Prodigal Son (1994)

Outtakes

Disk 1


Lady and the Doctor

The lady keeps the doctor in a place inside her pocket
The circle made of silver like a wreath
The doctor gives the strange love but the lady she don't knock it
Cause she's glad to get a piece of anything
Cause the lady needs the medicine he brings
And the doctor needs the lady to see
The doctor keeps the lady in a page in a book
on the history of communicable disease
The lady's been to school, she lets the doctor play it cool
He writes the script, she follows his lead
'Cause the doctor writes a love story so fine
The lady's learned to read between the lines
Sometime
The doctor, he takes house calls where he visits the animals in their 
	stalls shoots them full of juice and then goes home.
The lady hits the supermart where she rides the aisles in a shopping cart
'till she feels she's played enough of the part to set by ooh,
The lady feels its enough to just be good
But the doctor has his need to be understood
The doctor feels he's so abused and the lady feels she's so unused
and demands the doctor tends her daily farce
Oh, but the doctor just can't do it
cause long ago the lady blew it And they're too old now 
	to make another start
The lady feels the doctor's made of stone
But the doctor's heart, it just ain't found a home.


4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

Sandy, the fireworks are hailin' over Little Eden tonight,
Spockin' an empty light into all those stoney faces left stranded on this warm July,
Down in town the circuit's full of switchblade lovers so fast, so shiney, so
    sharp,
As the wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past dark,
And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers
    on the shore,
Chasin' all them silly New York virgins by the score.

Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us,
Those pier lights, our carnival life forever,
Oh love me tonight for I may never see you again,
Hey, Sandy girl, my baby.

Now the greasers, they tramp the streets or get busted for sleepin' on the
    beach all night,
Them boys in their high heels, ah Sandy, their skins are so white,
And me, I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades bangin' them pleasure
    machines,
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk where they all promised to
    unsnap their jeans,
And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag, I got on it last
    night and my shirt got caught,
And it kept me spinnin', they didn't think I'd ever get off.

Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us,
Those pier lights, our carnival life on the water,
Runnin' laughin' underneath the boardwalk with the boss's daughter,
I remember, Sandy girl, my baby.

Sandy, the waitress I was seein' lost her desire for me,
I spoke with her last night, she said she won't set herself on fire for me
    anymore,
She worked that joint under the boardwalk, she was always the girl you saw
    boppin' down the beach with the radio,
Kids say last night she was dressed like a star in one of the cheap little
    seaside bars and I saw her parked with her loverboy out on the Kokomo,
Did you hear, the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes
    better than they do,
For me, this boardwalk life is through, you ought to quit this scene too.

Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us,
Those pier lights, our carnival life forever,
Oh, love me tonight and I promise I'll love you forever,
Oh, I mean it Sandy girl.


Prodigal Son

In a place where outlaws are banned from the range
On a day that mountains have fallen to foes
In a land where boys are forbidden to grow
and metal is the only master

Where the highway ends and the desert breaks
And buildings are bent from great earthquakes
And statesmen crawl on their bellies like snakes
And feed off the public hunger

In a land where skyscrapers scratch the sky
And delinquent daughters to their mothers still lie
Papa stands on the corner, he wants to beat the drum
Welcome home, my prodigal son

When rivers run raging through city streets
And great eagles have fallen from their lofty peaks
And policemen moonlight as sideshow freaks
for the final crime is committed

When presidents ride in Ford Mustangs
And the black man releases his Cadillac fangs
And you're checked out in bed as the landlord bangs
A young girl next door for the rent

Where telegraph wires are attached to your mind
And delinquent daughters to their mother still lie
And papa stands on the corner, waiting to beat the drum
Welcome home, my prodigal son

When the telephone rings and falls off the hook
And your legs have been stolen by some defense department crook
And you're starting to think about writing a book
But now you won't pledge allegiance to anything

And the maid comes in with coffee and cake
In a low cut dress she wore just for your sake
You explain you're not dead, and she takes it as a compliment
Sticks out her tongue and asks for requests

In a land where skyscrapers scratch the sky
And delinquent daughters to their mothers still lie
Papa waits on the corner, waiting to beat the drum
Welcome home, my prodigal son

