Jim White

The days of our innocence and grace flow by
The smiles we wear upon our face blow by

Oh, the sweet wine of youth
Goes sour over time
Seems like the more that you lose
The more you ache to find

A town called Amen
Like a bright-eyed smile
For some long lost friend
It's a town called Amen

Sit at the window sill
See the children rushing by
Come a flood of summer rain
Strange increments of time

How the wild engines run
Burning shadows from our minds
Lord when the purging gets done
I sure pray what's left behind

Is a town called Amen
Like a bright-eyed smile
For some long lost friend
It's a town called Amen

Come lay down on this bed
Hey, close your weary eyes
Like the clouds above our heads
Life slowly passes by

Did you kiss the dog you love
When you were a little child?
Will you lay in the arms of
Some sweet reverie a while?

In a town called Amen
Like a bright sunrise
Hey, if you open up your eyes
You're in a town called Amen, Amen

Sometimes you gotta take off your shoes
Sit right down in the middle of the road
Kick off the dust and deal with the news
That you are blind

These dreams are familiar
These are places we've been before
Somewhere in the wild blue yonder
Lies a path where blindly we go

And I ain't counting on nobody
Ain't counting on my fingers and toes
Ain't counting on no superstition
'Cause my proposition is we are blind

These dreams are familiar
These are places we've been before
Somewhere in the wild blue yonder
Lies a path where blindly we go

And on the day that I play my last hand
As I set out blindly for some promised land
One thing I know, I'll hope it's dreams not eyes
Take a soul where it wants to go

These dreams are familiar
These are places we've been before
Somewhere in the wild blue yonder
Lies a path where blindly we go
Blindly we go, blindly we go

Dixie is a scourge and a scar
And a girl in my heart and a state of mind
Jesus is the man with a plan
He's a short haired Mexican friend of mine

This small town crowd should've dragged you down
Can't leave your past behind
Wipers in the rain tap out time
Coming up on a new state line

I wanna be a jailbird
From the prison of my own damn mind
Gonna get me a fast car
Set out and see what I can find

Brick up the well of tears and disappear
Leave myself behind
Gonna be a jailbird
From the prison of my own damn mind

Midnight, take a short cut
Through the downtown cemetery
No stepping on graves
Check the statue of the Virgin Mary

She's catching moonlight in the shadows
Revealing spider webs
Can you see the black widow
Hung between our lady's hands?

I wanna be a jailbird
From the prison of my own damn mind
Gonna get me a fast car
Set out and see what I can find

Brick up the well of tears and disappear
Leave myself behind
Gonna be a jailbird
From the prison of my own damn mind

Now used to be when I was young
I was so hungry for oblivion
My thoughts would linger
Like fingers in a deadly web

But in time as sorrow showed it's face
In kind I learned to ache for grace
To work and pray to one day
Be delivered whole, alive and free

I wanna be a jailbird
From the prison of my own damn mind
Gonna get me a fast car
Set out and see what I can find

Brick up the well of tears and disappear
Leave myself behind
Gonna be a jailbird
From the prison of my own damn mind

When too much beauty numbs the mind
When what you see ain't what you get
When digging deeper what you find
Is skeletons best left behind

We go crash into the sun
Ain't enough bullets in this here gun
We got cash, now who's talking trash?
Jumping up and down on the bus downtown

We are brash, we all fall down
We take out our brains and shake 'em all around
It's a gas, a real kick in the pants
Everywhere we go we bring the house down shouting
'Hoo, hoo, who do you know and do you blow minds?'

And when the monkey see what the monkey do
Some fool's checking out the chump in you
They got magic hoops for jumping through
You let some space case say false is true

We go crash into the sun
Ain't enough bullets in this here gun
We got cash, now who's talking trash?
Jumping up and down on the bus downtown

We are brash, we all fall down
We take out our brains and shake 'em all around
It's a gas, a real kick in the pants
Everywhere we go we bring the house down shouting
'Hoo, hoo, who do you know and do you blow minds?'
Do you blow minds?"

The further you go the deeper it gets
With so much to remember, it's fun to forget
Surrender your mind to life's sweet blindfold
Hey, don't think twice just do as you're told

Go on and crash into the sun
Ain't enough bullets in this here gun
We got cash, now who's talking trash?
Jumping up and down and the bus downtown

We are brash, we all fall down
We take out our brains and shake 'em all around
It's a gas, a real kick in the pants
Everywhere we go we bring the house down

We go crash into the sun
Ain't enough bullets in this here gun
We got cash, now who's talking trash?
Jumping up and down on the bus downtown

We are brash, we all fall down
We take out our brains and shake 'em all around
It's a gas, a real kick in the pants
Everywhere we go we bring the house down shouting
'Hoo, who do you know, hoo, who do you know?'
Hoo, who do you know?"

