Big Medicine

Well, I come from a place

Third stone from a sun

You ain’t seen nothin’ so fine

But, a heap of big trouble

Has settled our way

Tell me my friend have you got any

Big medicine.

 

Well, I can’t help feeling

Just a little low down

What with all things on the run

And my lodge grows empty

Of the things I love

Tell me compadre have you got any

Big medicine.

 

Well, you’d think a long, long winter’s comin’ on

You’d be wise to keep the cynic on the run

Take account of your blessings and the things you’ve done

Look inside your soul, cull the medicine

Big medicine.

 

 

 

 

 

Silver Rain

The sun beats down on a broken plow

Otis cries for rain.

He hangs his head and wipes his brow

Gonna make it somehow

On this Oklahoma plain.

 

Rolling hills of wind-blown grass

Custer fought in vain.

Silence came and held a mass

It helped their pain to pass.

 

Sha la la la la la, sha la oooh.

 

Take a walk out in the sun

Silver rain will come

Silver rain, silver rain.

 

 

Moonlight falls on the castle wall

The king is bathed in blue.

His soldiers line the courtyard walls,

And the red-clothed draped halls

Waiting for the morning dew.

 

 

Melody Maker

Come all you dreamers- come one and all

Leave your friends, your lovers behind.

Come all you players- you hustlers

Lay it all on the line.

 

Melody Maker bought a ride

Such a long, turbulent ride.

Some are bound for a glorious flight

Others bound upon a bitter slide.

 

I’m living here in L.A.

On a lone bottle of faith

Just a little out of my reach

Always somewhere over the rainbow.

 

 

Ooh, Ballad Blue carved a tune

Carved it out of bone with stone.

As you light another cigarette for luck

Do you wonder what will come of your life?

 

I’m living here in L.A.

On a lone bottle of faith

Just a little out of my reach

Always somewhere over the rainbow.

 

 

Lady of Belen

Lovely lady of Belen

Sails her heart upon the wind

A well of love as deep as the sea

May it rain, rain upon me.

 

Don’t you know that you run through our hearts?

Don’t you know that you break our hearts?

Don’t you know that you make us feel so helpless?

Around the Sun

Around the sun just like before

Wave after wave after wave upon shore

Time goes by, we live and die

What will you leave me to remember you by.

 

Well, I believe that the human race

By and by will surely prevail

Mother Earth of wisdom and grace

I believe in the USA.

 

Out in the fields of time we sow

One more life to another row

One more soul, one more echo

One more run around the sun.

 

 

Stand by the river and watch it go by

Memories drift before your eyes

Along the banks your feelings they sigh

What will you leave me to remember you by.

 

Out in the fields of time we sow

One more life to another row

One more soul, one more echo

One more run around the sun.

 

 

Nomadic Soul

Lone candlelight

Flickers across my wall

Moonlight

Waiting to welcome the sun

Doesn’t want her to feel alone

Doesn’t want her to feel alone.

 

Good people of old

Out in your autumn fields

Nomadic soul

Wearing your buffalo robe

When the winter wind blows where will you go?

When the winter wind blows where will you go?

 

Old Roman wall

Your eyes have seen

Many soldiers fall

And the battle cries

Echo across the land for evermore

Echo across the land for evermore.

 

 

 

American River

An American life on the wall

Blessed life shine your life upon us all

For I know it all might someday fall.

 

We all float down the great American River

In these little fragile boats we built together.

Seems this life we all lead rocks on forever.

 

Baby, baby, baby row me down the river

Baby, baby row me down the American River

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby.

 

 

Across the sky rolls the great ball of fire

In her wake fights our brave naked rider

For the things in this land of desire.

 

We all float down the great American River

In these little fragile boats we built together.

Seems this life we all lead rocks on forever

And the Alamo cries remember.

 

Baby, baby, baby row me down the river

Baby, baby row me down the American River.

Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby.

Ballad of an Old Man

Hello, world again

How long have we been friends?

I bide my golden days

In the same sort of ways

I like to watch the sun rise

Through the morning sky

And catch the sunset

Into the west

From my porch step.

 

In these waning years of my life

I reflect upon the past

I feel happy and I feel sad

I’m an old man.

 

Hello, world again

Soon another day will end

I’ve been rich and poor

And I’ve survived the wars

Now, I think of my old friends

And places that I’ve been

That get washed away with time

It all seems so unkind

A cool summer breeze

Blowing through the trees

To my porch seat.

 

When the time comes for me to die

I’m gonna look back down that road

On the place I’ve called home

I’ll meet my maker

And thank him for that ride

Gonna thank him for that ride.

I’m an old man.

 

 

The Pilgrimage

Rolling west on road 160

Goodbye Durango

Now, it don’t seem so long ago

When I was a younger cowboy

Dressed in hopes and dreams

And lore of old, I rode

Down the mountain road.

 

You and me, we rode like wind

Free and easy

Lone highways and campfires

Through the canyons and the fields

Down arroyos, over mesas-

Out along the wayward stream

Along the wayward stream.

 

South of Marathon, Texas

The moon began to rise

Framed in darkness it crawled

Above the Santiago Range

And I can still remember

The feeling of the high

Oooh, that feeling.

 

Just across the Rio Grande

Lay Boquillas del Carmen

Shining in that mystical sun

Oh, another golden morning

Trailing dust behind my boots,

I strode her lone dirt rode

By a holy river.

 

Beautiful woman you soothed

Oh, you eased my aching heart

I’m just happy to be here

And share with you this earth.

How I long and pray

That I’ll pass this way again

By this holy river.

 

 

Teal Eye

Well, I’ve been thinking about my own life-

I wish I’d been a trapper

Headin’ out of the Wind River Pass

For that next rendezvous

Where the tall grass bends

Where that sweetwater runs

And the Blackfoot woman that I love-

Me and you in a tipi.

 

Hiyiyiyiyiyiyi

 

Teal Eye, would you have been my woman?

Teal Eye, would I have been the man for you?

 

Well, I’ve been thinking about my own life-

I wish I’d been a trapper.