And the mercury men with hydraulic joints
They bribe with a smile and hold you up in the alley at pen point
And they ask you to bend over that they may anoint
you with the holy water of your profession

When the line between love and hate gets so thin
And your body takes over when your mind gives in
And your lady lover demands that you pin her to the floor
But it's too late, your reflexes are shot

And the man on the corner with the nervous twitch
Whispers 'hey, how'd you like to buy a nice bitch?
She's a thirty-eight, and I got her loaded in all six'
He keeps talking, and you just keep walking

And you reach for the sky, and get stuck on a steeple
you reach out for love but you get lost in the people
You run through the canyon, screaming like an eagle
And you fall face first in the mud

In a land where skyscrapers scratch the sky
And delinquent daughters have their own children do lie
And papa stands on the corner, watching the parade, he wants to beat the drum
Welcome home
Welcome home, my prodigal son
Welcome home, my prodigal son


Visitation at Fort Horn

Behind the walls, where heat lightning falls
On five-starred map-faced princes 
The buffalo man shoots at tin cans
Turns and shouts 'Children, blow your bridges'
In death row halls, where dust men stall
For time's an enemy and a friend
At night, jackals crawl from the cracks in the walls
The salvation is never spoken

Morning sickness breaks the garrison gates
The cavalry cries for treason
The soldier strokes his pony 
And goes to shine the Captain's sword
In this young boy's eyes lie reason

But then the Sergeant burst in, says
"Captain, I caught a prisoner, Captain. A prisoner, what ho?
The Captain looks up and says, 'Let her go."
'But Captain, she commands the lightships that patrol the sea around the
rainbow tips
Whose bagpipes wail unbroken
She haunts the night and the dawn and the light
On her sounds and words, your cavalry's choking'
The Captain says, 'Have no fear, boys, for what you hear
Because danger can't be spoken'

The war wind crackles and I hear the rustle of shackles
From the stockade door bursts Merlin
His eyes red and swollen, like they've been pushed into the sun
His robe's aflame and burning
He jumps a horse, tries to get away, but gets caught in his irons,
Tangled in his irons, and he falls to the ground, his neck was broken
His spirit rises high into the western sky
The magician lies an empty token

The sergeant walks over and kicks his body and says
"Captain, he's dead, uh, I think he's dead, uh, what should we do with him?'
The Captain says, 'Hang him.'
For those live moments on this earth are well-spent
And I can see his body sure well-bent
It's his magic that must be broken

And now night cradles low
The penniless weed plays raw filth in the Captain's corner
With anvils spread wide, the Captain glides
Each blow to scare her, not hurt her
She spits with truth at the Captain's boots
But he holds his rage suspended

The Sergeant comes stinking of soldiers' gin
And cries 'Captain, the storm, she blows unending'
Whoa, and the lightning cracked 
And the sky was hacked by dagger rain
It was torn, and the yard was charged into a raging sea
And the Captain ran crazily
For the first time in his life, in the Captain's heart, fear was born

So the Captain storms out on the stoop
Panics when he sees Merlin's hung body stretched by the neck
Silhouetted on his door
The sergeant screams 'Captain, look high, look to the sky
Some whirling, swirling emission'
The Captain falls to his knees, crying silent pleas 
Because he knows, he knows, 
And he thinks to himself,
'A magician'


Growin'up

I stood stonelike at midnight suspended in my masquerade
I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade
I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch
I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said`Sit down'I stood up
Ooh-ooh growin' up

The flag of piracy flew from my mast my sails were set wing to wing 
I had a jukebox graduate for first mate she couldn't sail but she sure could 
   sing
I pushed B-52 and bombed `em with the blues with my gear set stubborn on 
   standing
I broke all the rules strafed my old high school never once gave thought to 
   landing
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said`Come down'I threw up
Ooh-ooh growin' up

I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere and you know it's really hard 
   to hold your breath
I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared I was the cosmic kid
Well my feet they finally took root in the earth but I got me a nice little 
   place in the stars
I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said`Sit down'I stood up
Ooh-ooh growin' up
Ooh-ooh growin' up


