DUST FROM THE PAGE
Well I’ve covered up miles, thousand miles as years,
Found elusive mount tops and friendly damp low plains
I’ve been so wrong before and it looks that I’ll be more,
Did so many good things, hard tellin’ specks from the gold
I’m takin’ up – I’m shakin’ off
I’m takin’ up the story, I’m shakin’ off the dust from the page
Lately I’ve been a pilgrim in myselves I’ve lived,
I can’t say I’ve come sage but I am like this
Call it career rejoining, call it karma acceptance,
Kelly, I’ve too been waitin’ for me, now I like my stance
Chorus
Well I’ve covered up miles, thousand miles as years,
Now I stand near a lone tree with an amused smile
Look the stream flow ragin’, I can stand back and go
Look at all that runnin’, I can start back, who knows?
Never been a hippie, never been a square,
There’s some urban legends on me, after all I don’t care
Wont’ you come and see me? Will you scrape the surface?
Maybe it’s worth the trouble, promise me no world and I’ll trail
I’m only shakin’ dust from the page
I’ve just begun to shake dust from pages
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DESERT BALLADS
There is a cowboy ridin’ lonely where once there were two
Ten dimes town has turned into a scenery
Empty and blue, with no sound
Dust flies on the desert, once home of hurricanes
Tumbleweed are rollin’ moved by sick winds
Cars run by, they know only run
There was a love that was like a legend
Legends are so real
More real than the reality most live
But they’re fast fadin’ by, they will last only in mind
Something in his time has broken like a rusty gear
Something in his mind is goin’ backwards
He keeps singin’ desert ballads the desert will not hear
Maybe someday he will learn all words
Cowboy dreams are made of sand, of fearlessness and tears
They’re locked in the casket of their hearts
Cowboy dreams are precious, more than any golden lode
They’re the secret place where they can go
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TRADITIONAL MAN
I’m a traditional man, always giving everything I have,
though I’ve no traditional ways, you know,
I’m a traditional man, not much Family, Church and Homeland,
what you see is what you get,
I’m building my own traditions every day, building them from old Ninety-Fifty-Nine
I’m a traditional man, always tilling everything I dream,
even in that stoney ground
I’m a traditional man and I play traditional tunes, don’t pretend I’m owning sacred
truths,
I’m building my old traditions day to day,
they can ask me what they want but not to be like them
And if the world goes – I don’t go, if the wind blows – I don’t blow, They say time
flows – I don’t know, only my song – I do know
Red Haired Boy (traditional instrumental)
I’m a transitional man, don’t live into a steady cam,
you’ll have to take me as slow as I am,
I’m a traditional man, learned to read since I was four or five, so I’m reading all
your lies,
holding my traditions I’ll never exchange for dimes,
holding my traditions they’re my credit card for times,
I’m a traditional man, I’m a traditional man…
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I’VE WRITTEN A. M. ON EVERY WALL
Been a taciturn cloud child, a lover of rain
Seems like I had some problem
With state of atmosphere
Bought me some good paste crayons
One-colour, thick point,
They’re a little bit worn out but still cure fear of fadin’
If I met strangers in the mirrors I could talk to them
I’ve written A. M. on every wall
I have crossed hell frost and that arctic fire
Blind Bateau Ivre on love’s wire
Down there’s a home, it’s safe and warm,
There I could resort when one love wrecked
It’s the only thing at all that I can call mine,
I’ve written A. M. on every wall
It’s not so easy to get to defyin’ gravity
Dark planets still try to attract, anchorage shrinks
Down on Saint Augustine’s Ferry
Mister Lone’s my Indian guide,
Don’t like playin cards but mixing them is just fine
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LITTLE JIMMY AGAIN
Little Jimmy’s watching those strange games
that the sun is making with the dust,
dust is dancing, falling slow,
dreamed snow in a dumb room
Silence smooths the soul
Circe’s headland glimmers in the dusk, time to another dinner with no end
Pa’ and woman they just stare and question his eyes
Jimmy’s really elsewhere, elsewhere’s real as time
Little Jimmy’s back in his home now
and dreams and sings, all in his mind
Mama’s in the kitchen, she thinks
A path of moon and falling stars,
a tapestry of faces and heartbeats
Grandpa’s fiddle and a black guitar,
