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MONKEY FIST
Pick up your hammer pick up your nail
We got to build a ship we can sail
We got to build a ship we can sail
Right through the storm and through the southern gales
Give me your hand and swear on your fate
You'll come with me and carry your weight
You come with me and carry your weight
And we will anchor well beyond the strait
Make your monkey fist now bind it good and tight
Make all preparations while we have the light
You must understand we shove off today
And head for horizons far far away
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MOVEMENT
Traffic rumbles on
Just outside my room
Everyone has gone
All gone into bloom
Give me movement moving on
Give me movement move along
I wait for night to come
When I'm powerful
There's a steady hum
From something electrical
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JACKASS BLUES
I fell dwon plenty in the rocky past
But I will land on the front porch at last
Sit down here with me and make yourself to rest
Been stick shifting all night long out on 90 west
I wanna take you far away to my childhood sky
To the swollen southern fields where cropdusters dive
She said I love you like a brother yes I love you like a son
And you can come in from the rain but you can't have no fun
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IN THE HOLE
Calling all my people
Calling all my good friends
I don't know where my way has gone
I don't know where I am
Come on out and light a fire
A brilliant flame for me
You can burn my bridges up
For all the world to see
It's black as night here in the hole
The freedom's all around me
I can't go back I can't go on
I gotta lay down with nobody
It's black as night here in the hole
The freedom's all around me
I can't go back I can't go on
I'm gonna go down with no one
I can't help but remember
When I found the one
We slow danced by the jukebox
And we swam under the sun
But now I've hit the doldrums
Where my compass does no good
I saw an angel pack it up
And run off in the woods
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LITTLE BO PEEP
Come on Little Bo Peep
You slept through the day
Wake up now quit dreaming
How I will get away
Come on Little Bo Peep
You have worn me down
You lost me on the long walk home
And I was never found
Come on Little Bo Peep
You know where I'll be
10 below in Hell's Kitchen snow
If you wanna find me
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POCKET KNIFE
I'd meet you high on holy wine
I'd meet you where the sun don't shine
I'd meet you on Montana peaks
I'd meet you when the basement leaks
I'd meet you down in a lowly grave
I'd meet you in Hawaii waves
I'd meet you when the babies crawl
I'd meet you in a barroom brawl
I'd meet you preaching for the lamb
I'd meet you stuck in a traffic jam
I'd meet you out on the dance floor
I'd meet you inside a grocery store
I'd meet you halfway down my stairs
I'd meet you lying by road flares
I'd meet you when your maker comes
I'd meet you while you learn the drums
I'd meet you with a stroke of luck
I'd meet you head on like a truck
I'd meet you perfect but a tease
I'd meet you begging on your knees
I'd meet you holding heavy stones
I'd meet you on the telephone
I'd meet you when our souls evolve
I'd meet you for nothing at all
I'd meet you in the children's room
I'd meet you back in the mother's womb
I'd meet you in the moonlit sea
I'd meet you while the choir breathed
I'd meet you under wedding bells
I'd meet you as 2 single cells
I'd meet you in a future life
I'd meet you as your pocket knife
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CAN I KEEP YOU
Hold my hand fast to sleep
Give me your master key
O Baby can I keep you
Lean your head back to kiss
Throw my arms up into this
O Baby can I keep you
Wake me up if you are able
Let's have our breakfast at your kitchen table
In the morning O can I keep you
I walk you up and down your street
Take me home bury me deep in your sheets
O Baby can I keep you
Some men got money and some men got charm
But I aint got nothing without you on my arm
O Baby can I keep you
In come the breakers I'm riding the crest
I lie like a prince on your warm mother breast
And when I pass by the saints in their frozen stone gowns
They wink like they know me and what I have found
O Baby can I keep you
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COME ON HOME
Can I just say I'd love to take up the space above you
Mmhmm come on home
Mmhmm come on home
Yes sir I been working steady to make what we lost already
Mmhmm come on home
Mmhmm come on home
Don't bother banging my drum I'm holding out for someone
Mmhmm come on home
Mmhmm come on home
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LOVE FOR THE DAMNED
I left my friends in a drunken shame
They broke all engagements and buried my name
Now I got no one and no one to blame
I'm relying on your love for the damned
Can't get ahead I lost my lucky one
She drove off and left me right where I'd begun
Now I got nothing and there's nothing to be done
I'm relying on your love for the damned
Got me a fever and a new wishbone
But no one to break it and no one to phone
Even when I dream I dream I'm alone
I'm relying on your love for the damned
Just got no time for an overhaul
I don't believe it make any difference at all
I don't read the bible but I read the bathroom wall
I'm relying on your love for the damned
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TRAVEL LIGHT
I can't make up a song
Or pick out Omie Wise
I gotta sit right here and wait
I'd travel light
