October Road

Well, the sun's not so hot in the sky today
And you know I can see summertime slipping on away
A few more geese are gone, a few more leaves turning red
But the grass is as soft as a feather in a featherbed
So I'll be king and you'll be queen
Our kingdom's gonna be this little patch of green

Won't you lie down here right now
In this September grass
Won't you lie down with me now
September grass

Oh the memory is like the sweetest pain
Yeah, I kissed the girl at a football game
I can still smell the sweat and the grass stains
We walked home together. I was never the same.

But that was a long time ago
And where is she now? I don't know

Won't you lie down here right now
In this September grass
Won't you lie down with me now
September grass

Oh, September grass is the sweetest kind
It goes down easy like apple wine
Hope you don't mind if I pour you some
Made that much sweeter by the winter to come

Do you see those ants dancing on a blade of grass?
Do you know what I know? That's you and me, baby
We're so small and the world's so vast
We found each other down in the grass

Won't you lie down with me right here
September grass
Won't you lie down with me now
In this September grass

Lie down
Lie down
Lie down
Lie down

(repeat)

Won't you lie down here right now
In this September grass
Won't you lie down here now
In this September grass

Are you there?
Can you hear me?
Somewhere near me
In the morning long ago
Had to hold you so close
Had to never let go
Time on the river
Sliding on by
Hard to believe
Wink of an eye

Where'd you go Baby Buffalo?
What's become of old Cotton Eyed Joe?
Hold up, lying low
Long gone coma a summertime snow

Talk to your doctor
Making her rounds
Ninety-six tears
One thousand clowns
There they are
Shining bright
True creation
Pure delight
They go on
So do you
On and on
Maybe me too

Long ago Baby Buffalo
What's become of old Cotton Eyed Joe?
Hole up, lying low
Long gone come a summertime snow

Hold on to now
Till you have to let go
Easy through your fingers
Ever so
I'm just guessing
I don't know
Maybe it's a blessing
I sure hope so

There are rifles buried in the countryside for the rising of the moon
May they lie there long forgotten till they rust away into the ground
Who will bend this ancient hatred, will the killing to an end
Who will swallow long injustice, take the devil for a country man
Who will say "this far no further, oh lord, if I die today"

Send no weapons no more money. Send no vengeance across the seas
Just the blessing of forgiveness for my new countryman and me

Missing brothers, martyred fellows, silent children in the ground
Could we but hear them could they not tell us
"Time to lay God's rifle down"

Who will say this far no further, oh Lord, if I die today.

On my own
How could I have known?
Imagine my surprise
Just a fool
From a tree full of fools
Who can't believe his eyes
Imagine my surprise

I was a mean old man
I was an ornery cuss
I was a dismal Dan
I made an awful fuss
Ever since my life began
Man, it was ever thus
I was a nasty tyke who was hard to like

I had to misbehave
I did things in reverse
Refused to wash or shave
I was horrid to my nurse
I got back what I gave
Which only made me worse
I had to have my way
Which was bleak and gray, oh dear

Living in here
One hundred years of rain
Such a drag
This riches to rags
With just myself to blame
A dirty low-down shame

Silly me
Silly old me
Somewhere outside my mind
Clever you
Walking me through
Willing to lead the blind
Just in the nick of time

Who gets a second chance?
Who gets to have some fun?
Who gets to learn to dance
Before his race is run?
Who gets to shed his skin?
Who comes up born again?
Who was a mean old man
'Til you turned him into a golden retriever
Puppy dog
Who's a good boy?

Caroline, I see you
Standing on the stairway
Waiting for your bear there
Handy on the landing
Penny in my pocket
High enough to hold you

When I come back home to you tomorrow
You may well be angry
I'll for sure be hungry
Meet me in the middle
Make it melt like chocolate
Be my little baby

I take you down by the water
Some December morning

Take you from your family
Leave them with their longing
Take you by your hand
Somewhere on the sand. Oh

Caroline I love you
Though I'm late to say so
Hesitate to tell you
What will be your answer
Some December morning
Standing on the stairway
Caroline I see you

Shall I tell it again how we started as friends
Who would run into one another now and again
At the Yippee Cai O or the Mesa Dupree
Or a dozen different everyday places to be

I was loping along living alone
We were ever so brave on the telephone
Would you care to come down for fireworks time
We could each just reach
We step out of line

And the smell of the smoke and the lay of the land
and the feeling of finding one's heart in one's hand
and the tiny tin voice of the radio band singing
"love must stand"
Love forever and ever must stand

Unbelievable you, impossible me
The fool who fell out of the family tree
The fellow that found the philosopher's stone
Deep underground like a dinosaur bone

Who fell into you at a quarter to two
With a tear in your eye for the Fourth of July
For the patriots and the minutemen
And the things you believe they believed in then

Such as freedom, and freedom's land
And the kingdom of God and the rights of man
With the tiny tin voice of the radio band
Singing "love must stand"
Love forever and ever must stand
And forever must stand

Oh the smell of the smoke as we lay on the land
and the feeling of finding my heart in my hand
with the tiny tin voice of the radio band
singing "love must stand"
love forever and ever must stand

All on the Fourth of July
On the Fourth of July