And do you, and do you, and do you, and do you, and do you
And do you, and do you, do you blow minds?
Just ask him, do you blow minds?
You gotta blow minds, can you blow minds?
You're wasting my time

Out in the junkyard in the pines
They're working over time
Hacking back them vines
That are eating up their minds
Fruit of the vine, that old fruit of the vine

We're doing 30 in a 45
Disregarding highway signs
You learn to take your time
Down south in the summertime
Fruit of the vine, that old fruit of the vine

It ain't no crime in being alive
It ain't no sin, we're just trying to get by
Lead our lives one day at a time
Hand to mouth, low down in the dirty old south
Living on the fruit of the vine

Now some say love come COD
Others turn to G O D
Cash it in on PCP, IOUs and IEDs
Fruit of the vine, that old fruit of the vine

Scraps of paper in a tree
Photographs and memories
Train wrecks of tangled dreams
Lives coming apart at the seams
Fruit of the vine, that old fruit of the vine

It ain't no crime in being alive
It ain't no sin, we're just trying to get by
Lead our lives one day at a time
Hand to mouth, low down in the dirty old south
Just living on the fruit of the vine

It ain't no crime in being alive
It ain't no sin, we're just trying to get by
Lead our lives one day at a time
Hand to mouth, low down in the dirty old south
Living on the fruit of the vine

Now that old vine, it never sleeps
And it strangles as it creeps
Out in the junkyard in the pines
Fall asleep and you will die
Fruit of the vine, that old fruit of the vine

You think you're gonna get your little piece of the sky
Up in the sweet by and by?
As for me I believe I'll try to get mine before I die
Fruit of the vine, that old fruit of the vine

'Cause it ain't no crime in being alive
It ain't no sin, we're just trying to get by
Lead our lives one day at a time
Hand to mouth, low down in the dirty old south
Living on the fruit of the vine, living on the fruit of the vine
Living on the fruit of the vine, living on the fruit of the vine

That's how they found him
He was howling at the moon
He's sitting right there on the railway tracks
And the train was coming

There was a string of wild flowers
Draped around his collar
And when he saw the men were coming for him
Well, he began to holler

He cried, "Take me away, take me away"
But the men could not be sure
If he was talking to them or talking to the oncoming train

Now his mama she watched religion on the TV
Each day from dawn to dusk
And at night when she'd hear him howling
Well, she'd cried to Jesus

For years she begged the Sweet Redeemer
To heal her crazy son
Until finally she just gave up on miracles
And called the men to come

She told them, "Take him away, take my son away
'Cause after 20 long years
I've simply run out prayers to pray"

But as he stood to fight the men
From the other side of the railway bed
He thought he heard the calling voice
Of an old friend he thought long dead

But when he turned away from the men
He found it was a stranger calling him
And as if he knew that man
He smiled and raised his hand

As he stepped into the golden sun
Of the headlight of the oncoming train
And as he did he locked eyes with that stranger
He cried out one last time
He cried, "Take me away, please, take me away"

And to this day in this little town
Not a soul knows what he was trying to say
All them years of shouting take me away
No, no one knows what he was trying to say
Or who that stranger was

I'll never fit in so why should I try?
How I'm I ever gonna pass for a normal guy?
I can't wear no suit and tie, gotta let my freak flag fly
If I walk the straight and narrow one more day I think I'll die

Because I wanna live in a turquoise house
With a turquoise garden and a turquoise yard
Drive around town in a turquoise car
Find a turquoise girl with a turquoise heart

Now faith is a riddle and love is a dream
Things are seldom what they seem
If you say your prayers at night and comb your hair just right
You might not feel like you're in hell but then again you might

Me, I wanna live in a turquoise house
With a turquoise garden and a turquoise yard
Drive around town in a turquoise car
Find a turquoise girl with a turquoise heart

I want turquoise carpets and turquoise shoes
Turquoise papers with all the turquoise news
Turquoise only, not teal or aquamarine
I've seen my future and it's a shade of blueish green

Now I can't turn back, there ain't no way
(He's going turquoise today)
When word gets out there'll be hell to pay
(He's going turquoise today)

This life's not for the faint
But you can't be what you ain't
I know I'll never truly be myself
Till I get me that turquoise paint

Because I wanna live in a turquoise house
With a turquoise garden and a turquoise yard
Drive around town in a turquoise car
Find a turquoise girl with a turquoise heart

I wanna live in a turquoise house
With a turquoise garden and a turquoise yard
Drive around town in a turquoise car
Find a turquoise girl with a turquoise heart

A turquoise girl with a turquoise heart
A turquoise girl in a turquoise dress
And a skirt and a shirt
That's covering up her turquoise heart

It's the twilight hour
As the sun goes down
I see a flatbed Ford with a scrapyard load
Rattle off through town

The railroad crossing lights flash on
There ain't no train in sight
A crescent moon will soon ascend
As day gives way to night

And I feel home
And I think how far away
I got from home
Back in the bad old days
But I'm done turning diamonds to coal

Now just before dinner time
This old drunk comes knocking on my door
Say he's looking for some girl who lived here
Twenty-seven years ago

The radio in the kitchen is playing
'Papa Was A Rolling Stone'
And as he strolls away into the night
And the streetlights flicker on

I get to thinking about home
And how sometimes there come a day
When I try to get back home
But all you can do is run away
But I'm done turning diamonds to coal

In love we find out who we are
In sorrow we abide
Our strength's revealed by what we build
From the broken things inside

But a day will come when you will know
Which way you must choose to go
To travel on and live alone
Or turn yourself around and try to get back home
Try to get back home

And now way up high two jet planes
Weave spider webs across the sky
As that flatbed Ford has dropped his load
Now there he goes swinging by

And the silence gathering 'round this house
Makes such a lovely sound
That I know for sure that I am cured
From turning diamonds, from turning diamonds to coal