If it weren't for you
I don't have a bike
I aint gonna hitch hike
I'm gonna sit right here and wait
I could catch a bus
Or certainly drive a car
But I gotta sit right here and wait
I'd travel light
If it weren't for you
I could get us on a plane
Even up in first class
But I gotta sit right here and wait
I'd travel light
If it weren't for you
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SUMMONS SONG
I’m going home
I’m going home
With the rising sun
With the rising sun
I’m leaving here
I’m leaving here
When my work is done
When all my work is done
I spent all my cash
All my cash is gone
Weighed down in this town
Laid up in this town
Waiting ‘til Sunday comes
Waiting ‘til Sunday comes
If the week don’t take me down
If the week don’t take me down
If the marina winds will blow
Marina winds will blow
And my ship in the harbor sails
Ship in the harbor sails
I’ll take on everyone
I’ll take on everyone
And throw them all up in my jail
All up in my jail
Oh they won’t see me coming
‘til I’m right there in the way
Oh they won’t hear me go
And they won’t even know my name
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COWARD DAY
It’s a coward day
I am far away
And nobody knows where I am
Got no face got no name
And I carry no blame
I will ride home when I can
Because tomorrow will come
Tomorrow will stay
Tomorrow will be like yesterday
When the bright morning sun
Wakes everyone
I’ll be right back in my place
It’s a coward day
I am lost in the haze
I have left it all behind
Gotten drunk I’ve been cold
And I wandered all alone
But I would not give up my time
It’s a coward day
I have nothing to say
To the people passing me by
I will walk I will hum
I will keep feeling numb
If I don’t speak I won’t lie
It’s a coward day
And its mine in everyway
I have swam up from the deep
I did celebrate at last
And I filled my empty flask
I have only now to sleep
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BE MY LITTLE WIDOW
Coming home on the new L train
Looking like a ragdoll in the rain
Hoping to find you sitting awake
In a body full of love to make
Be my girl my only one
Be my little widow when I’m dead and gone
Be my woman I’ll be your man
Be my little widow baby if you can
Fussing about the house again
Trouble in the kitchen wanna make amends
I’m thinking straight I know I’m right
Let’s go work up an appetite
Making time sawing up wood
Picking out stars in the neighborhood
A basement run when the circuit breaks
I stumble in the dark find you face
We head crosstown to Union Square
I'm playing with the tip jar around there
Got so much we're talking about
There's just one thing coming out of my mouth
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THE BANYAN TREE
I’m gonna sit right here
And wait until it gets cool
You do what you want
You do what you do
I got my hopes up high
But I gotta wait and see
Come on girl take yourself
And lay it down here with me
She dreams like a billionaire
Dreams like a drunken saint
I aint got nowhere to go
I just lie awake
Gather the simple joys
Let’s ride the eventide
Leave my hand in yours
Leave it ‘til the baby cries
Sitting on a standpipe
Watching the day go by
I wish us away into
The shady underside
You know I love a narrow street
You know I love a river town
But I love to love you
You can tear the whole thing down
Come, come get my drum
Pick it up off of me
Lead your hand my love
Take him in the banyan tree
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CARRICK BEND
Nobody can explain or give a pearl of wisdom
And I have not been drinking
Nor am I high at least not by synthetic means
One, Two here we go now hold onto your beau
And take him by his arm and dive in deep
Deep breathe deep
Plastic brave soldier on the fence
In every weather and I identify him in me
But don’t let go I still get weak
Tied my carrick bend all over your tender limbs
I flew you like a flag for the New York City
Skyline
Missles in silos disarm and run crying
Like a baby to mama oh baby
I’m defenseless
Stared into your well of iris
I threw a penny and made a wish that I was you
Its still coming true piece by piece everyday
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AMANDA
Darling look at the camera
And hold back your tears
Wring you hands outside of the frame
I want them to know you
In happier years
See your face bright when you say my name
Amanda my love don’t trouble yourself
We’re all we need can’t you tell
Don’t wake up a-wishing you were somewhere else
Amanda my love don’t trouble yourself
I’ve been dying to tell you
In old-fashioned ways
Under skies made of a single blue
So much can happen
On disappearing days
Lay your head back take me with you
It’s a dry evil season
And the money is nowhere
When I wave you over near to me
Where we watch all the cedar
Leaning on the air
And the wind blow demons out to sea
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RUNNING HOME
The planes fly low
So low and humming
I stop my sleeping
I’m running home
The stars aim high
Their frequent shootings
But I will not wish
I’m running home
You cocked your head
In hands of sugar
I ate you right up
I’m running home
I dreamed your face
Became my body
That I would die here
I’m running home
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INERTIA
BALL TURRETT BLUES
I polish up the glass of my handsome window floor
She gets right hot and misty and I can't see no more
I loaded up my rifle with dying hopes of love
But when I pulled back on the trigger it blew up like love does
I got a rabbit's foot and four leaf clover but luck don't come around
