Smart Flesh
(by George Carter)
On my way home by that lonesome graveyard
A ghost jumps up and says, “Come on, be my man”
No ghost at all, just someone asking for a ride
No ghost at all, just someone asking for a home
She says come here boy and take me to your room
That young ghost woman, she keeps me thin
She spends all the money I make on the L & N
I ain’t no lamp, but my wick is burning low
Better light me up another before I go
I met her down at the apothecary
Her sad sad eyes, the burden she carried
Oh darling, try this one if you need a friend
I’ve got the cure for the shape that you’re in
When you met me you were numb from the voice in your head
Conspiracy delusions that your boyfriend kept fed
I swear I want nothing, just give me your hand
I’ve got the cure for the shape that you’re in
With her saccharine luster, she’s a hard little pill
But she eased me and taught my hands to be still
Just once in the morning, and evening again
She had the cure for the shape I was in
All delusions of grandeur, they’ve long left my head
As I gave up the notion that I’ve been well bred
First she shot me with whiskey, then chased me with gin
But swore I was the cure for the shape she was in
Then she left me here reeling with that time-release feeling
Like a long wisp of hunger, I swung from the ceiling
So if you see me down at the apothecary again
I can’t find a cure for the shape that I’m in
I was in the air when the towers came down
In a bar on the 84th floor
I bought Philippe Petit a round
And asked what his high wire was for
He said, “I put one foot on the wire,
One foot straight into heaven”
As the prophets entered boldly into the bar
On the Boeing 737, Lord, on the Boeing 737
Hey little bird, would you be the one
To nest beneath my Gatling gun
There’s nothing left I call my own
Come down and build me a home
I was in the bar when they rigged the towers
Trying to leave all my sins
The barmaid asked my order
And where my mind had been
I tried to recall the high wire
Philippe and his foot there in heaven
As the prophets entered boldly into the bar
On the Boeing 737, Lord, on the Boeing 737
Hey little bird…
As the water finds the cracks
Birds pick the highways clean
Crucifix across my shoulder blades
Got your name tattooed between
So you say the root is dry
As you flash the old-time camera
And hide your songs of anguish
In dying language
Never saw no rainbow sign
No meaning was I offered
To love is to pay
Lay your wealth upon the altar
So we share a couple songs
Here in the desert hotel
While they’re tearing up the highway
Here to Santa Bell
See me laying in the grass
Where my true love’s bound to pass
I don’t have to try
It’s a matter of time
A matter of time
We will roll beneath the sky
In the clover and dandelion
I don’t have to try
I know she’ll be by
I see it in my mind
It’s a matter of time
See me decorate my nest
See me puffing out my chest
I hate to be so vain
It’s just part of the game
Just part of the game
The matter of time
Hear me howling at the moon
In her wake of sweet perfume
I don’t have to fear
She’ll pull me through the mirror
Pull me through veneer
In a matter of time
In the grass I lay alone
See the sunset dive below
I don’t make a sound
It’s always circling round
Always circling round
It’s a matter of time
Instrumental
Did I burn each last bit of myself
Did I turn my back on the kid in myself
And tear the oldest root
In a charlatan’s pursuit
And the world drifting farther away
On the run with nowhere to hide
The black angel still clings to my side
You know he’s faster than
Any man
And the world drifting farther away
What I told you lover I guess that I meant
By the time that you read this I will have repented
I know I am a fool
For trying to play it cruel
And you played so much kinder than I
Your memory now is the shadow to my shadow
I wind it tight like a player piano
Your skirt above your knees
I watch you press the keys
It calms the smarting flesh
Of the wound we have undressed
If still there’s a song deep in this marrow
Who lets you draw that last shivering arrow
What kind of smarting loon
Believes that he can shoot the moon
Calm these frailing nerves
They ask to be preserved
I was ashamed and mute
Fumbling around for my parachute
Then gliding through the rain
Not a drop could leave its stain
And the world drifting farther away
Please don’t you rush me I’m over the moon
And I ain’t yet fit to come down
A rose is a rose, a balloon a balloon
You got to go right now
Go get a job and don’t work for your father
For he ain’t no salt of the earth
