Grateful Dead

A man and a woman come together as strangers
When they part they're usually strangers still
It's like a practical joke played on us by our Maker
Empty bottles that can't be filled

Baby who's to say it could have been different now that it's done
Baby who's to say that it should have been, anyway
Baby who's to say that it even matters in the long run
Give it just a minute
And it will blow away
It'll blow away

You fancy me to be the master of your feelings
You barely bruise me with your looks to kill
Though I admit we were sometimes brutal in our dealings
I never held you against your will

Your case against me is so very clearly stated
I plead no contest, I just turn and shrug
I've come to figure all importance overestimated
You must mean water when you beg for blood (note 1)

Like a feather in a whirlwind
Blow away
Just as sure as the world spins
Blow away

I don't need love anymore
I don't need love anymore
I don't need anyone to tell me that I do
I don't need love and I don't need you

I try and I try to make it work
I try and I try to make it work
I try and I try again, I won't forget, I know
Love gets you nowhere slow

I want no more heartaches
No more goodbyes
Ain't no more real good love
Only new love
But old love dies

Ain't worth the time that it takes
Ain't worth the time that it takes
Ain't worth the endless hours of changes I go through
I don't need love and I don't need you

I don't need love anymore
I don't need love anymore
I don't need anyone to tell me that I do
I don't need love and I don't need you

Good, good morning, so good to see you
You weren't just a dream of mine
Real as a raven, real as thunder (note 1)
Real as the sun shining
But still so very hard to find
I can't imagine what's behind those sleepy eyes

Little stranger, don't try to hide now
You look so young and you're afraid
There is no danger but from the devil
And he may want you but I'm in his way
You don't know how easy it is
You don't know how easy it is to love you

And come the moonrise, when the dew falls
Don't be the sun that fades away
Don't leave me darkness, she is no lover
She hides the day
You don't know how easy it is
You don't know how easy it is to love you

You say you want to try again
Wear it down between the lines
Well I have a better end in mind
It doesn't seem you really have to close your eyes to see
Though I know you don't mean to be
You are so far from me

There was something I had caught inside
Screaming hard to make it known
In time it died alone
It doesn't seem you really have to close your eyes to see
You have been all you'll be to me
It's just too late; and we can't relate at all

It doesn't seem you really have to close your eyes to see
Though I know you don't mean to be
You are so far from me

This time's the last time I want to say so long
This song's my last song for you
There's nothing here to hold on to
Nothing to hold on to

It's three AM in the combat zone
Gentlemen, start your engines
You can close this bar, but baby I ain't going (note 1)
Gentlemen, start your engines
If you lock up the whiskey, give me gasoline
I got a seven grand redline on the black machine
The dead can do my sleeping, if you know what I mean
Gentlemen, start your engines

Got a little girl here in a pinafore (note 2)
Gentlemen, start your engines
She's gonna do us all and then beg for morev Gentlemen, start your engines
It's dark outside, but it's darker within
Check the back of my jacket just to see my grin
They don't write poems about the state that I'm in
Gentlemen, start your engines

One of these days I'm gonna pull myself together
Soon as I finish tearing myself apart
Let me tell you, honey, there's some mighty stormy weather (note 3)
Rolling round the caverns of my heart (note 4)

When the police come you better let them in
Gentlemen, start your engines
Don't forget to tell them what a sport I've been
Gentlemen, start your engines
I got a head full of vintage TNT
They're gonna blow me up instead of burying me
If you don't like trouble, better leave me be (note 5)
Gentlemen, start your engines

Ge-ge-ge-gentlemen, start your engines (note 6)
Ge-ge-ge-gentlemen, start
Ge-ge-ge-gentlemen, start
Ge-ge-ge-gentlemen, start your engines

Like the Devil's Mustangs I've been ridden hell for leather
Put away wet and angry in the dark (note 7)
Let me tell you honey, there's some mighty stormy weather
Rolling round the caverns of my heart

Well I was drinking last night with a biker
And I showed him a picture of you
I said "pal, get to know her, you'll like her"
Seemed like the least I could do

