1. Frisco Depot
Frisco's a full day from home when you can afford to fly
but it might as well be the moon when you're as broke as I
Here I sit with my head in my hands and watch the train roll by
Lord the helping hand mission man warned me
The nights here got cold
When you're cold there's nothin' as welcome as sunshine
When you're dry there's nothin' as welcome as rain
When you're alone there's nothin' no slower than passin' time
When you're afoot there's nothin' as fast as a train
Yeah Frisco's a mighty rich town now that ain't no lie
Why they got some building that reach a mile up into the sky
Yet no one can even afford the time just to tell me why
Here's this world full of people and so many people alone.
'Cause when you're alone you ain't got much reason for livin'
But while you're alive well you just gotta live with your pain
Unless you've been wrong for so long there's no one left forgiving
And you find yourself searchin' your past for the links to the chain
2. Cortelia Clark
I was just a boy the year the bluebird special came through here
On its first run south to New Orleans
A blind old man and I we came to Guthrie just to see the train
He was black and I was green
Tell me wat you see he said, is the engine black or red (son)
Why that's the loudest thing I've ever seen
Then he picked his guitar up, sat on the fender of his truck
And his eyes lit up as he began to sing
And I remember when that old man's dreams were chained
To a depot down in Guthrie and a bluebird special train
He picked his guitar up, shuffled down the walk
The cars uptown wound round the buildings at his feet
Lookin' mighty proud that old man,
With his battered hat in his hand
Lord he sang a song that made me weep (yes, it made me weep)
I read it in a week old paper not one made it for his wake
Or laid a single flower at his feet
He was just a blind old beggar people said....Lord I'll wager
He won't be begging on your streets
You'll find him Lord this morning, he'll come steppin' from the dark
Won't you save a street in Glory, Lord, for Cortelia Clark
I was just a boy the year the bluebird special came through here
On its first run south to New Orleans
A blind old man and I we came to Guthrie just to see the train
He was black....and was I green
3. You Always Have The Blues
I wake up and think of her, no matter what I do
She's always on my mind a time of day or two
Seems to me the things you love the most you always lose
And once you got 'em, you've always got the blues
In time, well, you may find someone else that can comfort you
But not someone to light the fire, no not the way she used to do
You lose the things that made it what it was when it was new
And once you got 'em, you've always got the blues
A new love can only replace just so much of you
That leaves a lot that gets lost between number one and number two
I'll be here 'til midnight looking for someone to lose
Once you got 'em, you've always got the blues
I'll be here 'til midnight looking for someone to lose
Oh... and once you got 'em, you know you've always got the blues
4. Gone To Alabama
Oh di lo de leah I am gone to Alabama
Gone to Alabama, I am gone to Mobile, Leah
All along the way ladies playing with their children
Playing with their children on a lazy summer's day
Ships are in the harbor sitting on a sunset
Sitting on a sunset like a water color picture
Life was mighty good in the year of forty-seven
It was just like heaven in the year of forty-eight
Chorus (twice)
Oh...ain't it funny how we said in time of leaving
Said in time of leaving we'd be coming back some day
And ain't it funny now in our time of grieving
What was really leaving was not us but Mobile Bay
5. San Francisco Mabel Joy
Lord his daddy was an honest man, just a red dirt Georgia farm boy
His mamma lived a short life having kids and baling hay
He had fifteen years and an ache inside to wander
Jumped a freight in Waycross...wound up in L.A.
Lord, the cold nights had no pity on that Waycross Georgia farm boy
Most days he went hungry, then the summer came
Met a girl known on the strip as San Francisco's Mabel Joy
Destitution's child born on an L.A. street called Shame
Growing up came quietly in the arms of Mable Joy
Laughter found their mornings, brought a meaning to his life
Lord, on the night before she left sleep came and found that Waycross country boy
With dreams of Georgia cotton and a California wife
Sunday morning found him standing 'neath the red light at her door
When a right cross sent him reeling, put him face down on the floor
In place of his Mabel Joy he found a merchant mad marine
Who growled "Your Georgia neck is red but sonny you're still green"
He turned twenty-one in a grey rock federal prison
The old judge had no mercy on that Waycross Georgia boy
Staring at those four grey walls in silence, Lord, he just listened
To that midnight freight he knew could take him back to Mabel Joy
Sunday morning found him lying 'neath the red light at her door
With a bullet in his side he cried "Have you seen Mabel Joy?"