'Cause I feel home and I'm done turning diamonds to coal
Yes, I'm done turning diamonds to coal
Yes, I'm done turning diamonds to coal
Yes, I'm done turning diamonds to coal
Yes, I'm done turning diamonds to coal

Down at the drugstore where they sell medicine
Back in the corner stands a plywood Superman
He never saves nobody from nothing
He just leans against the wall looking sad

Me, I go climbing on my broken ladder
Aiming for high places but I never quite can
Lay two hands on the heart of the matter
Sometimes I feel like that plywood Superman, Superman

Last night at the truck stop the cashier at the diesel desk
Stopped to talk to me as I paid for my beer
She's single with two kids, says she loves Las Vegas
Her dream's one day some rich man will take her away from here

When she goes climbing on her broken ladder
She's searching for some sweet, far off promised land
But nobody never breaks free of nothing
Wrapped in the arms of a plywood Superman, Superman

Now my old daddy, he worked in a factory
And he used to beat on me with his mind not his hands
And though for ten years he's laid in that grave in Birmingham
To this day I still hear him saying what a useless thing I am

When I go climbing on my broken ladder
I'm searching for something but what I don't understand
Is how you can climb forever and still never reach nothing
Trapped in your life like some plywood Superman, Superman
Plywood Superman, plywood Superman
Plywood Superman, plywood Superman

Things that you know
Places you won't go
Faces where you see
Traces of yourself

Ooh, life's a big mystery
In the puzzle of history
I see pieces of heaven
In photographs of you and me

Over mountains so high
Through shadows below
The dreams you will dream
The love you will show

In the dust storm of memories
Of triumphs and tragedies
I see pieces of heaven
In photographs of you and me

From before you were born
Till you're old as sin
Your wild oats strewn
Across the fields of time

My one prayer will always be
That some day you like me
I see pieces of heaven
In photographs of you and me
Photographs of you and me

Oooh, it's been a long long one day
longer than a country mile
stronger than a hurricane
oooh, it's been a long long
day.

This red barn in the field.
Dusty winds blow round it.
It stands in its place
firm and tall.

So safe inside am I
that I can see
one hundred prairie miles
waving on endlessly.

And papa snores again
while mama lies awake
silently wondering
why that grey
cat that she loved
up and run away,
ten years ago one
dusty day just like today.

Long one day there I lay
under the big windy sky I prayed;
dear Lord make the flickering hands of fate
finally flip the page
to the yellow sun
of my coming age.

Oooh, it's been a long, long long day....
longer than a country mile
stronger than a hurricane.
Oooh, its been
a long long day.

I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi.
My girlfriend blows a boozy good-bye kiss.
I see flying squirrels and nightmares of stigmata.
Then awakening to find my Trans-Am gone.
Still, I'm feeling pretty good about the future.
Yeah, everything is peaches but the cream.
I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things is always better than they seem.
I see the guitar that my cousin played in prison,
floating with the tv in the swimming pool.
I'm calling for the owner of the motel,
then noticing the bloodstain on the door.
I'm reaching for the shoes under the bushes,
just in time to hear the sirens sing.
I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things is always better than they seem.
You know freedom's just a stupid superstition,
'cause life's a highway that you travel blind.
It's true that having fun's a terminal addiction.
What good is happiness, when it's just a state of mind?
For in the prison of perpetual emotion,
we're all shackled to the millstone of our dreams.
Me, I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things are always better than they seem.

Long about an hour before sunrise
she drags his body down to the edge of the swollen river
wrapped in a red velvet curtain stolen from the movie theater where she works. Quiet as a whisper, under the stanchions of a washed-out bridge she cuts him loose...and watches as the flood waters spin him around once, then carry him away. Then she removes the golden ring upon her finger...and she throws it in. And I wonder; Baby why don't you cry? Baby why don't you... Baby why don't you cry? Three days later in a bar in southern Mississippi she meets a man by the name of Charles Lee. She introduces herself to him as "Lee Charles" "What a coincidence." he says...and one week later they are married. He wakes up one night six months down the line to find her staring at him in the oddest way. When he says, "Honey, what's wrong?" she says, "Oh nothing dear...except that tears are a stupid trick of God."
And by the time they find his body six weeks later... Well hell, she's a thousand miles away. And I wonder; Baby why don't you cry? Baby why don't you... Baby why don't you cry?
She runs from devils. She runs from angels. She runs from the ghost of her father and five different uncles. Blinded by their memory, seared by their pain, she'd like to kill 'em all...then kill 'em all again. She don't think much about what she's done or the funny feelings that she feels. No, she don't. To her it's just a condition she picked up as a child... a little thing she calls, "the wound that never heals", she calls it, "the wound that never heals" And I wonder; Baby why don't you cry? Baby why don't you...
Baby why don't you cry?

Sunlight in the weeds...I wish that I was blind...to the ghosts
dancing in the breeze...blowing through my mind.
Got a Corvair in my yard. It hasn't run in fifteen years.
It's a home for the birds now. It's no longer a car.
Last night I dreamed that I was swimming in a sea.
Like always, with everything I went in too deep.
Got a Corvair in my yard. It hasn't run in fifteen years.
It's a home for the birds now. It's no longer...a car.
Got a simple friend out west, and in the blink of an eye,
I'd swap him straight, his life for mine...and never wonder "Why?".
[CHORUS]

They tell me miracles abound now more than ever, but I dont care.
They say its better to be blessed than it is to be clever, but I dont care.
Cause I got 10 miles to go on a 9 mile road, and its a rocky rough
road, but I dont care.

