Lyrics
- 01
Just the other day I said
I’d rather kiss the dead
Than sit and watch the time go
Then I was just paralyzed
Now I am hypnotized
Just like a charging rhino
Now I’m back with you
Now I’m back with you
Now that I have been reborn
I’m trading in my horns
For an electric halo
That’ll keep me energized
And keep away the flies
That want to spoil my dayglow
Now I’m back with you
Now I’m back with you
Now I’m back with you
Now I’m back with you
Now I do declare myself
A man of perfect health
You’ve got a fruit in season
Oh, but what am I to do
If all this isn’t true
If you had just been teasing
Once I was the Pumpkin Man
You know I had a wife
But I just couldn’t keep her
Now I’ve got a second chance
And if I dig a hole
… It’s gonna be much deeper.
Now I’m back with you
Now I’m back with you
Now I’m back with you
Now I’m back with you
La, la, la, la, la
- 02
Chain link fences kept your senses focused on the drill
Tourists cheered and locals called your name
Marty picked their pockets as you showed off all your skills
Then you split the profits from your game
Took the magic show down to Farrell's Bar
Mesmerized the girls – you were a playground star
Keep on spinning – spin that ball
You offered up a clown show so they pegged you for a fool
First you lost your game and then your head
Now you're on the sidelines but you can't go back to school
Wowing kids with parlor tricks instead
Even you believe that the rim's too high
Wearing polyester suits and your old man's tie
Keep on spinning -- spin that ball
Hating on Marty
Blaming Big Jack
The one brought you down
The one held you back
Running from Jenny
Swimming in Scotch
You aren't wasting time
If you don't check your watch
Till the whistle blows and the hammer drops
Just keep speeding by all the traffic cops
Keep on spinning -- spin that ball
If you want the shot, you've got to know it's all on you
Fashion your own wizard's cap and gown
Stop expecting justice when you're living in a zoo
If you want to be the mayor, better buy the town
Keep on spinning, (keep on spinning)
Keep on spinning, (keep on spinning)
Keep on spinning, (keep on spinning)
Keep on spinning, (keep on spinning)
Keep on spinning, (keep on spinning)
Keep on spinning old friend
Keep on spinning, spin that ball
- 03
Got a need to reveal-
A confessional fetish
Think I’ve lost my appeal
I’m not feeling too mannish
When I speak words of love
It’s like bad high school Spanish
How can I keep it real
When my girlfriends all vanish?
If I’m desperate I shoot for the low-hanging fruit
But I’m always prepared for the point of the boot
Just last night I was working this hag down the hall
She said, “Dude you’ve got balls,
But I don’t do booty calls.”
Cynthia- come to me
Cynthia- come to me
Soon I will be fast asleep
Let’s meet somewhere in Italy
Cynthia- come to me
Cynthia- come to me
We’ll make love out on the beach
Let’s write ourselves a history
Well, I love how you smile
I love how you kiss and
I love when we talk you just sit there and listen
You must know by now I’m a man on a mission
I raced home from work, hurried up in the kitchen
A joint and some wine- that’ll settle down my mind
If I’m anxious remind me there’s no one half as kind
Didn’t look in my book
‘Cause I knew what I would find-
Girls who whine, girls who cry
Girls who lie, lie, lie, lie
Cynthia- come to me
Cynthia- come to me
Soon I will be fast asleep
Let’s meet somewhere in Italy
Cynthia- come to me
Cynthia- come to me
We’ll make love out on the beach
Let’s write ourselves a history
And I’ll be splendid in your eye
A Brazilian butterfly
We’ll be naked you and I
You might be bored but you won’t sigh
Just sit tight and mystify
And I’ll be splendid in your eye
A Brazilian butterfly
We’ll be naked you and I
You might be bored but you won’t sigh
Goodnight cruel world
Ah, hell- Goodbye
Cynthia- come to me (Cynthia- come to me)
Cynthia- come to me (Cynthia- come to me)
Cynthia- come to me (Cynthia- come to me)
Cynthia- come to me
Cynthia- come to me
Cynthia- come to me
We can make love all night long
Or at least until I’ve gotta pee.
