独乐乐——Joan Baez

OH, BROTHER!
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

You've got eyes like Jesus
But you speak with a viper's tongue
We were just sitting around on earth
Where the hell did you come from?
With your lady dressed in deerskin
And an amazing way about her
When are you going to realize
That you just can't live without her?

Take it easy
Take it light
But take it

Your lady gets her power
From the goddess and the stars
You get yours from the trees and the brooks
And a little from life on Mars
And I've known you for a good long while
And would you kindly tell me, mister
How in the name of the Father and the Son
Did I come to be your sister?

Take it easy
Take it light
But take it

You've done dirt to lifelong friends
With little or no excuses
Who endowed you with the crown
To hand out these abuses?
Your lady knows about these things
But they don't put her under
Me, I know about them, too
And I react like thunder

Take it easy
Take it light
But take it

I know you are surrounded
By parasites and sychophants
When I come to see you
I dose up on coagulants
Because when you hurl that bowie knife
It's going to be when my back is turned
Doing some little deed for you
And baby, will I get burned

Take it easy
Take it light
But take it

So little brother when you come
To knock on my door
I don't want to bring you down
But I just went through the floor
My love for you extends through life
And I don't want to waste it
But honey, what you've been dishing out
You'd never want to taste it
And if I had the nerve
To either risk it or to break it
I'd put our friendship on the line
And show you how to take it

Take it easy
Take it light
But take it

ONLY HEAVEN KNOWS
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Seems we've been to heaven darling
Ah the sad wind blows
But I have lost my way my darling
Tell me how it goes
While the mist is rising darling
Ah the sad wind blows
Tell me how we met my darling
Tell me all you know

Well I am somewhat older darling
Ah the sad wind blows
And you are so much younger darling
That's the way it goes
And we looked so good together
Ah the sad wind blows
Out of all the summer flowers
I had picked the rose

Take me in your arms my darling
While the sad wind blows
Tell me that this pain will leave me
Tell me how it goes
Ah if this pain should ever leave me
Only heaven knows

OUTSIDE THE NASHVILLE CITY LIMITS
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Outside the Nashville city limits
a friend and I did drive,
on a day in early winter
I was glad to be alive.
We went to see some friends of his
who lived upon a farm.
Strange and gentle country folk
who would wish nobody harm.
Fresh-cut sixty acres,
eight cows in the barn.
But the thing that I remember
on that cold day in December
was that my eyes they did brim over
as we talked.

In the slowest drawl I had ever heard
the man said "Come with me
if y'all wanna see the prettiest place
in all of Tennesee."
He poured us each a glass of wine
and a-walking we did go,
along fallen leaves and crackling ice
where a tiny brook did flow.
He knew every inch of the land
and Lord he loved it so.
But the thing that I remember
on that cold day in December
was that my eyes were brimming over
as we walked.

He set my down upon a stone
beside a running spring.
He talked in a voice so soft and clear
like the waters I heard sing.
He said "We searched quite a time
for a place to call our own.
There was just me and Mary John
and now I guess we're home."
I looked at the ground and wondered
how many years they each had roamed.
And Lord I do remember
on that day in late December
how my eyes kept brimming over
as we talked.
As we walked.

And standing there with outstretched arms
he said to me "You know,
I can't wait till the heavy storms
cover the ground with snow,
and there on the pond the watercress
is all that don't turn white.
When the sun is high you squint your eyes
and look at the hills so bright."
And nodding his head my friend said,
"And it seems like overnight
that the leaves come out so tender
at the turning of the winter..."
I thought the skies they would brim over
as we talked.

PLAY ME BACKWARDS
(Written by Joan Baez, Wally Wilson, Kenny Greenberg & Karen O'Connor)

You don't have to play me backwards
To get the meaning of my verse
You don't have to die and go to hell
To feel the devil's curse

Well I thought my life was a photograph
On the family Christmas card
Kids all dressed in buttons and bows
And lined up in the yard
Were the golden days of childhood
So lyrical and warm
Or did the picture start to fade
On the day that I was born

I've seen them light the candles
I've heard them bang the drum
And I've cried Mama, I'm cold as ice!
And I got no place to run

Let the night begin there's a pop of skin
And the sudden rush of scarlet
There's a little boy riding on a goat's head
And a little girl playing the harlot
There's a sacrifice in an empty church
Of sweet li'l baby Rose
And a man in a mask from Mexico
Is peeling off my clothes

I've seen them light the candles
I've heard them bang the drum
And I've cried Mama, I'm cold as ice!
And I got no place to run

So I'm paying for protection
Smoking out the truth
Chasing recollections
Nailing down the proof

