1. All I Really Want To Do
2. Black Crow Blues
3. Spanish Harlem Incident
4. Chimes Of Freedom
5. I Shall Be Free No.10
6. To Ramona
7. Motorpsycho Nitemare
8. My Back Pages
9. I Don't Believe You
10. Ballad In Plain D
11. It Ain't Me Babe
ALL I REALLY WANT TO DO
I ain’t lookin’ to compete with you
Beat or cheat or mistreat you
Simplify you, classify you
Deny, defy or crucify you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
No, and I ain’t lookin’ to fight with you
Frighten you or tighten you
Drag you down or drain you down
Chain you down or bring you down
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I ain’t lookin’ to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Finalize you or advertise you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don’t want to straight-face you
Race or chase you, track or trace you
Or disgrace you or displace you
Or define you or confine you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don’t want to meet your kin
Make you spin or do you in
Or select you or dissect you
Or inspect you or reject you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don’t want to fake you out
Take or shake or forsake you out
I ain’t lookin’ for you to feel like me
See like me or be like me
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
BLACK CROW BLUES
I woke in the mornin’, wand’rin’ wearied and worn out
I woke in the mornin’, wand’rin’ wearied and worn out
Wishin’ my long-lost lover will walk to me and talk to me
tell me what it’s all about
I was standin’ at the side road listenin’ to the billboard knock
Standin’ at the side road listenin’ to the billboard knock
Well, my wrist was empty but my nerves were kickin’
Tickin’ like a clock
If I got anything you need, babe, let me tell you in front
If I got anything you need, babe, let me tell you in front
You can come to me sometime night time, day time
Any time you want
Sometimes I’m thinkin’ I’m too high to fall
Sometimes I’m thinkin’ I’m much too high to fall
Other times I’m thinkin’ I’m so low I don’t know
If I can come up at all
Black crows in the meadow sleepin’ across a broad highway
Black crows in the meadow across a broad highway
Though it’s funny, honey I’m outta touch don’t feel much like a scarecrow today
SPANISH HARLEM INCIDENT
Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem
Cannot hold you to its heat
Your temperature’s too hot for taming
Your flaming feet up burnin’ up the street
I am homeless, come and take me
Into reach of your rattling drums
Let me know, babe, about my fortune
Down along my restless palms
Gypsy gal, you got me swallowed
I have fallen far beneath
Your pearly eyes, so fast an’ slashing
An’ your flashing diamond teeth
The night is pitch black, come an’ make my
Pale face fit into place, ah, please!
Let me know, babe, I’m nearly drowning
If it’s you my lifelines trace
I been wond’rin’ all about me
Ever since I seen you there
On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I’m riding
I know I’m ’round you but I don’t know where
You have slayed me, you have made me
I got to laugh halfways off my heels
I got to know, babe, will you surround me?
So I can now if I’m really real
CHIMES OF FREEDOM
Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorways, thunder went crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
And the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
In the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
For the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chaned an’ cheated by pursuit
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hang suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
I SHALL BE FREE NO.10
I’m just average, common too
I’m just like him, the same as you
I’m everybody’s brother and son
I ain’t different than anyone
It ain’t no use a-talking to me
It’s just the same as talking to you
I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said “Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I’m gonna make your face look just like mine
Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you’d better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won’t even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen”
Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first
Wowee! pretty scary!
Now, I’m liberal, but to a degree
I want ev’rybody to be free
But if you think that I’ll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I’m crazy!
I wouldn’t let him do it for all the farms in Cuba
Well, I set my monkey on the log
And ordered him to do the Dog
He wagged his tail and shook his head
And he went and did the Cat instead
He’s a weird monkey, very funky
I sat with my high-heeled sneakers on
Waiting to play tennis in the noonday sun
I had my white shorts rolled up past my waist
And my wig-hat was falling in my face
But they wouldn’t let me on the tennis court
I got a woman, she’s so mean
She sticks my boots in the washing machine
Sticks me with buckshot when I’m nude
Puts bubblegum in my food
She’s funny, wants my money, calls me “honey”
Now I got a friend who spends his life
Stabbing my picture with a bowie knife
Dreams of strangling me with a scarf
When my name comes up he pretends to barf
I’ve got a million friends!