- 04
A toothless cur
All piss and vinegar
Just ask around
I’m not the nicest fella in this town
But I think Lucy’s gonna change me
All of the goodwill I’ve been saving
Goes to my girl next door
She raises me
I could not see
What I had next to me
She’d known it all
Witnessed the rise, the struggle, and the fall
But I think Lucy’s gonna change me
All of the goodwill I’ve been saving
Goes to my girl next door
She raises me
I’m getting slammed by the hands of a wicked clock
Till I want to drop
What’s an old boy to do if he’s gotta rock
Maybe oughta stop
But Lucy has a masterplan
A blueprint for a better man
Now when I hiss
She kills the devil with a healthy kiss
I try to bite
I can’t break skin
If I’m within her sight
So I think Lucy’s gonna change me
All of the goodwill I have been saving
Goes to my girl next door
She raises me
- 05
I thought we both knew what we had here
A safe house-- an outpost off the pier
Where the dead catch some life in a room without sighs
Where the walls are indifferent, the bed without ties
After four years of hell I just needed some ice
Don’t think I caught you in the moment
If you were weak you didn’t show it
Well, we logged in some time as we locked up our thighs
And we looked in the mirrors that passed for our eyes
It was air for the drowning not love on the rise
You knew where I stood
When things aren’t good
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
I need a remedy now
My mind’s been derailed—won’t you help reconnect it?
I need a remedy now
My spirit’s immune but my body’s addicted
Get past the thinking and the chatter
Desire’s the only thing that matters
When your footing’s unstable you reach for a brace
When your lungs are disabled you find them some space
When my heart has been tabled I pick up the pace
You know where I am
Please come if you can
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
We all need a remedy
- 06
Smile girl, smile
Smile that ragged smile
Smile baby, smile
It could carry us awhile
I’ll be burning up come daylight
So let’s go cheap and let’s go dirty
Baby, I’m not watertight
Let’s just close those junky eyes
Swing those hips
Swing those bony hips
There’s no breaking through this grip
I won’t crack those bony hips
Time is running sloppy tonight
And we’ve got greasy appetites
You look ravishing at night
Before the sun cuts junky eyes
Smile girl, smile
Smile that ragged smile
Smile baby, smile
It could carry us awhile
I’ll be burning up come daylight
So, let’s go cheap and let’s go dirty
Baby, I’m not watertight
Let’s just close those junky eyes
Two decades drifting
Too long since I last slept
My boat’s been shanghaied
And I’m wading in on junky eyes
Wading in on junky eyes
- 07
Picture me dead
Hard on the table
Head in her soup
Dead in my leather
Pink hat and feather
Picture the skin my bones were too soon to lose
It’s a cold day in Greenwood
It’s a cold day in Greenwood
It’s even colder in here
Rose from the tile floor
Lungs in an uproar
Heart on the loose
No place for soul food with all that bad juice
A chemistry lesson in long-term abuse became…
A cold day in Greenwood
It’s a cold day in Greenwood
It’s even colder in here
Up there got a kid sister
“Hey Tina!”
She’s so old I could be her son—
Could she picture me dead?
Picture me dead
Down the gray hillside
Crows are in free glide
Winter leaves fall—
I am the king of it all
Bones changing color
Framed in my booth
The sewer system leaks and I am flooded with truth
Well, it’s a cold day in Greenwood
It’s a cold day in Greenwood
It’s a cold day in Greenwood
It’s a cold day in Greenwood
It’s a cold day in Greenwood (Ho! Ho! Ho!)
It’s a cold day in Greenwood
And you know it’s even colder
And you know it’s even colder
And you know it’s even colder in here!
- 08
The driver never saw me as I slipped onto the bus
Your partner’s on his way now—I’ve chipped off all the rust
The freeze is stuck on Buffalo, but spring is here for us
We’ll meet up in Sedalia at the citadel of meth
My cousin is the king there, but he never saw Macbeth
We’ll hit ‘em hard and leave ‘em scarred and catch our killers’ breath
It’s March baby, I’m in like a Lion
It’s March baby, I’m in like a Lion
We’ll head on down to Morristown where I’ll round up my old crew
I’ll lead ‘em on a treasure hunt, like Pizarro in Peru
You always say you’re new to this, but you know just what to do
It’s March baby, I’m in like a Lion
It’s March baby, I’m in like a Lion
Wood shack and a field of poison wheat
Fuel islands—where the truckers you would beat
The time’s come for boosting up the heat
Well, it all ends in Seattle
Where we’ll leave the boys behind
The cops might hear a rattle, but the bones they’ll never find
Hey, every scene you’ve made with me was always in your mind
The problem with this poem of ours is that you and I are linked
So, I found this muddy river
From which you now must drink
How can you look so pale my love
When I’m so in the pink?
