1.For The Sake Of The Song
By townes van zandt
Why does she sing
Her sad songs for me,
I'm not the one
To tenderly bring
Her soft sympathy
I've just begun
To see my way clear
And it's plain,
If i stop i will fall
I can lay down a tear
For her pain,
Just a tear and that's all.
What does she want me to do？
She says that she knows
That moments are rare
I suppose that it's true
Then on she goes
To say i don't care,
And she knows
That i do
Maybe she just has to sing, for the sake of the song
And who do i think that i am to decide that she's wrong.
She'd like to think that i'm cruel,
But she knows that's a lie
For i would be
No more than a tool
If i allowed her to cry
All over me.
Oh my sorrow is real
Even though
I can't change my plan
If she could see how i feel
Then i know
That she'd understand
Oh does she actually think i'm to blame？
Does she really believe
That some word of mine
Can relieve
All her pain？
Can't she see that she grieves
Just because she's been blindly deceived
By her shame？
Nothin's what it seems,
Maybe she'll start someday
To realize
If she abandons her dreams,
Then all the words she can say
Are only lies
When will she see
That to gain
Is only to lose？
All that she offers me
Are her chains,
I got to refuse
Oh but it's only to herself that she's lied
She likes to pretend
It's something that she must defend,
With her pride
And i don't intend
To stand her and be the friend
From whom she must hide
2.Tecumseh Valley
By townes van zandt
The name she gave was caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
She came from spencer
Across the hill
She said her pa had sent her
'cause the coal was low
And soon the snow
Would turn the skies to winter
She said she'd come
To look for work
She was not seeking favors
And for a dime a day
And a place to stay
She'd turn those hands to labor
But the times were hard, lord,
The jobs were few
All through tecumseh valley
But she asked around
And a job she found
Tending bar at gypsy sally's
She saved enough to get back home
When spring replaced the winter
But her dreams were denied
Her pa had died
The word come down from spencer
So she turned to whorin' out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
And it was many a man
Returned again
To lay himself beside her
They found her down beneath the stairs
That led to gypsy sally's
In her hand when she died
Was a note that cried
Fare thee well... tecumseh valley
The name she gave was caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
3.Many A Fine A Lady
By townes van zandt
It's many a fine lady that's walked along beside me
With their flesh made of velvet and their eyes made of rain
Some tried to hold me to hurt me to hide me
And some turned away not to look back again
One stood among them i remember most clearly
Her sorrows were heavy and her laughter was slow
I courted her gently and i loved her most dearly
And i came her majestic reflections to know
Her words like the mountain stood lonely and lofty
With her face like daydream and her hair like the shore
Worn by a mourner as he steals away softly
From those that would have him mourn nothing at all
Endlessly sorrow rode high on the north wind
Slashing and slicing to take him his toll
And endlessly creatures of darkness were cuttin'
Their paths through the walls that shelter the soul
But no longer gypsy lie sadness unending
Her eyes they lay hollow and her face petrified
The sun will go laughin' and others condemn him
But who there among you could have told her good-bye
4.Quicksilver Daydreams Of Maria
By townes van zandt
Well, the diamonds fades quickly when matched to the face of
maria
All the harps they sound empty when she lifts her lips to the
sky
The brown of her skin makes her hair seem a soft golden rainfall
That spills from the mountains to the bottomless depths of her
eyes
Well, she stands all around me her hands slowly sifting the
sunshine
All the laughter that linger down deep 'neath her smilin' is
free
Well, it spins and it twirls like a hummingbird lost in the
morning
And caresses the south wind and silently sails to the sea
Ah, the sculpter stands stricken and the artist he throws away
his brushes
When her image comes dancin' the sun she turns sullen with shame
And the birds they go silent the wind stops his sad mournful
singing
When the trees of the forest start gently to whisper'in her name
So as softly she wanders i'll desperately follow her footsteps
And i'll chase after shadows that offer a trace of her sight
Ah, they promise eternally that she lays hidden within them
But i find they've decieved me and sadly i bid them goodbye
So the serpent slide softly away with these moments of laughter
And the the old washy woman has finish her cleanin' and gone
But the bamboo hang heavy in the bondage of quicksilver
daydreams
And a lonely child longingly looks for a place to belong
5.Waiting Around To Die
By townes van zandt
Sometimes i don't know where
This dirty road is taking me
Sometimes i can't even see the reason why
I guess i keep a-gamblin'
Lots of booze and lots of ramblin'
It's easier than just waitin' around to die
One time, friends, i had a ma
I even had a pa
He beat her with a belt once 'cause she cried
She told him to take care of me
Headed down to tennessee
It's easier than just waitin' around to die
I came of age and i found a girl
In a tuscaloosa bar
She cleaned me out and hit in on the sly
I tried to kill the pain, bought some wine
And hopped a train
Seemed easier than just waitin' around to die
A friend said he knew
Where some easy money was
We robbed a man, and brother did we fly
The posse caught up with me
And drug me back to muskogee
It's two long years i've been waitin' around to die
Now i'm out of prison
I got me a friend at last
He don't drink or steal or cheat or lie
His name's codine
He's the nicest thing i've seen
Together we're gonna wait around and die
Together we're gonna wait around and die
6.I'll Be Here In The Morning
By townes van zandt
There's no stronger wind than the one that blows
Down a lonesome railroad line
No prettier sight than looking back
On a town you left behind
There is nothin' that's as real
As a love that's in my mind
Close your eyes
I'll be here in the morning
Close your eyes
I'll be here for a while
There's lots of things along the road
I'd surely like to see
I'd like to lean into the wind
And tell myself i'm free
But your softest whisper's louder
Than the highways call to me
All the mountains and the rivers
And the valleys can't compare
To your blue lit dancin' eyes
And yellow shining hair
I could never hit the open road
And leave you layin' there
Lay your head back easy, love,
Close your cryin' eyes
I'll be layin' here beside you
When the sun comes on the rise
I'll stay as long as the cuckoo wails
And the lonesome bluejay cries.