Now they asked me to read a poem
At the sorority sisters’ home
I got knocked down and my head was swimmin’
I wound up with the Dean of Women
Yippee! I’m a poet, and I know it
Hope I don’t blow it
I’m gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange
So I look like a walking mountain range
And I’m gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
Out to the country club and the golf course
Carry The New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds
You’re probably wondering by now
Just what this song is all about
What’s probably got you baffled more
Is what this thing here is for
It’s nothing
It’s something I learned over in England
TO RAMONA
Ramona, come closer, shut softly your watery eyes
The pangs of your sadness shall pass as your senses will rise
The flowers of the city though breathlike get deathlike sometimes
And there’s no use in tryin’ the deal with the dyin’
Though I cannot explain that in lines
Your cracked country lips I still wish to kiss
As to be by the strength of your skin
Your magnetic movements still capture the minutes I’m in
But it grieves my heart, love to see you tryin’ to be a part of a world that just don’t exist
It’s all just a dream, babe a vacuum, a scheme, babe,
that sucks you into feelin’ like this
I can see that your head has been twisted and fed with worthless foam from the mouth
I can tell you are torn between stayin’ and returnin’ on back to the South
You’ve been fooled into thinking that the finishin’ end is at hand
Yet there’s no one to beat you no one to defeat you except the thoughts of yourself feeling bad
I’ve heard you say many times that you’re better than no one and no one is better than you
If you really believe that you know you have nothing to win and nothing to lose
From fixtures and forces and friends your sorrow does stem
That hype you and type you making you feel that you gotta be just like them
I’d forever talk to you but soon my words would turn into a meaningless ring
For deep in my heart I know there is no help I can bring
Everything passes, everything changes just do what you think you should do
And someday maybe who knows, baby, I’ll come and be cryin’ to you
MOTORPSYCHO NITEMARE
I pounded on a farmhouse lookin’ for a place to stay
I was mighty, mighty tired I had come a long, long way
I said, “Hey, hey, in there is there anybody home?”
I was standin’ on the steps feelin’ most alone
Well, out comes a farmer he must have thought that I was nuts
He immediately looked at me and stuck a gun into my guts
I fell down to my bended knees
Saying, “I dig farmers don’t shoot me, please!”
He cocked his rifle and began to shout
“You’re that travelin’ salesman that I have heard about”
I said, “No! No! No! I’m a doctor and it’s true
I’m a clean-cut kid and I been to college, too”
Then in comes his daughter whose name was Rita
She looked like she stepped out of La Dolce Vita
I immediately tried to cool it with her dad
And told him what a nice, pretty farm he had
He said, “What do doctors know about farms, pray tell?”
I said, “I was born at the bottom of a wishing well”
Well, by the dirt ’neath my nails I guess he knew I wouldn’t lie,
he said “I guess you’re tired”, he said, kinda sly
I said, “Yes, ten thousand miles today I drove”
He said, “I got a bed for you underneath the stove
Just one condition, you go to sleep right now
That you don’t touch my daughter and in the morning, milk the cow”
I was sleepin’ like a rat when I heard something jerkin’
There stood Rita lookin’ just like Tony Perkins
She said, “Would you like to take a shower? I’ll show you up to the door”
I said, “Oh, no! no! I’ve been through this movie before”
I knew I had to split but I didn’t know how
When she said “Would you like to take that shower, now?”
Well, I couldn’t leave unless the old man chased me out
’Cause I’d already promised that I’d milk his cows
I had to say something to strike him very weird
So I yelled out “I like Fidel Castro and his beard”
Rita looked offended but she got out of the way
As he came charging down the stairs sayin’, “What’s that I heard you say?”
I said, “I like Fidel Castro I think you heard me right”
And I ducked as he swung at me with all his might
Rita mumbled something ’bout her mother on the hill
As his fist hit the icebox he said he’s going to kill me
If I don’t get out the door in two seconds flat
“You unpatriotic rotten doctor commie rat”
Well, he threw a Reader’s Digest at my head and I did run
I did a somersault as I seen him get his gun
And crashed through the window at a hundred miles an hour
And landed fully blast in his garden flowers
Rita said, “Come back!” and he started to load
The sun was comin’ up and I was runnin’ down the road
Well, I don’t figure I’ll be back there for a spell
Even though Rita moved away and got a job in a motel
He still waits for me constant, on the sly
He wants to turn me in to the F.B.I.
