"Sweet Baby James"



There is a young cowboy, he lives on the range. His horse and his cattle are his only companions.
He works in the saddle and he sleeps in the canyons, waiting for summer, his pastures to change.
And as the moon rises he sits by his fire, thinking about women and glasses of beer.
And closing his eyes as the doggies retire, he sings out a song which is soft but it's clear
as if maybe someone could hear...

Goodnight you moon light ladies, rock-a-bye sweet baby James.
Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose, won't you let me go down in my dreams?
And rock-a-bye sweet baby James.

Now the first of December was covered with snow
and so was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston.
Though the Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting,
with ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go.
There's a song that they sing when they take to the highway,
a song that they sing when they take to the sea,
a song that they sing of their home in the sky, maybe you can believe it if it helps you to sleep,
but singing works just fine for me.

So, goodnight you moon light ladies, rock-a-bye sweet baby James.
Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose, won't you let me go down in my dreams?
And rock-a-bye sweet baby James.

"Sweet Potato Pie"



Oh Lord I feel fine today, I'm walking on cloud nine today.
I'm over that line today, happiness is finally mine today.
I guess I'm just a lucky guy and I'm prepared to tell you why.
It's strictly on account of my Sweet Potato Pie.

I'm the fellow that she loves the most, the main reason why she left the coast.
She's my little girlzina, that much hotter that a jalapeno.
Tender like a night in June, sweeter than a honeymoon,
brighter than a silver spoon, just as crazy as a loon.

Softer than a lullaby, deeper than the midnight sky, soulful as a baby's cry, my Sweet Potato Pie.

I used to see her around the neighborhood, I wonder how she grew up so good.
She belonged to Freddy and he was bad and I never was ready to make him mad.
I'm glad I had to wait awhile, a little bit too juvenile.
I needed to refine my style, a silk suit and a crocodile smile.

So let the whole damn world go by cause I just want to testify
from now on it's me and my Sweet Potato Pie.

"T-Bone"



Me and T-Bone on the road to town, it's like I'm walking with a talking machine.
Just as soon as he thinks of something else, he won't wait to interrupt himself.
Must be something that he can't quite say, he just doesn't want to leave it that way.
Although he may not know it yet, unless I miss my bet,
he's just trying to forget what his heart remembers.

I see that T-Bone got an automobile, low-loping and open to the sky.
All night behind the hurricane wheel, riding in the eye.
All day underneath the hood, Mondo Bondo, plastic, wood.
He needs a mile of masking tape if he wants to keep his ship in shape,
someday to escape what his heart remembers, yes, what his heart remembers.

T-Bone's not alone, not alone, looks like he gets a second chance.
It's Mamarama and Lumalamalu want to take him to recovery dance.
He's looking like he gets his meat suit back, I guess he must have missed the crack attack.
Still he's riding for a fall 'cause it's written upon the wall,
that now he must recall what his heart remembers, what his heart remembers.

"Taking It In"



Morning, sing me a song, afternoon, bring it along, nighttime, show me a friend,
say it again, send a good dream my way.

Wednesday, feeling just fine, I got to say time on my hands. Friday, look at them run,
show me some fun, taking the sunshine in.

God knows you've got to give yourself time to think these days,
Lord knows you've got to take enough, time to look both ways, the pieces fly by so quickly now.

Laura, look at you walk, I swear you've got eyes in my head.
I'd like to follow you down, show you around, borrow the crown you wear.

Bacon, lie on the plate, two black-eyed peas wait on the side.
Gravy, chicken and rice, isn't it nice? Tell me the price of the food.

What happens when the answers they give you aren't good enough?
What happens when it rains for eight days on your week off?
You know you can't buy tomorrow, no, it's all a matter of opening up your eyes.
And looking around cause it's all there, it's all there, I said taking the sunshine in.

"Terra Nova"



Oh, end this day, show me the ocean. When shall I see the sea?
May this day set me in emotion, I ought to be on my way.

We were there, we were sailing on the Terra Nova.
Sailing for the setting sun, sailing for the new horizon.
May this day show me an ocean, I ought to be on my way.

Ought to be on my way right now.
Stepping on the boat with a lump in my throat, on my way right now.

I got a letter from a dear friend of mine, the story of a spiritual awakening.
She spoke of her love returning in kind, she let me know that she'd be waiting.
And I should be on my way by now.
Walking across the floor, reaching for the door, on my way by now.

But here I sit, country fool that I am, my elbow on my knee and my chin in my hand.
My mind in the gutter and my eye on the street, holed up in a cave of concrete.
And I ought to be on my way right now.
Packing my things while the telephone rings, on my way right now.