I squeeze them with my fingers and pray to get me on the ground
Yeah I can see the world but I never get no breeze
Gonna kick me out a door cause I aint got no keys
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LONESOME DREAM
Had a dream I was lonesome
And I could not break away
Then I walked through the doorway
I woke up here today
People don’t see me
Keep looking down
People I don’t know you
Wanna run away from town
People don’t leave me
With no one around
People I’m sorry
Gonna run away from town
Had a dream I was lonesome
And I could not break away
Then I walked clear to Durham
And I woke up here today
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MUSH
Sweeping up the kitchen floor hustle out the trash
Looking for some way to feed them monkey’s on my back
Triple threats are piling in trouble’s on the way
The sun is up and gone before I can even say
Mush Mush Mush
Get your doggies working
Mush Mush Mush
Working overtime
Don’t you weep my darling don’t you cry no more
Baby’s sleeping sound and now your daddy’s out the door
Pigeons in the graveyard trains are on the tracks
Money in your purse as soon as I come strolling back
I hit the sidewalk humming had my banjo tuned to C
Crossed a homeless prophet mumbling something meant for me
“You better go get your riding done or you aint gonna get nowhere”
Then he raised his hands and hit me with an angry angled glare
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SOLDIER’S JOY
I’m gonna get a drink don’t you wanna go
I’m gonna get a drink don’t you wanna go
Home on soldier’s joy
Grasshopper sitting on a sweet-potato vine
Grasshopper sitting on a sweet-potato vine
Along comes a chicken and says your mine
I love somebody yes I do
I love somebody yes I do
I love somebody yes I do
Aint gonna tell you who
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THE MERMAID SONG
It was a Friday morn when we set sail
We were not far from the land
When the captain spied a lovely mermaid
With a comb and a glass in her hand
Oh the ocean waves may roll
And the stormy winds may blow
While we poor sailors go skipping to the tops
And the landlubbers lie down below, below, below
The landlubbers lie down below
Then outspoke the captain of our gallant ship
And a well spoken man was he
He said I married me a wife in Salem town
Tonight she a widow will be
Then outspoke the cook of our gallant ship
And a well spoken man was he
He said I care much more for my kettles and my pots
Than I do for the depths of the sea
Well the moon shines bright the stars give light
My mama will be looking for me
She may look she may weep she may look to the deep
She may look to the bottom of the sea
Then three times around went our gallant ship
Three times around went she
Three times around went our gallant ship
And she sank to the depths of the sea
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AIRBUS BREAKDOWN
I’m leaving in the morning
I’m going far away
Won’t you try and stop me
Why don’t you make me stay
Wanna lay me down and wake up in your arms
Gonna get up on the airbus tomorrow and I’ll be gone
Pour me your whiskey
And don’t you hold back
Keep it coming
Until I’m seeing black
Knock me out and lead me to the light
If I don’t get up the airbus tomorrow I’ll be all right
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DIG UP THE HATCHET
Don't let us dig up the hatchet tonight
We will never find it in the failing light
You know we can't know what the morning has in mind
For two lucky children dying right on time
And all the dreams that make a life
Can fall between a sundress seam
Everyone gathers around you like a fire
And takes off their winter coats and travelling attire
And here comes the happiest boy in the town
He's waking all the people up to have a look around
You make me an armful of windows and flares
When you walk into a room to find me in a chair
Then you lay me under lakes where I turn into mountain air
Everytime you say you want my hands up in your hair
The songbirds are singing with vengence in their spines
Eventhough some lumberjack stuck arrows in their sides
And the bees fly in paths spelling Hellfire by degrees
We watch them and we listen to their sweetness on the breeze
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MOLE IN THE GROUND
I wish I was a mole in the ground
I wish I was a mole in the ground
If I was a mole in the ground I’d root that mountain down
I wish I was a mole in the ground
I wish I was a lizard in the spring
I wish I was a lizard in the spring
If I was a lizard in the spring I’d hear my darling sing
I wish I was a lizard in the spring
Kimpy let your hair roll down
Kimpy let your hair roll down
Let your hair roll down and your bangs curl around
Kimpy let your hair roll down
Kimpy wants a nine dollar shaw
Kimpy wants a nine dollar shaw
When I come over the hill with my forty dollar bill
She’ll say baby where you been so long
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ANOTHER DANCE
1000 years have long gone past
Since the very last time we spoke dear
I won't look down to find those words
I've been saving up for you they're no good now
What can I say I'm yours more everyday
Nobody ever stood a chance
What can I do you know I belong to you
So baby how about another dance
In sweet disbelief I fall into you
Whenever I remember to breathe
I give you away right through my teeth
Again and again when will you stay
Your gravity's good I'm a sattelite true
But you see I wouldn't leave if I could
I know you don't wanna break my concentration
But darling it's already too late
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