You don't have to play me backwards
To get the meaning of my verse
You don't have to die and go to hell
To feel the devil's curse
I'll stand before your altar
And tell everything I know
I've come to claim my childhood
At the chapel of baby Rose

I've seen them light the candles
I've heard them bang the drum
I've seen them light the candles
I've heard them bang the drum

PRISON TRILOGY
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Billy Rose was a low rider, Billy Rose was a night fighter
Billy Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own name
Busted on a drunken charge
Driving someone else's car
The local midnight sheriff's claim to fame

In an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale how
Billy fought the sergeant for some milk that he demanded
Knowing they'd remain the boss
Knowing he would pay the cost
They saw he was severely reprimanded

In the blackest cell on "A" Block
He hanged himself at dawn
With a note stuck to the bunk head
Don't mess with me, just take me home

Come and lay, help us lay
young Billy down

Luna was a Mexican the law called an alien
For coming across the border with a baby and a wife
Though the clothes upon his back were wet
Still he thought that he could get
Some money and things to start a life

It hadn't been too very long when it seemed like everything went wrong
They didn't even have the time to find themselves a home
This foreigner, a brown-skin male
Thrown into a Texas jail
It left the wife and baby quite alone

He eased the pain inside him
With a needle in his arm
But the dope just crucified him
He died to no one's great alarm

Come and lay, help us lay
Young Luna down
And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons
To the ground

Kilowatt was an aging con of 65 who stood a chance to stay alive
And leave the joint and walk the streets again
As the time he was to leave drew near
He suffered all the joy and fear
Of leaving 35 years in the pen

And on the day of his release he was approached by the police
Who took him to the warden walking slowly by his side
The warden said "You won't remain here
But it seems a state retainer
Claims another 10 years of your life."

He stepped out in the Texas sunlight
The cops all stood around
Old Kilowatt ran 50 yards
Then threw himself down on the ground

They might as well just have laid
The old man down
And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons
To the ground
Help us raze, raze the prisons
To the ground

RECENTLY
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Recently it all came back to me
Somebody promised us roses
We slid by for awhile on dreams
But today I see what's only a memory
Of a decade ago that vanished from sight
With the speed of a shooting star
Leaving you, leaving me, where we are...

Well, you could say we sailed on stormy seas
Or you could say that we failed
Like seven out of ten in our neighborhood
But I prefer remembering the way we were
When we both thought the other had hung the moon
'Cause all too soon came the troubled times
And the broken rhymes so hard to define 'til recently

Oh, I could have tried for a thousand years
Through the long and winding night
Could have cried another million tears
It would never come out right

And recently the product of all our years
Dressed in a navy blue blazer
Headed for a first class school in the east
And I'd like to say he's hardly a failure now
And neither are you on the second time around
With a wife and a family
And the roses that lately arrived in the new baby's eyes
So recently

RIDER, PASS BY
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Tell me when you see them
Gathered at the shore
Dancing on their broken chains
Ah, the ladies are no more
In their blue jeans and their necklaces
Against an evening sky
But some of them are weeping
Crying rider, please pass by

The ship with all the riders
Has drifted out to sea
Compass cracked and stars unnamed
It's lost to history
And the riders in captivity
Watch ancient waves roll high
And hear the distant voices
Crying rider, please pass by

All you men who should have been
Your fathers beat you down
Your mothers loved you badly
Your teachers stole your crowns
And the wars you fought have taken toll
The price was far too high
You've buried all the images
Of riders passing by

The horses of the riders
Have waited at the tide
But years have passed, they know at last
Their heroes will not ride
So the women oh so gracefully
Mount noble horses high
Shattering the timelessness
Of rider, please pass by

But who can dare to judge us
The women or the men?
If freedom's wings shall not be clipped
We all can love again
So the choice is not of etiquette
Or finding lonesome ways to die
But liberty to ships at sea
And riders passing by

But liberty to ships at sea
And riders passing by

SAIGON BRIDE
(Music by Joan Baez, Lyrics by Nina Duscheck)

Farewell my wistful Saigon bride
I'm going out to stem the tide
A tide that never saw the seas
It flows through jungles, round the trees
Some say it's yellow, some say red
It will not matter when we're dead

How many dead men will it take
To build a dike that will not break?
How many children must we kill
Before we make the waves stand still?

Though miracles come high today
We have the wherewithal to pay
It takes them off the streets you know
To places they would never go alone
It gives them useful trades
The lucky boys are even paid

Men die to build their Pharoah's tombs
And still and still the teeming wombs
How many men to conquer Mars
How many dead to reach the stars?

