Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Heatwaves on the runway
As the wheels set down
He takes his baggage off the carousel
He takes a taxi into town
Yellow schools of taxi fishes
Jonah in a ticking whale
Caught up at the light in the fishnet windows
Of Bloomingdale's
Watching those high fashion girls
Skinny black models with Raveen curls
Beauty parlor blondes with credit card eyes
Looking for the chic and the fancy
To buy

He opens up his suitcase
In the continental suite
And people twenty stories down
Colored currents in the street
A helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof
Like a dragonfly on a tomb
And business men in button downs
Press into conference rooms
Battalions of paper-minded males
Talking commodities and sales
While at home their paper wives
And paper kids
Paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid

Yellow checkers for the kitchen
Climbing ivy for the bath
She is lost in House and Gardens
He's caught up in Chief of Staff
He drifts off into the memory
Of the way she looked in school
With her body oiled and shining
At the public swimming pool ...

The more I'm with you, pretty baby
The more I feel my love increase
I'm building all my dreams around you
Our happiness will never cease
'Cause nothing's any good without you
Baby you're my centerpiece

We'll find a house and garden somewhere
Along a country road a piece
A little cottage on the outskirts
Where we can really find release
'Cause nothing's any good without you
Baby you're my centerpiece

...Shining hair and shining skin
Shining as she reeled him in
To tell him like she did today
Just what he could do with Harry's House
And Harry's take home pay

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Out on some borderline
Some mark of inbetween
I lay down golden-in time
And woke up vanishing

Sweet bird you are
Briefer than a falling star
All these vain promises on beauty jars
Somewhere with your wings on time
You must be laughing
Behind our eyes
Calendars of our lives
Circled with compromise
Sweet bird of time and change
You must be laughing
Up on your feathers laughing

Golden in time
Cities under the sand
Power, ideals and beauty
Fading in everyone's hand

Give me some time
I feel like I'm losing mine
Out here on this horizon line
With the earth spinning
And the sky forever rushing
No one knows
They can never get that close
Guesses at most
Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching
Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching
Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : The Hissing Of Summer Lawns

Every picture has its shadows
And it has some source of light
Blindness, blindness and sight
The perils of benefactors
The blessings of parasites
Blindness, blindness and sight
Threatened by all things
Devil of cruelty
Drawn to all things
Devil of delight
Mythical devil of the ever-present laws
Governing blindness, blindness and sight

Suntans in reservation dining rooms
Pale miners in their lantern rays
Night, night and day
Hostage smile on presidents
Freedom scribbled in the subway
It's like night, night and day
Threatened by all things
God of cruelty
Drawn to all things
God of delight
Mythical god of the everlasting laws
Governing day, day and night

Critics of all expression
Judges in black and white
Saying it's wrong, saying it's right
Compelled by prescribed standards
Or some ideals we fight
For wrong, wrong and right
Threatened by all things
Man of cruelty-mark of Cain
Drawn to all things
Man of delight-born again, born again
Man of the laws, the ever-broken laws
Governing wrong, wrong and right
Governing wrong, wrong and right
Wrong and right

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

No regrets Coyote
We just come from such different sets of circumstance
I'm up all night in the studios
And you're up early on your ranch
You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail
While the sun is ascending
And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel
There's no comprehending
Just how close to the bone & the skin & the eyes
And the lips you can get
And still feel so alone
And still feel related
Like stations in some relay
You're not a hit and run driver
No no
Racing away

You just picked up a hitcher
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway

We saw a farmhouse burning down
In the middle of nowhere
In the middle of the night
And we rolled right past that tragedy
Till we turned into some road house lights
Where a local band was playing
Locals were up kicking and shaking on the floor
And the next thing I know
That coyote's at my door
He pins me in a corner and he won't take no
He drags me out on the dance floor
And we're dancing close and slow
Now he's got a woman at home
He's got another woman down the hall
He seems to want me anyway
Why'd you have to get so drunk
And lead me on that way

You just picked up a hitcher
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway

I looked a coyote right in the face
On the road to Baljennie near my old home town
He went running through the whisker wheat
Chasing some prize down
And a hawk was playing with him
Coyote he's jumping straight up & making passes
He had those same eyes just like yours
Under your dark glasses
Privately probing the public rooms
And peeking through keyholes in numbered doors
Where the players lick their wounds
And take their temporary lovers
Their pills & powders to get them through this passion play
I'll have no regrets Coyote
I just get off up aways

You just picked up a hitcher
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway

Coyote's in the coffee shop
He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs
He picks up my scent on his fingers
While he's watching the waitresses' legs
He's too far from the Bay of Fundy
From appaloosas and eagles and tides
And the air conditioned cubicles
And the carbon ribbon rides
I'm spelling it out so clear
Either he's going to have to stand & fight
Or take off out of here
I tried to run away myself
To run away and wrestle with my ego
And with this flame
He put here in this Eskimo
In this hitcher
In this prisoner
Of the fine white lines
Of the white lines on the free free way

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar
Amelia it was just a false alarm

The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild & blue
It scrambles time & seasons if it gets through to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture post card charms
Oh Amelia it was just a false alarm

People'll tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you'll never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Oh Amelia it was just a false alarm

I wish that he was here tonight
It's so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm

Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams Amelia
Dreams & false alarms

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

Old Beale Street is coming down
Sweeties' Snack Bar, boarded up now
And Egles The Tailor and the Shine Boy's gone
Faded out with ragtime blues
Handy's cast in bronze
And he's standing in a little park
With a trumpet in his hand
Like he's listening back to the good old bands
And the click of high heeled shoes
Old Furry sings the blues
Propped up in his bed
With his dentures and his leg removed
And Ginny's there
For her kindness and Furry's beer
She's the old man's angel overseer

Pawn shops glitter like gold tooth caps
In the grey decay
They chew the last few dollars off
Old Beale Street's carcass
Carrion and mercy
Blue and silver sparkling drums
Cheap guitars, eye shades and guns
Aimed at the hot blood of being no one
Down and out in Memphis Tennessee
Old Furry sings the blues
You bring him smoke and drink and he'll play for you
It's mostly muttering now and sideshow spiel
But there was one song he played
I could really feel

There's a double bill murder at the New Daisy
The old girl's silent across the street
She's silent - waiting for the wrecker's beat
Silent - staring ar her stolen name
Diamond boys and satin dolls
Bourbon laughter- ghosts - history falls
To parking lots and shopping malls
As they tear down old Beale Street
Old Furry sings the blues
He points a bony finger at you and
"I don't like you"
Everybody laughs as if it's the old man's standard joke
But it's true
We're only welcome for our drink and smoke

W.C. Handy I'm rich and I'm fay
And I'm not familiar with what you played
But I get such strong impressions of your hey day
Looking up and down old Beale Street
Ghosts of the darktown society
Come right out of the bricks at me
Like it's a Saturday night
They're in their finery
Dancing it up and making deals
Furry sings the blues
Why should I expect that old guy to give it to me true
Fallen to hard luck
And time and other thieves
While our limo is shining on his shanty street
Old Furry sings the blues

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

A strange boy is weaving
A course of grace and havoc
On a yellow skateboard
Thru midday sidewalk traffic
Just when I think he's foolish and childish
And I want him to be manly
I catch my fool and my child
Needing love and understanding

What a strange, strange boy
He still lives with his family
Even the war and the navy
couldn't bring him to maturity

He keeps referring back to school days
And clinging to his child
Fidgeting and bullied
His crazy wisdom holding onto something wild
He asked me to be patient
Well I failed
"Grow up!" I cried
And as, the smoke was clearing he said
"Give me one good reason why!"

