100 Songs Read online

  You may like to gamble, you might like to dance

  You may be the heavyweight champion of the world

  You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

  You’re gonna have to serve somebody

  Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

  You might be a rock ’n’ roll addict prancing on the stage

  You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage

  You may be a businessman or some high-degree thief

  They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

  You’re gonna have to serve somebody

  Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

  You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk

  You may be the head of some big TV network

  You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame

  You may be living in another country under another name

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

  You’re gonna have to serve somebody

  Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

  You may be a construction worker working on a home

  You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome

  You might own guns and you might even own tanks

  You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

  You’re gonna have to serve somebody

  Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

  You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride

  You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side

  You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair

  You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

  You’re gonna have to serve somebody

  Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

  Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk

  Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk

  You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread

  You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

  You’re gonna have to serve somebody

  Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

  You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy

  You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy

  You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray

  You may call me anything but no matter what you say

  You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed

  You’re gonna have to serve somebody

  Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

  But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

  SLOW TRAIN

  Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted

  Can’t help but wonder what’s happenin’ to my companions

  Are they lost or are they found

  Have they counted the cost it’ll take to bring down

  All their earthly principles they’re gonna have to abandon?

  There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

  I had a woman down in Alabama

  She was a backwoods girl, but she sure was realistic

  She said, “Boy, without a doubt

  Have to quit your mess and straighten out

  You could die down here, be just another accident statistic”

  There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

  All that foreign oil controlling American soil

  Look around you, it’s just bound to make you embarrassed

  Sheiks walkin’ around like kings

  Wearing fancy jewels and nose rings

  Deciding America’s future from Amsterdam and to Paris

  And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

  Man’s ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don’t apply no more

  You can’t rely no more to be standin’ around waitin’

  In the home of the brave

  Jefferson turnin’ over in his grave

  Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan

  And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

  Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters

  Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition

  But the enemy I see

  Wears a cloak of decency

  All nonbelievers and men stealers talkin’ in the name of religion

  And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

  People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting

  Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it

  They say lose your inhibitions

  Follow your own ambitions

  They talk about a life of brotherly love show me someone who knows how to live it

  There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

  Well, my baby went to Illinois with some bad-talkin’ boy she could destroy

  A real suicide case, but there was nothin’ I could do to stop it

  I don’t care about economy

  I don’t care about astronomy

  But it sure do bother me to see my loved ones turning into puppets

  There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

  WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?

  You have given everything to me

  What can I do for You?

  You have given me eyes to see

  What can I do for You?

  Pulled me out of bondage and You made me renewed inside

  Filled up a hunger that had always been denied

  Opened up a door no man can shut and You opened it up so wide

  And You’ve chosen me to be among the few

  What can I do for You?

  You have laid down Your life for me

  What can I do for You?

  You have explained every mystery

  What can I do for You?

  Soon as a man is born, you know the sparks begin to fly

  He gets wise in his own eyes and he’s made to believe a lie

  Who would deliver him from the death he’s bound to die?

  Well, You’ve done it all and there’s no more anyone can pretend to do

  What can I do for You?

  You have given all there is to give

  What can I do for You?

  You have given me life to live

  How can I live for You?

  I know all about poison, I know all about fiery darts

  I don’t care how rough the road is, show me where it starts

  Whatever pleases You, tell it to my heart

  Well, I don’t deserve it but I sure did make it through

  What can I do for You?

  THE GROOM’S STILL WAITING AT THE ALTAR

  Prayed in the ghetto with my face in the cement

  Heard the last moan of a boxer, seen the massacre of the innocent

  Felt around for the light switch, became nauseated

  She was walking down the hallway while the walls deteriorated

  West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar

  I see the turning of the page

  Curtain risin’ on a new age

  See the groom still waitin’ at the altar

  Try to be pure at heart, they arrest you for robberyr />
  Mistake your shyness for aloofness, your silence for snobbery

  Got the message this morning, the one that was sent to me

  About the madness of becomin’ what one was never meant to be

  West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar

  I see the burning of the stage

  Curtain risin’ on a new age

  See the groom still waitin’ at the altar

  Don’t know what I can say about Claudette that wouldn’t come back to haunt me

  Finally had to give her up ’bout the time she began to want me

  But I know God has mercy on them who are slandered and humiliated

  I’d a-done anything for that woman if she didn’t make me feel so obligated

  West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar

  I see the burning of the cage

  Curtain risin’ on a new stage

  See the groom still waitin’ at the altar

  Put your hand on my head, baby, do I have a temperature?

