Before The Flood

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don't matter, anyhow
An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don't know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and i'll be gone
You're the reason i'm trav'lin' on
Don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
That light i never knowed
An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road
Still i wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin' anyway
So don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal
I can't hear you any more
I'm a-thinkin' and a-wond'rin' all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child i'm told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don't think twice, it's all right

I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where i'm bound, i can't tell
But goodbye's too good a word, gal
So i'll just say fare thee well
I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind
You could have done better but i don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right

Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.

So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, ma, i'm only sighing.

As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the united states
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, ma, i can make it.

Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.

You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.

A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.

Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, ma, to live up to.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.

While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say god bless him.

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.

But i mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, ma, if i can't please him.

Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares propaganda, all is phony.

While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, i scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, i have had enough
What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, ma, it's life, and life only.

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Whatever colors you have in your mind
I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay with your man awhile
Until the break of day, let me see you make him smile
His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean
And you're the best thing that he's ever seen

Stay, lady, stay, stay with your man awhile
Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead
I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night
Stay, lady, stay, stay while the night is still ahead

They say ev'rything can be replaced,
Yet ev'ry distance is not near.
So i remember ev'ry face
Of ev'ry man who put me here.
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.

They say ev'ry man needs protection,
They say ev'ry man must fall.
Yet i swear i see my reflection
Some place so high above this wall.
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.

Standing next to me in this lonely crowd,
Is a man who swears he's not to blame.
All day long i hear him shout so loud,
Crying out that he was framed.
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.

Oh god said to abraham, "kill me a son"
Abe says, "man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "no." abe say, "what?"
God say, "you can do what you want abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well abe says, "where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "out on highway 61."

Well georgia sam he had a bloody nose
Welfare department they wouldn't give him no clothes
He asked poor howard where can i go
Howard said there's only one place i know
Sam said tell me quick man i got to run
0l' howard just pointed with his gun
And said that way down on highway 61.

Well mack the finger said to louie the king
I got forty red white and blue shoe strings
And a thousand telephones that don't ring
Do you know where i can get rid of these things
And louie the king said let me think for a minute son
And he said yes i think it can be easily done
Just take everything down to highway 61.

Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night
Told the first father that things weren't right
My complexion she said is much too white
He said come here and step into the light he says hmm you're right
Let me tell the second mother this has been done
But the second mother was with the seventh son
And they were both out on highway 61.

Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored
He was tryin' to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said i never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes i think it can be very easily done
We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on highway 61.

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as i stand inside the rain
Ev'rybody knows
That baby's got new clothes
But lately i see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls.
She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.

Queen mary, she's my friend
Yes, i believe i'll go see her again
Nobody has to guess
Hat baby can't be blessed
Till she sees finally that she's like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamine and her pearls.
She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl.

It was raining from the first
And i was dying there of thirst
So i came in here
And your long-time curse hurts
But what's worse
Is this pain in here
I can't stay in here
Ain't it clear that?br>
I just can't fit
Yes, i believe it's time for us to quit
When we meet again
Introduced as friends
Please don't let on that you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your world.
Ah, you fake just like a woman, yes, you do
You make love just like a woman, yes, you do
Then you ache just like a woman
But you break just like a little girl.

Virgil caine is the name,
And i served on the danville train,
'til stoneman's cavalry
Came and tore up the tracks again.
In the winter of '65,
We were hungry, just barely alive.
By may the tenth, richmond had fell,
It's a time i remember, oh so well,

The night they drove old dixie down,
And the bells were ringing,
The night they drove old dixie down,
And the people were singin'.

They went
La, la, la, la, la, la,
La, la, la, la, la, la,
La, la,

Back with my wife in tennessee,
When one day she called to me,
"virgil, quick, come see,
There goes robert e. lee!"
Now i don't mind choppin' wood,
And i don't care if the money's no good.
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest,
But they should never have taken the very best.

The night they drove old dixie down,
And the bells were ringing,
The night they drove old dixie down,
And the people were singin'.

Like my father before me,
I will work the land,
Like my brother above me,
Who took a rebel stand.
He was just eighteen, proud and brave,
But a yankee laid him in his grave,
I swear by the mud below my feet,
You can't raise a caine back up
When he's in defeat.

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You've gone to the finest school all right, miss lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him do you want to make a deal?

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

up on cripple creek


When i get off of this mountain

You know where i want to go

Straight down the mississippi river

To the gulf of mexico



To lake charles, louisiana

Little bessie, a girl that i once knew

And she told me just to come on by

If there's anything she could do



{refrain}

Up on cripple creek she sends me

If i spring a leak she mends me

I don't have to speak she defends me

A drunkard's dream if i ever did see one



Good luck had just stung me

To the race track i did go

She bet on one horse to win

And i bet on another to show



Odds were in my favor

I had him five to one

When that nag to win came around the track

Sure enough he had won



{refrain}



I took up all of my winnings

And i gave my little bessie half

And she tore it up and blew it in my face

Just for a laugh



Now there's one thing in the whole wide world

I sure would like to see

That's when that little love of mine

Dips her doughnut in my tea



{refrain}



Now me and my mate were back at the shack

We had spike jones on the box

She said, "i can't take the way he sings

But i love to hear him talk"



Now that just gave my heart a fall

To the bottom of my feet

And i swore as i took another pull

My bessie can't be beat



{refrain}



Now, it's hot in california

And up north it's freezing cold

And this living off the road

Is getting pretty old



So i guess i'll call up my big mama

Tell her i'll be rolling in

Bet you know, deep down, i'm kinda tempted

To go and see my bessie again



{refrain}

"there must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
"there's too much confusion, i can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

"no reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,
"there are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and i, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.

Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.