I miss my lovely mother and I love my lonely father.
I know I owe my brothers one thing and another, I hear my sister singing.
And I ought to be on my way right now.
Moving across the land with my heart in my hand, on my way by now,
Ought to be on my way by now.

Oh, end this day, set me in motion. Ought to be on my way.

Out to the west of Lambert's Cove, there's a sail out in the sun.
And I'm on board though very small, I've come home to stop yearning.
Burn off the haze around the shore, turn off the crazy way I feel.
I'll stay away from you no more, I've come home to stop yearning.

"That Lonesome Road"



Walk down that lonesome road all by yourself,
Don't turn your head back over your shoulder.
And only stop to rest yourself when the silver moon is shining high above the trees.

If I had stopped to listen once or twice, if I had closed my mouth and opened my eyes.
If I had cooled my head and warmed my heart, I'd not be on this road tonight.

Carry on, never mind feeling sorry for yourself.
It doesn't save you from your troubled mind.

Walk down that lonesome road all by yourself,
Don't turn your head back over your shoulder.
And only stop to rest yourself when the silver moon is shining high above the trees.

"That's Why I'm Here"



Person to person and man to man, I'm back in touch with my long lost friend.
Listen to reason and understand and think of me from way back when.
He said, me and Melissa, well we fell out of love. We ran out of luck seems like lightning struck.
I've been thinking of leaving but I can't raise a buck,
James, I'm wondering could I borrow your truck?

I said that's why I'm here. Got no other reason,
that's why I'm standing before you, that's why I'm here.

John's gone, found dead, he dies high, he's brown bread. Later said to have drowned in his bed.
After the laughter, the wave of the dread, it hits us like a ton of lead.
It seems "learn not to burn" means to turn on a dime
and walk on if you're walking even if it's an uphill climb.
And try to remember that working's no crime, just don't let 'em take and waste your time.
That's why I'm here.

This is an IOU, I reckon I owe you one now.
Listen Wendy and listen Gloria, this'll be better tomorrow.

Fortune and fame's such a curious game. Perfect strangers can call you by name.
Pay good money to hear fire and rain again and again and again.
Some are like summer coming back every year,
got your baby got your blanket got your bucket of beer.
I break into a grin from ear to ear and suddenly it's perfectly clear.
That's why I'm here.

This is the part about Kitty and Jim, he loved her and she loved him.
Wake 'em up shake 'em up the middle of the night, got to tell me everything's alright.
He said that's why I'm here. That's right.

"The Blues Is Just A Bad Dream"



A tree grows in my back yard, it only grows at night.
Its branches they're all twisted, its leaves are afraid of light.
They say the blues is just a bad dream, they say it lives upside your head.
But when it's lonely in the morning, you're bound to wish that you was lying dead.

There's winds out on the ocean, they're blowing just as they choose.
But then winds ain't got no emotion, baby, they don't know the blues.
They say the blues is just a bad dream, they say it lives upside your head, mmmm.
But when it's lone, lonely in the morning you're bound to wish that you was lying dead.

My mind is rambling and rambling just like some rolling stone, no,
since that nightmare's come to stay with me, baby, my thoughts just don't belong.
They say the blues is just a bad dream, they say it lives upside your head.
But when they visit you around midnight, you're bound to wish that you were lying dead.

"The Christmas Song"



Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
Jack Frost nipping on your nose,
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir,
And folks dressed up like Eskimos.

Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe,
Help to make the season bright.
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow,
Will find it hard to sleep tonight.

They know that Santa's on his way;
He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh.
And every mother's child is going to spy,
To see if reindeer really know how to fly.

And so I'm offering this simple phrase,
To kids from one to ninety-two,
Although its been said many times, many ways,
A very Merry Christmas to you

"The Frozen Man"



Last thing I remember is the freezing cold, water reaching up just to swallow me whole.
Ice in the rigging and howling wind, shock to my body as we tumbled in, mercy from God.
My brothers and the others are lost at sea, I alone am returned to tell thee.
Hidden in ice for a century to walk the world again, Lord have mercy on the frozen man.

Next words that were spoken to me, nurse asked me what my name might be.
She was all in white at the foot of my bed, I said angel of mercy I'm alive or am I dead?
My name is William James McPhee, I was born in 1843.
Raised in Liverpool by the sea but that ain't who I am, Lord have mercy on the frozen man.

It took a lot of money to start my heart, to peg my leg and to buy my eye.
The newspapers call me the state of the art, and the children, when they see me, cry.
I thought it would be nice just to visit my grave, see what kind of tombstone I might have.
I saw my wife and my daughter and it seemed so strange,
both of them dead and gone from extreme old age.
See here, when I die make sure I'm gone, don't leave 'em nothing to work on.
You can raise your arm, you can wiggle your hand, not unlike myself,
and you can wave goodbye to the frozen man.