Me, I romp and stomp things thankful as I romp
Without freedom of speech I might be in the swamp
MY BACK PAGES
Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ’neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Girls’ faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality”, I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
I DON'T BELIEVE YOU
I can’t understand
She let go of my hand
An’ left me here facing the wall
I’d sure like to know
Why she did go
But I can’t get close to her at all.
Though we kissed through the wild blazing nighttime
She said she would never forget
But now mornin’s clear
It’s like I ain’t here
She acts like we never met
It’s all new to me
Like some mystery
It could even be like a myth
But it’s hard to think on
That she’s the same one
That last night I was with
From darkness, dreams are deserted
Am I still dreamin’ yet?
I wish she’d unlock
Her voice once and talk
’Stead of acting like we never met
If she ain’t feelin’ well
Then why don’t she tell
’Stead of turnin’ her back to my face
Without any doubt
She seems too far out
For me to return to her chase
And her skirt it swayed as a guitar played
Her mouth was watery and wet
But now something has changed
For she ain’t the same
She just acts like we never have met
If I didn’t have to guess
I’d gladly confess
To anything I might’ve tried
If I was with her too long
Or have done something wrong
I’d wish she tell me what it is, I’ll run and hide
Though the night ran swirling and whirling
I remember her whispering yet
But evidently she don’t, evidently she won’t
She just acts like we never have met
I’m leavin’ today
I’ll be on my way
Of this I can’t say very much
But if you want me to
I can be just like you
And pretend that we never have touched
And if anybody asks me
“Is it easy to forget?”
I’ll say, “It’s easily done
You just pick anyone
And pretend that you never have met!”
BALLAD IN PLAIN D
I once loved a girl, her skin it was bronze
With the innocence of a lamb, she was gentle like a fawn
I courted her proudly but now she is gone
Gone as the season she’s taken
And our young summer’s youth has stole her away
From her mother and sister, though close did they stay
Each one of them suffering from the failures of their day
With strings of guilt they tried hard to guide us
Of the two sisters, I loved the young
With sensitive instincts, she was the creative one
The constant scapegoat, she was easily undone
By the jealousy of others around her
For her parasite sister, I had no respect
Bound by her boredom, her pride to protect
Countless visions of the other she’d reflect
As a crutch for her scenes and her society
Myself, for what I did, I cannot be excused
The changes I was going through can’t even be used
For the lies that I told her in hopes not to lose
The could-be dream-lover of my lifetime
With unknown consciousness, I possessed in my grip
A magnificent mantelpiece, though its heart being chipped
Noticing not that I’d already slipped
To a sin of love’s false security
From silhouetted anger to manufactured peace
Answers of emptiness, voice vacancies
Till the tombstones of damage read no questions but, “Please
What’s wrong, what’s exactly the matter?”
And so it did happen like it could have been foreseen
The timeless explosion of fantasy’s dream
At the peak of the night, the king and the queen
Tumbled all down into pieces
“The tragic figure!” her sister did shout
“Leave her alone, God damn you, get out!”
And I in my armor, turning about
And nailing her in the ruins of her pettiness
Beneath a bare lightbulb the plaster did pound
Her sister and I in a screaming battleground
And she in between, the victim of sound
Soon shattered as a child to the shadows
All is gone, all is gone, admit it, take flight
I gagged in contradiction, tears blinding my sight
My mind it was mangled, I ran into the night
Leaving all of love’s ashes behind me
The wind knocks my window, the room it is wet
The words to say I’m sorry, I haven’t found yet
I think of her often and hope whoever she’s met
Will be fully aware of how precious she is
Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me
“How good, how good does it feel to be free?”
And I answer them most mysteriously
“Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?”