7.Sad Cinderella
By townes van zandt
When the bandits have stolen your jewelry and gone
And your crippled young gypsy, he's grown tall and strong
And your dead misconceptions have proven you wrong
Well then, princess, where you plannin' to turn to？
When your magazine memory has spun you around
And you realize your lovers were just painted clowns
And outside your window you start hearing sounds
Where they're building a cross for to burn you
When all your bright scarlet turn slowly to blue
Will you stop and decide that it's over？
When your teardrops go sour and no longer fall
The splash cross the virgin that lives down your hall
And spends all her nights with an ear to your wall
Well then, what will you have you can offer？
When the firedancers finish and leave you alone
With nothing but embers and sacks full of stone
That hang round your neck, slicing through to the bone
Will there still be place for your laughter？
As your shattered illusions come a-tumblin' home
And all of the butchers you've nourished have grown
And they are suddenly able to leave you alone
And they run like slaves that are set free
When your questions are answered and your pleading is done
And your mind starts to screaming that you ain't the one
That once dwelled within you, will you turn, will you run
Then princess, will you come home and get me？
8.Velvet Voices
By townes van zandt
I'll play upon my violin
Until the mountains ring
Of lonely laughter blindly thrown
And cause an endless sark of strings
The skies are sad
They're dancin' to a silent symphony
And the velvet voices all shall join
The singing
The hall is filled to every corner
By a tinkling hint of chimes
A melody careens and crumbles
Leaving just a trace behind
The silver on its wings
And the velvet voices all shall join
The singing
The cymbals flash, the drums they crash
The trumpets rise the song
The brass beton plucks its diamonds
From a glittering wall of almost dawn
The crystal chords they slash the wind
In humble majesty
And the velvet voices all shall join
The singing
9.All Your Young Servants
By townes van zandt
You live on your hill so high and so lonely
You toss out your bread crumbs to those down below
They think you're a king but believe me it's only
Because they're too blind to know
There once was a time when your money had meaning
You diamonds had glitter but now it's all gone
It poisoned your laughter and muffled your singing
You can't even see that it's wrong
Your castle is dingy and dirty and dismal
Your carpets are faded, your walls are all grey
There's dust on your silver and cracks in your crystal
All your young servants have drifted away
So go back to your sadness, go back to your sorrow
And i'll make my bed on a hill 'neath the sky
And lay here a-listening 'till the sun comes tomorrow
Counting the tears that you cry
Your castle is dingy and dirty and dismal
Your carpets are faded, your walls are all grey
There's dust on your silver and cracks in your crystal
All your young servants have drifted away
10.Talkin' Karate Blues
By townes van zandt
Well, i ain't very big for twentyone
And it seems i never could have any good clean fun
Cause every time i'd go outside some great big bully'd come
along
He'd hit me in the face and he'd knock to the ground
And he'd start kickin' me all around
And that ain't exactly fair, friends, that's wrong.
So i got me a paper the other night
And i crawled up on the sofa and i turned on the light
And flipped through the pages till i found the classified ads.
Said, 'take karate from lee hung chow;
Man, make your first appointment now
This course is guaranteed to make you bad.'
Well, the next day i drove to the address
By japanese design i was really impressed
It looked like a regular house of the rising sun.
I walked inside, i was all alone
I had a nervous feeling down in my bones
I was kind of sorry i'd ever even come.
Then a giant jap came through the door
He must have been about seven foot four
And he looked like he's prone to easy aggrevation.
He said, 'lee hung chow, ah kee dung'
That's japanese for fee fie foo fum
I tried to explain my entire situation.
He said, 'number one course, yankee, self defence,
Twohundred dollars and twentyfive cents';
I said 'what's the twentyfive cents for？' and he said,
'repairs.'
I said, 'repairs to what？', and he said 'to you'
And i thought to myself 'man, that won't do'
Felt about a half inch tall under that ol' slender stare
Ah, you think he was yellow...
I said, 'i believe i better go check another place'
He said, 'ha so, yankee don't like my race'
I said, 'now, there's a mistake, man, and that's true;
I've been for you you japanese all along
You japanese just can't do no wrong
And i thought you got mighty dirty deal in world war ii.'
Well, he grabbed me by the hand and gave a heave
I figured there's a pretty good time to leave
Before he had a chance to do me any definite harm.
But my plan worked out in the end, you see,
Now no bully is gonna pick on me
Who's gonna hit a fellow with just one arm？
11.Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls
By townes van zandt
Let me tell you a story 'bout a girl i knew
Fairest skin with eyes of blue
I swear to the lord that i loved her true
It's a year now she's been gone
Her spirit was as bright as the soft sunshine
Lips the color of strawberry wine
I wish to god she still was mine
The chance won't come again
After first we lay in love's sweet bed
With one look at her eyes i might have read
All the pain that was flying through her head
Through my guilt i could not see
I turned to her when the morning came
Hungry thoughts racing through my brain
But the knife in her heart screamed herself she'd slain
And a note whispered love too soon
Her old man screamed and her mother cried
All i could do was to wonder why
A girl in her youth was forced to die
Is loving such a crime？
Seeing sixteens summers and fifteen falls
Me and my blindness never realized all
The fear she kept inside
Let me tell you a story 'bout a girl i knew
Fairest skin with eyes of blue
I swear to the lord that i loved her true
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