'Cause when he's charging his chopper
Up and down your carpeted halls
You will think me by contrast quite proper
Never mind how I stumble and fall
Never mind how I stumble and fall

You imagine sipping champagne from your boot (note 1)
For a taste of your elegant pride
I may be going to hell in a bucket
But at least I'm enjoying the ride
At least I'm enjoying the ride
Yeah at least I'm enjoying the ride

Ahh miss sweetie little soft-core pretender
Somehow baby got hard as it gets
With her black leather chrome spiked suspenders
And her chair and her whip and her pets

Well we know you're the reincarnation
Of the ravenous Catherine the Great
And we know how you love your ovations
And the Z-rated scenes you create
And the Z-rated scenes you create

You analyse me, attempt to despise me
And you laugh when I stumble and fall
There may come a day I will dance on your grave
If unable to dance I will crawl across it
Unable to dance I will crawl
Yeah, unable to dance I'll crawl

You must really consider the circus
'Cause it just might be your kind of zoo
I can't think of a place that's more perfect
For a person as perfect as you

And it's not like I'm leaving you lonely
'Cause I wouldn't know where to begin
But I know that you'll think of me only
When the snakes come marching in
When the snakes come marching in

Ride, ride, ride, ride
At least I'm enjoying the ride
Ride, ride, ride, ride
At least I'm enjoying the ride
Ride, ride, ride
At least I'm enjoying the ride

Little girl lost in a forest of dreams
It's a dark old wood, and it's damp with dew
Hoot owl hoots, for a moment it seems
Something big and cold got a hold of you
Just when everything gets scary
Daddy's coming round for his darling again
Hold my hand with your little fingers
Daddy's loving arms gonna gather you in

Ain't no way the Bogeyman can get you
You can close your eyes, the world is gonna let you
Your daddy's here and never will forget you
I will take you home
I will take you home
Gonna carry you back home in my arms
I will take you home

Long is the road we must travel on down
Short are the legs that will struggle behind
I wish I knew for sure just where we're bound
What we will be doing, and what we're gonna find
Wherever we go, there will be birds to cheer you
Flowers to color in the fields around
Wherever we go, I'll be right here near you
You can't get lost when you're always found

Ain't no fog that's thick enough to hide you
Your daddy's gonna be right here beside you
If your fears should start to get inside you
I will take you home
I will take you home
Gonna carry you back home in my arms
I will take you home

Well there ain't nobody safer than someone who doesn't care
And it isn't even lonely when no-one's ever there
I had a lot of dreams once, but some of them came true
The honey's sometimes bitter when fortune falls on you
So you know I've been a soldier in the armies of the night
And I'll find the fatal error in what's otherwise all right
But now you're trembling like a sparrow, I will try with all my might
To give you just a little sweetness
Just a little light

I have always heard that virtue ought to be its own reward
But it never comes so easy when you're living by the sword
It's even harder to be heartless when you look at me that way
You're as might as the flower that will grow the stones away
Even though I've been a stranger full of irony and spite
Holding little but contempt for all things beautiful and bright
Something shines around you and it seems, to my delight
To give me just a little sweetness
Just a little light

It could be just another highway coiled up in the night
You could be just another white-tail, baby, stranded on my brights
There's a tingling recognition like the sound of distant thunder
And I begin to wonder if the love I've driven under won't ignite

Have you ever wanted something
Wanted it so burning bad
That you'd lie, that you'd cheat
That you'd fight in the street
And chance to lose what little you had

Maybe you know how I'm feeling
Maybe you know how I feel
Maybe you know how I'm feeling
But maybe to you, it don't seem so real

Time is only wasted
On talking that is taking life
When it all comes down
You're really covering ground
I know I'll get more done tonight

I've been hearing for a long time
I still hear about some long-term plan
Well I ain't gettin' younger
Tired of wandering
I was promised a rock but I only see sand

Now you don't owe me nothing
So don't take it so personally
There's only one way
To make it today
And I'm doing all I can for me

Gonna see some good times
Gonna get to ring that bell
Gonna see some good times
Some times to make up for when I'm not feeling well
I must be due some great times
'Cause right now I feel like hell