IT AIN'T ME, BABE
Go away from my window
Leave at your own chosen speed
I’m not the one you want, babe
I’m not the one you need
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Who’s never weak but always strong
To protect you and defend you
Whether you are right or wrong
Someone to open each and every door
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe
Go lightly from the ledge, babe
Go lightly on the ground
I’m not the one you want, babe
I will only let you down
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Who’ll promise never to part
Someone to close his eyes for you
Someone to close his heart
Someone who will die for you and more
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe
Go melt back into the night
Everything inside is made of stone
There’s nothing in here moving
And anyway I’m not alone
You say you’re lookin' for someone
Who’ll pick you up each time you fall
To gather flowers constantly
And to come each time you call
And lover for your life an’ nothing more
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe
2. Black Crow Blues
3. Spanish Harlem Incident
4. Chimes Of Freedom
5. I Shall Be Free No.10
6. To Ramona
7. Motorpsycho Nitemare
8. My Back Pages
9. I Don't Believe You
10. Ballad In Plain D
11. It Ain't Me Babe
ALL I REALLY WANT TO DO
I ain’t lookin’ to compete with you
Beat or cheat or mistreat you
Simplify you, classify you
Deny, defy or crucify you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
No, and I ain’t lookin’ to fight with you
Frighten you or tighten you
Drag you down or drain you down
Chain you down or bring you down
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I ain’t lookin’ to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Finalize you or advertise you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don’t want to straight-face you
Race or chase you, track or trace you
Or disgrace you or displace you
Or define you or confine you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don’t want to meet your kin
Make you spin or do you in
Or select you or dissect you
Or inspect you or reject you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
I don’t want to fake you out
Take or shake or forsake you out
I ain’t lookin’ for you to feel like me
See like me or be like me
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you
BLACK CROW BLUES
I woke in the mornin’, wand’rin’ wearied and worn out
I woke in the mornin’, wand’rin’ wearied and worn out
Wishin’ my long-lost lover will walk to me and talk to me
tell me what it’s all about
I was standin’ at the side road listenin’ to the billboard knock
Standin’ at the side road listenin’ to the billboard knock
Well, my wrist was empty but my nerves were kickin’
Tickin’ like a clock
If I got anything you need, babe, let me tell you in front
If I got anything you need, babe, let me tell you in front
You can come to me sometime night time, day time
Any time you want
Sometimes I’m thinkin’ I’m too high to fall
Sometimes I’m thinkin’ I’m much too high to fall
Other times I’m thinkin’ I’m so low I don’t know
If I can come up at all
Black crows in the meadow sleepin’ across a broad highway
Black crows in the meadow across a broad highway
Though it’s funny, honey I’m outta touch don’t feel much like a scarecrow today
SPANISH HARLEM INCIDENT
Gypsy gal, the hands of Harlem
Cannot hold you to its heat
Your temperature’s too hot for taming
Your flaming feet up burnin’ up the street
I am homeless, come and take me
Into reach of your rattling drums
Let me know, babe, about my fortune
Down along my restless palms
Gypsy gal, you got me swallowed
I have fallen far beneath
Your pearly eyes, so fast an’ slashing
An’ your flashing diamond teeth
The night is pitch black, come an’ make my
Pale face fit into place, ah, please!
Let me know, babe, I’m nearly drowning
If it’s you my lifelines trace
I been wond’rin’ all about me
Ever since I seen you there
On the cliffs of your wildcat charms I’m riding
I know I’m ’round you but I don’t know where
You have slayed me, you have made me
I got to laugh halfways off my heels
I got to know, babe, will you surround me?
So I can now if I’m really real
CHIMES OF FREEDOM
Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorways, thunder went crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
And the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
In the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
For the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chaned an’ cheated by pursuit
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hang suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
I SHALL BE FREE NO.10
I’m just average, common too
I’m just like him, the same as you
I’m everybody’s brother and son
I ain’t different than anyone
It ain’t no use a-talking to me
It’s just the same as talking to you
I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said “Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I’m gonna make your face look just like mine
Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you’d better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won’t even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen”
Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first
Wowee! pretty scary!
Now, I’m liberal, but to a degree
I want ev’rybody to be free
But if you think that I’ll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I’m crazy!
I wouldn’t let him do it for all the farms in Cuba
Well, I set my monkey on the log
And ordered him to do the Dog
He wagged his tail and shook his head
And he went and did the Cat instead
He’s a weird monkey, very funky
I sat with my high-heeled sneakers on
Waiting to play tennis in the noonday sun
I had my white shorts rolled up past my waist
And my wig-hat was falling in my face
But they wouldn’t let me on the tennis court
I got a woman, she’s so mean
She sticks my boots in the washing machine
Sticks me with buckshot when I’m nude
Puts bubblegum in my food
She’s funny, wants my money, calls me “honey”
Now I got a friend who spends his life
Stabbing my picture with a bowie knife
Dreams of strangling me with a scarf
When my name comes up he pretends to barf
I’ve got a million friends!
