Copyright © 1965, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1993, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 John S. Hardy (BMI)
the king's guardsman's greedy he's underpaid he knows tailor sew me a cloak of indigo that will disguise me well for the highwayman's game no one will suspect evil and the king's cross are the same i will pay you dearly with half of what i claim (chorus:) no said the tailor the tailor said no a cloak will not hide what your own eyes see a cloak will not change what is hidden underneath just as mine does not confine the idea of what i am i am not a tailor i'm a man the king's queen is hungry for the pleasures adultery knows tailor sew me a cloak of scarlet that will disguise me well for courting on the sly that will make the fever transparent to the night's eyes i will pay you dearly with favors and with sighs (repeat chorus) the king he is frightened with shadows behind his back tailor sew me a cloak of sable that will disguise me well from the daggers of my foes that will keep me far above those that are below i will pay you dearly if you fail on the gallows (repeat chorus)
a man lay dead on houston street but i could not feel the pain the path of least resistance is driving me insane and it is hard to please your conscience when all of love's a crime and it is hard to call the police with your last lousy dime (chorus:) i know you're just laughing 'cause there's nothing else to do but you might die laughing 'cause the joke's on you crazy alice was a would-be actress until she got bored with the lines and started practicing insanity when she got no valentines now she plays the part of a lover in the late-night pickup bars and i might go on home with her if i didn't mind the scars (repeat chorus) i never had a nathan's hotdog until the old man died so you couldn't call him famous you could only say he lied and the proof ain't in the pudding when there ain't no pudding at all and it's hard to take the kidding when there is nowhere left to fall (repeat chorus) my dreams they reek of madness and i try to understand how people can rely on sadness as the only card in their hand and you find out 'bout the weather when you get rain in your eyes and you find out who your friends are as a consolation prize (repeat chorus) a man lay dead on houston street he'd been dead for many days and they all walked by with nervous feet as though he was just drunk or dazed after all there was nothing they could do like donate time or money but i'm going on back to houston where they don't talk so funny (repeat chorus)
a leaf blows through my window was my only message of fall tears flow through my eyes like the songs drift through the wall but i do not hear the words there is no need with that tune i am locked up in feelings missing you prisons offer freedom it matters less when they lock the door than it is opened by force like rich force the poor but that open door is killing me because i cannot move i am locked up in feelings missing you poisons are for preachers who misinterpret verse seasons are for visitors who escape when things get worse change is all that's constant when i lie myself to sleep i am locked up in feelings missing you somewhere in the depths of reason is my reason for loving you where in hell is this heaven that tortures us like fools that crystal fire of morning half frozen in the frosty dew i am locked up in feelings missing you if there were not so many suitors chasing that hand as it flees seeming like so many tutors trying to teach where there is no need my dark lady softly whispers misinterpreted verse subdued i am locked up in feelings missing you
they say that he is crazy as he walks down the street to the place where the darkness makes your heart skip a beat but he's walkin' a little bit slower than all of his friends perhaps he knows more than he pretends but it is hard to argue with a parasite fool 'cause he uses his memories instead of his tools and the game that he's playin' it's got its own rules and he's getting away with murder well there's bats in the belfry i am proud to report where the clergy vacation at their midtown resorts but they keep them out of sight by changin' their tune and they are dyin' of fright just a little too soon and there is never a word about those far-away lands where another kind of hourglass has run out of sand and the ten-cent survivors they've got holes in their hands while they put 'em on trial for murder there's no sense in arguin' it is very plain to see about the comparative worthlessness of college degrees when you pay for your smiles with your green stamp books and land jobs according to how your bottom half looks yet along comes this man with his limerick jokes and dissertations of grandeur on the tobacco he smokes and his conscience is wrapped up in edgar allan poe and other tales of murder but i'm trying to be fair to all that is involved at least till the other half of this mystery is solved when the pedestal is moved and the balance is lost and the failures and the mistrials all add to the cost they got a new rule book that always says no to the kids who want to stay up for the late late show but they keep them