Never trust a woman who wears her pants too tight
Never trust a woman who wears her pants too tight
She might love you tomorrow
But she'll be gone tomorrow night

Come tomorrow I get my pay and I'm gonna leave this town
Come tomorrow I get my pay and I'm gonna leave this [goddamn/motherfucking] town
'Cause she don't really love me
There ain't no reason to stick around

Gonna see some good times
Gonna get to ring that bell
Gonna see some good times
Some times to make up for when I'm not feeling well
Must be due some great times
'Cause right now I feel like hell

[ad lib]
But if they don't come
Well if they never come around
If they don't come to me
If they don't come to me tonight
If they don't come to me next week
If they don't come to me next year
What the hell

Only a fool could tell his friends
Of a war that just won't end
Only a fool would go so far
As you you have gone, my man

How my friends spoke so good of you
Makes me burn inside
Think of all you did to him
I don't care how far or fast you ride

I'm gonna break you down
That's all I'm gonna do
You're gonna wish the ground
Was six feet over you

To think you're wise, only goes to show
How wrong someone can be
Hey, king of lies, you ain't no mask
For the hell I got in me

I'm gonna break you down
That's what I'm gonna do
You're gonna wish the ground
Was six feet over you

Halfway past two on Monday through the silent loom
Rolling down Wild Hair Boulevard with the rising of the [poon]
Hot damn, it's Mother's Day, don't you all look fine
Promenading down the long car ocean, yes it's nice and sipping wine

We got poets, shuckers and godzilla's grandmother
Sweet little frozen no suit
We got Speed Racer and his arcade androids
Revolutionary Hamstrung Blues

See here lover, may I tighten your cap?
Honey, may I loosen your load?
You hold on to this hand grenade while I ...

I remember some chicks from the skid row
Come along the city streets too
Silly says, I say it once, for you it's cold steel and slow

Its sounds have all ruptured, with chairs and flying glass
Silly swept out in the sauna, shouting verse and kickin' ass
Back then, what seemed to happ

I know these rails we're on like I know my lady's smile
Re-see a dozen dreams in every passing mile
Can't begin to count the trips
That she and I have made
But I wish I had a dollar
For each time we both been down this grade

Nine hundred thousand tons of steel
Made to roll
Her brakes don't work and this grade's so steep
Her engine's sure to blow
Nine hundred thousand tons of steel
Out of control
She's more a roller-coaster than the train I used to know

It's one hell of an understatement to say she can get mean
She's temperamental, more a bitch than a machine
She wasn't built to travel at
The speed a rumour flies
These wheels are bound to jump the tracks
Before they burn the ties

Murphy's sure outdone himself to pick this stretch of track
I can only hope my luck is riding in the back
Well I have prayed to God
This ain't the day we meet
I've done about everything
But try dragging my feet

Oo, oo, I wanna go down slow
Oo, oo, oo, oo, oo
Nine hundred thousand tons of steel
Out of control
She's more a roller coaster than the train I used to know

We don't own this place though we act as if we did
It belongs to the children of our children's kids
The actual owners haven't even been born yet

But we never tend the garden and we rarely pay the rent
Most of it is broken and the rest of it is bent
Put it all on plastic and I wonder where we'll be when the bills hit

We can run but we can't hide from it
Of all possible worlds we only got one, we gotta ride on it
Whatever we've done we'll never get far from what we leave behind
Baby we can run, run, run but we can't hide

Well I'm dumping my trash in your back yard
Making certain you don't notice really isn't so hard
You're so busy with your guns and all of your excuses to use them

Well it's oil for the rich and babies for the poor
We've got everyone believing that more is more
If a reckoning comes maybe we'll know what to do then

All these complications seem to leave no choice
I heard the tongues of billions speak with just one voice
Saying just leave all the rest to me, I need it worse than you, you see
Then I heard the sound of one child crying

Today I went out walking in the amber wind
There's a hole in the sky where the light pours in
I remember the days when I wasn't afraid of the sunshine

But now it beats down on the ashphalt land
Like hammering blow from God's left hand
What little still grows
Cringes in the shade till the night-time