Your soft little palms beneath the Hollywood palms
Might just do well by some work
Hey all you hippies, you got a bad name
Ever since you let your guard down
Here comes Ronald Reagan o’er the Hollywood Hills
It don’t look like he’s fooling around
You know how they feel, you’re hip to the steel
Strutting so bold and aloof
You pray to God for luck while the reconnaissance truck
Is watching your every move
You wanted to fish and to live off the grid
You said, “Life should be easy and free”
But just one bad actor and his benefactor
Can bring the old girl to her knees
Hey all you hippies, you got a bad name
Ever since you let your guard down
Here comes Ronald Reagan o’er the Hollywood Hills
It don’t look like he’s fooling around
Do these fireworks arrays and low flying planes
Stir your patriot voice to sing
To each flickering flag on the Arlington lawn
For each pawn who has fell for his king
It’s a sad and guilty feeling
Since I did not take out your ashes
Whatever I was fearing
Never came to passing
It’s a sad and guilty feeling
Since I did not drive you to Michigan
Scrambling eggs and bacon
And you’re right here in the kitchen
I’ve got plans and dreams and all kinds of schemes
But now I’m beyond all repair
For time just ain’t no healer
With your ashes sitting there
I know you have been counting on me
Ever since your sad cremation day
I combed your Alzheimer’s poetry
For all that I wished for it to say
As the blind walk the blind through the blackness of freedom
Who writes the songs that we all will be singing
Who writes the books where I lay my hand out open
So to swear myself into your grace
As the blind walk the blind down the borderless highway
Who holds the chain, who bears the load
Don’t you be fooled if my spirits are unbroken
I’m told in the next life my fortune is owed
I’m warned not to preach if the sermon I have written
Or stand on some soapbox I’ve built with my hands
For those who preach well will be bought out by some industry
That herds the golden cattle before insecure eyes
See the high-wire man before the sun
He goes home at night where he beats on his son
And the playwright in the attic in his skylight of sun
Has a cigarette on his lip
And the sun beats down on the smart smart flesh
It comes down from high on its heavenly stead
Suggesting redemption can be easily possessed
For less than a pound of flesh
And it’s terribly important to every man of estate
To settle the score, write the record straight
He may free his slaves where on the deathbed he lays
Such sweet and knowing flesh
Knowing in the end you’ll be alone for lonely death does creep
So hire yourself a chimney maid and smoke yourself to sleep
Among the mannequin men all dressed and adorned
My manic depressive true love she leaves me forlorn
As the rooster crows at daybreak the pawn
Has a cigarette on his lip
Saying, “Pretty girls go and take your time
Lord only knows how you’ve taken mine
I’ve chased them clear through the ends of time
To hold the smart smart flesh”
Now the hateful playwright each time that he dies
Must visit the judge in a new disguise
Saying, “Judge in your robes, oh judge so wise
There’s something on your lip”
And the man of estate each time he dies
Must clear the black pages that tarnish the mind
In a bible and a bath of formaldehyde
He soaks the smart smart flesh
Now the unknowing tumor is fixing its home
In the damp bed of the catacomb
While the raging war on the high wire unfolds
She buries her teeth in the flesh
And the world’s a machine, now you know that it’s true
For the soul hovers idly just outside the room
It loves itself wildly, but what can it do
A cigarette on its lip
Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
Set the sails I feel the winds a’stirring
Toward the bright horizon set the way
Cast your wreckless dreams upon our Mayflower
Haven from the world and her decay
And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
Fighting for a system built to fail
Spooning water from their broken vessels
As far as I can see there is no land
Oh my god, the water’s all around us
Oh my god, it’s all around
And who could heed the words of Charlie Darwin
The lords of war just profit from decay
And trade their children’s promise for the jingle
The way we trade our hard earned time for pay
Oh my god, the water’s cold and shapeless
Oh my god, it’s all around
Oh my god, life is cold and formless
Oh my god, it’s all around
I left Louisiana on the rail line, oo oo
I left Louisiana on the rail line, oo oo
I was trying to get to Ohio