What a strange, strange boy
He sees the cars as sets of waves
Sequences of mass and space
He sees the damage in my face

We got high on travel
And we got drunk on alcohol
And on love the strongest poison and medicine of all
See how that feeling comes and goes
Like the pull of moon on tides
Now I am surf rising
Now parched ribs of sand at his side

What a strange, strange boy
I gave him clothes and jewelry
I gave him my warm body
I gave him power over me

A thousand glass eyes were staring
In a cellar full of antique dolls
I found an old piano
And sweet chords rose up in waxed New England halls
While the boarders were snoring
Under crisp white sheets of curfew
We were newly lovers then
We were fire in the stiff-blue-haired-house-rules

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

I'm travelling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
There's comfort in melancholy
When there's no need to explain
It's just as natural as the weather
In this moody sky today
In our possessive coupling
So much could not be expressed
So now I'm returning to myself
These things that you and I suppressed
I see something of myself in everyone
Just at this moment of the world
As snow gathers like bolts of lace
Waltzing on a ballroom girl

You know it never has been easy
Whether you do or you do not resign
Whether you travel the breadth of extremities
Or stick to some straighter line
Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock
They're either going to thaw out or freeze
Listen...
Strains of Benny Goodman
Coming through the snow and the pinewood trees
I'm porous with travel fever
But you know I'm so glad to be on my own
Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger
Can set up trembling in my bones
I know - no one's going to show me everything
We all come and go unknown
Each so deep and superficial
Between the forceps and the stone

Well I looked at the granite markers
Those tribute to finality - to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for my immortality
In the church they light the candles
And the wax rolls down like tears
There's the hope and the hopelessness
I've witnessed thirty years
We're only particles of change I know, I know
Orbiting around the sun
But how can I have that point of view
When I'm always bound and tied to someone
White flags of winter chimneys
Waving truce against the moon
In the mirrors of a modern bank
From the window of a hotel room

I'm travelling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
Until love sucks me back that way

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

I went to Staten Island.
To buy myself a mandolin
And I saw the long white dress of love
On a storefront mannequin
Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars...
All for something lacy
Some girl's going to see that dress
And crave that day like crazy

Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada
They can balance and they can climb
Like their fathers before them
They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline
Shine your light on me Miss Liberty
Because as soon as this ferry boat docks
I'm headed to the church
To play Bingo
Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks

I can keep my cool at poker
But I'm a fool when love's at stake
Because I can't conceal emotion
What I'm feeling's always written on my face
There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street
I went in to see her as a kind of joke
And she lit a candle for my love luck
And eighteen bucks went up in smoke

Sharon, I left my man
At a North Dakota junction
And I came out to the "Big Apple" here
To face the dream's malfunction
Love's a repetitious danger
You'd think I'd be accustomed to
Well, I do accept the changes
At least better than I used to do

A woman I knew just drowned herself
The well was deep and muddy
She was just shaking off futility
Or punishing somebody
My friends were calling up all day yesterday
All emotions and abstractions
It seems we all live so close to that line
And so far from satisfaction

Dora says, "Have children!"
Mama and Betsy say-"Find yourself a charity."
Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology."
Well, there's a wide wide world of noble causes
And lovely landscapes to discover
But all I really want right now
Is...find another lover

When we were kids in Maidstone, Sharon
I went to every wedding in that little town
To see the tears and the kisses
And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown
And walking home on the railroad tracks
Or swinging on the playground swing
Love stimulated my illusions
More than anything

And when I went skating after Golden Reggie
You know it was white lace I was chasing
Chasing dreams
Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans
He showed me first you get the kisses
And then you get the tears
But the ceremony of the bells and lace
Still veils this reckless fool here

Now there are 29 skaters on Wolmann rink
Circling in singles and in pairs
In this vigorous anonymity
A blank face at the window stares and stares and stares and stares
And the power of reason
And the flowers of deep feeling
Seem to serve me
Only to deceive me

Sharon you've got a husband
And a family and a farm
I've got the apple of temptation
And a diamond snake around my arm
But you still have your music
And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky
You sing for your friends and your family
I'll walk green pastures by and by

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

There's a crow flying
Black & ragged
Tree to tree
He's black as the highway that's leading me
Now he's diving down
To pick up on something shiny
I feel like that black crow
Flying
In a blue sky

I took the ferry to the highway
Then I drove to a pontoon plane
I took a plane to a taxi
And a taxi to a train
I've been traveling so long
How'm I ever gonna know my home
When I see it again
I'm like a black crow flying
In a blue blue sky

In search of love & music
My whole life has been
Illumination
Corruption
And diving diving diving diving
Diving down to pick up on every shiny thing
Just like that black crow flying
In a blue sky

I looked at the morning
After being up all night
I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light
I looked out the window
And I I saw that ragged soul take flight
I saw a back crow flying
In a blue sky

Oh I'm like a black crow flying
In a blue sky

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

I've got a blue motel room
With a blue bedspread
I've got the blues inside and outside my head
Will you still love me
When I call you up when I'm down
Here in Savannah it's pouring rain
Palm trees in the porch light like slick black cellophane
Will you still love me
When I call you up when I get back to town
I know that you've got all those pretty girls coming on
Hanging on your boom-boom-pachyderm
Will you tell those girls that you've got German Measles
Honey, tell them you've got germs
I hope you'll be thinking of me
Because I'll be thinking of you
While I'm traveling home alone
Tell those girls that you've got Joni
She's coming back home

I've got road maps
From two dozen states
I've got coast to coast just to contemplate
Will you still love me
When I get back to town
It's funny how these old feelings hang around
You think they're gone
No, no
They just go underground
Will you still love me
When I get back to L.A. town
You and me, we're like America and Russia
We're always keeping score
We're always balancing the power
And that can get to be a cold cold war
We're going to have to hold ourselves a peace talk
In some neutral cafe
You lay down your sneaking round the town, honey
And I'll lay down the highway

I've got a blue motel room
With a blue bedspread
I've got the blues inside and outside my head
Will you still love me
When I get back to town

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Hejira

I met a friend of spirit
He drank and womanized
And I sat before his sanity
I was holding back from crying
He saw my complications
And he mirrored me back simplified
And we laughed how our perfection
Would always be denied
"Heart and humor and humility"
He said "Will lighten up your heavy load"
I left him for the refuge of the roads