Now they asked me to read a poem
At the sorority sisters’ home
I got knocked down and my head was swimmin’
I wound up with the Dean of Women
Yippee! I’m a poet, and I know it
Hope I don’t blow it
I’m gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange
So I look like a walking mountain range
And I’m gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
Out to the country club and the golf course
Carry The New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds
You’re probably wondering by now
Just what this song is all about
What’s probably got you baffled more
Is what this thing here is for
It’s nothing
It’s something I learned over in England
TO RAMONA
Ramona, come closer, shut softly your watery eyes
The pangs of your sadness shall pass as your senses will rise
The flowers of the city though breathlike get deathlike sometimes
And there’s no use in tryin’ the deal with the dyin’
Though I cannot explain that in lines
Your cracked country lips I still wish to kiss
As to be by the strength of your skin
Your magnetic movements still capture the minutes I’m in
But it grieves my heart, love to see you tryin’ to be a part of a world that just don’t exist
It’s all just a dream, babe a vacuum, a scheme, babe,
that sucks you into feelin’ like this
I can see that your head has been twisted and fed with worthless foam from the mouth
I can tell you are torn between stayin’ and returnin’ on back to the South
You’ve been fooled into thinking that the finishin’ end is at hand
Yet there’s no one to beat you no one to defeat you except the thoughts of yourself feeling bad
I’ve heard you say many times that you’re better than no one and no one is better than you
If you really believe that you know you have nothing to win and nothing to lose
From fixtures and forces and friends your sorrow does stem
That hype you and type you making you feel that you gotta be just like them
I’d forever talk to you but soon my words would turn into a meaningless ring
For deep in my heart I know there is no help I can bring
Everything passes, everything changes just do what you think you should do
And someday maybe who knows, baby, I’ll come and be cryin’ to you
MOTORPSYCHO NITEMARE
I pounded on a farmhouse lookin’ for a place to stay
I was mighty, mighty tired I had come a long, long way
I said, “Hey, hey, in there is there anybody home?”
I was standin’ on the steps feelin’ most alone
Well, out comes a farmer he must have thought that I was nuts
He immediately looked at me and stuck a gun into my guts
I fell down to my bended knees
Saying, “I dig farmers don’t shoot me, please!”
He cocked his rifle and began to shout
“You’re that travelin’ salesman that I have heard about”
I said, “No! No! No! I’m a doctor and it’s true
I’m a clean-cut kid and I been to college, too”
Then in comes his daughter whose name was Rita
She looked like she stepped out of La Dolce Vita
I immediately tried to cool it with her dad
And told him what a nice, pretty farm he had
He said, “What do doctors know about farms, pray tell?”
I said, “I was born at the bottom of a wishing well”
Well, by the dirt ’neath my nails I guess he knew I wouldn’t lie,
he said “I guess you’re tired”, he said, kinda sly
I said, “Yes, ten thousand miles today I drove”
He said, “I got a bed for you underneath the stove
Just one condition, you go to sleep right now
That you don’t touch my daughter and in the morning, milk the cow”
I was sleepin’ like a rat when I heard something jerkin’
There stood Rita lookin’ just like Tony Perkins
She said, “Would you like to take a shower? I’ll show you up to the door”
I said, “Oh, no! no! I’ve been through this movie before”
I knew I had to split but I didn’t know how
When she said “Would you like to take that shower, now?”
Well, I couldn’t leave unless the old man chased me out
’Cause I’d already promised that I’d milk his cows
I had to say something to strike him very weird
So I yelled out “I like Fidel Castro and his beard”
Rita looked offended but she got out of the way
As he came charging down the stairs sayin’, “What’s that I heard you say?”
I said, “I like Fidel Castro I think you heard me right”
And I ducked as he swung at me with all his might
Rita mumbled something ’bout her mother on the hill
As his fist hit the icebox he said he’s going to kill me
If I don’t get out the door in two seconds flat
“You unpatriotic rotten doctor commie rat”
Well, he threw a Reader’s Digest at my head and I did run
I did a somersault as I seen him get his gun
And crashed through the window at a hundred miles an hour
And landed fully blast in his garden flowers
Rita said, “Come back!” and he started to load
The sun was comin’ up and I was runnin’ down the road
Well, I don’t figure I’ll be back there for a spell
Even though Rita moved away and got a job in a motel
He still waits for me constant, on the sly
He wants to turn me in to the F.B.I.