For lifes nothing if not a blind rambling prayer, you
Keep your head held high, awalking and atalking
til the power of Love deliver you there.
The power of love deliver you there.
The power of love deliver you there.
The power of Love deliver you...you...

You dont get nothing for free, less of course you steal it, at least thats what the people say. The sad irony of Love is how so seldom you feel it, yet its all you dream about, night and day. From the splinter in the hand, to the thorn in the heart, to the shotgun to the head, you got no choice but to learn to glean solace from pain or youll end up cynical or dead. Me, I got 10 miles to go on a 9 mile road and its a rocky rough road, but I dont care.

For lifes nothing if not a blind rambling prayer, you keep your head held high, awalking and atalking and atalking and awalking,
til the power of Love deliver you there.
The power of Love deliver you there.
The power of Love deliver you there.
The power of Love deliver you...THERE!!!
Sometimes you throw yourself into the sea of faith, and the sharks of doubt come and they devour you. Other times you throw yourself into the sea of faith only to find the treasure lost in the shipwreck inside of you! There aint no guarantee, none of that nonsense like on tv, just gotta roll the dice and take your lumps. Youre gonna get yourself knocked down, so better learn to stand back up, for those who dwell on disaster let sorrow be their master. Me, I got 10 miles to go on a 9 mile road and its a rocky rough road, but I dont care.
Cause lifes nothing if not a

Where in the world did you come from my dear?
Did some mysterious voice tell you I'd still be here?
I bought this ticket to Mobile, but I been stranded all day
P.a. said the bus broke down ten miles away from the station.

[Chorus]
So seldom a door, so seldom a key, so seldom a hit like the hurt you put on me.
But seldom comes happiness without the pain of the devil in the details
Since I saw the smile on your face
As I was crying in a Greyhound station on Christmas Day, in 1998.

The burden of love is the fuel of bad grammar.
You stutter and stammer--what a bitch to convey the crux of the matter,
When the words you must utter are hopelessly tangled
In the memories and scars you show no one.

[Chorus]

I remember quite clearly, a bad Muzak version of James Taylor's big hit,
Called "Fire and Rain" was playing as you crouched down and tearfully kissed me,
And I thought, "Damn, what good fiction I will mold from this terrible pain."

[Chorus]

Amazing grace, how sweet the smile upon the face I never thought I'd see you again
Especially here in this Greyhound station
On Christmas Day
In 1998.

Fools wind blowing up brown bible verses. Dust storm of memory. Truck stop reverie. 3 AM in my home town, not a soul stirring around. Mr. Trucker Man, don't slow down in this little town. 'Cause I'm traveling faster than the speed of regret. What I was born knowing I was bound to forget. In the blindness of being, what I was born seeing I was just plain bound to forget. Yes, I was just plain bound to forget. Now my tank run dry two hours out of Tucson by three little crosses on the side of the highway. Still as a box full of busted watches, I settle debts with the dead and keep right on...I keep on keeping on. Pedal to the metal on the wide open highway. Criss-cross the high plains of bright-eyed solitude, I tailgate a truck-load of tabula rasa...'til my mind go clearer than the highway west of El Paso. Guess I'm traveling faster than the speed of regret. What I was born knowing I was bound to forget. In the blindness of being what I was born seeing, I was just plain bound to forget. Yes I was just plain bound to forget. Now, 24/7 in the end my friend, gotta go at God's speed, no never relent, lest the soul-sucking, sneaky-deaky, belly-aching past like a ssssnake in the grasssssssss ssssstrike and bury your assssssss. So keep your eyes on the prize on the distant horizon. Be wary of the wind and the bad moon rising. Knowing in your going, somehow, some way, that you'll out-run your shadow...yes you will, one fine day. 'Cause you're traveling faster than the speed of regret. What I was born knowing I was bound to forget. In the blindness of being what I was born seeing I was just plain bound to forget, yes I was just plain bound to forget.

Jesus and the fiery furnace.
Devil and the deep blue sea.
Preacher say I'm gonna burn in hell for all eternity.
But when I have my judgement day and I lock eyes with my savior, well,
This is what I'm gonna tell him when he asks about my behavior...
I'm gonna say;
God was drunk when he made me.
God was drunk when he made me.
God was drunk when he made me.
And that's why I'm so crazy.
Jesus and the fiery furnace.
Devil and the deep blue sea.
God was drunk when he made me...but that's okay 'cause
I forgive Him.
See if it was God who made forgiveness, then before that he musta made sin.
And who built the house of brotherly love, then let the Devil come dancing in?
If it was God that saved the miracle child from the peril of the fiery flame,
Well then it musta been him that killed the two hundred others just to glorify
His name
That's why I say;
God was drunk when he made me.
God was drunk when he made me.
God was drunk when he made me.
And that's why I spout heresy.
Jesus and the fiery furnace,
Devil and the deep blue sea.
God was drunk when he made me but that's okay...'cause I forgive Him.

Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets, I ain't got no cigarettes
I am a, two hours of pushin' broom buys a
Eight by ten four-bit room
I'm a man of means by no means, caause I'm a king of the road
Third boxcar midnight train, destination Bangor, Maine
Old worn out suit and shoes, I don't pay no union dues
I smoke old stogies I have found, short but not too big around
I'm a man of means by no means,cause i'm a king of the road
King of The Road. I'm just a King of the Road
I know every engineer on every train
All the children and all the good names
every handout in every town
And if it's locked itt ain't locked if no-one's around
I say...
Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let fifty cents
I'm a man of means by no means, king of the road
'Cause i'm a King of the Road
I'm just a King of the Road
King of the Road

I like to go out walking in the ghost-town of my brain.
Kick the rusted scrap-iron of my memories and dreams.
Yeah, here's a busted compass...look, the needle's standing still.
Much as some folks hate to lose their way, me, I pray to God that I will.
I got a confession; I never ever had no appetite for pain.
So it's a mystery to me why I like walking in the ghost-town...ghost-town of my brain.
I'm on a coal train headed south, guess we're bound for Birmingham.
Thick as thieves with a black girl twice as messed-up as I am.
The smile upon her face betrays the sorrow in her heart.
Like the testimony of a fun house mirror that some fool broke apart.
Girl listen here; you're just a leaf caught in God's secret hurricane.
And on this cold and dark wild midnight you are dancing in the ghost-town...ghost-town of my brain.
Feel them magnets in the shadows?
Hear the voice of tranger virtue?
Take no comforts with them specters 'cause you know that they can hurt you.
Sweet mother load of secrets, feed my wild and endless hunger.
Seek the misty trail beyond the veil where the world gets torn asunder.
Gimme needles in the haystacks, Lord and riddles in the rain...
'cause I like to go out walking in the ghost-town...ghost-town of my brain.

Bus stop rain...busted power train..got a broke down '69 LTD...
I hocked my tools...to buy my brain...a funeral wreath...from the FTD
Blank billboards on the highway of life. Counterfeit bills in the neon lights.
This stick-shift driven saw-dust dream, show-biz sho' ain't what it seems.
Little hipster dufus with the guitar in a coffin. I been copping his licks about every so often.
Then I flip-flop, go the other way...
I rip off the dude where the colored girls say; doo-doo-do-doo-doo-do-doo-doo-do-do-doooo-dooooo
See, I cut my teeth on the white lines of life's endless lonesome highways.
Taking stock in the horizon... shouting at every fool that come my way---
"HEY!" I been shouting,
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Are you going my way?"
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Someone gimme a ride!"
but ain't no one going my way.
Now downtown they got the prison of shame.
See the castaways of the Hollywood game?
Tricked out whores with invisible pains.
Cardboard people, dancing in the rain...
to the same old tune, circling like a vulture with the busted juke-box of the popular culture.
If it ain't got a beat, they won't put you on the street.
Heavy on the bass, light on the feet.
I meet the street poets in the bummed out bars.
I hum my single as I jingle down the
"Walk Of Stars"
with the geeks and the freaks and the crooks and the hookers---
the burn-outs of life's pressure cookers.
Now, these are my people, my church without a steeple,
and though I never waste a tissue on an incidental issue,
still I sympathize, 'cause I realize when I see the sorrow in their eyes.
'Cause I cut my teeth on the white lines of life's endless lonesome highways.
Taking stock in the horizon... shouting at every fool that come my way---
"HEY!" I been shouting,
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Are you going my way?"
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Someone gimme a ride!"
but ain't no one going my way.
Now in the field of my mind
I'm plowing the topsoil of my memory.
Digging up bones and skeletones--- rusty relics from my past.
Gotta put a new shine on the twists of time, redefine this old cemetery...
Clear out the weeds, sow new seeds, sure I'm scared, but still I'm gonna carry on.
'Cause never did a body find their way home without showing first firm as a stone
the conviction, the strength the courage that it takes to make a journey start
For you got to be true, you got to be strong,
'specially when the long road home
leads smack through the smoking ruins of your broken heart.And I know.
'Cause I cut my teeth on the white lines of life's endless lonesome highway...
Taking stock in the horizon...shouting at every fool that come my way---
"HEY!" I been shouting,
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Are you going my way?"
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Someone gimme a ride!"
but ain't no one going my way.

Big ole car moving fast,
Eatch the world go spinning by...
Little wheels inside my brain,
God I wonder where I'm going...
Where you going? Need a ride?
We got time to see a movie...
It's all right, it's okay,
I can tell you my big secret:

Sho' is cool. Sho' is cool.
I'm like a mad tap dancing fool.
I got my car, and I got my dreams,
But won't you help me
Help me write my Book of Angels.
Book of Angels.

And it's a gloomy ole house in a spooky town,
You make that light, better just keep rolling,
Higher still, climb the mountain,
'Course what you'll find there,
You can't be certain.
'Cause when you're free, well you're just free,
Ain't that scary, ain't that wild?
And don't you feel, feel just like
Chucking freedom out the window?

Sho' is cool. Sho' is real.
I dance just as good as I feel.
Feel just like a hurricane, say my name...
Help me write my Book of Angels.
Book of Angels.

I'm counting trees, I'm counting miles,
I count the distance between your smiles...
Give me something to hold on to ? no not that.
I don't want to.
And if you drive, drive your car fast
And hard a million miles,
Well you might finally find yourself alone
Way out there on the highway...