I fell in with some drifters
Cast upon a beachtown
Winn Dixie cold cuts and highway hand me downs
And I wound up fixing dinner
For them and Boston Jim
I well up with affection
Thinking back down the roads to then
The nets were overflowing
In the Gulf of Mexico
They were overflowing in the refuge of the roads

There was spring along the ditches
There were good times in the cities
Oh, radiant happiness
It was all so light and easy
Till I started analyzing
And I brought on my old ways
A thunderhead of judgment was
Gathering in my gaze
And it made most people nervous
They just didn't want to know
What I was seeing in the refuge of the roads

I pulled off into a forest
Crickets clicking in the ferns
Like a wheel of fortune
I heard my fate turn, turn turn
And I went running down a white sand road
I was running like a white-assed deer
Running to lose the blues
To the innocence in here
These are the clouds of Michelangelo
Muscular with gods and sungold
Shine on your witness in the refuge of the roads

In a highway service station
Over the month of June
Was a photograph of the earth
Taken coming back from the moon
And you couldn't see a city
On that marbled bowling ball
Or a forest or a highway
Or me here least of all
You couldn't see these cold water restrooms
Or this baggage overload
Westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

A red sun came rolling down a grey sky
And the frogs and dogs and night birds then
Started up singing sweet country lullaby
You see that patch of city lights-
Somewhere in there's Cotton Avenue-
That's where I'm going to take myself tonight
With a spit shine on my dancing shoes
If you got a place like that to go
You just have to go there
If you got no place special
Well then, you just go no place special
I guess it's just the summer in the young blood
Ripe and juicy in the young blood
Teasing to go down to ...
Cotton Avenue
To hear the shiny shiny music
See all the shiny people dancing to it
Anytime you go to ...
Cotton Avenue
If you got a place like that to go
You know you got to go there
If you got no place special
Well then, you just go no place special
You see that summer storm brewing in the southern sky
By the time it hits here I'll be dancing high and dry
To rhythm and blues
On Cotton Avenue
Poor boys'll be hanging around outside in the street
They got all the latest words
They're dancing to the latest beat
While they're hustling and sizing you
On Cotton Avenue
If you got a place like that to go
You just have to go there
If you've got no place special
Well my dear
You just so no place ... special

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

There was a moon and a street lamp
I didn't know I drank such a lot
'Till I pissed a tequila-anaconda
The full length of the parking lot!
Oh, I talk too loose
Again I talk too open and free
I pay a high price for my open talking
Like you do for your silent mystery

Come and talk to me
Please talk to me
Talk to me, talk to me
Mr. Mystery

We could talk about Martha
We could talk about landscapes
I'm not above gossip
But I'll sit on a secret where honor is at stake!
Or we could talk about power
About Jesus and Hitler and Howard Hughes
Or Charlie Chaplin's movies
Or Bergman's nordic blues
Please just talk to me
Any old theme you choose
Just come and talk to me
Mr. Mystery, talk to me

You could talk like a fool-I'd listen
You could talk like a sage
Anyway the best of my mind
All goes down on the strings and the page
That mind picks up all these pictures
It still gets my feet up to dance
Even though it's covered with keyloids
From the "slings and arrows of outrageous romance"
I stole that from Willy the Shake!
You know--"Neither a borrower nor a lender be"
Romeo, Romeo talk to me!

Is your silence that golden?
Are you comfortable in it?
Is it the key to your freedom
Or is it the bars on your prison?
Are you gagged by your ribbons?
Are you really exclusive or just miserly?
You spend every sentence as if it was marked currency!
Come and spend some on me--
Shut me up and talk to me!
I'm always talking!
Chicken squawking!
Please talk to me

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

I'll try to keep myself open up to you
That's a promise that I made to love
When it was new
"Just like Jericho" I said
"Let these wall come tumbling down"
I said it like I finally found the way
To keep the good feelings alive
I said it like it was something to strive for.

I'll try to keep myself open up to you
And approve your self expression
I need that, too
I need your confidence, baby
And the gift of your extra time
In turn I'll give you mine
Sweet darling, it's a rich exchange
It seems to me
It's a warm arrangement!

Anyone will tell you
Just how hard it is to make and keep a friend
Maybe they'll short sell you
Or maybe it's you
Judas, in the end
When you just can no longer pretend
That you're getting what you need
Or you're giving out anything for them to grow and feed on.

I'll try to keep myself open up to you
It gets easier and easier to do
Just like Jericho
Let these walls come tumbling down now
Let them fall right on the ground
Let all these dogs go running free
The wild and the gentle dogs
Kenneled in me.

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

It fell from midnight skies
It drummed on the galvanized
In the washroom, women tracked the rain
Up to the make-up mirror
Liquid soap and grass
And Jungle Gardenia crash
On Pine-Sol and beer ...
It's stifling in here ...
I've got to get some air ...
I'm going outside to get some air

Back in my hometown
They would have cleared the floor
Just to watch the rain come down!
They're such sky oriented people--
Geared to changing weather ...
I'm floating off in time
I'm floating off
I'm floating off in time

When I was three feet tall
And wide eyed open to it all
With their tasseled teams they came
To McGee's General Store
All in their beaded leathers
I would tie on colored feathers
And I'd beat the drum like war ...
I would beat the drum like war
I'd beat the drum
I'd beat the drum like war

But when the church got through
They traded their beads for bottles
Smashed--on Railway Avenue
And they cut off their braids
And lost some link with nature
I'm floating into dreams
I'm floating off
I'm floating into my dreams

I dream paprika plains
Vast and bleak and God forsaken
Paprika plains
And a turquoise river snaking

(Where crows gaze--vigilant on wires
Where cattle graze the grasses
Far from the digits of business hours
The moon clock wanes and waxes--
But here all time is stripped away
Nowhere on these plains
Is a sprout or an egg in evidence
To measure loss or gain ...
Only a little Indian band
Come down from some windy mesa
No women to make them food and child
No expressions on their faces
I'm low in a helicopter
And the wind from whirling blades
Flaps their woven blankets
And flags their raven braids
How came they to this emptiness?
How came they to this dream?
How came I to this view
From a flying machine
Of earth and air and water
And a band of Indian men
Without herds or flocks or crops
Or families or fires to tend?
Like a phoenix up from ashes now
A blanket figure springs
With a fist raised up to turquoise skies
Like liberty
And at the point of vanishing
Where the sky and the earth meet
A bomb blooms
Deadly mushroom
White
Gold
Heat
Like a phoenix up from ashes
Up from violent mysteries
And growing 'till the giant blast
Is to it like a golfer's tee
there comes a child's beach ball
And memory takes me back
to the beach to toss it up
to the garage to get it patched
A pink and yellow beach ball
Rolling
Grand
Detached
Turning the blues and greens of earth
From space probe photographs
I float out of the hovercraft
Naked as infancy
And weightless
And drifting
Horizontally
Like a filing to a magnet
Like the long descent of rain
I am drawn
I fall against the ball
And lose paprika plains
I suckle at my mother's breast
I embrace my mother earth
I remember perforated blinds
Over the crib of my birth
And just as Eve succumbed
To reckless curiosity
I take my sharpest fingernail
And slash the globe to see
Below me--
Vast Paprika plains
And the snake the river traces
And a little band of Indian men
With no expressions on their faces.)