Trying to get to Ohio
Lost my love before her time, oo oo
Lost my love before her time, oo oo
On the way to Ohio
On the way to Ohio
Now every new love is just a shadow, oo oo
Every new love is just a shadow, oo oo
‘Cause once you’ve known love you don’t know how to find love, oo oo
Yeah once you’ve found love you don’t know how to find new love
All the way to Ohio
All the way to Ohio
Heard her voice come through the pines in Ohio
I heard her voice singing in the pines in Ohio
She sang bless your soul you crossed that line to Ohio
Bless your soul you crossed that line oo oo
All the way to Ohio
All the way to Ohio
Tonight’s the night when the waters rise
You’re groping in the dark
The ticket takers count the men who can afford the arc
The ticket takers will not board
For the ticket takers are tied
For five and change an hour
They will count the passers by
They say the sky’s the limit
But the sky’s about to fall
Down come all them record books cradle and all
They say before he bit it
That the boxer felt no pain
But somewhere there’s a gamblin’ man
With a ticket in the rain
Mary Anne, I know I’m a long shot
But Mary Anne, what else have you got
I am a ticket taker, many tickets have I torn
And I will be your arc, we will float above the storm
Many years have passed in this river town
I’ve sailed through many traps
I keep a stock of weapons should society collapse
I keep a stock of ammo
One of oil and one of gold
I keep a place for Mary Anne
Soon she will come home
The horizon is a beltway that we may never cross
The tops of buildings tremble like children lorn and lost
The stain runs deep it’s deeper than the blood upon the cross.
The horizon is a beltway that we may never cross.
You’ll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Hear the whistle blowing put a tear into your eye
You hear the distant love song but widows know the lie
The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire.
The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
The horizon is a beltway and the skyline is on fire
You come up from the lowlands to the city on the air
Where pilrims and commissioners currate Christian fare
From Havisu to Brownsville feel the long unbroken stare
I wonder what it smells like in that city on the air
You’ll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Just the same blue love song made my grand dad cry
You’ll hear the whistle blowing put a tear drop in your eye
The horizon is a beltway, and the skyline is on fire.
The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
You’ll hear the distant love song, when the skyline is on fire
The skyline is on fire, the skyline is on fire
The horizon is a beltway and the skyline is on fire
This old house stood empty now for fifteen years or more
Willows falls half way to meet the weeds around the door
Time throws up her curtain and we know not who we are
The horizon is a beltway, the skyline is on fire
You’ll hear that distant love song when the wind blows right
Hear the whistle blowing put a tear drop in your eye
Jagged as the jaw bone once the flesh expires
The horizon is a beltway the skyline is on fire
by Jack Kerouac and Tom Waits
God cage the songbird
Before the feathers run brown
God bar the windows
That we may though hollow be sound
And this island be shackled to her waters
Here we vow never to change
Here we will stand at last for something
With no desire to pretend
Send up our prayers to gilded idols
Their names etched in heartwood of palm
And scatter the ashes of the contracts
Their freedom so hollow a song
God cage the songbird
Before the feathers run brown
God bar the windows
That we may though hollow be sound
And the street lamp will be tethered to her station
The poor man be tethered to the flesh
The wise man be tethered to his wisdom
The mother be tethered to her creche
Was your hunger your awareness of salvation
As your chances go slipping to the past
You’re tortured by the changing of the seasons
And each grain of sand in the glass
God cage the songbird
Before the feathers run brown
God bar the windows
That we may though hollow be sound
If yor pilot light should die
Do not quake and do not bark
You will find the spark
If your tree should bare no fruit
Do not turn and do not spill
You are beautiful
If your clarinet should break
Do not cry a million lakes
Do not cry a million lakes
When the winds surround your house
Do not twist and do not shout
Wait it out
If your hand should lose it’s grip
Do not tremble do not sweat
For where then would you get
You have got the looks my dear