The Angel

The angel rides with hunch-backed children, poison oozing from his engine
Wieldin' love as a lethal weapon, on his way to hubcap heaven
Baseball cards poked in his spokes, his boots in oil he's patiently soaked
He roadside attendant nervously jokes as the angel's tires strokes his
  precious pavement

The interstate's choked with nomadic hordes in Volkswagen vans with full
  running boards dragging great anchors
Followin' dead-end signs into the sores
The angel rides by humpin' his hunk metal whore

Madison Avenue's claim to fame in a trainer bra with eyes like rain
She rubs against the weather-beaten frame and asks the angel for his name

Off in the distance the marble dome reflects across the flatlands with a
   naked feel off into parts unknown
The woman strokes his polished chrome and lies beside the angel's bones


Song to the Orphans

The multitude assembled
And tried to make the noise
Them blank blind poet generals
And restless loud white boys
But times grew thin and the axis
Was left somehow incomplete
Where instead of child lions
Was left aging junkie sheep

And how many wasted have I seen
Signed Hollywood or bust
Whoa, left to ride those ever ghostly
Arizona gusts
Oh, cheerleader tramps
And kids with big amps
Sounding helpless in the void
High society vamps 
and ex-heavyweight champs
Mistaking soot for soil

So, break me now big mama
As Old Faithful breaks the day
Believe me, my good Linda 
Let the aurora shine the way
Oh, the confederacy's, she's in my name now
And the hounds are held at bay
Oh, the axis needs a stronger arm
Do you feel your muscle play

The door step blanket weaver
Oh, Madonna pushes bells
From house to house, I see her
Giving last kisses and wishing well
To every gypsy mystic and hero
That all the babies might find a place
Who've been lost to true fathers and mothers
On their time travels deep in space

Now the sons return for fathers
But the fathers are all gone
And the lost souls search for saviors
But saviors don't last long
Those aimless, quest less renegade brats
Who live their lives in song
Run the length of a candle
And in a good night whisper 
And a puff are gone

So, break me now big mama
As Old Faithful breaks the day
Believe me, my good Linda 
Help is on the way
Oh, the confederacy's, she's in my name now
And the hounds are held at bay
Oh, the axis needs a stronger arm
I can feel my muscles play

The missions are filled with hermits
looking for a friend
The terraces are filled with cat men
looking for a way in
And orphans abandoned on silver mountains
Or junked in celestial alleyways
Wait for that old tramp dog man Moses
'Cause he takes in all the strays

He told me don't grow on empty legends, boy
Or lonely cradle songs 
'Cause Billy the Kid was just a bowery boy
who made a living twirling his gun
And this night, she'll be long and lanky
And she'll speak in a mother tongue
And then he lullabyed the refugees
With an amplifier's hum

So, break me now big mama
As Old Faithful breaks the day
Believe me, my good Linda 
Help is on the way
Oh, the confederacy's, she's in our name now
And the hounds are held at bay
The axis needs a stronger arm
Do you feel your muscles play
Do you feel your muscles play?


For You

Princess cards she sends me with her regards
Barroom eyes shine vacancy, to see her you gotta look hard
Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted
To her Cheshire smile. I'll stand on file, she's all I ever wanted
But you let your blue walls get in the way of these facts
Honey, get your carpetbaggers off my back
You wouldn't even give me time to cover my tracks
You said "Here's your mirror and your ball and jacks"
But they're not what I came for, and I'm sure you see that too
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free

Crawl into my ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Reveal yourself all now to me girl while you've got the strength to speak
`Cause they're waiting for you at Bellevue with their oxygen masks
But I could give it all to you now if only you could ask
And don't call for your surgeon even he says it's too late
It's not your lungs this time, it's your heart that holds your fate
Don't give me money, honey, I don't want it back
You and your pony face and your union jack
Well take your local joker and teach him how to act
I swear I was never that way even when I really cracked
Didn't you think I knew that you were born with the power of a locomotive
Able tomleap tall buildings in a single bound?
And your Chelsea suicide with no apparent motive
You could laugh and cry in a single sound

And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how I kept you waiting when it was my turn to be the god?