The rain retreats
Like troops to fall on other fields and streets
Meanwhile they're sweet talking and name calling
And brawling on the fringes of the floor
I spot you through the smoke
With your eyes on fire
From J&B and coke
As I'm coming through the door
I'm coming back
I'm coming back for more!
The band plugs in again
You see that mirrored ball begin to sputter lights
And spin
Dizzy on the dancers
Geared to changing rhythms
No matter what you do
I'm floating back
I'm floating back to you!

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

Marlena under Foster Grants
She's undercover from the dawns advance
That girl is travel-drained
And the neon mercury vapor stained
Miami sky
It's red as meat
It's a cheap pink rose
Otis in the driver's seat
Watches the street lights fade away
On louvered blocks in green sea air
In fluorescent fossil yards
Slippers are shuffling into folding chairs
Freckled hands are shuffling cards

They've come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington ...

Otis empties out the trunk
On the steps of that celebrated dump
Sleazing by the sea
Bow down to her royal travesty--
In her ballrooms heads of state--
In her bedrooms rented girls--
Always the grand parades of cellulite
Jiggling to her golden pools
Through flock and cupid colonnades
They jiggle into surgery
Hopefully beneath the blade
They dream of golden beauty ...

They've come for fun and sun
While Muslims stick up Washington ...

Marlena, white as stretcher sheet
Watches it all from her 10th floor balcony
Like it's her opera box
All those Pagliacci summer frocks
Otis is fiddling with the TV dial
All he gets are cartoons and reruns
She taps her glass with an emery file
Watching three rings in the sun
The golden dive, the fatted flake
And sizzle in the mink oil
It's all a dream
She has awake
Checked into Miami Royal
Where they've come for fun and sun
While Muslims hold up Washington ...
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on
Dream on

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

Baila mi rumba
Bátela, goza y mira mamá
Baila, mira mamá
Bátela, goza, mira eh
Rumbando bello es que yo voy
Bailala bailala bailala
Bailala baila baila
Eh eh mamá
??
Baila baila my rumbo ?
Ele eh ele eh
Bailala bailala baila
Din din baragadín dan dan
Baila baila baila baila
Venezolano en Nueva York
En California y en todos lados
Te la traigo
Para que vos...para que gozes gozes cosa buena
Gozes con todo el mundo
El africano y todo el mundo
Bailala
Bailala
Bailala
Bailala
Bailala
Gringos!
Izquierdo! Izquierdo! Vamos, oye!
[onomatopoeic sounds, interjections, sighs, whistling, bits of dialogue among the musicians that sound like instructions or encouragement to keep on playing and dancing]
Me voy
Me voy
Me voy
Me voy
Me voy
Me voy
Me voy
Me voy
[More chanting and onomatopoeia]

[TRANSLATION:]
Dance to my rumba
Beat it, enjoy, look mama
Dance, look mama
Beat it, enjoy, look
Dancing the rumba beautifully. That's how I go.
Hey hey mama
Dance to it, dance
Dance
Dance this way
Dance to it, dance
A Venezuelan in New York
In California and everywhere
I bring it to you
So that you will enjoy a good thing
Enjoy it with the rest of the world
With the African and the rest of the world
Dance to it
Gringos!
Left! Left!
I say, Come on!
I'm going now!

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

It's a long, long way from Canada
A long way from snow chains
Donkey vendors slicing coconut
No parkas to their name
Black babies covered in baking flour
The cook's got a carnival song
We're going to lay down someplace shady
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland

Walter Raleigh and Chris Columbus
Come marching out of the waves
And claim the beach and all concessions
In the name of the suntan slave
I wrapped that flag around me
Like a Dorothy Lamour sarong
And I lay down thinking national
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland

Goodtime Mary and a fortune hunter
All dressed up to follow the drums
Mary in a feather hula-hoop
Miss Fortune with a rose on her big game gun
All saints, all sinners shining
Heed those trumpets all night long
Propped up on a samba beat
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland

Tar baby and the Great White Wonder
Talking over a glass of rum
Burning on the inside
With the knowledge of things to come
There's gambling out on the terrace
And midnight ramblin' on the lawn
As they lead toward temptation
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland

In a plane flying back to winter
In shoes full of tropic sand
A lady in a foreign flag
On the arm of her Marlboro Man
The hawk howls in New York City
Six foot drifts on Myrtle's lawn
As they push the recline buttons down
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland

La, La ...
African sand on the trade winds
And the sun on the Amazon
As they push the reline buttons down
With dreamland coming on
Dreamland, dreamland
Dreamland, dreamland

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

I'm Don Juan's reckless daughter
I came out two days on your tail
Those two bald-headed days in November
Before the first snowflakes sail
Out on the vast and subtle plains of mystery
A split tongue spirit talks
Noble as a nickel chief
Striking up an old juke box
And he says:
"Snakes along the railroad tracks."
He says, "Eagles in jet trails ..."
He says, "Coils around feathers and talons on scales ...
Gravel under the belly plates ..."
He says, "Wind in the Wings ..."
He says, "Big bird dragging its tail in the dust ...
Snake kite flying on a string."

I come from open prairie
Given some wisdom and a lot of jive!
Last night the ghosts of my old ideas
Reran on channel five
And it howled so spooky for its eagle soul
I nearly broke down and cried
But the split tongue spirit laughed at me
He says, "Your serpent cannot be denied."
Our serpents love the whisky bars
They love the romance of the crime
But didn't I see a neon sign
Fester on your hotel blind
And a country road come off the wall
And swoop down at the crowd at the bar
And put me at the top of your danger list
Just for being so much like you are!