© 1967 Robbins Music Corporation and Chandos Music (ASCAP)
Rights throughout the world controlled by Robbins Music Corporation

SEABIRDS
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Don't worry about my politics
They are what they are
I work best when I get some rest
Right now I'm in a bar
Overlooking the whole wide world
It's over the Pacific
I've never written when I was drunk
This could be terrific!

And the seabird struggles in the wind
She topples, balances again

The lady sitting next to me
Is gazing in the eyes
Of the stranger sitting next to her
Who is mouthing truths and lies
He's actually quite nice I guess
He has an honest look
He doesn't know I've lost my mind
Scribbling in this book

And the seabird struggles in the wind
She topples, balances again

Consumed by the evening's masterpiece
Completely introverted
From here I could stare down eternity
leave alone and not feel deserted
I'm tired of interesting faces
And the dull ones make my weep
Don't ask me what my sign is
Instant intimacy runs cheap

The ocean is so bountiful
It spreads from coast to coast
The winds scale off the whitecaps
And the things I love the most
Come wafting up into my lap
In the colors of the great sunrise
Children holding cupcakes
With paradise in their eyes

And the seabird struggles in the wind
She topples, balances again

Four big pelicans just flew by
The room got very still
One of them carried the breath of God
Tucked way back in his bill
I know it was the breath of God
It's the same as the secret of life
He's carrying it off to the Shah of Iran
To trade it for the end of strife

And the seabird struggles in the wind
She topples, balances again

SGT. PEPPER'S BAND
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

I never knew you meant that much to me
Why did I pour a candle when you died
Find a picture of you walking in Central Park
With the iron woman by your side
That candle burned for twenty days
Most of my best friends came to mourn
And talk about the good ole days
Before my friends and I were born

Now I think I understand
That it was Sgt. Pepper's band
That put the sixties into song
Where have all the heroes gone?

Lucy in the sky with the lads from Liverpool
Drop some acid, meet the Queen
Coming out of both eyes of the hurricane
You sang your music sweet and clean
You may not want my poetry
I surely do not want your fame
You rose over the dawn of my early history
I'll pay you tribute all the same

Now I think I understand
That it was Sgt. Pepper's band
That put the sixties into song
Where have all the heroes gone?
Where have they gone?
Where have they gone?
Where have all the heroes gone?
Where have all the heroes gone?

It was a diamond studded hard day's night
They say everyone was there
I must have heard you from my mother's arms
And I must have thought somebody cared
I live in the age of cosmic maniacs
One of them put a bullet in your side
New York City, 1980
The day the sixties finally died

Now I know I understand
That it was Sgt. Pepper's band
That put the sixties into song
Where have all the heroes gone?
Where have they gone?
Where have they gone?
Where have all the heroes gone?
Where have all the heroes gone?

A SONG FOR DAVID
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

In my heart I will wait
by the stony gate
and the little one
in my arms will sleep.
Every rising of the moon
makes the years grow late
and the love in our hearts will keep.
There are friends I will make
and bonds I will break
as the seasons roll by
and we build our own sky.
In my heart I will wait
by the stony gate
and the little one
in my arms will sleep.

And the stars in your sky
are the stars in mine
and both prisoners
of this life are we.
Through the same troubled waters
we carry our time,
you and the convicts and me.
There's a good thing to know
on the outside or in,
to answer not where
but just who I am.
Because the stars in your sky
are the stars in mine
and both prisoners
of this life are we.

And the hills that you know
will remain for you
and the little willow green
will stand firm.
The flowers that we planted
through the seasons past
will all bloom
on the day you return.
To a baby at play
all a mother can say,
he'll return on the wind
to our hearts, and till then
I will sit and I'll wait
by the stony gate
and the little one
'neath the trees will dance.

SPEAKING OF DREAMS
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Speaking of dreams
Here we are in the glistening streets of Gay Paree
Playing the Gipsy Kings
After the rain and taking tea at the Ritz in boots and jeans
With a teenage girl who said that it would be her grandest dream
And speaking of dreams, I really must say
I couldn't have dreamed you up
Nor the way you burst into my life, rattled my cage
And woke my sleeping demons up

You were not yet born
When my career began in '59
We're a sign of the times
Who cares if you are a breath of spring and I am vintage wine
We come from two different worlds
Like every other couple on the Rue de Rivoli
You spent your youth in the rainforests of distant Camaroon
Your father was a Navy captain, I am the Queen of Hearts
And the daughter of the moon

Speaking of dreams
You took me to see the paintings of Paul Gaughin
Speaking of dreams
We stood in the midst of waterfalls, flaming trees
Golden dogs and shining Tahitian ladies
But it was you, not Paul Gaughin
Who stopped my heart and then
Started my life over again

And if you feel as I do
That we've erased the lines between reality
And all our painted dreams
Then take me down to where the Gipsies sing
The songs their mothers knew
Tie bright ribbons in my hair
Lean on the wind and watch me while I dance for you

And carry me off to the rainforests of distant Camaroon
Tell me that you've always know that
I am the Queen of Hearts
And the daughter of the moon

STEPHANIE'S ROOM
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

"You've loved me exquisitely."
"I tried to."
"Can we be best of friends now?"
"I never lied to you."
"And can I love you forever?"
"Sure," she said and smiled
"But will you?"