silence has a music he learns and feels
Life will be a riddle for the love that’s in his heart,
life will be a real love rodeo, down so hard,
they tell him life is like a mission, pain and suffering down this Earth,
but there is one thing he’s hiding within
that strong flame that lights his world
He’s a dreamer – nothing there to win or lose,
He’s a loner – he’ll be feelin’ it his soul,
He’s a dreamer – still a dreamer in his heart,
Someday he will find in his mirror something like a fever, warming and true
He’s a dreamer – Little Jimmy ain’t left town
He’s a loner – he keeps talking to the Moon,
He’s a robber – stealing stardust from dim clouds
He’s a giver – giftin’ jewels for glass beads
He’s a dreamer – Little Jimmy ain’t left town
He’s a loner – Nowhere bound freight train
He’s a dreamer – still a dream king with no crown
He’s a feeler – Little Jimmy again,
He’s a dreamer – Little Jimmy again
He’s a dreamer – Little Jimmy again
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NIGHT TRAINS DON’T BRING YOU NOWHERE
It’s been but a slip, sure, some fool dust blow in your eyes
Buy you better glasses its ’bout all say to you
Seemed like you were diving, but it was only just a jam on brakes
False attributions leaking, the painting was a fake
Night trains they don’t bring you nowhere, night trains they hardly meet
Night trains don’t last ’til morning
and I’m walkin’ outside of the loneliness I am free
Night trains they don’t bring you nowhere, night trains they hardly meet
Night trains don’t last ’til morning
and I’m walkin’ outside of the loneliness you ain’t free
and I’m walkin’ outside of the loneliness I am free
It’s been but a slip, sure, some fool dust blow in your eyes
Buy you better glasses its ’bout all say to you
Walkin’ down my soul, here no leaves do fall no, no, no
What you said turned sour, should I care at all?
Are the ghosts that live your soul so strong or it was just some kind of joke?
Is a night train runnin’ blind really nothing real
Or wasted breath that chocked you?
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RAINCOATS
Someday I will come in your town ‘n I will just stand nowhere
Someday I’ll forget you in a mall
Please make no sound, please don’t call the guards
Something I ignored in your mind will come crashing down
Something like a clock dazzling mine
Most raincoats don’t last long, all raincoats are the same
And I’m sick and tired of wanderin’ in the haze
Sick and tired of wonderin’ how’s your face
Fly-by-night faces spin, memory’s a broken sieve
Woke this morning with you in mind - my room a red fish bowl –
Don’t you think I do it on purpose
But by midday you’ll fade away
And I’m sick and tired of wanderin’ in the haze
Sick and tired of wonderin’ where’s my place
Something raincoats just don’t see
Something that is deep in me
One day I will call you on (the) phone I just won’t say nothing
One day I’ll tell the world you’re my love
And then I’ll fade, and then you’ll fade
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PROVO, UTAH
Hear them bells are ringin’ now, it’s a holy day
See them folks they’re standin’ round, almost every way
We had to pull it right down, that long Interstate
All we’ve got to do is let us be rocked
The day gets comin’ now, the day gets comin’ now,
the day gets comin’ now in Provo, Utah, Provo, Utah
See them young college boys, it’s ferial day
See how they’re goin’ round, the spring’s so plain
See how we’re goin’ round, yes, we’re headin’ home, we’ll pass by grocery store
And the sun keeps shinin’ now, and the dream is turnin’ true
See us at a crossroad of Provo, Utah, Provo, Utah
Don’t you feel the sound walkin’ in the grass, standin’ in the rain
Seein’ no car pass, waitin’ for no train, laughin’ by the rail, reelin’ down the streets,
standin’ in a bar, it’s really a world apart
Standin’ at the door of that two-storey house
Shinin’ distant hills we long waited for
Laughin’ in the rain, and we’re runnin’ hand in hand
We feel livin’ so freely, cut hay in the summer,
A little of fair wind brought us in Provo, Utah, Provo, Utah
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AN ANGEL WHEN SHE SINGS
Bobby Lee Hill, red-headed trauma, she was a damage unleashed in town
Short-tempered, moony, boys’ wild honey
’til they discovered her mind’s honeycomb
worked in Drew’s bar, didn’t tell a word, she was a grumpy hard worker
someone called her daughter daughter of a rainstorn
no one felt he could tame her at all
Some said that she, Bobby Lee Hill, she had been wounded tough