readin' comic books 'cause they never show the true color of murder so let's say a prayer for organized crime as the patron saint of the commerce of havin' a good time we'll send someone out to investigate the dirt though the last one he came back just a little bit hurt they found him on the beach with his head in the sand and you know he wasn't out there just to dig some clams and though the suicide note was in his own hand to me it smells like murder well they run you through changes 'til you run out of breath by feeding you cigarettes and gasoline and other forms of death and then they force you into buyin' all their worthless machines that can do everything better except for cleanin' the latrines but depression ain't the worry of most of these folks they're worried about their worth as the butt of these jokes and losin' their jobs permanently as a part of the hoax and forcin' them to resort to murder well franklin and fulton and alexander graham bell along with einstein can all go to hell 'cause you can't ask the computers to feed you a meal and you can't turn on the tv set to see how you feel and the man who invented that horrible bomb is probably as american as george washington's mom and uncle sam's changed his name to uncle tom to avoid the rap for murder
time is but the distance that we have brought between our friends while men are wrought of wisdom and violence wrought of song we followed 'long the stone walls when day was close to done lyin' in our promise down where the rabbits run the birds that fly so freely have never fought the wind landing on a dogwood amongst the flowers and kin but soon that they be hungry within the search there come the cats that stalk the raven down where the rabbits run the path we followed freely it has followed into fall the fields we left fallow to follow our own call but the colors burn so naked blistered by the sun the mirror of my madness down where the rabbits run i hope that you will never ask me to raise an arm or kill nor force me to be forceful nor bar my windowsill for the men who talk of reason have reason for their guns but there is never talk of treason down where the rabbits run
you don't have to run away to join the circus the circus is right here and it swallowed you whole you don't have to fake a fall to make us nervous by drinking from an empty bowl but that tightrope walk is just danger on the take and it's a lot more safe than bein' burned at the stake and those crocodile tears are just a little bit fake you've got your net if you lose control (chorus:) out of control, out of control cast your fate to the wind tie your saints to their sins you know you're never gonna win 'til you're out of control they're handin' away free tickets for the show they're payin' off reporters and people in the know the band wagon is rollin' in a screen of smoke the emperor has definitely got his new clothes but his story got borin' the second time around and the crowds stayed home when the rain fell down and his fame faded quiet without no sound you know that nature was what they could not control (repeat chorus) saint joseph and mary at the end of their rope dreamin' sacrilegious messages to send to the pope resistance not submission is our only hope you know that faith can take its toll rememberin' a time when another child was born no means of support or time to warn no conception of what it means to be torn when your father says you are out of control (repeat chorus) the freedom fighter is fakin' his friendship with a fifty-state waltz of ethnic roles foundin' his fortune on faces called hip who know that he's ahead in the polls but somethin' is missing in that down-home smile like judas kissin' babies ahead of his trial and grass-roots religion ain't a martyr to style you know the vote is what they cannot control (repeat chorus) the pagan rain falls out in left field red hair and hotdogs and a wounded goal it was the last of the ninth in the early summer heat before the factory claimed his soul and those achin' voices vasectomizing dreams cut off from vision with midnight screams banishin' blessing like a wounded priest when his life fell out of their control (repeat chorus) the animal uncaged in a rat-black coat in a typewriter romance with eyes like coal findin' his fortune in a rainbow boat alchemist treason for his pot of gold i am with you he cried as if he just made up his mind the reluctant reaper is shakin' with desire but tomorrow is loose on the horizon of fire i would pay you but i lost control (repeat chorus)
it's a bitter fruit to swallow for a child who loved her sweets and it's a hard crime to follow down the dark and the dirty streets but they say that she was teasin' that's how she was in the wrong they say that crime has got no reason she is just a victim of the dawn in the shadows of the gallows where the smirking lawyers shine and the lies and innuendoes keep that man from doin' time and the money tips the balance where justice once belonged and the verdict of that jury is just the victim of the dawn now the shattered life she is leadin' is just written off as fate and every heart that's bleeding is just a mirror of her hate and we can all feel bad together preachin' that twenty-second psalm and resign ourselves forever as just the victims of the dawn now all our hopes for changin' are just goin' down the drain burnin' books in west virginia or sayin' prayers at notre dame perhaps the priests who die in brothels are the saviors of us all or their hastily dressed up bodies are just the victims of the dawn