Sho' is cool. Sho' is wild.
Once I was a little baby (child),
But I lost my car, and I lost my dreams,
So won't you help me
Help me write my Book of Angels.
Book of Angels.

Door is locked...no one's home...
frame is empty...picture's missing...
throw that rock right through the window.
Hey, I know him, he's a singer.
Roam around...another town...
Looks like Phoenix, Arizona...
borrow the car from it's owner.
That sleepy-head...
He's dreaming the dreams of suburbia.
Yeah suburbia.

Me, I don't care...
I just pay what it takes to feel alive.
Cause somehow somewhere,
Hell everyone I know is waiting...
Just waiting to burn the river dry.

And nothing works more than once,
It keeps you restless, always moving
Fretful searching for a brand new
Spanking form of deliverance.
Movies stars...heroin,
Dreams of wild old fucking grandeur!
Snap your fingers, now you're famous...
Close your eyes as you sell out
To all them suckers that you hate.
Yeah, them suckers that you hate.

Me, I don't care...
I just pay what it takes to feel alive
Somehow, somewhere
Everyone I know is waiting...
Just waiting to burn that river dry.
Burn that river dry.

Hands that once reached for heaven
Grabbing at the penny in the sewer.
Smell of your soul burning on the skewer,
And all that dirt that you have swallowed.
The howling voice from the closet,
Better run away just because it
Seems to know a little bit too much about
All them shallow graves that you got buried
In the field of your experience.

Me, I don't care...
I just pay what it takes to feel alive.
Somehow somewhere, hell everyone I know
Is waiting...
Just waiting to burn that river dry.

Well I was shacked up down in Mobile
With a girl from New York City.
She woke me up one night to tell me
That we weren't alone.
She said she saw the ghost
Of a woman staring at me.
I told her not to worry,
But in the morning when I woke up, she was gone.

So I headed on to Florida where
I tangled with some sailors.
And as I lay bloody on the wharf,
I cursed the ship they sailed on.
Wouldn't you know, twenty four hours later
That ship sank into the ocean...
Disappearing like an unwanted memory
Beneath the waves.

I guess it's 'cause, still waters run,
Run deep in me
'Cause I got this crazy way...
Crazy way I'm swimming in still waters.

And I was woke up just before dawn
By an old man crying in the rain.
He was drunk and he was lonely
And as he passed by he sang a hymn.
And as I lay there listening,
Well I almost joined him in that song...
But instead I just held my peace,
And waited 'till that old man moved along.

Then later on that day about
A quarter mile out of town,
I found his body hanging in
A grove of pines, swaying in the wind.
And as he swang that rope sang another hymn
To Jesus,
And this time though I don't know why,
I somehow felt inclined to sing along.

I guess it's cause, still waters run,
Run deep in me
'Cause I got this crazy way...
crazy way I'm swimming in still waters.

Yes and there are projects for the dead
And there are projects for the living...
Thought I must confess sometimes
I get confused by that distinction...
And I just throw myself into the arms
Of that which would betray me.
I guess to see how far Providence
Will stoop down just to save me.

And it's all because, still waters run,
Run deep in me...
'Cause I've got this crazy way...
Crazy way I'm swimming in still waters.

I whisper beautiful secrets into
The drainpipes at night
For the old folks while they're sleeping...
Something to help them with their dreams.
I climb the wall to the cemetery,
Lay down on the grave of my father...
I hear him asking me for forgiveness,
So I close my eyes in prayer.

And then a rainy-rainy-rain falls down...
A cool rainy-rain upon my head.
It makes the river overflow it's banks,
And wash my cares away to Sleepy-town.

I pour whiskey in the honeycomb,
It makes the bees all turn to angels.
I watch 'em fly off into heaven...
Disappear where I can't follow.
And I would write Jesus a letter,
But I hear that he don't speak English...
So instead I'll just throw these cobblestones Until I ring that old church bell.

Until the rainy-rainy-rain fall down...
Cool rainy-rain upon my head.
It makes the river overflow it's banks,
And wash my cares away to Sleepy-town.

In Sleepy-town, you let the wild wind blow away your name.
In Sleepy town, you let the healing rain just wash your pain away.

I see a light on in the station,
Yeah someone is waiting for a train.
And I envy them their leaving
As I turn to head back home again.
For soon the morning sun will rise
And this little town will open up its eyes..
And return from the land where I've never been
From a Sleepy-town...that's free...

From all that rainy-rainy-rain fall down.
The cool rainy-rain upon my head
Make the river overflow it's banks
And wash my cares away to Sleepy-town...

-------------
Lyrics Powered by LyricFind
Written By JIM WHITE
<i>Lyrics &copy; CHRYSALIS STANDARDS, INC.</i>

Your world is in flames there ain't even a name
For the feelings you feel as you watch it all burn.
There's a girl in the distance, she's calling your name,
But the name that she's calling is not your name, she calls:

THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE!
but he's plowing the field...
THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE!
But he's plowing the field...

And you can't walk on that water, I know 'cause I tried.
It's our spider web-thinking, it's just too heavy with holes.
And our thoughts they are made up of red Georgia clay,
we think we know everything, but man we don't know:

THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE!
but he's plowing the field...
THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE!
but he's plowing the field... here come THE WORD-MULE!

My friends,
look out for hustlers for preachers for sheisters,
them silver-tongued saints who pretend to do good,
'cause they're geeks biting chicken-heads off with their witty rejoinders they ain't nothing but greasy fast food for:

THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE!
but he's plowing the field...
THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE! THE WORD-MULE!
but he's plowing the field...

