I was born in a town where the rivers flow free
On a January night when the cold winds freeze
I got an Irish name and an injury
Blessing and a curse cast down on me
Ain’t nobody got the blues like me
Ain’t nobody got the blues like me
Was a blood red sky on the morning tide
Was a cold wind blowing when I left that night
And the morning bells rang, alright, alright
Shoulda stayed home with you that night
Ain’t nobody played the fool like I
Ain’t nobody played the fool like I
Things got bad and things got worse
Half like blessing, half like curse
It’s these blessings so hard to see sometimes
Gotta little clearer about dusk last night
Ain’t nobody got a blessing like mine
Ain’t nobody got a blessing like mine
It’s a red sky night and I’m doing alright
It’s a red sky night and I’m doing just fine
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me?
And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me.
Well, Mary’s only nineteen but she’ll come home.
And she’s the kind of girl you want to be with
when you’re alone.
And, she don’t need nobody like I need you.
And, if you want to go, well she’ll see it through.
So, I said, “Mary, come home.”
“Mary, come home.”
Friday night is right when she walks in
with her long, white Camels and a bottle of gin.
I said “Mary, Mary, Mary.” Me on the wall.
And, I’ll go down and take a big fall.
So, I said, “Mary, come home.”
And, I said, “Mary, won’t you come home?”
“Well, Mary, can’t you see that I’m all alone.”
“I’ve been twiddling my thumbs.”
“I been on the phone.”
You don’t pay no mind. “Where have you been
with them long, white Camels and a bottle of gin?”
So, I said, “Mary, please come home.”
I said, “Mary, come home.”
I said, “Mary, why don’t you come home?”
“Oh, Mary, why don’t you come home?”
I wish you love
And happiness
I guess I wish
You all the best
I wish you don’t
Do like I do
And ever fall in love with
Someone like you
Cause if you fell
Just like I did
You’d probably walk around the block like a little kid.
But kids don’t know
They can only guess
How hard it is
To wish you happiness
I guess that love
Is like a Christmas card
You decorate a tree
You throw it in the yard
It decays and dies
And the snowmen melt
Well I once knew love
I knew how love felt
Yeah, I knew love. Love knew me.
And when I walked, Love walked with me.
And, I got no hate
And, I got no pride
Well, I got so much love that I cannot hide.
Say you drive a Chevy.
Say you drive a Ford.
You say you drive around the town till you just get bored
Then you change your mind
For something else to do.
And your heart gets bored with your mind and it changes you.
Well, it’s a doggone shame
And, it’s an awful mess
I wish you love
I wish you happiness
I wish you love
I wish you happiness
I guess I wish you
All the best.
There’s a time for living
Time keeps on flying
Think you’re loving baby
But all your doing is crying
Can you feel
Are those feelings real
Look at your game, girl
Look at your game, girl
What a mad delusion
Living in that confusion
Frustration and doubt
Can you ever live without the game
The sad, sad game
Mad game
Just to say loves’ not enough
If it can’t be true
Oh, you can tell those lies baby but you’re only fooling you
Can you feel
I know those feelings ain’t real
Then you better stop trying
Or you’re gonna play crying
Stop trying
Or you’re gonna play crying
Stop trying
Trudging slowly over wet sand,
back to the bench where your clothes were stolen.
This is the coastal town,
that they forgot to close down.
Armageddon – come armageddon!
Come, armageddon! come!
Everyday is like Sunday.
Everyday is silent and gray.
Hide on the promenade.
Etch a postcard.
How I dearly wish I was not here
In the seaside town
that they forgot to bomb.
Come, come, come – nuclear bomb.
Everyday is like Sunday.
Everyday is silent and gray.
Trudging back over pebbles and sand.
And a strange dust lands on your hands,
and on your face,
on your face,
on your face,
on your face.
Everyday is like Sunday.
Win yourself a cheap tray.
Share some greased tea with me.
Everyday is silent and gray.
I’ve looked under chairs
I’ve looked under tables
I’ve tried to find the key
To fifty million fables
They call me The Seeker
I’ve been searching low and high
I won’t get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die
I asked Bobby Dylan
I asked The Beatles
I asked Timothy Leary
But he couldn’t help me either
People tend to hate me
‘Cause I never smile
As I ransack their homes
They want to shake my hand
Focusing on nowhere
Investigating miles
I’m a seeker
I’m a really desperate man
I won’t get to get what I’m after
Till the day I die
I learned how to raise my voice in anger
Yeah, but look at my face, ain’t this a smile?