It’s March baby, I’m in like a Lion
It’s March baby, I’m in like a Lion
It’s March baby, I’m in like a Lion
It’s March baby…
- 09
Met her in a classroom
At my alma mater true-
A lecture on the works of Albert Camus
Didn’t read a thing
I was merely auditing
Earned my last credits back in ’72
You see, there I was
Dancin’ in her dorm room to a heavy buzz
Reaching for my vial of Viagra ‘cause
I can’t subdue my passion but my blood flow does
Well, there’s no fool
Like an old fool
I’m here for trouble- can you tell me the rules?
I like old stuff
And I’m old school
But I’m still stuck on what the babies can do
Started on the Bo-flex
Looking for some new pecs
I found arthritis and a tubful of Percs
Went for Botox
Till I had to detox
The doctors gave me a perennial smirk
You see, there I am
Helping her to study for a big exam
The book was called “America in Vietnam”
We reached the year that I became Canadian
And there’s no fool
Like an old fool
I’m here for trouble- can you tell me the rules?
I like old stuff
And I’m old school
But I’m still stuck on what the babies can do
In a sweater on the grass
In the fresh New England fall
In my arms, my dream- at last!
Then my baby starts to bawl
She said “Man, it’s really sad-
But I keep thinking ‘bout my dad….”
Now she’s got a new bud
Says he likes to drink blood
Charmed her with a black rose
Posing in her pantyhose
Guess I’ve reached my autumn years
It’s becoming oh so clear, I fear
I’ve seen the last of those fine bottles of wine
Give me one more chance-
Before they toss my old ass in an ambulance
Somehow, I am going to find a new romance-
I must relearn “The Hustle” for the seniors’ dance
And there’s no fool
Like an old fool
I never knew that I could be so uncool
I’m an old hound
And I still drool
Too late to send me to obedience school
And there’s no fool
Like an old fool
I’m here for trouble- can you tell me the rules?
I like old stuff
And I’m old school
But I’m still stuck on what the babies can do
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la
- 10
You’ve had a twitch since you were three
It goes to spazzin’ when the school bell rings
A bully steals your sneakers, girls shoot spitballs in your face
Sister Irma whacks your knuckles ‘cause you’re lined up out of place
And you ask yourself, well is there life beyond TV?
The days are getting longer grass is greening
Spring is in the air and you need cleaning
The days are getting longer grass is greening
Spring is in the air and you need cleaning
The playground’s rockin’ out it starts you dreaming
Become your life-sized poster of Tom Seaver
Become your life-sized poster of Tom Seaver
You built a shrine to the New York Mets
Troubling your mind are the fortunes of the New York Mets
All your energy is flowing through his mighty, mighty arm
They can cancel spring and summer if it somehow comes to harm
And you ask yourself-
Well, is there life beyond the fortunes of the New York Mets?
The days are getting longer grass is greening (Howl)
Spring is in the air and you need cleaning (Howl)
The days are getting longer grass is greening
Spring is in the air and you need cleaning
The playground’s rockin’ out it starts you dreaming
Become your life-sized poster of Tom Seaver
Become your life-sized poster of Tom Seaver
- 11
Jennifer’s heaven for Jenny I’d stay
Skin shining white as a dove
Lying beside her I melted away
Into her river of love
I’m lost in a maze
Counting the ways that she smiles
Time is slipping away
Lost in the arms of her love
So gentle and…
Jennifer’s something you handle with care
Fragile as crystals of glass
Jennifer’s lips are as soft as the air
Kissing her here in the grass
I’m lost in a maze
Counting the ways that she smiles
Time is slipping away
Lost in the arms of her love
So gentle and wild
I’m lost in a maze
Counting the ways that she smiles
Time is slipping away
Lost in the arms of her love
So gentle and…
Jennifer’s heaven, for Jenny I’d stay
Skin shining white as a dove
Lying beside her I melted away
Into her river of love
Into her river of love
Into her river of love
- 12
The house I built and bled for
Has been overrun by dogs with hopeful eyes
It’s left to me to cure this plague
And heaven’s gonna hear their hopeless cries
I left a poison trail behind
Those hounds of yours are sure to find
I’ll crawl and crawl and crawl
But I’ll be back
I’m focused on your targets of affection
There’s no ducking my harpoon
The storehouse with the goods that they
Have plundered and defiled will be their tomb
‘Cause off the coast I found a lee
Your sentinels will never see
I’ll crawl and crawl and crawl
But I’ll be back
I’ve counted off the days and nights
No wall that I have faced has gone unmarked
And every moment spent with you—
A prisoner and madman in the dark
You thought that time would weaken me
It broke my heart but not my knees
I’ll crawl and crawl and crawl
But I’ll be back
I’ll be back
I’ll be back
I’ll be back
I’ll be back