You were not quite half so proud when I found you broken on the beach
Remember how I poured salt on your tongue and hung just out of reach
And the band they played the homecoming theme as I caressed your cheek
They ragged, jagged melody she still clings to me like a leach
But that medal you wore on your chest always got in the way
Like a little girl with a traphy so soft to buy her way
We were both hitchhikers but you had your ear tuned to the roar
Of some metal-tempered engine on an alien, distant shore
So you, left to find a better reason than the one we were living for
And it's not that nursery mouth I came back for
It's not the way you're stretched out on the floor
`Cause I've broken all your windows and I've rammed through all your doors
And who am I to ask you to lick my sores? And you should know that's true
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but you did not need my urgency
I came for you, for you, I came for you, but your life was one long emergency
And your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free


Hey Santa Ana

From the tin rooftop the little boy did watch
The procession down through town 
Through the museum where Daniel whupped the Devil 
With them boys from the underground
Where the Giants of Science fight for tight control
Over the wildlands of New Mexico
Sam Houston's ghost's in Texas fighting for his soul
And the townsfolk rest uneasy beneath the guns of Kid Colt
And the kid says "Hey, where's Santa Ana?"
He who could romance the dumb into talking
Take a chance with me tonight, my contessa
If it don't work out I ain't lame, I can walk
Now some folks think cancer's taken to the streets of this town
Well Sandy eats her candy and then lays her money down
Them cats are in from the canyons to strut their stuff in town
But there's only secret sinners here
Lord, there's only secret thieves
Only a fool would try to save
What the desert chose to leave
And hey there senorita
With your playboys in their Spanish bandanas
French cream won't soften those boots, baby
French kisses will not break your heart

Oh painted night set free with light
Glows outside the Rainbow Saloon
Matching braces with a Spanish lady
'Neath a graduation moon
No more colleges, no more coronations
Some punk's idea of a teenage nation
Has forced Santa Ana to change his station 
From soldier to cartoon 
And the Giants of Science spend their days and nights
Not with wives, not with lovers, but searchin' for the lights
They spotted in the desert on their helicoptor flights
Just to be lost in the dust and the night
Hey my contessa, in your juke joint rags you always bring candy for the kids
Come waltz with me tonight senorita
'Cause only fools are alone on a night like this


Jazz Musician

Well, it's Saturday night in New Jersey
and you're feeling kind of wet
The summer heat is getting you worried
So you look as innocent as you can as you sweat
You got a woman on the other side of the law
But it ain't cool to go see her yet
Because her ex-old man's a city cop
Thinks he's auditioning on Dragnet
So you stand on the corner looking kind of torn
And in the Blue Light Lounge where death was born
The jazz musician blows his horn

You pop a letter to your baby in Richmond
Cause you're feeling pretty down
She's kind of small, but at least she's a rich one
She needs you real bad, and sometimes that's all that counts
You had a teenage band and flying hands 
And oh, you was pretty big in the south
But you passed out on stage and flew into a rage
When someone tried to revive you mouth to mouth
You felt a pain in your chest as you passed the crowd
And in the Blue Light Lounge, the lights went down
And the audience slipped silently out of town

Well, the Atheist, he burns you for laughing out loud
'Cause he can't understand what you're saying
And the word's out, everybody knows
When they threw him in the hole, oh, he went out praying
But man, that's your record he's playing
And the park is dark, but the sidewalk's bright
and lined with the light of the living
No, and Mama won't you let me walk you home tonight
Because it's a big bad city, and this boy's got a lot for the giving

I was stranded in the jungle
First state's witness at a company killing
I'm clutching my high school diploma, shuffling my feet
They promised sixty bucks a week and top billing
Oh, you can live a life of love in New York 
But only if you don't love living
I met this taxi driver who rides me around town
He revels in telling tales of his backseat women
But now, out on the corner, there's no room to move
'Cause everyone's trying so hard to groove
And in the Blue Light Lounge, the jazz musician plays it blue


Camilla Horn

Camilla Horne, she was born a long, long time ago.
She Came From Germany to the U.S.A.
And was acclaimed as the next Garbo.
They came to her on their knees, to bless them, 
	caress them and tell them what they need.