I’m happy when life’s good
And when it’s bad I cry
I’ve got values but I don’t know how or why
I’m looking for me
You’re looking for you
We’re looking in at each other
And we don’t know what to do
This is some guy covering a Warren Zevon song called “Mutineer.”
A mutineer is someone who takes part in a mutiny. Mutiny is open rebellion against constituted authority, especially rebellion of sailors against superior officers.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Hoist the mainsail – here I come
Ain’t no room on board for the insincere
You’re my witness
I’m your mutineer
I was born to rock the boat
Some may sink but we will float
Grab your coat – let’s get out of here
You’re my witness
I’m your mutineer
Long ago we laughed at shadows
Lightning flashed and thunder followed us
It could never find us here
You’re my witness
I’m your mutineer
Long ago we laughed at shadows
Lightning flashed and thunder followed us
It could never find us here
You’re my witness
I’m your mutineer
I was born to rock the boat
Some may sink but we will float
Grab your coat – let’s get out of here
You’re my witness
I’m your mutineer
You’re my witness
I’m your mutineer
I’m your mutineer.
I have a friend, he is mostly made of pain.
And he wakes up, drives to work,
and then straight back home again.
He once cut one of my nightmares out of paper.
I thought it was beautiful, I put it on a record cover.
And I tried to tell him he had a sense
of color and composition so magnificent.
And he said
“Thank you, please but your flattery
is truly not becoming me.
Your eyes are poor. You’re blind.
You see,no beauty could have come from me.
I’m a waste of breath,of space,of time.”
I knew a woman, she was dignified and true.
And her love for her man was one of her many virtues.
Until one day, she found out that he had lied
and she decided the rest of her life from that point on would be a lie.
But she was grateful for everything that had happened.
And she was anxious for all that would come next.
But then she wept. What did you expect?
In that big, old house with the cars she kept.
“And such is life,” she often said.
With one day leading to the next,
you get a little closer to your death,
which was fine with her.
She never got upset
and with all the days she may have left,
she would never clean another mess
or fold his shirts or look her best.
She was free to waste away alone.
Last night, my brother he got drunk and drove.
And this cop he pulled him off to the side of the road.
And he said, “Officer! Officer! You got the wrong man.
No, no, I’m a student of medicine, a son of a banker, you don’t understand!”
The cop said, “No one got hurt, you should be thankful.
And your carelessness, it is something awful.
And no, I can’t just let you go.
And though your father’s name is known,
your decisions now are yours alone.
You are nothing but a stepping stone
on a path to debt, to loss, to shame.”
The last few months I have been living with this couple.
Yeah, you know, the kind who buy everything in doubles.
They fit together, like a puzzle.
And I love their love and I am thankful
that someone actually receives the prize that was promised
by all those fairy tales that drugged us.
And they still do me.
I’m sick, lonely, no laurel tree, just green envy.
Will my number come up eventually?
Like Love’s some kind of lottery,
where you scratch and see what’s underneath.
It’s “Sorry”, just one cherry, or “Play Again.”
Get lucky.
So I’ve been hanging out down by the train’s depot.
No, I don’t ride. I just sit and watch the people there.
And they remind me of wind up cars in motion.
The way they spin and turn and jockey for positions.
And I want to scream out that it all is nonsense.
All your lives one track, can’t they see it’s pointless?
But just then, my knees give under me.
My head feels weak and suddenly
it’s clear to see it’s not them but me,
who has lost my self-identity.
As I hide behind these books I read,
while scribbling my poetry,
like art could save a wretch like me,
with some ideal ideology
that no one can hope to achieve.
And I am never real;
it is just a sketch in me.
And everything I made is trite
and cheap and a waste of paint,
of tape, of time.
So now I park my car down by the cathedral,
where the floodlights point up at the steeples.
Choir practice was filling up with people.
I hear the sound escaping as an echo.
Sloping off the ceiling at an angle.
When the voices blend they sound like angels.
I hope there’s some room still in the middle.
But when I lift my voice up now to reach them.
The range is too high, way up in heaven.
So I hold my tongue, forget the song,
tie my shoe start walking off.
And try to just keep moving on,
with my broken heart and my absent God
and I have no faith but it’s all I want,
to be loved.
And believe,
in my soul.
In my soul.
In my soul.
In my soul.
Big Ideas, Images & Distorted Facts 