100 Songs Read online

  She just sit there facin’ the hill

  She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

  Now, he’s hell-bent for destruction, he’s afraid and confused

  And his brain has been mismanaged with great skill

  All he believes are his eyes

  And his eyes, they just tell him lies

  But there’s a woman on my block

  Sitting there in a cold chill

  She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

  Ya may be a noisemaker, spirit maker

  Heartbreaker, backbreaker

  Leave no stone unturned

  May be an actor in a plot

  That might be all that you got

  ’Til your error you clearly learn

  Now he worships at an altar of a stagnant pool

  And when he sees his reflection, he’s fulfilled

  Oh, man is opposed to fair play

  He wants it all and he wants it his way

  Now, there’s a woman on my block

  She just sit there as the night grows still

  She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

  BLIND WILLIE MCTELL

  Seen the arrow on the doorpost

  Saying, “This land is condemned

  All the way from New Orleans

  To new Jerusalem”

  I traveled through East Texas

  Where many martyrs fell

  And I can tell you one thing

  Nobody can sing the blues

  Like Blind Willie McTell

  Well, I heard that hoot owl singing

  As they were taking down the tents

  The stars above the barren trees

  Were his only audience

  Them charcoal gypsy maidens

  Can strut their feathers well

  And I can tell you one thing

  Nobody can sing the blues

  Like Blind Willie McTell

  There’s a woman by the river

  With some fine young handsome man

  He’s dressed up like a squire

  Bootlegged whiskey in his hand

  Some of them died in the battle

  Some of them survived as well

  And I can tell you one thing

  Nobody can sing the blues

  Like Blind Willie McTell

  Well, God is in His heaven

  And we all want what’s His

  But power and greed and corruptible seed

  Seem to be all that there is

  I’m gazing out the window

  Of the St. James Hotel

  And I can tell you one thing

  Nobody can sing the blues

  Like Blind Willie McTell

  TIGHT CONNECTION TO MY HEART (HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY LOVE)

  Well, I had to move fast

  And I couldn’t with you around my neck

  I said I’d send for you and I did

  What did you expect?

  My hands are sweating

  And we haven’t even started yet

  I’ll go along with the charade

  Until I can think my way out

  I know it was all a big joke

  Whatever it was about

  Someday maybe

  I’ll remember to forget

  I’m gonna get my coat

  I feel the breath of a storm

  There’s something I’ve got to do tonight

  You go inside and stay warm

  Has anybody seen my love

  Has anybody seen my love

  Has anybody seen my love

  I don’t know

  Has anybody seen my love?

  You want to talk to me

  Go ahead and talk

  Whatever you got to say to me

  Won’t come as any shock

  I must be guilty of something

  You just whisper it into my ear

  Madame Butterfly

  She lulled me to sleep

  In a town without pity

  Where the water runs deep

  She said, “Be easy, baby

  There ain’t nothin’ worth stealin’ in here”

  You’re the one I’ve been looking for

  You’re the one that’s got the key

  But I can’t figure out whether I’m too good for you

  Or you’re too good for me

  Has anybody seen my love

  Has anybody seen my love

  Has anybody seen my love

  I don’t know

  Has anybody seen my love?

  Well, they’re not showing any lights tonight

  And there’s no moon

  There’s just a hot-blooded singer

  Singing “Memphis in June”

  While they’re beatin’ the devil out of a guy

  Who’s wearing a powder-blue wig

  Later he’ll be shot

  For resisting arrest

  I can still hear his voice crying

  In the wilderness

  What looks large from a distance

  Close up ain’t never that big

  Never could learn to drink that blood

  And call it wine

  Never could learn to hold you, love

  And call you mine

  DARK EYES

  Oh, the gentlemen are talking and the midnight moon is on the riverside

  They’re drinking up and walking and it is time for me to slide

  I live in another world where life and death are memorized

  Where the earth is strung with lovers’ pearls and all I see are dark eyes

  A cock is crowing far away and another soldier’s deep in prayer

  Some mother’s child has gone astray, she can’t find him anywhere

  But I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise

  Whom nature’s beast fears as they come and all I see are dark eyes

  They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes

  They tell me revenge is sweet and from where they stand, I’m sure it is

  But I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized

  All I feel is heat and flame and all I see are dark eyes

  Oh, the French girl, she’s in paradise and a drunken man is at the wheel

  Hunger pays a heavy price to the falling gods of speed and steel

  Oh, time is short and the days are sweet and passion rules the arrow that flies

  A million faces at my feet but all I see are dark eyes

  BROWNSVILLE GIRL

  (with Sam Shepard)