But oh, oh, she did not know.
And so she took her place at the bar.
Just another fallen star.




Disk 2


Seaside Bar Song

Well Billy bought a Chevy '40 coupe deluxe
Chrome wheels, stick shift, give her gas, pop the clutch
Girls on the corner like a diamond they shine
Someday Billy I'm gonna make 'em all mine
Hey girl, you wanna ride in Daddy's Cadillac 
'Cause I love the way your long hair falls down your back
Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley's at the Seaside Bar
We'll run barefoot in the sand and listen to his guitar
You say your mama's gonna meet you when the morning comes
Yeah, papa's gonna beat you 'cause he knows you're out on the run
I'm gonna live a life of love and tonight you're the one
The highway is alive tonight so baby do not be frightened
There's something about a pretty girl on a sweet summer night
That gets this boy excited
The radio man finally understands and plays you something you can move to
You lay back, cut loose your drive power
Your girl leans over says, "Daddy can you turn that radio up any louder?" 
The juke joint's hummin', everybody came down
Little Willie and the Soul Brooms layin' all his stuff now
Well don't let that daylight steal your soul
Get in your wheels and roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, roll
Oh that's alright now
Oh go on, go on, go on
Oh mama's gonna meet you when the morning comes
And your daddy's gonna beat you 'cause he knows you're out on the run
But I don't care, I wanna live a life of love while the night's still young


Arabian Night

Shrieks of Sheiks 
as they run across the movie screen
A thousand sand dune soldiers 
led by an Arabian Queen
And the harem girls move like fancy dancers
In my dirty dreams
And I wake up on the floor
Holding on the bed lamp

And Mama comes in, she screams
Hey, you've been out with that tramp again last night
You know that silver sequined ivory black bitch
The one that Mama don't like
But Mama, she sings me them moon time melodies
With this great top-forty hook
She shrugs her shoulders, she don't care
Papa just stares and says Mary, look
The girl's all right
The girl's all right 

And there's a tenseness in the air
Don't you know, can't you feel
'Cause there's something hanging there
Pull back the mist and reveal
And even if you fear what you hear
Don't conceal
Cause if what Mama feels is too real
She just claims she don't feel it

So, come out from behind your bunkers
'Cause the lift-off's been a bust
Oh, Papa's gone and Mama's dead
And parade in my rocket thrust
You're alone now for the first time
Well, that's all right
'Cause the fear will completely disappear
Come the Arabian Night

The soundman smiles and turns the dials
to set the meter reading rising
He pulls the singer's voice from out of his pocket
To see if the audience likes it 
Oh, and in the very first row sits sweet Jenny Roo
With a bell on her shoe and she wants him to mike it
He flicks a switch, but Jenny moves too fast
And the audience sways to the sound of her shotgun blast
The manager comes from running out behind stage
Check the band's arms for bullet holes, make them roll up their sleeves
The drummer shots himself with cyanide, then asks to be relieved
And me, I said well it's, hey it's crazy in here
Which is the stage door out of here, I got to get up tomorrow morning for work
The promoter says 'Man, once you're in, they all lead out
What's the matter man, ain't you heard

There's a war going on on the outside
And I'm paying you to sing like a bird
So get in and get tough
Or get up and get out
Because things are too tight
I told him don't worry, everything's going to loosen up
Come the Arabian Night
Come the Arabian Night

So, I get back in my bed 
But outside my window I hear another gang fight
It's Duke and the boys against the Devil's best men
And both sides have drawn their knives
But Duke, he's a well known knife fighter
And with on quick jab, he brings the devil down
He smiles because he knows there's a high bounty on devils
In any good God fearing town

Well, they say Duke sold the devil to some preacher in Pennsylvania
To exhibit on his alter Christmas night
Now, the devil's eyes, they're still red with fire
As long as Duke walks up right
And the devil swears there's going to be a showdown come sundown
On the Arabian night
Oh, the Arabian, the Arabian Night


Family Song

Well, you know how when you're young, there's such a distance between you and
your family
You just can't see things from the same point of view
Papa wants a lawyer and mama, she wants an author
And all you want is for them to want you