Me, I romp and stomp things thankful as I romp
Without freedom of speech I might be in the swamp
MY BACK PAGES
Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ’neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Girls’ faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality”, I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now
I DON'T BELIEVE YOU
I can’t understand
She let go of my hand
An’ left me here facing the wall
I’d sure like to know
Why she did go
But I can’t get close to her at all.
Though we kissed through the wild blazing nighttime
She said she would never forget
But now mornin’s clear
It’s like I ain’t here
She acts like we never met
It’s all new to me
Like some mystery
It could even be like a myth
But it’s hard to think on
That she’s the same one
That last night I was with
From darkness, dreams are deserted
Am I still dreamin’ yet?
I wish she’d unlock
Her voice once and talk
’Stead of acting like we never met
If she ain’t feelin’ well
Then why don’t she tell
’Stead of turnin’ her back to my face
Without any doubt
She seems too far out
For me to return to her chase
And her skirt it swayed as a guitar played
Her mouth was watery and wet
But now something has changed
For she ain’t the same
She just acts like we never have met
If I didn’t have to guess
I’d gladly confess
To anything I might’ve tried
If I was with her too long
Or have done something wrong
I’d wish she tell me what it is, I’ll run and hide
Though the night ran swirling and whirling
I remember her whispering yet
But evidently she don’t, evidently she won’t
She just acts like we never have met
I’m leavin’ today
I’ll be on my way
Of this I can’t say very much
But if you want me to
I can be just like you
And pretend that we never have touched
And if anybody asks me
“Is it easy to forget?”
I’ll say, “It’s easily done
You just pick anyone
And pretend that you never have met!”
BALLAD IN PLAIN D
I once loved a girl, her skin it was bronze
With the innocence of a lamb, she was gentle like a fawn
I courted her proudly but now she is gone
Gone as the season she’s taken
And our young summer’s youth has stole her away
From her mother and sister, though close did they stay
Each one of them suffering from the failures of their day
With strings of guilt they tried hard to guide us
Of the two sisters, I loved the young
With sensitive instincts, she was the creative one
The constant scapegoat, she was easily undone
By the jealousy of others around her
For her parasite sister, I had no respect
Bound by her boredom, her pride to protect
Countless visions of the other she’d reflect
As a crutch for her scenes and her society
Myself, for what I did, I cannot be excused
The changes I was going through can’t even be used
For the lies that I told her in hopes not to lose
The could-be dream-lover of my lifetime
With unknown consciousness, I possessed in my grip
A magnificent mantelpiece, though its heart being chipped
Noticing not that I’d already slipped
To a sin of love’s false security
From silhouetted anger to manufactured peace
Answers of emptiness, voice vacancies
Till the tombstones of damage read no questions but, “Please
What’s wrong, what’s exactly the matter?”
And so it did happen like it could have been foreseen
The timeless explosion of fantasy’s dream
At the peak of the night, the king and the queen
Tumbled all down into pieces
“The tragic figure!” her sister did shout
“Leave her alone, God damn you, get out!”
And I in my armor, turning about
And nailing her in the ruins of her pettiness
Beneath a bare lightbulb the plaster did pound
Her sister and I in a screaming battleground
And she in between, the victim of sound
Soon shattered as a child to the shadows
All is gone, all is gone, admit it, take flight
I gagged in contradiction, tears blinding my sight
My mind it was mangled, I ran into the night
Leaving all of love’s ashes behind me
The wind knocks my window, the room it is wet
The words to say I’m sorry, I haven’t found yet
I think of her often and hope whoever she’s met
Will be fully aware of how precious she is
Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me
“How good, how good does it feel to be free?”
And I answer them most mysteriously
“Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?”
IT AIN'T ME, BABE
Go away from my window
Leave at your own chosen speed
I’m not the one you want, babe
I’m not the one you need
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Who’s never weak but always strong
To protect you and defend you
Whether you are right or wrong
Someone to open each and every door
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe
Go lightly from the ledge, babe
Go lightly on the ground
I’m not the one you want, babe
I will only let you down
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Who’ll promise never to part
Someone to close his eyes for you
Someone to close his heart
Someone who will die for you and more
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe
Go melt back into the night
Everything inside is made of stone
There’s nothing in here moving
And anyway I’m not alone
You say you’re lookin' for someone
Who’ll pick you up each time you fall
To gather flowers constantly
And to come each time you call
And lover for your life an’ nothing more
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe
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