We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
There's a long-distance train rolling through the rain, tears on the letter I write. There's a woman I long to touch and I'm missing her so much, but she's drifting like a satellite. There's a neon light ablaze in a green smoky haze, and laughter down on Elizabeth Street And a lonesome bell tone in that valley of stone where she bathed in a stream of pure heat. Her father would emphasize you got to be more than street-wise but he practiced what he preached from the heart. A full-blooded Cherokee, he predicted to me the time and the place that we'd part.
There's a babe in the arms of a woman in a rage And a longtime golden-haired stripper onstage As she winds back the clock and she turns back the page Of a book that nobody can write. Oh, where are you tonight?
The rest of the astonishing lyrics are below the fold -
The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure, to live it you have to explode. In that last hour of need, we entirely agreed, sacrifice was the code of the road. I left town at dawn, with Marcel and St. John, strong men belittled by doubt. I couldn't tell her what my private thoughts were but she had some way of finding them out. He took dead-center aim but he missed just the same, she was waiting, putting flowers on the shelf. She could feel my despair as I climbed up her hair and discovered her invisible self.
There's a lion in the room, there's a demon escaped, There's a million dreams gone, there's a landscape being raped, As her beauty fades and I watch her undrape, But I won't, but then maybe again, I might. Oh, if I could just find you tonight.
I fought with my twin, that enemy within, 'til both of us fell by the way. Horseplay and disease is killing me by degrees while the law looks the other way. Your partners in crime hit me up for nickels and dimes, the man you were lovin' could never get clean. It felt outa place, my foot in his face, but he should have stayed where his money was green. I bit into the root of forbidden fruit with the juice running down my leg. Then I dealt with your boss, who'd never known about loss, who always was too proud to beg. There's a white diamond gloom on the dark side of this room and a pathway that leads up to the stars. If you don't believe there's a price for this sweet paradise, just remind me to show you the scars.
There's a new day at dawn and I've finally arrived. If I'm there in the morning, baby, you'll know I've survived. I can't believe it, I can't believe I'm alive, But without you it doesn't seem right. Oh, where are you tonight?