I know what it means to freeze to death, to lose a little life with every breath.
To say goodbye to life on earth and come around again,
Lord have mercy on the frozen man, Lord have mercy on the frozen man

"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"



When Liberty Valance came to town, the women folk would hide, they'd hide.
When Liberty Valance walked around, the men would step aside
because the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood.
When it came to shooting straight and fast, he was mighty good.

From out of the east a stranger came, a law book in his hand.
A man, the kind of man the west would need to ease a troubled land.
because the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood.
When it came to shooting straight and fast, he was mighty good.

Many a man would face his gun and many a man would fall.
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance, he was the bravest of them all.

Now the love of a woman can make a man stay on when he should go, stay on.
just trying to build a peaceful life where love is free to go.
But the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood.
When it came to shooting straight and fast, he was mighty good.

Alone and afraid she prayed that he'd return that fateful night, that night.
when nothing she said could keep her man from going out to fight.
But the point of a gun was the only law that Liberty understood.
When it came to shooting straight and fast, he was mighty good.

Out in the sun, two shots rang out, the shots made Liberty fall.
The man who shot Liberty Valance, he shot Liberty Valance he was the bravest of them all.

"The Promised Land"



Left my home in Norfolk, Virginia, California on my mind.
Straddled that Greyhound and rode it into Raleigh and on across Caroline.
We stopped in Charlotte but we bypassed Rockhill, we never was a minute late.
We were ninety miles out of Atlanta by sundown rolling out of Georgia state.

Had some motor trouble that turned into a struggle half way across Alabam.
That hound broke and left us all stranded in downtown Birmingham.
So right away I bought me a through train ticket right across Mississippi clean,
And I was on that Special Flyer out of Birmingham smoking into New Orleans.

Someone's got to help me get out of Louisiana, just to help me get to Houston town.
There's an uncle there who cares a little about me and he won't let the poor boy down.
Sure as you're born, he bought me a silk suit, put some luggage in my hand.
And I woke up high over Albuquerque on a jet to the Promised Land.

Working on a T-Bone steak, a la carte, flying over to the Golden State.
When the pilot told us that in thirteen minutes he would have us at the terminal gate.
Swing down chariot, come down easy, taxi to the terminal dome.
Cut your engines and cool your wings and let me make it to the telephone.

Los Angeles give me Norfolk, Virginia, tidewater four-ten-O-nine.
Tell the folks back home this is the Promised Land calling,
and the poor boy is on the line.

"The Water Is Wide"



The water is wide, I can't cross over, and neither have I wings to fly.
Build me a boat that can carry two and both shall row, my love and I.

There is a ship and she sails the sea. She's loaded deep, as deep can be.
But not so deep as the love I'm in, I know not how I sink or swim.

Oh love is handsome and love is fine, the sweetest flower when first it's new.
But love grows old and waxes cold and fades away like Summer dew.

Build me a boat that can carry two and both shall row, my love and I,
And both shall row, my love and I.

"There We Are"



Listen to me and I'll sing you a song
and the time will go by till you never know where it's gone.
Talk to me and I'll tell you my life story.
Walk with me and I'll tell you my dreams of glory.
There we are walking hand in hand, somewhere on the sand
at the end of the land and the edge of the shining sea.

Drifting through time and space on the face of a little blue ball falling around the sun.
One in a million, billion twinkling lights shining out for no one in the middle of the night.
Here we are, sparks in the darkness, speaking of our love
burning down forever and forever.

Oh, I don't know if I told you, but you hold my heart in your hand.
And I found out something about you, baby, without you. I'm a lonely man.

So though I never say that I love you, I love you, darling I do, Carly, I do love you.
And though we are as nothing to the stars that shine above,
you are my universe, you are my love.
Here we are, like children forever, taking care of one another
while the world goes on without us, all around us.

"Traffic Jam"



Damn this traffic jam, how I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow.
Damn this traffic jam, time I get home my supper'll be cold, damn this traffic jam.

Well I left my job about 5 o'clock, it took fifteen minutes go three blocks,
Just in time to stand in line with a freeway looking like a parking lot.
Damn this traffic jam, how I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow.
Damn this traffic jam, time I get home my supper'll be cold, damn this traffic jam.

Now I almost had a heart attack, looking in my rear view mirror,
I saw myself the next car back, looking in the rear view mirror,
about to have a heart attack, I said,
damn this traffic jam, how I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow.
Damn this traffic jam, time I get home my supper'll be cold, damn this traffic jam.