Well I saw a lot of bad signs and we had some real bad times back on the east
coast
And I guess you could say it took California to bring us close
It was a lot of hard living and some stone cold women on the east coast
And I saw my papa turn away when I needed him most

Oh and California, she's an angel, oh so heavenly dressed
Oh and the Pacific, she's a woman, the lord must've loved her best
I got a California rainbow, come to give them thunderclouds a rest
Oh and the mountain is my friend now, she put me to her test

Well, you know every father has dreams and schemes for his own kid
And dreaming, it ain't been declared no capital crime
Well, I just hope that when I grow up and have my own kids
I'll love them all I can and let them make their own minds

Now, you know how a mother can hold the son through understanding
And my father, he once held me close by crying
Oh and my mama's love, it don't ever leave me standing
And papa's love just leaves me smiling

Oh and my mama, she's a rainbow, you ought to see her on Sundays when she's
dressed
Oh and my papa, he's a good man, ooh, he gives me and mama his best
My mama, she's a rainbow, come to give them thunderclouds a rest
And my family is my friend now, California put us to the test.


New York City Serenade

Billy, he's down by the railroad tracks, sittin' low in the back seat of his
    Cadillac,
Diamond Jackie, she's so intact, she falls so softly beneath him,
Jackie's heels are stacked, Billy's got cleats on his boots,
Together they're gonna boogaloo down Broadway and come back home with the loot,
It's midnight in Manhattan, this is no time to get cute, it's a mad dog's
    promenade,
So walk tall, or baby don't walk at all.

Fish lady, fish lady, fish lady she baits them tenement walls,
She won't take cornerboys, ain't got no money, and they're so easy,
I said, "Hey baby won't you take my hand, walk me down Broadway,
I'm a young man and I talk real loud, yeah, baby walk real proud for you.
So shake it away, so shake away your street life, shake away your city life,
And hook up to the train, hook up to the night train, hook it up hook up to the,
    hook up to the train,
But I know that she won't take the train, no she won't take the train,
No she won't take the train, no she won't take the train
She's afraid them tracks are gonna slow her down,
And when she turns this boy'll be gone
So long, sometimes you just gotta walk on.

Hey vibes man, hey jazz man play me your serenade
Any deeper blue and you're playin' in your grave
Save your notes, don't spend 'em on the blues boy,
Save your notes, don't spend 'em on the darlin' yearlin' sharp boy,
Straight for the church note ringin', vibes man sting a trash can
Listen to your junk man, listen to your junk man,
Listen to your junk man, listen to your junk man,
He's singin', singin', singin', singin'.
All dressed up in satin, walkin' past the alley.
Watch out for you junk man, watch out for your junk man,
Watch out for your junk man.


Evacuatin of the West

It was on a day the cowboys were banned from the range
Metal touched the world as a master
They rode their ponies down into cities of gold 
To leave them forever after

Now the sun was swollen, red and old
The earth, it was windy, dark and cold
Where the highway ends, the desert takes its toll
So dusty, red and angry

It was a time when men died out on the prairie
From not having a decent friend
At night, the ghosts of them old Rough Riders 
Was a-howling on canyon winds
You can hear 'em crying
Good God, I think they're dying

And them rangers down in Dallas
Had all but given it up and left
And those that hung on hoping 
Were trying their best to... to forget 

The way those outlaws and desperados
right from the cheapest to the best
Rode in on ponies made of skin and bones
Gave up their rusty guns and went back home 

And the Governor was sent down from population control 
And martial law was passed 
Riverboat gamblers put their money on faith
For the time for hope had passed

In the cold blue light of the desert night 
There was a thousand starry ships 
And men came down from still I don't know where
With death on their fingertips

Now there's no more kings in Texas
I swear they rounded up each and every one
And oh, that line of Conestoga
reached from the Rocky Mountains into that old dead sun

Now Anna Maria walks the plains alone
Last of a struggling people 
She thinks of all those outlaws who once reached for the sky
And got stuck up on a steeple

Ooh, you can hear them crying
Good God, I think they're dying
Ooh, in the wind, George, you can hear them sigh


