There was a time when I didn't talkI'd look away or I'd shrug it offTune it out or turn it offOr say something short and softOut of school, I took a J O BMaking buttons in a factoryThinking what has life got in for meAnd I didn't wanna knowIn a city full of double dealsMy boss would yawnAnd roll back on his heelsAs if anyone could cop a feelOf lady luckI was made with my brother BillDrinking Moskie MoonsOn top of Laurel HillFunny now I'd cheek a poison pillTo sober upAnd no two bit claim that I'm alrightIs gonna turn it around and make it rightSo I'm reaching in my pocket for a lightAnd I'm standing on the cornerOn a Saturday nightI've seen pigeons flap their filthy wingsTo a freezing sunset in the westRain shit down from their haunted perchAbove the bells of St. Someone's churchThe sexton drinks and dreams in bedOne eye in a line of lightStartled by a ghost he screamsHis dead wife's name into the nightWhich echoes down a cobbled hallBounces off a gray stone floorFired down a line of stairsWhere it's silenced by a doorBeyond which I am leaning, leaningWatching cars and dreamingAs steam rose 'round my bodyLike my soul up to the starsI guess the devil's had his way with the townNow that Willie is in the groundAnd I guess the devil made me thisWhen he gave me knowing I can't resistI got the bill todayWrote back, I moved awayThey called me up to sayThey know that I'm still hereOn the fifth day of the fifth monthAt five o'clock in the dawnI rolled myself in a T O PAnd jumped out on Highway OneWith a 400 engine hot as a cremation coffinAnd a tailgate banging like an airplane wingI was rolling down the highway, doing it my wayWhistling someday and singing this song