You're a coward against the altitude--
You're a coward against the flesh--
Coward--caught between yes and no
Reckless this time on the line for yes, yes, yes!
Reckless brazen in the play
Of your changing traffic lights
Coward--slinking down the hall
to another restless night
As we center behind the eight ball
As we rock between the sheets
As we siphon the colored language
Off the farms and the streets
Here in Good-Old-God-Save-America
the home of the brave and the free
We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards
Of some duality
Of restless multiplicity
(Oh say can you see)

Restless for streets and honky tonks
Restless for home and routine
Restless for country-safety-and her
Restless for the likes of reckless me
Restless sweeps like fire and rain
Over virgin wilderness
It prowls like hookers and thieves
Through bolt locked tenements
Behind my bolt locked door
The eagle and the serpent are at war in me
The serpent fighting for blind desire
The eagle for clarity
What strange prizes these battles bring
These hectic joys-these weary blues
Puffed up and strutting when I think I win
Down and shaken when I think I lose
There are rivets up here in this eagle
There are box cars down there on your snake
And we are twins of spirit
No matter which route home we take
Or what we forsake
We're going to come up to the eyes of clarity
And we'll go down to the beads of guile
There is danger and education
In living out such a reckless life style
I touched you on the central plains
It was plane to train my twin
It was just plane shadow to train shadow
But to me it was skin to skin
The spirit talks in spectrums
He talks to mother earth to father sky
Self indulgence to self denial
Man to woman
Scales to feathers
You and I
Eagles in the sky
You and I
Snakes in the grass
You and I
Crawl and fly
You and I

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

Maybe I'm just kidding myself when I say I love you
I don't know--
Loving without trusting
You get--frostbite and sunstroke
I wish I felt nothing!
You pimp--laughing and strutting her to my chartered seat
Your old off night back street

It's been stinger to stinger, darling
It's been heart to heart
You still keep me from finishing
Any new love I start
Now she's moved in with you
She's keeping your house neat
And your sheets sweet
And I'm your off night back street

I can feel your fingers
Feeling my face
There are some lines you put there
And some you erase
Maybe I'm just dramatizing
I don't care
It's home--it can be heaven
When we play fair
But these sentimental journeys
Late at night--
High in some back room you're calling me
To be your off night back street

You give me such pleasure
You bring me such pain
Who left her long black hair
In our bathtub drain?

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

I am a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through all these highs and lows
I heard there was no sickness
And no toil or danger
Just mercy and plenty
Where peaceful waters flow
Where peaceful waters flow

Come all you fair and tender school girls
Be careful now--when you court young men
They are like the stars
On a summer morning
They sparkle up the night
And they're gone again
Daybreak--gone again

If I'd only seen through the silky veils of ardor
What a killing crime this love can be
I would have locked up my heart
In a golden sheath of armor
And kept its crazy beating
Under strictest secrecy
High security

I wish I had the wings
Of Noah's pretty little white dove
So I could fly this raging river
To reach the one I love
But I have no wings
And the water is so wide
We'll have to row a little harder
It's just in dreams we fly
In my dreams we fly!

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

[Man:] "Ready?"
[Sue:] "Alright!"
[Chorus:] "Happy Birthday to Charles, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Charles..."
[Sue:] "Play that weird minor chord..."
[Chorus:] "Happy birthday to you..."
[Sue:] "Play that minor chord!"
[Charles & Chorus:] "How old are you, How old are you"
[Charles:] "Fifty-four, motherfucker"
[Chorus:] ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-
[Sue:] "Fifty-three"
[Charles Singing:] "How old are you?"
[Sue:] "Fifty-three Charles!"
[Charles:] "Fifty-four!"
[Sue:] "Fifty-three"
[Swede:] "How old are you now - tell me honestly..."
[Sue:] "Fifty-three! He was born in 1922"
[Swede:] "1922.."

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

He is three
One's in the middle unmoved
Waiting
To show what he sees
To the other two
To the one attacking--so afraid
And the one that keeps trying to love and trust
And getting himself betrayed
In the plan--oh
The divine plan
God must be a boogie man!

One's so sweet
So overly loving and gentle
He lets people in
To his innermost sacred temple
Blind faith to care
Blind rage to kill
Why'd he let them talk him down
To cheap work and cheap thrills
In the plan--oh
The insulting plan
God must be a boogie man!

Which would it be
Mingus one or two or three
Which one do you think he'd want the world to see
Well, world opinion's not a lot of help
When a man's only trying to find out
How to feel about himself!
In the plan-oh
The cock-eyed plan
God must be a boogie man!

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

"..led an enormous band."
[Swede:] "Oh, But I know he's very lucky too, because when Mingus dies there's gonna be the same funeral they had for Duke Ellington... in a big church and the whole country's going to say, wow, he was so far out, you know what I mean?"
[Charles:] "No man, no big church! I'm going to be buried man - I got my shit all figured out!"
[Swede:] "You're going to get a big funeral - you're famous!"
[Charles:] "Vedanta Society, India, I'm going to be buried in India!"
[Swede:] "I know, but you're going to get a big funeral in this country, and they'll play your music for two days"
[Charles:] "Who's going to do that?"
[Swede:] "It's far out isn't it, y'know what I mean?"
[Charles:] "...You want me to hurry up, man"
[Swede:] "No I don't want you to hurry up, but in the future, I know you're going to get a beautiful funeral - I can see it!"
[Charles:] "But I got it all planned, man!"
[Swede:] "...You're going to be here many more years."
[Charles:] "You know the Vedanta Society in India.. Yuga?"
[Swede:] "Yeah"
[Charles:] "Well I'm going to be buried by that church"
[Swede:] "Yeah?"
[Charles:] "So they gotta find another place to do it, that's all."
[Swede:] "...Plenty of time to go. You have another fifty years... you're lucky!"
[Charles:] "Uh, Duke lived to be 77 years old right?"
[Swede:] "Right!"
[Charles:] "I'm gonna cut him!"
[Swede:] "Coltrane was very strong, you know..."
[Charles:] "I'm gonna cut Duke!"

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

The rain slammed hard as bars
It caught me--by surprise
Mutts of the planet
And shook me down for alibis
I'm waiting
For the keeper to release me
Debating this sentence
Biding my time
In memories
Of old friends of mine ...
In daydreams of Birdland
I see my soul on fire
Burning up the bandstand
Next time
I'll be bigger!
I'll be better than ever!
I'll be happily attached
To my cold hard cash!
But now Manhattan holds me
To a chair in the sky
With the bird in my ears
And boats in my eyes
Going by

There are things I wish I'd done
Some friends I'm gonna miss
Beautiful lovers
I never got the chance to kiss...
Daydreamin' drugs the pain of living
Processions of missing
Lovers and friends
Fade in and they fade out again
In these daydreams of rebirth
I see myself in style
Raking in what I'm worth
Next time
I'll be bigger!
I'll be better than ever!
I'll be resurrected royal!
I'll be rich as Standard Oil!
But now--Manhattan holds me
To a chair in the sky
With the bird in my ears
And boats in my eyes
Going by

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

Of the darkness in men's minds
What can you say
That wasn't marked by history
Or the T.V. news today
He gets away with murder
The blizzards come and go
The stab and glare and buckshot
Of the heavy heavy snow
It comes and goes
It comes and goes

His grandpa loved an empire
His sister loved a thief
And lindsey loved the ways of darkness
Beyond belief
Girls in chilly blouses
The blizzards come and go
The stab and glare and buckshot
Of the heavy heavy snow
It comes and goes
It comes and goes

The cops don't seem to care
For derelicts or ladies of the night
They're weeds for yanking out of sight
If you're smart or rich or lucky
Maybe you'll beat the laws of man
But the inner laws of spirit
And the outer laws of nature
No man can
No--no man can

There lives a wolf in Lindsey
That raids and runs
Through the hills of Hollywood
And the downtown slums
He gets away with murder
The blizzards come and go
The stab and glare and buckshot
Of the heavy heavy snow
It comes and goes
It comes and goes

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

I's a muggin, boom bada yada
Bom ba doo boo, we boopa dooboop
I's a muggin'

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

I almost closed the door
Cancelled on everything we opened up for
Tonight the shadows had their say
Their sad notions of the way
Things really are
Damn these blues!
They'd turn my heart against you
Since I was fool enough
To find romance
I'm trying to convince myself
This is just a dance!