To make a mountain shake
Imagine me
You have got the voice my love
To melt a lake of ice
Imagine me
If your heart is unemployed
Do not rush but do not stall
For I am waiting
Instrumental
Throw up your voice but not your mind
While them agents of change go monopolize
Their colors and their faces are just shades of the same
All lost in the game
And we don’t need no personal saviors here
Just a warm hearth and water. It’s purely biological
No posturing mannequin man or woman
Shall receive my hand
Among all you angels is a champion angel
Among all you devils there’s a free soul
Up from the disenfranchised the engine cries
Up from the circle there’s a hole
The child insubordinate disrupts the pecking order
So go marry young while you can
‘Cause the weave of the rug and the cut of the throne
Testify before the ocean’s open hand
I promise you this promise we are not alone
But why is it I alone that promise this
Deny the forces that would hurry men
If you still can
We come now to a fracture in the road
Here time has taken her toll
The endless freezing and the thawing of the heart
Would eventually divide us apart
What’s that you found in the pocket of your coat
Looks like a small sentiment that she wrote
Don’t be my personal savior I would not be saved
I chose to walk alone
To them ghosts that write history books
To them ghosts that write songs
Everyone asks would you write one about me
To them ghosts in the train yard
All them ghosts in my drink
Your money’s no good here just write one about me
And when you go, where the winds are strong
When you go where flowers bend
Please take along all the best of my luck and come back unchanged
Your demons all tamed
Your flowers uncut
And when you go where the winds are strong
Where soldiers carve their stones
Please take along all the best of my luck and come back unchanged
Your demons all tamed
Your flowers uncut
To them ghosts that write history books
To them ghosts that write songs
Everyone asks would you write one about me
To them ghosts in the train yard
All them ghosts in my drink
Your money’s no good here just write one about me
When I go, when I go
Sure don’t know, where I’m going
I look up high, I look down low
Sure don’t know where I’m going when I go
Do you job and I’ll do mine
I’ll do my best to hold the line
Do my best like Charlie said
You don’t eat here, you’re not to sleep, you hold the line
Oh my God, Oh my God, Charlie Darwin where are you now
I set these tiresome codes down where you lay
Oh my God, Oh my God, it ain’t nothing but the cold hard ground
My better half will stay but I must go
WHAT THE CROW BRINGS
Tell me who was it told you ’bout the broken bones
The broken bones in the sky
‘Cause I’ve been all over the whole goddamn world
And over the world am I
Now the moon it ain’t nothing but an old rotten bone
Hung from the ceiling so high
It reminds kids to grow and reminds them to dream
But over the world am I
So my friends if you’re worried
Don’t worry about me
The grasses are green here
The winters are mild
And the hunger is passing
It’s just a sensation
And over the world am I
Up in the city it’s panic and toil
In every fiber and vein
All dressed up like kings in their robes of desire
The poets are going insane
But I’ve been to the ocean her salts they do heal
And washed me anew in her tides
And now I ride easy down her cool wide waves
And over the world am I
The color of your bones it was yellowed by the sun
Ain’t no reason why the drummer keeps on drumming on his drum
On his drum, we are only for awhile
And the truth is like an onion you can skin it layer by layer
When you come upon the center you might find there’s nothing there
And we are only for awhile
The sun is like the truth it’ll burn the mortal man
If he tries to look upon it if he tries to understand
He might learn that we are only for awhile
Even my guitar listen while she gently weeps
Now I will not play forever so why would I play for keeps
Don’t play for keeps we are only for awhile
Down down down down
The wicked candle burns to the ground
Down down down down
The wicked candle burns
The body is stone
but the soul is made of cloud
And it has no home but to cry out loud
We run and we run
Try to cover lots of ground
But in the end
Down down
Down down down down
Burns the cigarette to your mouth
It felt like something coming
But it never came around
And all the while
Down down
The bottles are all empty
And the moon is still
Above the folks that sell the weapons and the folks that kill
Are you a coward or a convict?
Is it hard to tell?
