100 Songs Read online

  After losin’ every battle

  I woke up on the roadside, daydreamin’ ’bout the way things sometimes are

  Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin’ me see stars

  You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies

  One day you’ll be in the ditch, flies buzzin’ around your eyes

  Blood on your saddle

  Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb

  Blowing through the curtains in your room

  Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth

  You’re an idiot, babe

  It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe

  It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart

  You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn’t enough to change my heart

  Now everything’s a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped

  What’s good is bad, what’s bad is good, you’ll find out when you reach the top

  You’re on the bottom

  I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind

  I can’t remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed, your eyes don’t look into mine

  The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone-faced while the building burned

  I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the springtime turned

  Slowly into autumn

  Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull

  From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol

  Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth

  You’re an idiot, babe

  It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe

  I can’t feel you anymore, I can’t even touch the books you’ve read

  Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin’ I was somebody else instead

  Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy

  I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory

  And all your ragin’ glory

  I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I’m finally free

  I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me

  You’ll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above

  And I’ll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love

  And it makes me feel so sorry

  Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats

  Blowing through the letters that we wrote

  Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves

  We’re idiots, babe

  It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves

  SHELTER FROM THE STORM

  ’Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood

  When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud

  I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  And if I pass this way again, you can rest assured

  I’ll always do my best for her, on that I give my word

  In a world of steel-eyed death, and men who are fighting to be warm

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  Not a word was spoke between us, there was little risk involved

  Everything up to that point had been left unresolved

  Try imagining a place where it’s always safe and warm

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  I was burned out from exhaustion, buried in the hail

  Poisoned in the bushes an’ blown out on the trail

  Hunted like a crocodile, ravaged in the corn

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  Suddenly I turned around and she was standin’ there

  With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair

  She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  Now there’s a wall between us, somethin’ there’s been lost

  I took too much for granted, got my signals crossed

  Just to think that it all began on a long-forgotten morn

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  Well, the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount

  But nothing really matters much, it’s doom alone that counts

  And the one-eyed undertaker, he blows a futile horn

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  I’ve heard newborn babies wailin’ like a mournin’ dove

  And old men with broken teeth stranded without love

  Do I understand your question, man, is it hopeless and forlorn?

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  In a little hilltop village, they gambled for my clothes

  I bargained for salvation an’ they gave me a lethal dose

  I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  Well, I’m livin’ in a foreign country but I’m bound to cross the line

  Beauty walks a razor’s edge, someday I’ll make it mine

  If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born

  “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”

  HURRICANE

  (with Jacques Levy)

  Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night

  Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall

  She sees the bartender in a pool of blood

  Cries out, “My God, they killed them all!”

  Here comes the story of the Hurricane

  The man the authorities came to blame

  For somethin’ that he never done

  Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been

  The champion of the world

  Three bodies lyin’ there does Patty see

  And another man named Bello, movin’ around mysteriously

  “I didn’t do it,” he says, and he throws up his hands

  “I was only robbin’ the register, I hope you understand

  I saw them leavin’,” he says, and he stops

  “One of us had better call up the cops”

  And so Patty calls the cops

  And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin’

  In the hot New Jersey night

  Meanwhile, far away in another part of town

  Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin’ around

  Number one contender for the middleweight crown

  Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down

  When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road

  Just like the time before and the time before that

  In Paterson that’s just the way things go

  If you’re black you might as well not show up on the street

  ’Less you wanna draw the heat

  Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops

  Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin’ around

  He said, “I saw two men runnin’ out, they looked like middleweights

  They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates”

  And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head

  Cop said, “Wait a minute, boys, this one’s not dead”

  So they took him to the infirmary

  And though this man could hardly see

  They told him that he could identify the guilty men

  Four in the mornin’ and they haul Rubin in

  Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs

  The wounded man looks up through his
one dyin’ eye

  Says, “Wha’d you bring him in here for? He ain’t the guy!”

  Yes, here’s the story of the Hurricane

  The man the authorities came to blame

  For somethin’ that he never done

  Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been

  The champion of the world

  Four months later, the ghettos are in flame

  Rubin’s in South America, fightin’ for his name

  While Arthur Dexter Bradley’s still in the robbery game

  And the cops are puttin’ the screws to him, lookin’ for somebody to blame

  “Remember that murder that happened in a bar?”

  “Remember you said you saw the getaway car?”

  “You think you’d like to play ball with the law?”

  “Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin’ that night?”

  “Don’t forget that you are white”

  Arthur Dexter Bradley said, “I’m really not sure”

  Cops said, “A poor boy like you could use a break

  We got you for the motel job and we’re talkin’ to your friend Bello

  Now you don’t wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow

  You’ll be doin’ society a favor

  That sonofabitch is brave and gettin’ braver

  We want to put his ass in stir

  We want to pin this triple murder on him

  He ain’t no Gentleman Jim”

  Rubin could take a man out with just one punch

  But he never did like to talk about it all that much

  It’s my work, he’d say, and I do it for pay

  And when it’s over I’d just as soon go on my way

  Up to some paradise

  Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice

  And ride a horse along a trail

  But then they took him to the jailhouse

  Where they try to turn a man into a mouse

  All of Rubin’s cards were marked in advance

  The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance

  The judge made Rubin’s witnesses drunkards from the slums

  To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum

  And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger

  No one doubted that he pulled the trigger

  And though they could not produce the gun

  The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed

  And the all-white jury agreed

  Rubin Carter was falsely tried

  The crime was murder “one,” guess who testified?

  Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied

  And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride

  How can the life of such a man

  Be in the palm of some fool’s hand?

  To see him obviously framed

  Couldn’t help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land

  Where justice is a game

  Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties

  Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise

  While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell

  An innocent man in a living hell

  That’s the story of the Hurricane

  But it won’t be over till they clear his name

  And give him back the time he’s done

  Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been

  The champion of the world

  ROMANCE IN DURANGO

  (with Jacques Levy)

  Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun

  Dust on my face and my cape

  Me and Magdalena on the run

  I think this time we shall escape

  Sold my guitar to the baker’s son

  For a few crumbs and a place to hide

  But I can get another one

  And I’ll play for Magdalena as we ride

  No Ilores, mi querida

  Dios nos vigila

  Soon the horse will take us to Durango

  Agarrame, mi vida

  Soon the desert will be gone

  Soon you will be dancing the fandango

  Past the Aztec ruins and the ghosts of our people

  Hoofbeats like castanets on stone

  At night I dream of bells in the village steeple

  Then I see the bloody face of Ramon

  Was it me that shot him down in the cantina

  Was it my hand that held the gun?

  Come, let us fly, my Magdalena

  The dogs are barking and what’s done is done

  No Ilores, mi querida

  Dios nos vigila

  Soon the horse will take us to Durango

  Agarrame, mi vida

  Soon the desert will be gone

  Soon you will be dancing the fandango

  At the corrida we’ll sit in the shade

  And watch the young torero stand alone

  We’ll drink tequila where our grandfathers stayed

  When they rode with Villa into Torreón

  Then the padre will recite the prayers of old

  In the little church this side of town

  I will wear new boots and an earring of gold

  You’ll shine with diamonds in your wedding gown

  The way is long but the end is near

  Already the fiesta has begun

  The face of God will appear

  With His serpent eyes of obsidian

  No Ilores, mi querida

  Dio nos vigila

  Soon the horse will take us to Durango

  Agarrame, mi vida

  Soon the desert will be gone

  Soon you will be dancing the fandango

  Was that the thunder that I heard?

  My head is vibrating, I feel a sharp pain

  Come sit by me, don’t say a word

  Oh, can it be that I am slain?

  Quick, Magdalena, take my gun

  Look up in the hills, that flash of light

  Aim well my little one

  We may not make it through the night

  No Ilores, mi querida

  Dios nos vigila

  Soon the horse will take us to Durango

  Agarrame, mi vida

  Soon the desert will be gone

  Soon you will be dancing the fandango

  CHANGING OF THE GUARDS

  Sixteen years

  Sixteen banners united over the field

  Where the good shepherd grieves

  Desperate men, desperate women divided

  Spreading their wings ’neath the falling leaves

  Fortune calls

  I stepped forth from the shadows, to the marketplace

  Merchants and thieves, hungry for power, my last deal gone down

  She’s smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born

  On midsummer’s eve, near the tower

  The cold-blooded moon

  The captain waits above the celebration

  Sending his thoughts to a beloved maid

  Whose ebony face is beyond communication

  The captain is down but still believing that his love will be repaid

  They shaved her head

  She was torn between Jupiter and Apollo

  A messenger arrived with a black nightingale

  I seen her on the stairs and I couldn’t help but follow

  Follow her down past the fountain where they lifted her veil

  I stumbled to my feet

  I rode past destruction in the ditches

  With the stitches still mending ’neath a heart-shaped tattoo

  Renegade priests and treacherous young witches

  Were handing out the flowers that I’d given to you

  The palace of mirrors

  Where dog soldiers are reflected

  The endless road and the wailing of chimes

  The empty rooms where her memory is protected

  Where the angels’ voices whisper to the souls of previous times
r />   She wakes him up

  Forty-eight hours later, the sun is breaking

  Near broken chains, mountain laurel and rolling rocks

  She’s begging to know what measures he now will be taking

  He’s pulling her down and she’s clutching on to his long golden locks

  Gentlemen, he said

  I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes

  I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards

  But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination

  Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards

  Peace will come

  With tranquillity and splendor on the wheels of fire

  But will bring us no reward when her false idols fall

  And cruel death surrenders with its pale ghost retreating

  Between the King and the Queen of Swords

  SEñOR (TALES OF YANKEE POWER)

  Señor, señor, do you know where we’re headin’?

  Lincoln County Road or Armageddon?

  Seems like I been down this way before

  Is there any truth in that, señor?

  Señor, señor, do you know where she is hidin’?

  How long are we gonna be ridin’?

  How long must I keep my eyes glued to the door?

  Will there be any comfort there, señor?

  There’s a wicked wind still blowin’ on that upper deck

  There’s an iron cross still hanging down from around her neck

  There’s a marchin’ band still playin’ in that vacant lot

  Where she held me in her arms one time and said, “Forget me not”

  Señor, señor, I can see that painted wagon

  I can smell the tail of the dragon

  Can’t stand the suspense anymore

  Can you tell me who to contact here, señor?

  Well, the last thing I remember before I stripped and kneeled

  Was that trainload of fools bogged down in a magnetic field

  A gypsy with a broken flag and a flashing ring

  Said, “Son, this ain’t a dream no more, it’s the real thing”

  Señor, señor, you know their hearts is as hard as leather

  Well, give me a minute, let me get it together

  I just gotta pick myself up off the floor

  I’m ready when you are, señor

  Señor, señor, let’s disconnect these cables

  Overturn these tables

  This place don’t make sense to me no more

  Can you tell me what we’re waiting for, señor?

  GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY

  You may be an ambassador to England or France