We move in measures
Through loves' changing faces
Needy and nonchalant
Greedy and gracious
Through petty dismissals
And grand embraces
Like it was only a dance!

We are survivors
Some get broken
Some get mended
Some can't surrender
They're too well defended
Some get lucky
Some are blessed
And some pretend
This is only a dance!

We're dancing fools
You and me
Tonight it's a dance of insecurity
It's my solo
While you're away
Shadows have the saddest thing to say

Love
We can't live without it
Why do we go out and get it
Just to turn around and doubt it
LIke we're scared to care
It's hard to talk about it
Aw--it's only a dance
Tonight the shadows had their say
There's a sucker born a day
I heard them say
Born to lose
Am I a sucker to love you?

You're such a sweet love
You're a proud man
You're a treasure
Time passes gracefully
Living can be such a pleasure
You make it easy to take it in measures
Like it was only a dance!

We're dancing fools
You and me
Tonight it's a dance of insecurity
It's my solo
Blue way
And shadows have the saddest things to say

We are survivors
Some get broken
Some get mended
Some can't surrender
They're too well defended
Some get lucky
Some are blessed
And some pretend
It's only a dance!

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

[Charles:]
I never hit too, too hard, uh, y'know.
All my life, uh y'know, just everything I touched, turned to gold.
I'm not, I'm not rich but, y'know, I've always had a few, some dollars in my pockets

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

I'm down to a roll of dimes
I'm stalking the slot that's hot
I keep hearing bells all around me
Jingling in the lucky jackpot
They keep you tantalized
They keep you reaching for your wallet
Here in fool's paradise

I talked to a cat from Des Moines
He said he ran a cleaning plant
That cat was clanking with coin
Well, he must have had a genie in a lamp
Cause every time
I dropped a dime I blew it
He kept ringing bells nothing to it..

He got three oranges, three lemons
Three cherries, three plums
I'm losing my taste for fruit
Watching the dry cleaner do it
Like Midas in a polyester suit
It's all luck, it's just luck
You get a little lucky and you make a little money

I followed him down the strip
He picked out a booth at Circus Circus
Where the cowgirls fill the room with their big balloons
The Cleaner was pitching with purpose.
He had Dinos and Pooh Bears
And lions, pink and blue there
He couldn't lose there

Des Moines was stacking the chips
Raking off the tables
Ringing the bandit's bells
This is a story that's a drag to tell
(In some ways)
Since I lost every dime
I laid on the line
But the cleaner from Des Moines
Could put a coin
In the door of a John
And get twenty for one
It's just luck

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

[Charles:] I was lucky, man. God blessed me, y'know? I was blessed by God.

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Mingus

When Charlie speaks of Lester
You know someone great has gone
The sweetest swinging music man
Had a Porkie Pig hat on
A bright star
In a dark age
When the bandstands had a thousand ways
Of refusing a black man admission
Black musician
In those days they put him in an
Underdog position
Cellars and chittlins'

When Lester took him a wife
Arm and arm went black and white
And some saw red
And drove them from their hotel bed
Love is never easy
It's short of the hope we have for happiness
Bright and sweet
Love is never easy street!
Now we are black and white
Embracing out in the lunatic New York night
It's very unlikely we'll be driven out of town
Or be hung in a tree
That's unlikely!

Tonight these crowds
Are happy and loud
Children are up dancing in the streets
In the sticky middle of the night
Summer serenade
Of taxi horns and fun arcades
Where right or wrong
Under neon
Every feeling goes on!
For you and me
The sidewalk is a history book
And a circus
Dangerous clowns
Balancing dreadful and wonderful perceptions
They have been handed
Day by day
Generations on down

We came up from the subway
On the music midnight makes
To Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone
In taxi horns and brakes
Now Charlie's down in Mexico
With the healers
So the sidewalk leads us with music
To two little dancers
Dancing outside a black bar
There's a sign up on the awning
It says "Pork Pie Hat Bar"
And there's black babies dancing...
Tonight!

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

Caught in the middle
Carol we're middle class
We're middle aged
We were wild in the old days
Birth of rock 'n' roll days
Now your kids are coming up straight
And my child's a stranger
I bore her
But I could not raise her
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long

Down at the Chinese Cafe
We'd be dreaming on our dimes
We'd be playing "Oh my love, my darling"
One more time

Uranium money
Is booming in the old home town now
It's putting up sleek concrete
Tearing the old landmarks down now
Paving over brave little parks
Ripping off Indian land again
How long how long
Short sighted business men
Ah nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long

Down at the Chinese Cafe
We'd be dreaming on our dimes
We'd be playing "You give your love, so sweetly"
One more time

Christmas is sparkling
Out on Carol's lawn
This girl of my childhood games
With kids nearly grown and gone
Grown so fast
Like the turn of a page
We look like our mothers did now
When we were those kids' age
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long
Nothing lasts for long
Down at the Chinese Cafe
We'd be dreaming on our dimes
We'd be playing
"Oh my love, my darling
I've hungered for your touch
A long lonely time
And time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love to me"
(Time goes - where does the time go
I wonder where the time goes)

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

He came
She smiled
She thought she had him tamed
But he was just as wild
Eating from her hand at last
Wild things run fast

In the dark
He could see
The trap that was lying in her
Sweet company
Eating from her hand at last
Wild things run fast

Winter beat the pines about
He heard the heater
Cutting in and out
While she dreamed away ...

In the night
It snowed
Fast tracks in the powder white
Leading out to the road
Winding from her tender grasp
Wild things run fast
Wild things run fast
Wild things run fast

What makes you run?
Wild thing
I thought you loved me

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

Well, I've heard of heartbreakers
But you take the cake
Ladies' man
You could charm the diamonds
Off a rattlesnake
Ladies' man
Ladies bring it on over
When you give 'em the glance
They don't stand a chance
First, you unfold them
Then you pigeon-hole 'em
Ladies' man

Well it sure takes a lot of
Good natured self-control
Ladies' man
When I'm so hot for you and
You're so cold, so cold
Ladies' man
Why do you keep on trying to
Make a man of me
Couldn't you just love me--
Like you love cocaine
Cocaine head games

Cross my heart I swear
I'm not trying to trick you
No tricks
Ladies' man
It's just a straight ahead feeling
I have for you
Nothing slick
Ladies' man
I guess you learn to refuse
What you think you can't handle
You're acting like a vandal
Wrecking the dream
At the first bad scene
Ladies' man
Ladies' man
Ladies' man
Ladies' man

