I
Sometimes when on the road I got all lonely and a-scared,
I turned a light and try to saw the threads of my despair.
Then an old man would pass by with a magic organ a-playin’,
His fingers cracking soundly and his little beard a-frayin’
He’d say “Son you listen to me and go back to yer home”
And I’d say “Hell no man that’s a fifty-thousand mile walk!”

II
The prostitutes in Paris they gave me stabbed looks,
The priests at Notre Dame they stared at me like crooks,
On the sidewalks by the Seine women in cars they came by
Said “Boy how much will ye charge me for a ride”
I taunted my empty pockets and rattled down my bones,
I had nuthin’ to hang on to so I said “A bed and a phone”

III
In New York City I lost myself with nothing but a bag
Of glow-blinding alleyways with death lurking on the dark,
A young girl came to me said “man you look like a ghost”
She raised her hand to me said “want me to shoot you off?”
I said to her “No thank you lady I got plenty of stash,
But if you have some cigarettes well that’ll be too kind”

IV
The cold nights they howled and cried to a hollow moon,
The bums they said “don’t worry kiddo the sun is coming soon”
I was shiverin’ and tremblin’ sleeping ‘cross the rails,
Downtown the sirens moanin’ as I waited the next train.
They said “Life it gets no harder than this so don’t ya weep,
When things come easy things are never what they seem”

V
I came to a friend’s house he lived right on the hills,
He woke up ev’ry mornin’ with San Francisco at his feet,
He would read the newspaper and then have a smoke,
And then said to me “want me to recite ye a poem?”
I’d say “alright man but don’t read Wordsworth again,
Recite to me this time some crazy William Blake”

VI
I found my brother walking back in an empty California pier,
And said to him laughin’ “man you’ve grown yourself a beard!”
He smiled and I saw in his eyes he still had that glisten
That ever it shone back home when spring was the season
And birds sang to us as we got drenched in the filled pool
And were little children who’d not yet learned that life it is cruel.
VII
Katie she had golden diamond rings and pale fake beads
Cruising cross her swallowed chest and wrapping up her skin,
I took her closely to me and tight I pressed her lovely face,
And felt her hair on my cheeks like a pretty silken lace,
She said “Tell me now you’ll never leave me all alone”
And I said to her “Love, I’ll always be singin’ ye a song”

VIII
I packed my bags and threw my clothes on me before dawn,
She still dreamt quietly and so I wrote to her a song,
I kissed her on her crystal frown and she just silently giggled
So I pushed the door ajar and strolled back to the city,
I had nowhere to be a-lyin’ so I quietly lit a cigarette
And waited for the bus to come a-crying’ for my little girl.

IX
Down South Dakota as I crouched to sleep on a park bench
I heard the old town major kill his lady in the rain,
Two hard shots went breezin’ through the stormy night
And died as swiftly as the smoking thunders of the sky,
One loud cry broke the silence, but no one was around,
I heard him walk away, his steps still echo in my mind.

X
On the road I met three jesters, they were from Oliver Town,
They said they were heading for the southern lowlands,
So I asked them three jesters if they needed one more man,
They said “Sorry now kid but the fire ain’t worth the while”
The afternoon was pouring across the soaked Napa vines,
When the three lean shadows left me in the highway behind.

XI
In Chicago City where the wild winds blow so high
I came to a guy who said he knew where to find God,
He said “Up there on the mountain where the grey mist falls,
There you will find all there is to be and so much more”
I saw him pointing roundly at heaven and just had to laugh,
I said “See now, you’re pointing to an empty Paradise!”

XII
Blind prophets that prophesized with smoke and water clear,
They said to me that the stars would repay all of my fears,
Deaf dumb fortunetellers said that I would find great luck
As they coincided their fingers into their narrow deck of cards,
Well I guess some of them gipsy hobos must have been right
Cos the next day I found 100 dollars on the abandoned track.

XIII
All the way up north in Oregon behind a dirty trash can
I found one of them jesters hiding from the light,
I said to him smilin’ “Tell me, where are the others anyway?”
He said “One of ‘em got married, the other’s locked in jail”
So I said to him “You wanna come with me up to Canada?”
And he said “Nay kiddo, I just want to lay back and die”