  Well, there was this movie I seen one time

  About a man riding ’cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck

  He was shot down by a hungry kid trying to make a name for himself

  The townspeople wanted to crush that kid down and string him up by the neck

  Well, the marshal, now he beat that kid to a bloody pulp

  As the dying gunfighter lay in the sun and gasped for his last breath

  “Turn him loose, let him go, let him say he outdrew me fair and square

  I want him to feel what it’s like to every moment face his death”

  Well, I keep seeing this stuff and it just comes a-rolling in

  And you know it blows right through me like a ball and chain

  You know I can’t believe we’ve lived so long and are still so far apart

  The memory of you keeps callin’ after me like a rollin’ train

  I can still see the day that you came to me on the painted desert

  In your busted down Ford and your platform heels

  I could never figure out why you chose that particular place to meet

  Ah, but you were right. It was perfect as I got in behind the wheel

  Well, we drove that car all night into San Anton’

  And we slept near the Alamo, your skin was so tender and soft

  Way down in Mexico you went out to find a doctor and you never came back

  I would have gone on after you but I did
n’t feel like letting my head get blown off

  Well, we’re drivin’ this car and the sun is comin’ up over the Rockies

  Now I know she ain’t you but she’s here and she’s got that dark rhythm in her soul

  But I’m too over the edge and I ain’t in the mood anymore to remember the times when I was your only man

  And she don’t want to remind me. She knows this car would go out of control

  Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls

  Teeth like pearls shining like the moon above

  Brownsville girl, show me all around the world

  Brownsville girl, you’re my honey love

  Well, we crossed the panhandle and then we headed towards Amarillo

  We pulled up where Henry Porter used to live. He owned a wreckin’ lot outside of town about a mile

  Ruby was in the backyard hanging clothes, she had her red hair tied back. She saw us come rolling up in a trail of dust

  She said, “Henry ain’t here but you can come on in, he’ll be back in a little while”

  Then she told us how times were tough and about how she was thinkin’ of bummin’ a ride back to from where she started

  But ya know, she changed the subject every time money came up

  She said, “Welcome to the land of the living dead.” You could tell she was so broken hearted

  She said, “Even the swap meets around here are getting pretty corrupt”

  “How far are y’all going?” Ruby asked us with a sigh

  “We’re going all the way ’til the wheels fall off and burn

  ’Til the sun peels the paint and the seat covers fade and the water moccasin dies”

  Ruby just smiled and said, “Ah, you know some babies never learn”

  Something about that movie though, well I just can’t get it out of my head

  But I can’t remember why I was in it or what part I was supposed to play

  All I remember about it was Gregory Peck and the way people moved

  And a lot of them seemed to be lookin’ my way

  Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls

  Teeth like pearls shining like the moon above

  Brownsville girl, show me all around the world

  Brownsville girl, you’re my honey love

  Well, they were looking for somebody with a pompadour

  I was crossin’ the street when shots rang out

  I didn’t know whether to duck or to run, so I ran

  “We got him cornered in the churchyard,” I heard somebody shout

  Well, you saw my picture in the Corpus Christi Tribune. Underneath it, it said, “A man with no alibi”

  You went out on a limb to testify for me, you said I was with you

  Then when I saw you break down in front of the judge and cry real tears

  It was the best acting I saw anybody do

  Now I’ve always been the kind of person that doesn’t like to trespass but sometimes you just find yourself over the line

  Oh if there’s an original thought out there, I could use it right now

  You know, I feel pretty good, but that ain’t sayin’ much. I could feel a whole lot better

  If you were just here by my side to show me how

  Well, I’m standin’ in line in the rain to see a movie starring Gregory Peck

  Yeah, but you know it’s not the one that I had in mind

  He’s got a new one out now, I don’t even know what it’s about

  But I’ll see him in anything so I’ll stand in line

  Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls

  Teeth like pearls shining like the moon above

  Brownsville girl, show me all around the world

  Brownsville girl, you’re my honey love

  You know, it’s funny how things never turn out the way you had ’em planned

  The only thing we knew for sure about Henry Porter is that his name wasn’t Henry Porter

  And you know there was somethin’ about you baby that I liked that was always too good for this world

