Townes Van Zandt Album

Ain't much I ain't tried
Fast livin' slow suicide
Then a-runnin' in a place to hide
Just looking for you

My friends they all agree
Ain't many a fool like me
I just tell them wait and see
Go looking for you

Looking low and looking high
Looking far and looking wide
Try to tell myself that I'm fine
But it just ain't true
It just ain't true
I'm still looking for you
Still looking for you

From the shadow of the darkest pine
To the edge of the sweet sunshine
I keep looking till they make you mine
Looking for you

When the curtain tumbles down
I'll be somewhere hanging round
With my heart laid on the ground
Just looking for you

Looking low and looking high
Looking far and looking wide
Try to tell myself that I tried
But it just ain't true
It just won't do
I'm still looking for you
Still looking for you

I wish I was in Austin
In the Chili Parlour Bar
Drinkin' Mad Dog Margaritas
And not carin' where you are

But here I sit in Dublin
Just rollin' cigarettes
Holdin' back and chokin' back
The shakes with every breath

Chorus

Forgive me all my anger
Forgive me all my faults
There's no need to forgive me
For thinkin' what I thought
I loved you from the git go
I'll love you till I die
I loved you on the Spanish steps
The day you said goodbye

I am just a poor boy
Work's my middle name
If money was a reason
I would not be the same

I'll stand up and be counted
I'll face up to the truth
I'll walk away from trouble
But I can't walk away from you

I have been to Fort Worth
I have been to Spain
I have been to proud
To come in out of the rain

I have seen the David
I've seen the Mona Lisa too
I have heard Doc Watson
Play Columbus Stockade Blues

I'm a rollin stone all alone and lost
For a life of sin I have paid the cost
When I pass by all the people say
Just another guy on the lost highway

Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine
And a womans lies makes a life like mine
Oh the day we met, I went astray
I started rolling down that lost highway

I was just a lad, nearly 22
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I'm lost, too late to pray
Lord I take a cost, oh the lost highway

Now boys don't start to ramblin' round
On this road of sin are you sorrow bound
Take my advice or you'll curse the day
You started rollin' down that lost highway

Dreams that have flown down the hall
Tears that were sown on despair
Summer's turned Fall
It don't matter at all
When I wake and find you lying there
Sweet silence and soft auburn hair

Blues gonna dance through the sky
Time's gonna roll soft as rain
Sigh after sigh is gonna pass by and by
When I gaze into your brown eyes again
Ah love is gonna fly on the wind

All the things I've seen
And the places that I've been
Don't mean a thing since I found you
All that matters now
Since I've won your love somehow
Are these plans that I keep makin'
Not to lose you

Sleep Babe 'till the moon slips away
I'm hopin' all you're dreamin' comes true
When you rise with the day
I might not have too much to say
But you know that doesn't mean
That I don't love you
Ah you know that doesn't mean
That I don't love you

All the things I've seen
And the places that I've been
Don't mean a thing since I found you
All that matters now
Since I've won your love somehow
Are these plans that I keep makin'
Not to lose you

Dreams that have flown down the hall
Screams that were sown on despair
Summer's turned Fall
It don't matter at all
When I wake and find you lying there
Sweet silence and soft auburn hair
Sweet silence and soft auburn hair

The old woman finally caught me
Sneakin' 'round her cave
Her hair looked just like barbwire, boys
And her smile just like the grave
She asked me could I stay awhile
I said I'd better go
She slid her arm around my neck
And sweetly whispered no

It's cold and dark and lonely here
As soon enough you'll see
I'm oh so glad you stumbled in
I've been cravin' company
I cannot stay too long you know
I left some friends at home
Don't you fret about your friends
Down here we're all alone

What about my mother
I can't just leave her there to mourn
You don't have to think about her
Just forget you were ever born
I'll disappoint my father
You know he worked so hard for me
If you have to pay your father back
Just send him some misery

I'll miss, I said, a girl I know
I can't just leave her there to pine
She's still got plenty of men to go
I'm sure she'll do just fine
What about my little boy
She said, he's just like you
Let a few short years roll by
He'll end up down here too

Then her pale green eyes began to glow
She placed her hand on mine
She smiled and said don't worry
You'll get used to me in time
As her cold tongue flickered toward my throat
I spun myself around
Made a dive for the passageway

But the walls come crashing down
Now her eyes were the only light
My fevered brain could see
But I tore myself away from them
And fell down to my knees
I've come too far, I can't get back
I beseeched the gods of men
Fame and fortune just laughed at me
Then silence once again