Upon awakening I find myself
Lying in some woods,
And for the longest time I've sat here,
Just trying to remember why
I feel like I am floating,
Why blood is running down my shirt
Then my memory returns to me
As the pain comes flooding;
Into my heart,
My baby she stabbed me in my heart.
Left me here to die,
My baby she stabbed me in my heart
And I know why...

I hear the sound of distant footsteps,
And I know that she is running
From that past which will pursue her
Until the day that she dies.
'Cause I know about her family,
And their crimes upon her body...
So I guess it wasn't me at all
That she was trying to kill...
When she drove that knife
Into my heart
My baby she stabbed me in my heart
Left me here to die
My baby she stabbed me in my heart
Really came as no surprise.

Over the hill there is a highway,
Now I hear a truck is stopping...
She's flagged somebody down
And asked 'em for a ride.
And I would try to follow her,
But I don't seem to be able
To lift this heavy body anymore,
As the light fails,
And the darkness falls
Into my heart
My baby she stabbed me in my heart
Left me here to die
My baby she stabbed me in my heart
So now I'll just, I'll just close my eyes
Close my eyes as the darkness falls
Into my heart
My baby she stabbed me in my heart
Into my heart
I'm falling, I'm falling, I'm falling...

I cannot be superman no more...
I cannot walk upon the high wire in my mind.
And now that I understand the extent of my mortal coil,
Suddenly and somehow I have lost all my desire...
To shine, to shine like the sun...
To shine, to shine like the sun...
On a sunny day in Angel-Land.

And I guess sometimes you find that the river just runs dry...
And you've got to get up out of the boat and walk.
And I suppose you might try to find another river,
But sometimes, sometimes it's just too hard..
To hard to shine, to shine like the sun...
To shine, to shine like the sun...
On a sunny day, in Angel-Land.

Mostly now these days I'm dreaming normal dreams...
Little things like who I spoke to, or what I did today.
I have not written a speech for God to say in years.
'Scuse me if I leave that undertaking up to those who say...
Who say the want to shine, to shine like the sun...
To shine, a shine like the sun..
On a sunny day, in Angel-Land..
Sweet Angel-land

-------------
Lyrics Powered by LyricFind
Written By JIM WHITE
<i>Lyrics &copy; CHRYSALIS STANDARDS, INC.</i>

They tell me miracles abound now more than ever, but I dont care.
They say its better to be blessed than it is to be clever, but I dont care.
Cause I got 10 miles to go on a 9 mile road, and its a rocky rough
road, but I dont care.

For lifes nothing if not a blind rambling prayer, you
Keep your head held high, awalking and atalking
til the power of Love deliver you there.
The power of love deliver you there.
The power of love deliver you there.
The power of Love deliver you...you...

You dont get nothing for free, less of course you steal it, at least thats what the people say. The sad irony of Love is how so seldom you feel it, yet its all you dream about, night and day. From the splinter in the hand, to the thorn in the heart, to the shotgun to the head, you got no choice but to learn to glean solace from pain or youll end up cynical or dead. Me, I got 10 miles to go on a 9 mile road and its a rocky rough road, but I dont care.

For lifes nothing if not a blind rambling prayer, you keep your head held high, awalking and atalking and atalking and awalking,
til the power of Love deliver you there.
The power of Love deliver you there.
The power of Love deliver you there.
The power of Love deliver you...THERE!!!
Sometimes you throw yourself into the sea of faith, and the sharks of doubt come and they devour you. Other times you throw yourself into the sea of faith only to find the treasure lost in the shipwreck inside of you! There aint no guarantee, none of that nonsense like on tv, just gotta roll the dice and take your lumps. Youre gonna get yourself knocked down, so better learn to stand back up, for those who dwell on disaster let sorrow be their master. Me, I got 10 miles to go on a 9 mile road and its a rocky rough road, but I dont care.
Cause lifes nothing if not a

Where in the world did you come from my dear?
Did some mysterious voice tell you I'd still be here?
I bought this ticket to Mobile, but I been stranded all day
P.a. said the bus broke down ten miles away from the station.

[Chorus]
So seldom a door, so seldom a key, so seldom a hit like the hurt you put on me.
But seldom comes happiness without the pain of the devil in the details
Since I saw the smile on your face
As I was crying in a Greyhound station on Christmas Day, in 1998.

The burden of love is the fuel of bad grammar.
You stutter and stammer--what a bitch to convey the crux of the matter,
When the words you must utter are hopelessly tangled
In the memories and scars you show no one.

[Chorus]

I remember quite clearly, a bad Muzak version of James Taylor's big hit,
Called "Fire and Rain" was playing as you crouched down and tearfully kissed me,
And I thought, "Damn, what good fiction I will mold from this terrible pain."

[Chorus]

Amazing grace, how sweet the smile upon the face I never thought I'd see you again
Especially here in this Greyhound station
On Christmas Day
In 1998.