Both the lonesome and the restless are sleeping well
Bless your gilded tombstone heart
What’s yours is mine
Bless the seams that came apart
What’s yours is mine
Bless the time that made us grow
Right out the dragon’s fiery door
Bless the toll the monster soars
What’s yours is mine and mine is yours
Bless the drinks we younger raised
And bless the debts our hearts must weigh
Bless the toy guns in their slings
The boys have thought of everything
Bless the weary homebound horse
What’s yours is mine and mine is yours
You replaced and I remained a sheltered page
No nevermind, What’s mine is yours and yours of course is mine
Bless your helpless drunken cry
What’s yours is mine
Bless the fire warm and bright
What’s yours is mine
Bless the words that meant farewell
The winds that finally filled your sails
Bless those tethers when they tore
What’s yours is mine and mine is yours
(by Dan Lefkowitz)
She left me here with breakfast in bed
Oatmeal with sugar and a hard-boiled egg
The note on the dresser said I’ll be back by three
I’m going uptown, did you need anything?
And don’t forget to comb your hair
I’ll be back by three, I hope you’re still there
Now the kitchen is empty and the dishwater’s cold
The newspaper on the table is three days old
I’ve read every book on the living room shelf
I’m losing my mind in this goddamn house
A dying dog can smell the rain
A weary horse can hide the pain
When the riverbeds dry just hold your tongue
Folks dig the lies they hang upon
Here in Nashville
Our best laid plans our patient dreams
Fell through our hands between the seams
When the riverbed’s dry keep it all inside
Grow your hair and hide folks dig the lies
I saw a crow, feeding a crow
A small scrap of metal from a toilet hole
I’ve seen the birds, circling your big Southern eyes
What could they want, it’s no big surprise
I’ve seen the birds parting your cracked country mouth
There’s no wonder my love what this is about
Our nature’s a monster, we pull and we pry
What will you find?
A crowbar, a hammer, a delicate word
Will open the door to the scavenger bird
Accept no presents for each is a lie
Whose depth you will know by the strength of the shine
The ring on your finger it ain’t worth the change
You send down the wishing well, bring me some rain
The fields have gone dry, blackbirds are starving for love
Of any old kind
Run your long fingers through the powdered earth
It’s you who brings the rain
I saw a crow with the cock of his head
He solved a great puzzle and hustled for bread
A crowbar, a hammer, a delicate word
Opens the door to the scavenger bird
1971, hung up a chicken bone
On the old chandelier at the sawdust saloon
The medical exam had cleared me to fight
My mother said stay and I thought that I might
My brother said stay that’s when I left
Never know who might be called in your stead
So I showed up on time to meet my platoon
And hung up a bone in the sawdust saloon
With Jimmy Tassone, I used to play ball
Now he sits here beside me and talks like a man
He looks like a man, says he shoots like a man
But no medal of honor will make his Mom move back in
So he said my drunk father, I’ll be back for you soon
But Jimmy still hangs in the sawdust saloon
And I love my country with a deep frenzied love
Her legs spread out wide her nose turned up
So I showed up on time to meet my platoon
And hung up a bone in the sawdust saloon
The candle in the window, the coin in the well
The break in your voice, the crack in the bell
All raise up a round, without saying a word
To them old dusty bones and the good men that served
(A.P. Carter)
Senorita, with your dust brown skin
Where you going with that thing up your sleeve
I’ve heard about your ways and I know I cannot win
Senorita, with your dust brown skin
There you go again with the devil in your eyes
You slide away so softly and so quiet
I know all your lies, still I think that I might try it
Senorita, you got the devil in your eye
And I’d follow you forever, through the smoky Pyrenees
Buying you cheap liquor if I can’t provide a feast
I’d be lost without you, I don’t know who I am
Senorita with your dust brown skin
There you go again and I forget your name
Not for time’s passing but for sorrow
And now you’re coming back, my lord my poise contain
Senorita, I forget your name
There you come again with the devil in your eyes
Once I swore never more to buy it
But now you’re coming back and I’m afraid that I might try it
Senorita, you’ve got the devil in your eyes
The rip-rap will hold
Though the cold wind blows
And tomorrow we’ll walk in the morning
The clouds they will clear
There’s nothing to fear
And tomorrow we’ll walk in the morning
And I have a promise for you
All your days you’ll not go down in the ground
When you sing, I will sing
When you run, I will not judge you
And you’ll never go down in the ground
One day we’ll climb out
Of this coal mountain town
Pack the truck and head off to the ocean
Sleep now my child
Don’t you fear the wild wind
Tomorrow we’ll walk in the morning