I whisper deep within
Embrace the God of love
I lifted my face and through the tears
I saw light fall from above

I hurled myself into the wall
I ripped and clawed my way
Through the stinkin', clingin' loam
Back to the light of day
I crawled out into the wind again
The sky upon my face
I heard the earth sigh patiently
As it slid back into place

Now I'm back among the ones I love
I'm loved by them in turn
And it's only on the darkest night
That green eyed memory burns
So walk my friends, in the light of day
Don't go sneakin' 'round no holes
There just might be something down there
Wants to gobble up your soul

My days, they are the highway kind
They only come to leave
But the leavin' I don't mind
It's the comin' that I crave.
Pour the sun upon the ground
Stand to throw a shadow
Watch it grow into a night
And fill the spinnin' sky.

Time among the pine trees
It felt like breath of air
Usually I just walk these streets
And tell myself to care.
Sometimes I believe me
And sometimes I don't hear.
Sometimes the shape I'm in
Won't let me go.

Well, I don't know too much for true
But my heart knows how to pound
My legs know how to love someone
My voice knows how to sound.
Shame that it's not enough
Shame that it is a shame.
Follow the circle down
Where would you be?

You're the only one I want now
I never heard your name.
Let's hope we meet some day
If we don't it's all the same.
I'll meet the ones between us,
And be thinkin' 'bout you
And all the places I have seen
And why you where not there

I was ridin' number nine
Headin' south from Caroline
I heard that lonesome whistle blow
Got in trouble had to roam
Left my gal and left my home
I heard that lonesome whistle blow

Just a kid actin' smart
I went and broke my darlin's heart
I guess I was too young to know
They took me off the Georgia Main
Locked me to a ball and chain
I heard that lonesome whistle blow

All alone I bear the shame
I'm a number not a name
I heard that lonesome whistle blow
All I do is sit and cry
When the ev'nin' train goes by
I heard that lonesome whistle blow

I'll be locked here in this cell
Til my body's just a shell
And my hair turns whiter than snow
I'll never see that gal of mine
Lord, I'm in Georgia doin' time
I heard that lonesome whistle blow

Now this man down at the used car lot
Tried to sell me four wheels and a trunk.
I said, "man, there is no engine!",
He said, "the engine's just a bunch of junk.
You don't need no engine to go downhill
And I could plainly see, that that's the direction
You're headed in", and he handed me the keyes.

(I said) no deal; you can't sell this stuff to me
No deal, I'm going back to tennesee

Well, I went to a doctor of the highest order,
He said I couldn't have a drink for a year.
One glass of wine on my birthday
If my birthday wasn't too very near.
Lord, he must have put me in a state of shock
'cause I made it for about two weeks;
Then he sent me a bill
That knocked me flat off the wagon
And back down on my feet.

When true love knocked upon my door
She'd just barely turned fifteen
And I was a little bit nervous
If you know just what I mean.
But I've heard somewhere
That true love conquers all
And I figured that was that
Then I started having dreams 'bout
Being chased out of town
Wearing nothing but my cowboy hat.

Well, I come through this life a stumbler, my friends
I expect to die that way
It could be twenty years from now
It could be most any day.
But if there is no whiskey and women, lord,
Behind them heavenly doors
I'm gonna take my chances down below,
And of that you can be sure

I gotta guitar all my own
I gotta quarter for the telephone
I ain't headed down this highway all alone
One two three and maybe four
Honey they're knockin' on my door
I know you're gonna miss me when I'm gone

Got no daddy but I got a ma
Think she lives in Arkansas
Maybe I'll go see her some old day
It ain't like she'd really care
It ain't like she'd pay no fare
But I might just blow on through there anyway

Headed down to Alabam
Cause some trouble if I can
Aw buddy would you like to come along
It's a place I never been
And you know I could use a friend
They say they'll give us twenty bucks a song

I gotta guitar all my own
I gotta quarter for the telephone
I ain't headed down this highway all alone
One two three and maybe four
Honey they're knockin' on my door
I know I'm gonna miss you when I'm gone

Where the walker runs down to the Carson Valley Plain
There lived a maiden, Darcy Farrow was her name
The daughter of old Dundee and a fair one was she
The sweetest flower that bloomed oer the range

Her voice was as sweet as the sugar candy
Her touch was as soft as a bed of goose down
Her eyes shone bright like the pretty lights
That shone in the night out of Yerrington town

She was courted by Young Vandamere
A fine lad was he as I am to hear
He gave her silver rings and lacy things
And she promised to wed before the snows came that year