  Just like you always said there was somethin’ about me you liked that I left behind in the French Quarter

  Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than people who are most content

  I don’t have any regrets, they can talk about me plenty when I’m gone

  You always said people don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent

  And I always said, “Hang on to me, baby, and let’s hope that the roof stays on”

  There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice

  I don’t remember who I was or where I was bound

  All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun and he was shot in the back

  Seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down

  Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls

  Teeth like pearls shining like the moon above

  Brownsville girl, show me all around the world

  Brownsville girl, you’re my honey love

  EVERYTHING IS BROKEN

  Broken lines, broken strings

  Broken threads, broken springs

  Broken idols, broken heads

  People sleeping in broken beds

  Ain’t no use jiving, ain’t no use joking

  Everything is broken

  Broken bottles, broken plates

  Broken switches, broken gates

  Broken dishes, broken parts

  Streets are filled with broken hearts

  Broken words never meant to be spoken

  Everything is broken

  Seem like every time you stop and turn around

  Something else just hit the ground

  Broken cutters, broken saws

  Broken buckles, broken laws

  Broken bodies, broken bones

  Broken voices on broken phones

  Take a deep breath, feel like you’re chokin’

  Everything is broken

  Every time you leave and go off someplace

  Things fall to pieces in my face

  Broken hands on broken ploughs

  Broken treaties, broken vows

  Broken pipes, broken tools

  People bending broken rules

  Hound dog howling, bullfrog croaking

  Everything is broken

  RING THEM BELLS

  Ring them bells, ye heathen

  From the city that dreams

  Ring them bells from the sanctuaries

  ’Cross the valleys and streams

  For they’re deep and they’re wide

  And the world’s on its side

  And time is running backwards

  And so is the bride

  Ring them bells St. Peter

  Where the four winds blow

  Ring them bells with an iron hand

  So the people will know

  Oh it’s rush hour now

  On the wheel and the plow

  And the sun is going down

  Upon the sacred cow

  Ring them bells Sweet Martha

  For the poor man’s son

  Ring them bells so the world will know

  That God is one

  Oh the shepherd is asleep

  Where the willows weep

  And the mountains are filled

  With lost sheep

  Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf

  Ring them bells for all of us who are left

  Ring them bells for the chosen few

  Who will judge the many when the game is through

  Ring them bells, for the time that flies

  For the child that cries

  When innocence dies

  Ring them bells St. Catherine

  From the top of the room

  Ring them from the fortress

  For the lilies that bloom

  Oh the lines are long

  And the fighting is str
ong

  And they’re breaking down the distance

  Between right and wrong

  SHOOTING STAR

  Seen a shooting star tonight

  And I thought of you

  You were trying to break into another world

  A world I never knew

  I always kind of wondered

  If you ever made it through

  Seen a shooting star tonight

  And I thought of you

  Seen a shooting star tonight

  And I thought of me

  If I was still the same

  If I ever became what you wanted me to be

  Did I miss the mark or overstep the line

  That only you could see?

  Seen a shooting star tonight

  And I thought of me

  Listen to the engine, listen to the bell

  As the last fire truck from hell

  Goes rolling by

  All good people are praying

  It’s the last temptation, the last account

  The last time you might hear the sermon on the mount

  The last radio is playing

  Seen a shooting star tonight

  Slip away

  Tomorrow will be

  Another day

  Guess it’s too late to say the things to you

  That you needed to hear me say

  Seen a shooting star tonight

  Slip away

  DIGNITY

  Fat man lookin’ in a blade of steel

  Thin man lookin’ at his last meal

  Hollow man lookin’ in a cottonfield

  For dignity

  Wise man lookin’ in a blade of grass

  Young man lookin’ in the shadows that pass

  Poor man lookin’ through painted glass

  For dignity

  Somebody got murdered on New Year’s Eve

  Somebody said dignity was the first to leave

  I went into the city, went into the town

  Went into the land of the midnight sun

  Searchin’ high, searchin’ low

  Searchin’ everywhere I know

  Askin’ the cops wherever I go

  Have you seen dignity?

  Blind man breakin’ out of a trance

  Puts both his hands in the pockets of chance

  Hopin’ to find one circumstance

  Of dignity

  I went to the wedding of Mary Lou

  She said, “I don’t want nobody see me talkin’ to you”

  Said she could get killed if she told me what she knew

  About dignity

  I went down where the vultures feed

  I would’ve gone deeper, but there wasn’t any need