Stunned and shaken, someone said "Son, she don't live here no more
No she left this house four years today, they say she's looking for
some Georgia farm boy"
6. The Future's Not What It Used To Be
I left Decatur, hell-bent to forget
Bought a ticket to Showbegan, Maine
I wound up in Seattle so broke and rattled
Lord, I'd caught the wrong train
Found some fast easy women and some hard drinking men
Swore I'd drown a sorrow in me
I once had a lot but the future's just not
Not what it used to be
Ah the years went by, I went steadily down hill
'Til I had no place left to go
Made the missions by morning, made the dives every night
'Til I made a wreck of my body and soul
And then I met a lady and in time she made me forget
Her love set me free
Oh, we once had a lot but the future was not
Not what it used to be
I never thought I would live to grow old
Oh, the past cut a hole deep in me
There was the chance to be here awhile longer
At least I wanted to be
Somebody told me she was in town
I found out today
Lord, how it hurts me to hear she was down...what else can I say
I know her sorrow, I know her pain...I know her need
I once loved her a lot but the future's just not
Not what it used to be
7. How I Love Them Old Songs
Doggone my soul how I love them old songs
'Cause they were a comfort to me when I was alone
The dancing stops but the music just goes on
Doggone my soul how I love them old songs
Ah when I hear that double eagle guitar
It makes me think how trouble free girl we are
There was a time I spent my nights in a bar
Playing that old jukebox until the honky-tonky locked up
Doggone my mind it won't leave me alone
Keeps on reminding me I'm so far from home
Heart breaking aching eggs and bacon country songs
Takes me back to hardwood floors...outdoor johns and mason jars
It's all I can do to believe that it's gone
That hard-knocking, rock 'n rolling life I have known
But the dancing's over and the music just goes on
Doggone my soul how I love them old songs
8. She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye
Well the morning's come, Lord, my mind is aching
Sunshine's standing quietly at my door
Just like the dawn my heart is silently breaking
And with my tears it goes tumbling to the floor
Once again the old town will be talking
Lord, I've seen the pity that's in their eyes
But they could never understand it's her sorrow it's not a man
Well, no matter what they say I know she tried
Baby's packed her soft things and she's left me
I just know she never meant to make me cry
It's not her heart, Lord, it's her mind
She didn't mean to be unkind
Why she even woke me up to say goodbye.
It's not her heart, Lord, it's her mind
She didn't mean to be unkind
Why she even woke me up to say goodbye.
9. Apples Dipped in Candy
Old Jake laid down his fiddle and poured himself a drink
Sat down at the table...or tried
Cussing as he stumbled to the back door said
I think I'll have a smoke, set a spell outside
Staring at those flashing neon signs
Lightly dancing off down the Jackson city streets
Lets his memory slowly take him to the day in '44
On board the Robert E. Lee
Now he's steaming down the river just this side of Memphis
Breathing in the sweet southern scene
And he's leaving all his troubles to the present
Bound down to old New Orleans
Apples dipped in candy, sweet potato wine
One is for your belly...the other's for your mind
Day off on Sunday when the rent is not behind
Well, that's the way it goes
Lazy Mississippi moving mighty slow
Like that old blackbird standing by the road
Able when the times get rough to just pick up and go
Further on down the line
Rich man, poor man, beggar man thief
First one gets you down the road, the others get you grief
Last one gets you 90 days of cotton-pickin' peas
On the captain's farm
Apples dipped in candy, sweet potato wine
One is for your belly...the other's for your mind
Day off on Sunday when the rent is not behind
Well, that's the way it goes
I'll be damned if I can understand just what life's all about
He's eighty years and his thoughts are running wild
He's worked and sweated all these years to finally find it out
He was once a man...but twice a child
10. Lead On
Jesus do you still know me?
