Joan Baez Album

It's another happy April
To every happy fool.
And you move through my dreams
Like a trout moves through a pool.
Sure I will do anything,
But I blush at the reverie.
Sleeper come and go with me.

And she always was a painter
And she left me her suitcase,
And I still remember
The soft lines of her drunken face,
As she stood there in my doorway,
Like a cat up in a tree.
Sleeper come and go with me.

A small farm in Wisconsin
For a driftless man,
Supper on the table,
And a lover's tender hands,
Though she leaves my salt and woodsmoke,
For a job in the city.
Sleeper come and go with me.

I will take you with my children,
Through the clover, to the creek,
When Orion's gone a hunting
Through the fields our wishes seek,
Where we all can love each other
Like sugar in our tea.
Sleeper come and go with me.

Well the last wild fling is over
And a cold wind brings the dawn,
To rows of parking meters
And the shadow of a blond,
Who is standing by the wild rye
In a pointless dream.
Sleeper come and go with me.

It's another happy April
To every happy fool.
And you move through my dreams
Like a trout moves through a pool.
Sure I will do anything,
But I blush at the reverie.
Sleeper come and go with me.

Will you comfort me in my time of need?
Can you take away the pain of a hurtful deed?
'Cause when we need it most, there's no rain at all
And dust just settles right there on the feed

Will you say to me a little rain's gonna come?
When the sky can't offer none to me
I will come for you when my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me

'Cause when the calm comes down
I'll take the truck on into town
And buy whatever we can't seem to grow
I work these hands till they bleed
'Cause I got mouths to feed
I got fifteen dollars hid above the stove

Will you say to me a little rain's gonna come?
When the sky can't offer none to me
And I will come for you when my days are through
I'll let your smile just off and carry me

'Cause it ain't like it was on back in those days
When everyone would offer up their hand
These old bones are worn, I've grown tiresome
And I know my time is surely gonna come

Will you comfort me in my time of need?
Can you take away the pain and hurtful deeds?
I will come for you when my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me

Lord, we married young and stayed where we came from
And gave those children everything we had
Will you stay with me in my time of need?
It seems we had such little time for us

Will you say to me a little rain's gonna come?
When the sky can't offer none to me
And I will come for you when my days are through
And I'll let your smile just off and carry me

[No lyrics]

Caleb Meyer, he lived alone
In them hollarin' pines
Then he made a little whiskey for himself
Said it helped pass the time

Long one evening in back of my house,
Caleb come around
And he called my name 'til I went out
With no one else around

Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
Wear them rattlin' chains.
But when I go to sleep at night,
Don't you call my name

Where's your husband, Nellie Kane
Where's your darlin gone?
Did he go down off the mountain side
And leave you all alone?

Yes, my husband's gone to Bowlin' Green
To do some business there.
Then Caleb threw that bottle down
And grabbed me by my hair.

Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
Wear them rattlin' chains.
But when I go to sleep at night,
Don't you call my name

He threw me in the needle bed,
Across my dress he lay
Then he pinned my hands above my head
And I commenced to pray.

I cried My God, I am your child
Send your angels down
Then feelin' with my fingertips,
The bottle neck I found

I drew that glass across his neck
As fine as any blade,
And I felt his blood pour fast and hot
Around me where I laid.

Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
Wear them rattlin' chains.
But when I go to sleep at night,
Don't you call my name

Caleb Meyer, your ghost is gonna
Wear them rattlin' chains.
But when I go to sleep at night,
Don't you call my name

Where in the hell can you go far from the things that you know
Far from the sprawl of concrete that keeps crawling its way about 1,000 miles a day?
Take one last look behind, commit this to memory and mind.
Don't miss this wasteland, this terrible place.
When you leave keep your heart off your sleeve.

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep.
Keep me safe, lie with me, stay beside me don't go.
Don't you go.
Oh, my five & dime queen tell me what have you seen?
The lust and the avarice, the bottomless, cavernous greed, is that what you see?

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep.
Keep me safe, lie with me, stay beside me don't go.

It's your happiness I want most of all and for that I'd do anything at all, oh mercy me!
If you want the best of it or the most of all, if there's anything I can do at all.

Now come on shot gun bride what makes me envy your life?
Faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless and free, what's that like to be?

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep.
Keep me safe, lie with me, stay beside me don't go.
Don't go.

At night we crossed the border
Following a Black robe
To the edge of the reservationton
Cataldo Mission
Where the saints and all the martyrs
Look down on dying converts
What makes the water holy she says is that that it's the closest thing to rain

I stole a mule from Anthony
I helped Anne up upon it
And we rode to Coeur d'Alene
Through Harrison and Wallace
They were blasting out the tunnels
Making way for the light of learning
When Jesus comes a'calling she said he's coming round the mountain on a train

It's my home-last night I dreamt that I grew wings
I found a place where they could hear me when I sing

We floated on to Hanford
On a lumber boat up river
Past the fisheries and the milltowns like a stretch of future graveyards
She was driven to distraction
Said I wonder what will happen
When they find out they're mistaken
The land is too changed to ever change

We waded through the marketplace
Someone's ship had come in
There was silver and begonias
Dynamite and cattle
There were hearts as big as apples
And apples in the shape of Mary's heart
I said inside this gilded cage a songbird always looks so plain

It's my home-last night I dreamt that I grew wings
I found a place where they could hear me when I sing.


