies hasn't a friend.

Sunny skies sleeps in the morning, he doesn't know when to rise.
He closes his weary eyes upon the day and throws it all away.

Looking at the snow and trees that grow outside my window,
looking at the things that pass me by.
Wondering if where I've been is worth the things I've been through,
ending with a friend named sunny skies.