MIDNIGHT IN HAVANA

 

MOBILE BAY

I found a cherokee rose growing in the weeds

It made me wonder about you and if you think about me

Now there’s a hard wind blowing across Mobile Bay

And I’m sitting here waiting on my luck to change

 

I walked for miles in a dead man’s shoes

I was looking to get lost but I found you

We danced all night to that Cajun band

And I watched the stars falling in the burning sand

 

I walked by the house where we used to live

I guess that life is never really what you think it is

And late last night I heard the DJ say

That the bells have been ringing down in Mobile Bay

 

It’s okay

It ain’t so bad

Whatever I say

Whatever we had

I drink my whiskey

At the bar downstairs

And tie up my dreams

With a lock of your hair

 

I used to have a future burning hard and bright

Now I’ve only got a past babe but it’s alright

Maybe things will be better down in Mobile Bay

Maybe I’ll get there one of these days

 

EVELYN

Daylight walks the darkness down

But the shadows never leave me

Nothing ever happens

How it happens in your dreams, believe me

And all those photographs

Are so much more than memories

They’re mile markers too

Separating me from you

 

Pain lay deep in every track

As we crossed over the border

And only one of us came back

But I was so much older

And if I had it all again

I’d probably make some changes to the end

Evelyn

 

You wore the darkness

Like a wedding ring that night

I asked you if you’d ever leave

You said that you just might

But when you get to forever

It’s far too late to use it

Just chalk it up babe

And make sure you don’t confuse it

 

With the things you used to do

To love someone you barely knew

It must have been so hard

For you to believe it

Could have meant a thing to anyone

But a promise to the wind

Evelyn

 

Hell is for lovers babe

At least that’s what I’m told

And it sure feels that way

When you’ve got no-one to hold

But a faded memory

Of someone I used to be

Or someone that you thought I might have been

Evelyn

 

ANYBODY LIKE YOU

I’ve been turned around

I’ve been turned loose

I’ve been beaten up, broken down

Yesterday’s news

Hit the highway

Took the low road too

But I’ve never seen anything quite like you

 

I’ve seen a heart breaking

Like a summer storm

I saw the cadillac moon

It just made me yawn

But when I’m with you babe

It’s all brand new

No I’ve never seen anything quite like you

 

I’ve been so many people

Now my back’s against the wall

I just want to be the one

Who loves you best of all

 

I drank enough brown liquor

To make a man burst

I never ever met a problem

That I couldn’t make worse

Tough times don’t last

But tough folks do

And I’ve never met anyone tougher than you

 

HOLD ON

With her beggars eyes and her razor wire mouth

She turned to me and the words came tumbling out

This whole place has been forsaken

From the attic to the basement

Since the first day that the Romans all rolled south

There’s death down in the alley

Nobody will be spared

You can hear it in their songs and in their prayers

All about the sickness

And the fire of forgiveness

They say you got to wait but nobody ever tells you where

 

And the wind blows wild and cold about the eaves

And the cemetery moon rides on the ridge

I know things are bound to change

Nothing will never be the same

But I can hold on, if you’ll just hold on to me

 

They’re parading round the palisades at dawn

In the cold gray light they await to be reborn

But they’ve turned over their mansions

To the fire eaters and the dancers

And it’s a long hard road bleeding out of Babylon

Now I watch them cross the bridge four score and three

A crew of liars, cheats and filthy thieves

It makes me sick to think of Charlie Patton in his grave

If he rose up they’d put him right back down in there again

 

Through the eaves, the wind blows wild and cold

Through the corners of my soul and through the trees

I know things are bound to change

Nothing can ever stay the same

But I can hold on, if you’ll just hold on to me

Nothing seems strange

In a world that’s rearranged

But I can hold on, if you’ll just hold on to me

 

WALKIN’ ‘ROUND WITH THE BLUES

Well I told my old friend John, man ou outta try everything twice

But I never tried anything too hard I never really took my own advice

Except when it came to drinking, hanging out or having fun

In which case I took it just a little too well

And that’s no way to get anything done

 

Jacob, Lucy and Larry were playing checkers on my old dart board

I tripped over the rigging and I came up swinging but I was lucky enough to be ignored

So I moseyed on down to the alley where the hobos and derelicts roll

I rolled up my sleeves and I fell to my knees

But I couldn’t get a dime for my soul

 

And I turned to my left

And I urned to my right

And I looked down at my shoes

I said I don’t know about you two boys

But I’m sick of walkin’ ’round with the blues

 

It was 4am, I was three sheets to the wind and I was heading down Gallatin Pike

I called my baby back in New Orleans and said I guess I won’t be home tonight

But make sure you leave the light on in case it all goes south

She said I dunno who you are would you please stop calling

Or my husbands gonna punch your lights out

 

Well the road might go on forever

For some of them lucky folks

But for most of us regular people

That all feels like kind of a joke

For Jacob and Lucy and Larry too

Down and out on the avenue

The sun’s going down like a ship on fire

It’s true

 