And so they came with cameras
Breaking through the morning mist
Press and businessmen-tycoons-Episcopal philanthropists
Lost in their appraisal of the body of a woman
But all we saw were lowlands
Clouds clung to mountains without strings

And at last we saw some people...
And at last we saw some people...

And at last we saw some people
Huddled up against
The rain that was descending like railroad spikes and hammers
They were headed for the border
Walking and then running
And then they were gone into the fog but Anne said
Underneath their jackets she saw wings

Coldest night of the winter
working up my farewell
In the middle of everything
under no particular spell

Dreaming of the mountains
where the children learn the stars
Clouds roll in from Nebraska
dark chords on a big guitar

My restlessness is long gone
standing like an old jack pine
I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
She's a friend of a friend of mine

Can't believe your hands and mouth
did all that to me
And they are so daily naked
for all the world to see

That thunderstorm in Michigan
I never will forget
We shook right with the thunder
& with the pounding rain got wet

Where did you turn when you turned from me
with your arms across your chest
Ya,I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
saw her in the great northwest

Would she have said it was the wrong time
if I had found her then
I don't ask very much
a field across the road and a few good friends

She used to come & see me
she was always there & gone
Even the very longest love
do'nt last very long

She'd stood there in my doorway
smoothing out her dress
saying 'life is a thump-ripe melon-
-so sweet and such a mess'

(I wanted to get to know you
but you said you were shy
I would have followed you anywhere
but hello rolled into goodbye

I just stood there watching
as you walked along the fence
Beware of them that look at you
as an experience

You're back out on the highway
with your poems of city heat
I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
here on my own side street)


Well,The murderer who lived next door
seemed such a normal guy--
You try to swallow what they shove at us
you run out of tears to cry

I heard a man speak quietly
I listened for a while
He spoke from his heart to my woe
& then he bowed & smiled

What is real but compassion
as we move from birth to death
Ya,I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
& I'm running out of breath

Spring will come back I know it will
& it'll do its best
so useful, so endangered
like a lion or a breast

I think about my children
when I look at any child's face
pray that we will find a way
to get with all this amazing grace

It's so cold out there tonight
stormy I can hardly see
I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
& I guess I always will be.

I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
Just a country boy that combed his hair
And put on a shirt his mother made and went on the air
And he shook it like a chorus girl
And he shook it like a Harlem queen
He shook it like a midnight rebel, baby
Like you never seen

I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
How he took it all out of black and white
Grabbed his wand in the other hand and he held on tight
And he shook it like a hurricane
He shook it like to make it break
And he shook it like a holy roller, baby
With his soul at stake

I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
He was all alone in a long decline
Thinking how happy John Henry was that he fell down and died
When he shook it and he rang like silver
He shook it and he shine like gold
He shook it and he beat that steam drill, baby
Well bless my soul

He shook it and he beat that steam drill, baby
Well bless my soul, what's wrong with me?

I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
I was thinking that night about Elvis
Day that he died, day that he died
Just a country boy that combed his hair
Put on a shirt his mother made and he went on the air
And he shook it like a chorus girl
He shook it like a Harlem queen
He shook it like a midnight rebel, baby
Like he never seen

I might just change my mind
Sometimes you can never tell
Where a story will unwind
How deep is the shallow ground

Sometimes you would never guess
Who's all talk and who just might
Find a way or lose themselves
On the king's highway tonight

I am just like many more
Who lie in bed, still and numb
Waking up and I can see
Just how dark it has become

Who knows no better angels now
Who knows none but earthly light
Who is waiting for a stranger
On the king's highway tonight

It wasn't how I had it planned
When it finally came around
I took a man with my own hands
But I held him close when he went down

He hadn't time to be afraid
His look was only of surprise
Staring up from where he lay
On the king's highway tonight

I took the little that he had
Only as an afterthought
He wouldn't have to feel so bad
To think I killed him just because

He was passing through this town
Only 'cause he looked about right
He stopped when I flagged him down
On the king's highway tonight

I might just change my mind
Sometimes you can never tell

It's Christmastime in Washington
The Democrats rehearsed
Gettin' into gear for four more years
Things not gettin' worse
The Republicans drink whiskey neat
And thanked their lucky stars
They said, 'He cannot seek another term
They'll be no more FDRs'
I sat home in Tennessee
Staring at the screen
With an uneasy feeling in my chest
And I'm wonderin' what it means

So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

I followed in your footsteps once
Back in my travelin' days
Somewhere I failed to find your trail
Now I'm stumblin' through the haze
But there's killers on the highway now
And a man can't get around
So I sold my soul for wheels that roll
Now I'm stuck here in this town

So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

There's foxes in the hen house
Cows out in the corn
The unions have been busted
Their proud red banners torn
To listen to the radio
You'd think that all was well
But you and me and Cisco know
It's going straight to hell

So come back, Emma Goldman
Rise up, old Joe Hill
The barracades are goin' up
They cannot break our will
Come back to us, Malcolm X
And Martin Luther King
We're marching into Selma
As the bells of freedom ring

So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now