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

It takes cheerful resignation
Heart and humility
That's all it takes
A cheerful person told me
Nobody's harder on me than me
How could they be
And, nobody's harder on you than you

Betsy's blue
She says-"Tell me something good!"
You know I'd help her out if I only could
Oh, but sometimes the light
Can be so hard to find
At least the moon at the window--
The thieves left that behind

People don't know how to love
They taste it and toss it
Turn it off and on
Like a bathtub faucet
Oh sometimes the light
Can be so hard to find--
At least the moon at the window--
The thieves left that behind

I wish her heart
I know these battles
Deep in the dark
When the spooks of memories rattle
Ghosts of the future
Phantoms of the past
Rattle, rattle, rattle
In the spoon and the glass

Is it possible to learn
How to care and yet not care--
Since love has two faces
Hope and despair
And pleasure always turns to fear
I find--
At least the moon at the window--
The thieves left that behind
At least they left the moon
Behind the blind
Moon at the window

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

We got a break
Unbelievable
We got a break
Right in the middle of this
Hollywood heartache
We got this solid love
All around the town
Good hearts are going under
Love bandits con and plunder
Let nobody put asunder this solid love ...

We got a chance
Hot dog darlin'
We got a chance
No more, no more
Fly-by-night romance
We got this solid love
Love has always made me
Feel so uneasy
I couldn't relax and just be me
More like some strange disease
Than this solid love ...

Tested and blessed, darlin'
I'm gonna give you my very best
You're my hope
You're my happiness
You
Open my heart you do
You open my heart
You do
Yes you do

We got a break
Unbelievable
We got a break
Right in the middle of this
Hollywood heartache
We got this solid love
All around the town
Good hearts are going under
Love bandits con and plunder
Let nobody put asunder this solid love ...

We got a chance
Hot dog darlin'
We got a chance
No more, no more
Fly-by-night romance
We got this solid love
Love has always made me
Feel so uneasy
I couldn't relax and just be me
More like some strange disease
Than this solid love ...

Tested and blessed, darlin'
I'm gonna give you my very best
You are my happiness
You
Open my heart up you do

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

If there's one rule to this game
Everybody's gonna name
It's, be cool!
If you're worried or uncertain
If your feelings are hurtin'
You're a fool if you can't keep cool
Charm 'em
Don't alarm 'em
Keep things light
Keep your worries out of sight
And play it cool
Play it cool
Fifty-fifty
Fire and ice

If your heart is on the floor
Cause you've just seen your lover
Comin' through the door with a new fool--
Be cool
Don't get riled
Smile-keep it light
Be your own best friend tonight
And play it cool
Play it cool
Fifty-fifty
Fire and ice

Don't get jealous
Don't get over-zealous
Keep your cool
Don't whine
Kiss of that flaky valentine
You're nobody's fool
Be cool fool
Be cool
(Lots of other fish in the sea)

Play it cool
Play it cool
Fifty-fifty
Fire and ice

So if there's one rule to this game
Everybody's gonna name
It's--be cool
If you're worried or uncertain
If your feelings are hurtin'
You're a fool if you can't keep cool
They want you to
Charm 'em
Don't alarm 'em
Keep things light
Keep your worries out of sight
And play it cool
Play it cool
Fifty-fifty
Fire and ice

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

You're so square--baby
You're so square ...
Oh, you don't like greasy diners
You don't like sleazy bands
You just want to go
To a movie show
And sit there holding hands
You're so square
Baby I don't care

You don't like going to parties
To toot and talk all night long
You just want to park
Where it's nice and dark
And kiss me, sweet and strong
You're so square
Baby I don't care

You don't know any dance steps
That are new
But nobody else can love me
Like you do

I don't know why my heart flips
I only know it does
I wonder why
I love you baby
I guess it's just because
You're so square
Darlin' I don't care

Oh, I don't know why my heart flips
I only know it does
I wonder why
I love you baby
I guess it's just because
You're so square
I don't care

You're so square

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

It came to pass
Like lightening striking from above
Electric flash
Just like lightening striking from above
Struck by precious love
Precious, precious love
So hopeless and so inspired
Why do you dream flat tires
When you dream flat tires?
You dream flat tires

With a jack and a spare you're there
Trying to get to where love is
Coming in on a wing and a prayer
Trying to get to where love is
'Cause love is precious love
You said it was precious
When first you felt my fire
Before you dreamed flat tires
You dreamed flat tires
You dream flat tires

"Woman she bounce back easy
But a man could break both his legs"
Are you telling me that to tease me?
Or just to hear me beg
"Please don't go!"

Cause I know that you love me
But, when are you going to let love be
Just a vague flirtation
Or extra special company?
'Cause love is precious love
Everybody knows it's precious
When first they feel that fire
Before they dream flat tires
They dream flat tires
They dream flat tires

"Woman she bounce back easy
But a man could break both his legs"
Do you tell me that to tease me
Or just to hear me beg
"Please don't be cold"

I know that you love me
But, what are you going to let love do?
(Flat tires, love, love is precious, flat tires,
love, love is precious, flat tires, love,
love is precious)

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

No demands
Just pleasurable sensations
Hand in hand
No far reaching plans
No, no-hand in hand
Well I keep on trying to understand
Daylight bright
How come I keep moving
From man to man to man?
Giving my sweet love--
Tasting sweet love--
Woman to man

Sometimes it's easy
You drift with the empty gladness
Like it all belongs
Sometimes it's low down sadness
Like it's all gone so wrong
When I saw you standing there
I said to myself
M-m-m here's a place
I could break down and care
I'll give him my sweet love--
Taste his sweet love--
Real sweet love--
Woman to man

I don't like to lie
But I sure can be phony when I get scared
I put my nose up in the air
Stoney, stoney when I get scared
When I saw you standing there
I was scared
I thought
Oh--I hope he can care--
I sure hope I can care--
I hope we can really care--
And share woman to man
Cause I've been moving
Man to man to man to man to man
Oh what am I looking for?
Man to man to man to man
A lot of good guys gone through my door
Man to man to man to man
To man to man to man
Man to man to man to man
Woman to man

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

Yes I do--I love you!
I swear on the stars above I do!
I swear on the streetlight on the corner
Shoving back the shadows!
One shadow cursing
Another shadow laughing
Underneath the streetlight
I don't know where they're coming from
I just see 'em passing
Underneath the streetlight ...

Yes I do--I love you!
I swear on the buildings above I do!
I swear on a billion yellow and T.V. blue windows!
Gayboys with their pants so tight
Out in the neon light
Underneath the street light
A m- m- madman-madman
Kicking over garbage cans
Underneath the streetlight ...

Yes I do--I love you!
I swear on the blinkin' planes above I do!
I swear on the truck at the stoplight
With his airbrakes moaning!
All night the trucks roll
Up to the tunnel-toll
Underneath the streetlight
They come rollin', rollin'
Rollin' for a living
Underneath the streetlight ...