Jesse

Oh Jesse, you better start thinkin' about saving your neck
Oh Jesse, you put on that leather jacket like you put on respect
you got cleats on your boots and a woman who shoots everytime you shuffle
out the stage door
And darling Jesse, do you know what its all for?
Ah Jesse, your manager brought by them eight by ten glossies of your band
Oh Jesse, he says you wear cross around your neck and come on
with nails in your hands
With your insides showing and your New York band blowin' them
old Chicago blues
Ah Jesse, can't you see you're the one Jesse
Ah Sonny, this time its you
Well Jesse, your child is slobbering all over your pants
And Jesse, your wife has fallen into a trance
She's got eyes that tell no lies
She's seen so many wars
Ah be a good boy Jesse, tell her she don't have to look no more.
Well Jesse, he knows all the tricks to get the crowd reeling
Oh and Jesse, ya he rocks 'em with that old soul feeling
And he walks off the stage in a self-adoring haze
and gets shoved right out the door
Whoa Jesse, can't you see now boy that that's what its all about Jesse
Not even time to do that old played out encore
Whoa Jesse


Kitty's Back

Catlong sighs holdin' Kitty's black tooth,
She left to marry some top cat, ain't it the cold truth,
And there hasn't been a tally since Sally left the alley,
Since Kitty left with Big Pretty things have got pretty thin,
It's tight on this fence since them young dudes are musclin' in.

Jack Knife cries cause Baby's in a bundle,
She goes runnin' nightly, lightly through the jungle,
And them tin cans are explodin' out of the ninety degree heat,
Cat somehow lost his baby down on Bleeker Street,
It's sad but it sure is true
Cat shrugs his shoulders, sits back and sighs.

Catlong lies back bent on a trash can,
Flashin' lights cut the night, dude in the white says he's the man,
Well you better move fast when you're young or you're not long around,
Cat somehow lost his Kitty in the city pound,
So get right, get tight, get down.
Who's that down at the end of the alley, she's been gone so long,
Here she comes, here she comes, here she comes, here she comes,
Kitty's back in town, here she comes now, Kitty's back in town,
Cat knows Kitty's been untrue and that she left him for a city dude,
Well she's so soft, she's so blue,
When he looks into her eyes he just sits back and sighs,
OOh what can I do, ooh what can I do?
OOh what can I do, ohh what can I do? Alright.
OOh alright, ooh alright, ooh alright, ooh alright.


War Nurse

She was just another war nurse
she could strike a noble pose
Caring for our young boys 
when a bullet laid them low
She would hover over them and cry
and pull the covers over them when they died
She was just another lonesome lady
Lover, sister of the gun
And though France would call her darling
she was nurse 'neath the rising sun

She knew no hells or heavens
or harbors or havens
She was every mother, sister, wife and lover
whose love a soldier boy was saving
She believed in the birth of the broad sword
though she was not a shielded one
And though France would call her darling
She was nurse 'neath the rising son

She was a soldier's shrapnel sweetheart
Direct from the combat zone
She was a reincarnation of the virgin Mary
she was the hooker down in San Antoine
And though her heart was somewhere in Iceland
Commanding the dawn patrol
Blessed in this blood and stitched into these bones
The war nurse left her soul
Blessed in this blood and stitched into these bones
The war nurse left her soul


Eloise

Well, you know how when you're young, there's such a distance between you and
your family
You just can't see things from the same point of view
Papa wants a lawyer and mama, she wants an author
And all you want is for them to want you

Well I saw a lot of bad signs and we had some real bad times back on the east
coast
And I guess you could say it took California to bring us close
It was a lot of hard living and some stone cold women on the east coast
And I saw my papa turn away when I needed him most

Oh and California, she's an angel, oh so heavenly dressed
Oh and the Pacific, she's a woman, the lord must've loved her best
I got a California rainbow, come to give them thunderclouds a rest
Oh and the mountain is my friend now, she put me to her test

Well, you know every father has dreams and schemes for his own kid
And dreaming, it ain't been declared no capital crime
Well, I just hope that when I grow up and have my own kids
I'll love them all I can and let them make their own minds

Now, you know how a mother can hold the son through understanding
And my father, he once held me close by crying
Oh and my mama's love, it don't ever leave me standing
And papa's love just leaves me smiling

Oh and my mama, she's a rainbow, you ought to see her on Sundays when she's
dressed
Oh and my papa, he's a good man, ooh, he gives me and mama his best
My mama, she's a rainbow, come to give them thunderclouds a rest
And my family is my friend now, California put us to the test.


Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?

Hey bus driver keep the change, bless your children, give them names,
Don't trust men who walk with canes,
Drink this and you'll grow wings on your feet
Broadway Mary, Joan Fontaine, advertiser on a downtown train
Christmas crier bustin' cane, He's in love again.

Where dock worker's dreams mix with panther's schemes to someday own the rodeo
Tainted women in Vistavision perform for out-of-state kids at the late show.

Wizard imps and sweat sock pimps, interstellar mongrel nymphs
Rex said that lady left him limp. Love's like that (sure it is).
Queen of diamonds, ace of spades newly discovered lovers of the everglades
They take out a full page ad in the trades to announce their arrival
And Mary Lou she found out how to cope, she rides to heaven on a gyroscope
The Daily News asks her for the dope
She says "Man, the dope's that there's still hope"

Senorita, Spanish rose, wipes her eyes and blows her nose
Uptown in Harlem she throw a rose to some lucky, young matador.


Marie

Marie, she comes to me in the twilight
When the wind blows down across the river
So cold, the fishermen cry
She rapes me in a rage of rainbow violence
Till my bare nerves, they sing
Like the strings of a violin
And the room seeps into a savage silence
Soaked in colours, red as blood, blue as night
And Marie she skins me alive
Carves her initials in my side
Lures me with her purrs and cuts me with her knife
And the horses pound like thunder
They bolt like lightning on her range
She feels she's going under and she zeros in the rein
She's so strange

Well, Marie, you know, she's the queen of all the stallions
And I'm her prince of mules
And one of her principal fools
Marie, she's got the claws of a falcon
And she's perched on my shoulder, and slowly digging in
But she, oh she can be so strange sometimes
Like at night ...
Or when the neighbors come to dine
Marie, she skins me alive
Burns her initials in my hide and then leaves me all alone
Branded to the bone

And my heart pounds like her horses
Oh, stampeding on the range
Marie knows all the sources
And she shoots me with her pain
And for her, I take it, Lord, down in my veins

And I watch her dance like some berserk fairy
All across the concrete prairies of Bleecker Street
Marie, she can be so strange
But she's the only lonely cowgirl on my range


Randolph Street (Master of Electricity)


I remember yesterday 
When I'd sit and watch the hound dogs play
Howling at the chinaman
Now yesterday's just a busted balloon

Life was young and things were easy
Days were short, nights were warm
Times were good, hate was shallow
Love was crazy and I had it in my marrow
I swear that I've seen your face 
somewhere back in that time and in that place
Do you remember?

The old house stood like World War II
With just two rooms and a hall to be used
The lady was lean, just slightly unclean
With a heart of cold silver and gold

The kitchen smelled of kerosene
Ceiling hung down unveiling rotted beams
And the man, they said his work, it could've hung in the Louvre
But now he sits around all day because his left arm won't move
He was a master of the art of electricity
He lectured on tubes and circuitry
He was self-employed but he could never see
his way into the light

He had a room full of switches, and dials and lights
And a head full of clouds and eyes full of sight
And when it got dark, I could hear his heart beat
Like a mother in the night
She stood like a guardian, ready to give everything up
If I asked for a sword and her blood in a cup
But there was just the time when I asked for too much
She sighed because she could not give it
We used to sit beneath the tree
Just the lady, the radio man and me
And I think it was the winter of '63
That the man went away and let us be

It was early on an August day
That the lady decided she too must go away
Her heart it seems could not pay
The price for what her body was buying

I come home from school and I found the note
I went into the kitchen and lit the old stove
With senses set on overload, I turned on the TV
I spent the rest of the afternoon
Watching all my old cartoons
And through the hall and across the porch
As the sun surrendered like a crying torch


NOTES