the wind was blowin' i could almost see the stars city moon was lyin' low i do believe she's scarred there is a pain in this gloom that caught me off guard the fire of day is gone and left the night charred and the bums just sift through the ashes (chorus:) open up your arms big mama i am all alone new york you're a mother but you're home to nine million hungry souls who'd be lost without you misery is lost like the bricks on the street covered over like the rain cools the heat back in awhile like the cop on the beat who's polishin' his badge so he seems to be neat and not let the folks know he is nervous (repeat chorus) whoever told you that a child feels no pain all that is left for him is to die or go insane all my shame is for him we made him a thief who says hail mary is different than hail to the chief but pity i reserve for his people (repeat chorus) there ain't no more fair fights there's just degrees of hate there ain't no more forty-fives just cop thirty-eights you'd move west again but it's a little late the west is movin' east again i guess that cycle is fate but working can also be called a habit (repeat chorus) grandma taught sunday school with an indiana soul played that broke church piano with fingers made of gold but on each sunday when she was down the road grandpa got to thinking 'bout his children leavin' home and took out a bottle of religion (repeat chorus)
last autumn's leaves cling to your feet like they're frozen in the salty tears the waves they trespass on freedom breakin' over the casualties of years the shells lay broken and scattered remnants of a beauty once so frail a passion unleashed and unshackled scarring all the uncharted trails (chorus:) but i would love to take you sailin' over that uncertain sea where the waves wash away all your vanity and though that feeling is foreign to you on the borderline you are left alone i would love to build a boat that would carry you home the tide it only gains and then recedes it is never constant for complaint there is no assurance of what you need only what you want and what you ain't the chill it is spoken on the shore when first indulged upon the sand but the ocean it is only like a whore who's been used to many a man (repeat chorus) so bring your blanket close to the edge so close you can feel the ocean's wealth the rhythm of the moon's only mistress that teases you into being something else the storm it is forging in its wisdom on the lazy and the beggared guilt for those who take the sea for granted wash away the sand on which their love is built (repeat chorus)
each time i leave this goddamn town i swear it will be the last time the last time i let myself be swallowed by the misery the self pity that surround me the people all claim that they don't believe in believing then they bleed you and squeeze you into believing that it is all a part of freedom but the last time turns into the next time so silently in shame and i find myself back here again i don't believe i could ever love another place quite the same each time i stand with my backside to your doorway i swear it will be the last time the last time i let your catlike independence and innocence play with my insecurity i don't care to let myself be taken by that thief called time that drags you into an unmade bed to waste those tender moments so far from your desire but the last time tums into the next time so silently in shame and i find myself beside you again i don't believe i could ever love another woman quite the same each time i lift this glass to quench this thirst i swear it will be the last time the last time i find myself drunk and disorderly unable to control my sense of time i don't care to let myself be taken to that all-night lost and found but each time i lift this cup of life i find no place to set it down but the last time turns into the next time so silently in shame and i find myself drunk on life again i don't believe i could ever love another cup quite the same
night was fallin' and the cold wind was freezin' at my face everyone was just lookin' for a place to die the rich bums go home to their unhappy matrons while the poor ones head on down to the railroad station but the guard he knows them all by heart he's seen it all before my time he's the one kind word in an unkind place and he knows that face value is just simply value saving face (chorus:) but soon them big wheels will come rollin' through and they might complain if you're found lyin' here them big wheels with the gray flannel suits only fear the ones that point out the truth now i ain't no drunkard and i ain't no piece of trash i'm just a hungry traveler who's a little short on cash and i might stumble and a-fumble for the right words to say but there ain't no way what's in my pocket's gonna get me through today (repeat chorus) but the waitress she knows it all by heart she's seen it all before my time she knows that hunger has a friend that don't waste no time and so when no one is a-lookin' she's a friend of mine (repeat chorus) now we don't want no business man dyin' of fright just 'cause he finds out that there is more than one place to spend the night some day they'll be dead right or they'll be dead wrong and there is more than one place to sleep when they are dead and gone (repeat chorus)