Now when I die I don't want no coffin, I thought about it all too often.
Just strap me in behind the wheel and bury me with my automobile.
Damn this traffic jam, how I hate to be late, it hurts my motor to go so slow.
Damn this traffic jam, time I get home my supper'll be cold, damn this traffic jam. Damn.

Now I used to think that I was cool running around on fossil fuel,
Until I saw what I was doing was driving down the road to ruin.

"Turn Away"



I open my arms to hold you, you turn away you turn away.
I feel it just like I told you, how can you turn away?
The things that we said last Saturday night, you turn away you turn away,
now you want to throw that away, how can you turn away?
It was true love, it was you and me and the sliver moon and the shining sea.
It was new but it felt to me just like love was supposed to be finally.

And now your eyes won't meet mine, you turn away you turn away.
I never want to taste that sweet wine again, how can you turn away?
It was true love, it was you and me and the sliver moon and the shining sea.
It was new but it felt to me just like love was supposed to be finally.

And after this love I'm keeping for you, you turn away you turn away.
I never want to taste that sweet wine again, how can you turn away?
It was true love, it was you and me and the sliver moon and the shining sea.
It was new but it felt to me just like love was supposed to be finally.

And after this love I'm keeping for you, you turn away you turn away.
I'll dry these tears that I'm weeping for you and take my turn to turn away, yeah.

"Up Er Mei"



We were walking in paradise, never did notice. Blind in the Buddha land, looking for solace.
We had been told of a place, far beyond this vale of tears.
We could never have guessed, we were already blessed.
There we were, where we are in the garden.

Didn't we climb on up Er Mei, temple to temple?
Yes and all and all along the way, the day was simple.
Didn't we reach the top, didn't we gain our goal? Did we finally stop, surprised by the cold?

We were walking in paradise, never did tumble. Blind in the Buddha land, looking for trouble.
We had been told of a place far beyond this vale of tears.
We could never have guessed, we were already blessed.
There we were, where we are, in the garden, in the garden.

"Up From Your Life"



So much for your moment of prayer, God's not at home there is no there, there.
Lost in the stars, that's what you are, left here on your own.

You can only hope to live on this earth, this here is it, for all it's worth.
Nothing else awaits you, no second birth, no starry crown.

For an unbeliever like you, there's not much they can do that would turn you away.
Though I hate to see you surrender, you need to surrender, we must find you a way to
Look up from your life, up from your life, look on up from your life, look up from your life.

There's a river running under your feet, under this house, under this street.
Straight from the heart, ancient and sweet, on its way back home.
Even in the middle of your sadness, the everyday madness, the ongoing game.
Even when you can't find a reason, still there is a reason, you don't need to name it.
Look on up, look up from your life, look on up from your life, look up from your life.

Oh, even for a minute to find yourself in it, to wait by the stream to drop out of your dream,
Look on up, look up from your life, look on up from your life, look up from your life.
Look up from your life, up from your life, look on up from your life, look up from your life.

"Up On The Roof"
(performed with Carole King)



When this old world starts a getting me down,
and people are just too much for me to face.
I'll climb way up to the top of the stairs and all my cares just drift right into space.
On the roof, it's peaceful as can be and there the world below don't bother me, no, no.

So when I come home feeling tired and beat, I'll go up where the air is fresh and sweet.
I'll get far away from the hustling crowd and all the rat-race noise down in the street.
On the roof, that's the only place I know, look at the city, baby.
Where you just have to wish to make it so, let's go up on the roof.

And at night the stars, they put on a show for free.
And, darling, you can share it all with me, that's what I said, keep on telling you
That right smack dab in the middle of town , I found a paradise that's trouble-proof.
And if this old world starts a getting you down, there's room enough for two
up on the roof, up on the roof, up on the roof.
Everything is all right, every thing is all right.
You got the stars above and the city lights below, let's go up on the roof.

"Up On The Roof"



When this old world starts a getting me down,
and people are just too much for me to face.
I'll climb way up to the top of the stairs and all my cares just drift right into space.
On the roof, it's peaceful as can be and there the world below don't bother me, no, no.

So when I come home feeling tired and beat, I'll go up where the air is fresh and sweet.
I'll get far away from the hustling crowd and all the rat-race noise down in the street.
On the roof, that's the only place I know, look at the city, baby.
Where you just have to wish to make it so, let's go up on the roof.

And at night the stars, they put on a show for free.
And, darling, you can share it all with me, that's what I said, keep on telling you
That right smack dab in the middle of town , I found a paradise that's trouble-proof.
And if this old world starts a getting you down, there's room enough for two
up on the roof, up on the roof, up on the roof.
Everything is all right, every thing is all right.
You got the stars above and the city lights below, let's go up on the roof.