I wish there was some new way
To sing about a full moon
Poured down on us like a thousand rivers
In Stephanie's room
And you said you'd remember always
The shadows on the hills below us
But will you?

You never once tried to sell me
A bill of goods I wouldn't buy
But I'm seasoned and I know a pirate
By the devil in his eye
And the only thing you ever stole from me
Was laughter and some love I made
To fill you

White snow in the morning
Kind of frightened me
But you'd go sailing anyway
Things are different at sea
You know I'll never try and change your habit
As sure as you know if your ship sinks
It'll kill you

And all the lovely ladies who came before me
Are very much the same
As the others soon to follow
In your merry little game
I guess I just want to be remembered
Especially and frequently
Like Stephanie

Five red tail hawks are circling
Above us in the sky
You said they'd bring good luck
And then you said goodbye
You smiled and said, "I'll see you
Sooner than you think."
But will you?

STILL WATERS AT NIGHT
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Still waters at night
In the darkest of dark
But you rise as white
As the birch tree's bark
Or a pale wolf in winter
You look down and shiver
At still waters at night

Your eyes are as black
As the blackness you're fearing
And yonder a bridge
And a voice within hearing
Come walk on me softly
Look down and you'll see
Still waters at night

You've reason to fear
There is no protection
But a garland of emeralds
And a moonlit reflection
Of a boat in the distance
Will the devil take his chance
At still waters at night

So dance me a small dance
And the night cannot hurt you
Nor the waters be silent
Nor the emeralds desert you
For the boat's full of bright scarves
And wild hats among them
Songs of the vagabond
It's to you he has sung them
And shattered the silence
Of still waters at night

SWEET SIR GALAHAD
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Sweet Sir Galahad
came in through the window
in the night when
the moon was in the yard.
He took her hand in his
and shook the long hair
from his neck and he told her
she'd been working much too hard.
It was true that ever since the day
her crazy man had passed away
to the land of poet's pride,
she laughed and talked alot
with new people on the block
but always at evening time she cried.

And here's to the dawn of their days.

She moved her head
a little down on the bed
until it rested softly on his knee.
And there she dropped her smile
and there she sighed awhile,
and told him all the sadness
of those years that numbered three.
Well you know I think my fate's belated
because of all the hours I waited
for the day when I'd no longer cry.
I get myself to work by eight
but oh, was I born too late,
and do you think I'll fail
at every single thing I try?

And here's to the dawn of their days.

He just put his arm around her
and that's the way I found her
eight months later to the day.
The lines of a smile erased
the tear tracks upon her face,
a smile could linger, even stay.
Sweet Sir Galahad went down
with his gay bride of flowers,
the prince of the hours
of her lifetime.

And here's to the dawn
of their days,
of their days.

SWEETER FOR ME
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Red telephone sitting by my bed
Practically bore your name
Lying alone in the twilight zone
Waiting for your call to come in
Hadn't been for the kid
Who was sleeping upstairs
You'd have found me well on my way
On that midnight plane to L.A.

You suffered sweeter for me
Than anyone I've ever known

I dared to look into the years
Would you still have your wife?
I dared to peer through my tears
Could we ever have a life?
Even thought I was pregnant by you
But I didn't care
I just talked to my son
Would he mind another one?

You suffered sweeter for me
Than anyone I've ever known

Once more the mist rolls to the sea
Like a hundred times we've known
Trees are faded and the clouds have stopped
Where the wind had blown
How I dread when the evening comes
And I cannot be
What you want me to be
When you are next to me

How silent you are as the veils come down
Before my eyes
Soft and reserved as you move away
Donning your disguise
While every folk song that I ever knew
Once more comes true
And loves grows old
And waxes cold

You suffered sweeter for me
Than anyone I've ever known

Just one favor of you, my love
If I should die today
Take me down to where the hills
Meet the sea on a stormy day
Ride a ridge on a snow white horse
And throw my ashes away
To the wind and the sand
Where my song began

You suffered sweeter for me
Than anyone I've ever known