this is the last weary road i'm gonna travel the last weary night in a cheep hotel and it is hard to kneel down and pray and thank the lord for another day when the mornin' only means you missed another meal (chorus:) go tell my mama that i was wrong to break her heart go tell my papa that he was right right from the start and go tell them patron saints that they forgot to watch out for where i roamed and go tell the savior i'm coming home (repeat chorus) well i must admit it was my childhood dream to travel from the stories that you hear of wine, women and song but if the wine don't blur your eyes the women might make you realize that they're takin' off their clothes just to put you on (repeat chorus) this is the last weary road i'm gonna travel the last weary night in a cheap hotel and i'm feelin' all i've got are my feelings all tied up in knots and the mornin' just might find me halfway to hell (repeat chorus)
today Al Cormier is going to die he's lain on his death bed for many a night breaking the heart of carolyn his child but the winds of his life they are no longer wild he was only a woodsman he worked with his hands yet he's known as an honest and helpful man his wealth that he gathered are many strong friends who passed by his grave when he came to his end there was old joe "the roofer" a penniless bum who squandered his life on whiskey and on rum but whenever he was down and his pocket was a-hurtin' he would run to al cormier and al cormier would give him work there was glista the judge who came covered with robes so deep and distinguished and so very cold but he was only one of the thousands who did cry and his tears they fell harder than his gavel that night well you talk of the kingdoms and the powerful pen of men who would like to be followed by man but to the working man these dreams are just faraway games for they've neither the time or the money to play i watched young carolyn down on her knees as her father was dying of a dreadful disease and i thought of the wealth spent on wars and on hate but death is only the living main's fate
one of the bricks has fallen from the wall that held the names of those who died and the stains of their blood were whitewashed by the flood the backlash and the pride of the survivors who lied and now the leaves have fallen and the city's lost its only trace of god and the wind that sweeps the streets also chills the feet and the churches lie in ruins wherever the armies have trod now the chains break for the last time it's not enough just to do the best you can but i only wish you'd care as much as the others but it's a lot to ask for concern is a lonely thing now that the soldiers have fallen they lay drunk in the scum and the mud and the wine won't stop the rain and it won't bring their friends back again it won't ease the pain or the sight of the blood now that the leaders have fallen we cannot waste the time to even mourn for flags are made of dust and armor made to rust and faith that dies with ease is faith that was never born now that the seeds have fallen like a sign for the beginning of the end and the summer lasts 'til fall 'til the reaper makes his call and the harvest brings a death but a death that comes as friend
fortunes melt the same as ice troubles curse the crying eyes feelings change and break with the brand-new day faster than a prairie fire moonlit nights of hot desire winter is just a season gone astray the gang is on the tv show they didn't know which way to go 'cause the bossman and the hitman are the same the feeling of the family's gone who is going to say it's wrong when they don't even know if the victim's got a name (chorus:) spider starts to spin its web causing you to lose your head wondering exactly where to go there are plenty of ways to overrule if you just recall the golden rule you cannot drive down the middle of the road it ain't so bad being so small watching all the heroes fall samson's just a freak who lost his hair of all the diseases lovers cure shame is the worst he must endure and don juan only wants his share the newspapers tell the tale they say the story is not for sale except for the lawyers' paid advice and the devil claims it just ain't fair fire has kept him unaware that anyone can walk on water as cold as ice (repeat chorus) there just ain't no more home out where the buffalo roam the sunset's far too gray to hold its own and it ain't that i hate your color tv your cadillac or your wife to be it just must be awfully hard to live alone the news is on the radio they still don't know which way to go although they tell you exactly where it's at a man complains that he's too fat a woman claims she lost her cat how i wish that i could have troubles like that (repeat chorus)