But her pony did stumble and she did fall
Her dyin touched the hearts of us one and all
Young Vandy in his pain put a bullet through his brain
And we buried them together as the snows began to fall

They sing of Darcy Farrow where the Truckee runs through
They sing of her beauty in Virginia City too
At dusky sundown to her name they drink a round
And to young Vandy whose love was true

By townes van zandt

My home is Colorado
With her proud mountains tall
Where the rivers, like gypsys
Down her black canyons fall
But I'm a long, long way from Denver
With a long way to go
So lend an ear to my singing
Cause I'll be back no more

Well I left as a young man
Not full seventeen
With nothin' for company
But the wind and a dream
'bout all the fast ladies
And livin' I'd find
When I left my proud mountains
And rivers behind

So I rolled and a-rambled
Like a leaf in the wind
Well, I found my fast ladies
And some hard livin' men
Well, I sometimes went hungry
With my pockets all bare
Lord, I sometimes had good luck
With money to spare

Well I made me some friends, lord,
That I won't soon forget
Well some are down under
And some are rambling yet
But as for me
Well I'm headed for home
Back to high Colorado
Never more for to roam

So friends, when my time comes
As surely it will
You just carry my body
Out to some lonesome hill
And lay me down easy
Where the cool rivers run
With only my mountains
'tween me and the sun

Yeah my home is Colorado

Last night I was out driving
Coming home at the end of the working day
I was riding alone through the drizzling rain
On a deserted stretch of a county two-lane
When I came upon a wreck on the highway

There was blood and glass all over
And there was nobody there but me
As the rain tumbled down hard and cold
I seen a young man lying by the side of the road
He cried Mister, won't you help me please

An ambulance finally came and took him to Riverside
I watched as they drove him away
And I thought of a girlfriend or a young wife
And a state trooper knocking in the middle of the night
To say your baby died in a wreck on the highway

Sometimes I sit up in the darkness
And I watch my baby as she sleeps
Then I climb in bed and I hold her tight
I just lay there awake in the middle of the night
Thinking 'bout the wreck on the highway

By townes van zandt
Proofread and authorized by jeanene van zandt

I used to wake and run with the moon
I lived like a rake and a young man
I covered my lovers with flowers and wounds
My laughter the devil would frighten
The sun she would come and beat me back down
But every cruel day had it's nightfall
I'd welcome the stars with wine and guitars
Full of fire and forgetful

My body was sharp the dark air clean
And outrage my joyful companion
Whisperin' women how sweet did they seem
Kneelin' for me to command them
And time was like water but I was the sea
I'd have never noticed it passin'
Except for the turnin' of night into day


And the turnin' of day into cursin'

You look at me now, and don't think I don't know
What all your eyes are a sayin'
Does he want us to believe these ravings and lies
They're just tricks that his brains been a playin'?
A lover of women he can't hardly stand
He trembles he's bent and he's broken
I've fallen it's true but I say unto you
Hold your tongues until after I've spoken

I was takin' my pride in the pleasures I'd known
I laughed and thought I'd be forgiven
But my laughter turned 'round eyes blazing and
Said my friend, we're holdin' a wedding
I buried my face but it spoke once again
The night to the day we're a bindin'
And now the dark air is like fire on my skin
And even the moonlight is blinding

Ira Hayes,
Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Gather round me people there's a story I would tell
About a brave young Indian you should remember well
From the land of the Pima Indian, a proud and noble band
Who farmed the Phoenix valley in Arizona land

Down the ditches for a thousand years
The water grew Ira's peoples' crops
'Till the white man stole the water rights
And the sparklin' water stopped

Now Ira's folks were hungry
And their land grew crops of weeds
When war came, Ira volunteered
And forgot the white man's greed

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

There they battled up Iwo Jima's hill,
Two hundred and fifty men
But only twenty-seven lived
to walk back down again

And when the fight was over
And when Old Glory raised
Among the men who held it high
Was the Indian, Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Ira returned a hero
Celebrated through the land
He was wined and speeched and honored
Everybody shook his hand

But he was just a Pima Indian
No water, no crops, no chance
At home nobody cared what Ira'd done
And when did the Indians dance

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Then Ira started drinkin' hard
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
like you'd throw a dog a bone

He died drunk one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes

CHORUS:
Call him drunken Ira Hayes
He won't answer anymore
Not the whiskey drinkin' Indian
Nor the Marine that went to war

Yeah, call him drunken Ira Hayes
But his land is just as dry
And his ghost is lyin' thirsty
In the ditch where Ira died