Fools wind blowing up brown bible verses. Dust storm of memory. Truck stop reverie. 3 AM in my home town, not a soul stirring around. Mr. Trucker Man, don't slow down in this little town. 'Cause I'm traveling faster than the speed of regret. What I was born knowing I was bound to forget. In the blindness of being, what I was born seeing I was just plain bound to forget. Yes, I was just plain bound to forget. Now my tank run dry two hours out of Tucson by three little crosses on the side of the highway. Still as a box full of busted watches, I settle debts with the dead and keep right on...I keep on keeping on. Pedal to the metal on the wide open highway. Criss-cross the high plains of bright-eyed solitude, I tailgate a truck-load of tabula rasa...'til my mind go clearer than the highway west of El Paso. Guess I'm traveling faster than the speed of regret. What I was born knowing I was bound to forget. In the blindness of being what I was born seeing, I was just plain bound to forget. Yes I was just plain bound to forget. Now, 24/7 in the end my friend, gotta go at God's speed, no never relent, lest the soul-sucking, sneaky-deaky, belly-aching past like a ssssnake in the grasssssssss ssssstrike and bury your assssssss. So keep your eyes on the prize on the distant horizon. Be wary of the wind and the bad moon rising. Knowing in your going, somehow, some way, that you'll out-run your shadow...yes you will, one fine day. 'Cause you're traveling faster than the speed of regret. What I was born knowing I was bound to forget. In the blindness of being what I was born seeing I was just plain bound to forget, yes I was just plain bound to forget.

I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi.
My girlfriend blows a boozy good-bye kiss.
I see flying squirrels and nightmares of stigmata.
Then awakening to find my Trans-Am gone.
Still, I'm feeling pretty good about the future.
Yeah, everything is peaches but the cream.
I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things is always better than they seem.
I see the guitar that my cousin played in prison,
floating with the tv in the swimming pool.
I'm calling for the owner of the motel,
then noticing the bloodstain on the door.
I'm reaching for the shoes under the bushes,
just in time to hear the sirens sing.
I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things is always better than they seem.
You know freedom's just a stupid superstition,
'cause life's a highway that you travel blind.
It's true that having fun's a terminal addiction.
What good is happiness, when it's just a state of mind?
For in the prison of perpetual emotion,
we're all shackled to the millstone of our dreams.
Me, I'm handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi,
where things is always better than they seem.
Things are always better than they seem.

Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let fifty cents
No phone, no pool, no pets, I ain't got no cigarettes
I am a, two hours of pushin' broom buys a
Eight by ten four-bit room
I'm a man of means by no means, caause I'm a king of the road
Third boxcar midnight train, destination Bangor, Maine
Old worn out suit and shoes, I don't pay no union dues
I smoke old stogies I have found, short but not too big around
I'm a man of means by no means,cause i'm a king of the road
King of The Road. I'm just a King of the Road
I know every engineer on every train
All the children and all the good names
every handout in every town
And if it's locked itt ain't locked if no-one's around
I say...
Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let fifty cents
I'm a man of means by no means, king of the road
'Cause i'm a King of the Road
I'm just a King of the Road
King of the Road

Bus stop rain...busted power train..got a broke down '69 LTD...
I hocked my tools...to buy my brain...a funeral wreath...from the FTD
Blank billboards on the highway of life. Counterfeit bills in the neon lights.
This stick-shift driven saw-dust dream, show-biz sho' ain't what it seems.
Little hipster dufus with the guitar in a coffin. I been copping his licks about every so often.
Then I flip-flop, go the other way...
I rip off the dude where the colored girls say; doo-doo-do-doo-doo-do-doo-doo-do-do-doooo-dooooo
See, I cut my teeth on the white lines of life's endless lonesome highways.
Taking stock in the horizon... shouting at every fool that come my way---
"HEY!" I been shouting,
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Are you going my way?"
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Someone gimme a ride!"
but ain't no one going my way.
Now downtown they got the prison of shame.
See the castaways of the Hollywood game?
Tricked out whores with invisible pains.
Cardboard people, dancing in the rain...
to the same old tune, circling like a vulture with the busted juke-box of the popular culture.
If it ain't got a beat, they won't put you on the street.
Heavy on the bass, light on the feet.
I meet the street poets in the bummed out bars.
I hum my single as I jingle down the
"Walk Of Stars"
with the geeks and the freaks and the crooks and the hookers---
the burn-outs of life's pressure cookers.
Now, these are my people, my church without a steeple,
and though I never waste a tissue on an incidental issue,
still I sympathize, 'cause I realize when I see the sorrow in their eyes.
'Cause I cut my teeth on the white lines of life's endless lonesome highways.
Taking stock in the horizon... shouting at every fool that come my way---
"HEY!" I been shouting,
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Are you going my way?"
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Someone gimme a ride!"
but ain't no one going my way.
Now in the field of my mind
I'm plowing the topsoil of my memory.
Digging up bones and skeletones--- rusty relics from my past.
Gotta put a new shine on the twists of time, redefine this old cemetery...
Clear out the weeds, sow new seeds, sure I'm scared, but still I'm gonna carry on.
'Cause never did a body find their way home without showing first firm as a stone
the conviction, the strength the courage that it takes to make a journey start
For you got to be true, you got to be strong,
'specially when the long road home
leads smack through the smoking ruins of your broken heart.And I know.
'Cause I cut my teeth on the white lines of life's endless lonesome highway...
Taking stock in the horizon...shouting at every fool that come my way---
"HEY!" I been shouting,
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Are you going my way?"
"HEY! Can you gimme a ride? Someone gimme a ride!"
but ain't no one going my way.