  I see people who are supposed to know better standin’ around like furniture

  There’s a wall between you and what you want and you got to leap it

  Tonight you got the power to take it, tomorrow you won’t have the power to keep it

  West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar

  I see the burning of the stage

  Curtain risin’ on a new age

  See the groom still waitin’ at the altar

  Cities on fire, phones out of order

  They’re killing nuns and soldiers, there’s fighting on the border

  What can I say about Claudette? Ain’t seen her since January

  She could be respectfully married or running a whorehouse in Buenos Aires

  West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar

  I see the burning of the stage

  Curtain risin’ on a new age

  See the groom still waitin’ at the altar

  EVERY GRAIN OF SAND

  In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need

  When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed

  There’s a dyin’ voice within me reaching out somewhere

  Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair

  Don’t have the inclination to look back on any mistake

  Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break

  In the fury of the moment I can see the Master’s hand

  In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand

  Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear

  Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer

  The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way

  To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay

  I gaze into the doorway of temptation’s angry flame

  And every time I pass that way I always hear my name

  Then onward in my journey I come to understand

  That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand

  I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night

  In the violence of a summer’s dream, in the chill of a wintry light

  In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space

  In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face

  I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea

  Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me

  I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man

  Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

  CARIBBEAN WIND

  She was the rose of Sharon from paradise lost

  From the city of seven hills near the place of the cross

  I was playing a show in Miami in the theater of divine comedy

  Told about Jesus, told about the rain

  She told me about the jungle where her brothers were slain

  By a man who danced on the roof of the embassy

  Was she a child or a woman, I can’t say which

  From one to another she could easily switch

  We went into the wall to where the long arm of the law could not reach

  Could I been used and played as a pawn?

  It certainly was possible as the gay night wore on

  Where men bathed in perfume and celebrated free speech

  And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico

  Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire

  And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free

  Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire

  She looked into my soul through the clothes that I wore

  She said, “We got a mutual friend over by the door

  And you know he’s got our best interest in mind”

  He was well connected but her heart was a snare

  And she had left him to die in there

  There were payments due and he was a little behind

  The cry of the peacock, flies buzz my head

  Ceiling fan broken, there’s a heat in my bed

  Street band playing “Nearer My God to Thee”

  We met at the steeple where the mission bells ring

  She said, “I know what you’re thinking, but there ain’t a thing

  You can do about it, so let us just agree to agree”

  And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico

  Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire

  And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free

  Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire

  Atlantic City by the cold grey sea

  I hear a voice crying, “Daddy,” I always think it’s for me

  But it’s only the silence in the buttermilk hills that call

  Every new messenger brings evil report

  ’Bout armies on the march and time that is short

  And famines and earthquakes and hatred written upon walls

  Would I have married her? I don’t know, I suppose

  She had bells in her braids and they hung to her toes

  But I kept hearing my name and had to be movin’ on

  I saw screws break loose, saw the devil pound tin

  I saw a house in the country being torn from within

  I heard my ancestors calling from the land far beyond

  And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico

  Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire

  And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free

  Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire

  JOKERMAN

  Standing on the waters casting your bread

  While the eyes of the idol with the iron head are glowing

  Distant ships sailing into the mist

  You were born with a snake in both of your fists while a hurricane was blowing

  Freedom just around the corner for you

  But with the truth so far off, what good will it do?

  Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune

  Bird fly high by the light of the moon

  Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

  So swiftly the sun sets in the sky

  You rise up and say goodbye to no one

  Fools rush in where angels fear to tread

  Both of their futures, so full of dread, you don’t show one

  Shedding off one more layer of skin

  Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within

  Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune

  Bird fly high by the light of the moon

  Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

  You’re a man of the mountains, you can walk on the clouds

  Manipulator of crowds, you’re a dream twister

  You’re going to Sodom and Gomorrah

  But what do you care? Ain’t nobody there would want to marry y
our sister

  Friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame

  You look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name

  Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune

  Bird fly high by the light of the moon

  Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

  Well, the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy

  The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers

  In the smoke of the twilight on a milk-white steed

  Michelangelo indeed could’ve carved out your features

  Resting in the fields, far from the turbulent space

  Half asleep near the stars with a small dog licking your face

  Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune

  Bird fly high by the light of the moon

  Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

  Well, the rifleman’s stalking the sick and the lame

  Preacherman seeks the same, who’ll get there first is uncertain

  Nightsticks and water cannons, tear gas, padlocks

  Molotov cocktails and rocks behind every curtain

  False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin

  Only a matter of time ’til night comes steppin’ in

  Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune

  Bird fly high by the light of the moon

  Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

  It’s a shadowy world, skies are slippery grey

  A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet

  He’ll put the priest in his pocket, put the blade to the heat

  Take the motherless children off the street and place them at the feet of a harlot

  Oh, Jokerman, you know what he wants

  Oh, Jokerman, you don’t show any response

  Jokerman dance to the nightingale tune

  Bird fly high by the light of the moon

  Oh, oh, oh, Jokerman

  LICENSE TO KILL

  Man thinks ’cause he rules the earth he can do with it as he please

  And if things don’t change soon, he will

  Oh, man has invented his doom

  First step was touching the moon

  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?

  Now, they take him and they teach him and they groom him for life

  And they set him on a path where he’s bound to get ill

  Then they bury him with stars

  Sell his body like they do used cars

  Now, there’s a woman on my block