Some called her “waste”, some hinted that devil could just explain enough
t-shirt and jeans, she give no fig ’bout what they all said
just wonderin’ sometimes why all drive their nose into others’ business
but washing dishes voices get unheard, serving beers she was lost in her world
she only waited for those nights when bar’s crowd began to wane
needed half a look with boys on stage
then she began singing with a voice / coming from an happy doleful paradise
she was an angel when she did sing, she was a devil anywhere else,
uneasy in life’s steps, flying through notes
but she was a real angel then
she’s still an angel when she can sing, she is a damage when she lives
Bobby Lee Hill, jailed freebird, she has a home in the clouds
she was an angel when she did sing,
she’s still an angel when she can sing,
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IN TIME TO COME
I walked around and friends and things and all were standin’ right
Then found’em wrong,
Life turned upside down when you brought me around
I smiled around and places and lonely town and mother night
I liked them all, I liked to stall
Then you came here and I feel I’m runnin’ now
And your face is breakin’ into morns
from my hands all’s fallin’ down
All I had is slidin’, flyin’, just like you
Can I call your name in this night?
Can I call your name, can I?
Can I call your name in time to come?
I walked around and friends and things and all were standin’ right
Then found’em wrong,
Life turned upside down when you brought me around
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THREE VIPERS IN MY HEART
(And Beaver in My Head)
Sometimes I got three vipers inside me and a beaver stuck deep in my head
They just bite and crunch and split me
Do their job but it’s hard to hold on
Sometimes I feel a flow,
a river inside me
a river of sadness goes
and I sink down
Sometimes I feel like some guru in peace with all the damn world
Sometimes I feel like a big cloud gettin’ near and near to explode
Sometimes I feel strong and steady
Sometimes I’m a wounded child
Got a battle inside, got a poltergeist in my mind
Since you are not here I can get it all
But there’s pliers inside my heart
Seems I go here, seems I go there
But Nowhere is the place I go
Sometimes I got three vipers inside me
And a beaver stuck deep in my head
They just bite and crunch and split me
Do their job but it’s hard to hold on
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LETTERS
Should I write some letters to women I’ve known
Pen’s palette would be wide and spread,
Love pantomimes seem far - exploded stars’ light-
Yet sometimes I’ve still things to say,
No settling of scores, no shootdown
We talked and kept talkin’, feigned interest,
Nobody understands anyone,
You all tried to change me, who less and who more,
But I’ve learned the fine art of castling
And wolves they don’t fly, doves they can’t write,
Meeting halfway of ford means not reaching sides,
Should I write some letters they’d be more words that fly,
It’s probably better I sing, it’s probably better I unroll film
You mad two days blizzards, you riders through years,
You all gave and all took away,
It all began roaring then faded like invisible ink,
Love makes much noise but will sink, love’s always faster than you’d think
You Melville of white sheets, talked so much after love,
Yet things were so damn clear for both,
And you fellow soldiers who risked ’n got too near,
You loved me and I didn’t know
I loved you and I didn’t know
Then Beth said “You’re dangerous” and I did agree,
Nell loved me like in a filigree,
Eve was only testing her brand new car’s tyres,
She left pounds of rubber on road, I left her two hard no love songs
Things have wrong times, gears they don’t fit so fine,
Things have weird times, out of time,
Pointing all stakes on a ball’s endless spinning,
One car starts, the other car stops,
A kite flies, the other one flops
And you only used me but it matters no more,
Just like it didn’t matter right then
And you who seemed bigger than mountains and ridges,
You revealed smaller than a midge,
One can’t take a flyweight for Ali
Won’t write you a long letter to explain what?
Only say you’re the one I regret,
Like wind on dead water I’ve been so fool,
But this one you already know, this one you already know
You came closer to me when I was false love addicted
’n I blew it all bein’ sincere,
I miss you Charlene but we won’t turn back,
Leaves on the lane fall their way
And two leaves don’t fall twice the same
yes two leaves don’t fall twice the same
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