Well here I stand ragged and worn
Like an orphan left to wander
Like a sailor lost in a storm
Lead on...oh your words are like a fire
Although my body may be cold
If I reached out in time and touched eternity
I would find no other fire to warm my soul
Yes Jesus... if I could save me
I would have done so long ago
Will I become what I know that I should try to be
Or just another man growing old and all alone
Lead on...I will follow
Although my wayward ship may be tossed and rolled
I find no shelter from this troubled sea
There is no other place on earth to save my soul
...lead on
11. Let Me Sleep
Walk me through the blinding snow
Take me where the sun won't go
Shallow waters never flow
Slowly to the sea
Walk me through the dry hot sand
Steal my cup but fill my hand
Leave me where the valley can
Rock my soul to sleep
Where the mighty winds lie still
Ever silence on the hill
Cradled by a mountain 'til
The father welcomes me
Lay me down on the verdant green
At the breast of the mother spring
With a song that I can sing
A song that I can keep
Let me sleep
12. Sweet Memories
My world is like a river as dark as it is deep
Night after night the past slips in and gathers all my sleep
My days are just an endless stream of emptiness to me
Filled only by the fleeting moments of her memory
Sweet memories.....sweet memories
She slipped into the silence of my dreams last night
Wandering from room to room, turning on each light
Her laughter spills like water from the river to the sea
I'm swept away from sadness clinging to her memory
Sweet memories.....sweet memories
13. On The Road With Jack (R. Cox)
A big ol' lazy gator rests his chin upon a turtle
There's a lonely Mickey freight train on the track
A wren is in the canyon there's a warbler in the myrtle
I'm on the road with Jack
And the miles turn into miles and miles
Texas fades to black
Lost in the words I am lost in the music
I'm on the road with Jack
(Refrain) Ooh, ooh ooh-ooh on the road with Jack
Ooh, ooh ooh-ooh on the road with Jack
A hawk above the field describes a circle
Jack describes the markings on his tail
And how a stellar's jay can for protection
Imitate that melancholy wail
,,,I'm on the road with Jack
Refrain
Thirty miles of swamp land once you cross that Mississippi
A foggy mist creeps in from everywhere
An old man on his front porch...just a foot above the water
Waves as he fishes from his rocking chair
On that bridge to Baton Rouge....ain't no turning back
New strings tuned and bright we are on our way to Louie's
We're singing there tonight
Ooh, ooh ooh-ooh on the road with Jack
Lost in the words...God, I love the music
I'm on the road with Mary
I'm on the road with Judy
I'm on the road with Mickey
I'm on the road with Jack
14. Catherine (R. Cox and John Smith)
Catherine came into this world a little early
She came into this world on a prayer
Oh, how could anyone that small have any chance at all
There is a reason...must be a reason
She was born to make a difference
She's got something, something to do...something to do
Dr. King came to Memphis on a Thursday
The garbage men were marching arm-in-arm
Those K boys warned him not to come, but King would never run
He had a reason...a real good reason
He was there to make a difference
He had something...something to do...something to do
Oh, oh, oh he had something
Oh, oh, oh he had something
He was there to make a difference
He had something...something to do...something to do
Something to give...something to share
The courage to see it through
To make a stand, to carry on
Can sometimes move a mountain
Look around this world has got some problems
The air we breathe..the homeless on our streets
Oh, what if you and you and me, if all of us could see
There is a reason....we've got a reason
And we could make a difference
We've got something...something to do...something to do
Oh, oh, oh we've got something
Oh, oh, oh we've got something
Together we could make a difference
We've got something...something to do...something to do |