THE LAST, LAST DANCE

I quit talking to the radio

Outside of Jackson, Tennessee

By the time I got to Tuscaloosa

I was on the side of the road with the dry heaves

When I hit the Crescent City

I was thirsty as a man could be

And by the time I hit the streets

I was so damn drunk that I could barely see

 

You were shining like a brand new penny

In that cloud of rust and shame

There was glitter on the bar

And I remember thinking to myself here we go again

You never really shake the blues

They just come round with a different name

And you’re not that hard to find

When you walk down the street like a hurricane

 

This is the last, last dance

That I’m ever going to do with you

They say you pick your poison

For all I know you do

 

Yesterday was like watching the sunrise

From the bottom of a lake

Today I’m out on the road again

Wondering how much more can I possibly take

I’m not saying this hasn’t happened before

In fact it happens every time

They’re serving self pity at the emotional soup kitchen

And i’m at the front of the line

 

BRANDYWINE BOUQUET

Bring me a brandywine bouquet

With a thousand roadside flowers

One for each word I can’t say

Give me something that’s strong enough

To take away the pain

Give me anything to free me from this falling

 

I don’t know what it is

But you’ve got it deep inside of you

And I don’t know if you feel it

But i’d like to think you do

It’s not something that you borrow

Steal or even give away

Baby be my brandywine bouquet

 

Dawn flies like a golden-headed arrow ‘cross the sky

And it makes me hold out hope

That the night might pass me by

But hope is just a highway

And love is just a prayer

And I don’t know how to find the road

That runs from here to there

 

But I believe that the road

Might be running deep inside of you

And I don’t know if you feel it

But i’d like to think you do

It’s not something that you borrow

Steal or even give away

Baby be my brandywine bouquet

 

WINDMILLS & TREES

Trees and windmills, windmills and trees

Those high heeled boots that go up past your knees

I don’t mean to pry, I just try to please

So I wrote you this song about windmills and trees

 

The swamp cypress tree stands a hundred feet high

From the Delaware Bay down to Mississippi

The flowering dogwood flowers in May

From hill country Texas way up into Maine

The American elm tree lives for a long time

Resistant to cold but prefers the sunshine

Pinus Ponderosa, the tallest of pines

Has sweet orange bark that smells like summertime

 

George Washington chopped down his dad’s cherry tree

If he did or he didn’t don’t matter to me

I’m more into arboreal taxonomy

So I wrote you this song about windmills and trees

 

There are two types of windmills being used today

With either horizontal or vertical planes

Invented by Greeks in the first century

As a means of converting wind to energy

If I had a windmill we’d live in the tower

And we’d sit up there talking and while away the hours

I’d build us a bunk bed for when he had guests

A rainwater shower, and all of the rest

 

Yes if I had a windmill we’d have us a time

I’d wash down the sun with a bottle of wine

But I don’t have a windmill, I’m here and I’m gone

So it’s daydreams and promises that I live on

 

DOWN TO THE WATER’S EDGE

It’s always too early to tell ’til it’s too late to go back

You get what you came for, sneaking around like that

Before you know it, suspicions come sniffing

Asking questions and filling your head

And you go down to the water

Down to the water’s edge

 

I remember the first time I saw you in the doorway like you’d been there all the time

I remember you laughing and passing that bottle of wine

I know you still laugh somewhere with someone

But that someone is somebody else

And I’ll carry that with me

Down to the water’s edge

 

Baby put your little hand in mine

And we’ll go walking way past the city lights

We’ll be coming up threes, we’ll coming up threes tonight

Down where the moon is lying in the riverbed

And the stars are hanging by a spiderweb

We’ll go down to the water, down to the waters edge

 

I can see that light in your eyes, is it love or is it fear?

If I could tell one from the other maybe neither one of us would be here

I love you now and I loved you then

Baby don’t you worry ’bout those things I said

Just come with me

Down to the water’s edge

 

MIDNIGHT IN HAVANA

It’s midnight in Havana

All the sails are in the wind

There’s a warm breeze blowing from a far off place

And I don’t know where I am

The neon lights are blinding

There’s thunder in the bay

The air is heavy and it smells like rain

 

There’s an old man fishing in a rubber tube, beer bottles tied to his feet

There’s a pretty girl whispering in my ear but I’m trying to be discreet

Whoever it is that sent me here I’ve got questions that need asking

But it’s midnight in Havana, it’ll have to wait ’til morning

 

I wake up soaked with sweat

Cold steel underneath my pillow

I shake it all off at the hotel bar

With another cold Bucanero

The sunshine froze me half to death

I swear to god I’m dying

Somebody please get me off of this rock

Lord knows I’ve been trying

 

I went to meet my connection out on the Malecon

But I ran into Rosalita, and now my connections gone

I swear I saw Hemingway’s ghost outside La Bodequita

I staggered through the square with my pockets bare

And a soul-crushing hangover

 

My closet’s filled with a stranger’s clothes

And none of my shoes fit

I keep getting these calls in the dead of night

Asking where the action is

I tried to talk to the concierge

Son of a bitch wouldn’t look me in the eye

A Santera gave me an ice cream cone

And told me I was gonna die