Yes I do--I love you!
I swear on the disco sparkle dark I do!
I swear on the be-bop boys
Chasing the black bird
Rock 'n' roll broadcast
Movin' up now full blast
Underneath the streetlight
They come dancin', dancin'
Really rock 'n rollin'
Underneath the streetlight
Yes I do--I love you
I really love you
Yes I do--yes I do
I love you!

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Wild Things Run Fast

Although I speak in tongues
Of men and angels
I'm just sounding brass
And tinkling cymbals without love

Love suffers long
Love is kind!
Enduring all things
Love has no evil in mind

If I had the gift of prophecy
And all the knowledge
And the faith to move the mountains
Even if I understood all of the mysteries
If I didn't have love
I'd be nothing

Love never looks for love
Love's not puffed up
Or envious
Or touchy
Because it rejoices in the truth
Not in iniquity
Love sees like a child sees

As a child I spoke as a child
I thought and I understood as a child
But when I became a woman
I put away childish things
And began to see through a glass darkly

Where as a child I saw it face to face
Now I only know it in part
Fractions in me
Of faith and hope and love
And of these great three
Love's the greatest beauty
Love
Love
Love

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

I have to come and see you--
Maybe once or twice a year--
I think nothing would suit me better
(Right now)
Than some downtown atmosphere ...
In the dance halls and the galleries
Or betting in the OTB
Synchronized--like magic
Good friends you and me
The sun goes down in Jersey
Rises over Little Italy--
We could talk it up 'til the block gets up
Swapping stories
Sitting around in some all night zoo
Watching it run like a movie
Synchronized--like magic
Good friends you and me
No hearts of gold
No nerves of steel
No blame for what we can and cannot feel
But now it's cloak and dagger
Walk on eggshells and analyze
Every particle of difference
Gets like mountains in our eyes
You say, "You're unscrupulous!"
You say, "You're naive!"
Synchronized--like magic
Good friends you and me
No hearts of gold
No nerves of steel
No blame for what we can and cannot feel
Sometimes change comes at you
Like a broadside accident
There is chaos to the order
Random things you can't prevent
There could be trouble around the corner
There could be beauty down the street
Synchronized--like magic
Good friends you and me
No hearts of gold
No nerves of steel
No blame for what we can and cannot feel
No nerves of steel
No hearts of gold
No blame for what we can and can't control
Good friends you and me
Good friends you and me

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

I can't decide
I don't know
Which way to go?
The options multiply
The choices grow
Which way to go?
What should I buy?
What should I be?
Which way to go?
(Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief)
So much comes at you
Too much for me
Which way to go?
Elusive dreams and vague desires
Fanned to fiery needs by golden boys
In ad empires
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Fiction of the boob tube
Fiction of the papers
Fiction of the image and the image makers
Fiction of the magazines
Fiction of the movies
Fiction of the "Buy me," "Watch me," "Listen to me"
I can't decide
I'm so confused
Which way to go?
I'm being useful here
I'm being used
Which way to go?
Some line gets drawn
What line is this?
Which way to go?
Could be a threshold or a precipice
Which way to go?
Elusive dreams and vague desires
Fanned to fiery needs by sexy boys
In flaming T.V. fires
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Fiction of obedience
Fiction of rebellion
Fiction of the goody-goody and the hellion
Fiction of destroyers
Fiction of preservers
Fiction of peacemakers and shit disturbers
Fiction of the moralist
Fiction of the nihilist
Fiction of the innovator and the stylist
Fiction of the killjoy
Fiction of the charmer
Fiction of the clay feet and the shining armour
Fiction of the declaimers
Fiction of the rebukers
Fiction of the pro and the no nukers
Fiction of the gizmo
Fiction of the data
Fiction of the this is this and that is that -- Ahh!
I can't decide
I don't know
Which way to go?
The more you learn
The less you know
Which way to go?
Some follow blind
And never know
Which way to go?
To lead you need some place to go
Which way to go?
Elusive dreams and vague desires
Fanned to fiery needs by deadly deeds
In falling empires
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Fiction of the diplomat
Fiction of the critic
Fiction of the Pollyanna and the cynic
Fiction of the coward
Fiction of the hero
Fiction of the monuments reduced to zero ........

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other people's little wars
Wouldn't they like their peace
Don't we get bored
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence
No tanks have ever rumbled through these streets
and the drone of planes at night has never frightened me
I keep the hours and the company that I please
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence
Oh and deep in the night
Our appetites find us
Release us and bind us
Deep in the night
While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars
They'd like to slam free choice behind us
I saw a little lawyer on the tube
He said, "It's so easy now, anyone can sue."
"Let me show you how your petty aggravations can profit you!"
Call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence
Oh and deep in the night
Appetites find us
Release us and blind us
Deep in the night
While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars
They're gonna slam free choice behind us
Last night I dreamed I saw the planet flicker
Great forests fell like buffalo
Everything got sicker
And to the bitter end
Big business bickered
And they call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence
Oh these times, these times
Oh these changing times
Change in the heart of all mankind
Oh these troubled times

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

Front rooms
Back rooms
Slide into tables
Crowd into bathrooms
Joke around
Cheap talk
Deep talk
Talk, talk, talk around the clock
Crawl home
Lie down
Teeth chatter
Heart pounds
I don't feel so good
I don't feel so good
Push a button to escape
Preacher on the tube crying "Lord!"
There's evil in this land
Evangelist:
"Rock and roll music!"
"Cast down these dope-fiends
And there noisy bands!"
"Damn their souls!"
Preacher preaching love like vengeance
Preaching love like hate
Calling for large donations
Promising estates
Rolling lawns and angel bands
Behind the pearly gates
You know, he will have his in this life
But yours will have to wait
He's immaculately tax free
"Mulitiple hundreds of thousands of ..."
Tax free
"Hundreds and millions of dollars"
Tax free
"A hundred billion dollars!
And who is paying the price?
Who, who
"Your children are"
Pissed off
Jacked up
Scream into the mike
Spit into the loving cup
Strut like a rooster
March like a man
God's hired hands and the devil bands
Packing the same grandstands
Different clothes
"Pot in their pockets!"
Different hair
"Sexually active"
Raise a screaming guitar or a bible in the air
Theatre of anguish
Theatre of glory
God's hired hands and the devil bands
Oh come let us adore---ME!
Lord, there's danger in this land
You get witch-hunts and wars
When church and state hold hands
Fuck it!
Tonight I'm going dancing
With the drag queens and the punks
Big beat deliver me
From this sanctimonious skunk
We're no flaming angels
And he's not heaven sent
How can he speak for the Prince of Peace
When he's hawk-right militant
And he's immaculately tax free
"Our nation has lost its guts!"
Save me
"Our nation has lost its strength"
Tax free
"Our nation has whimpered and cried"
Save me
"And petted the Castros"
Tax free
"The Khomeinis' and the Kaddafis'"
Save me
"For so long"
Tax free
"That we don't know how to act like a man"
Save me
"I think that we should turn the United States Marines
loose on that little island south of Florida and
stop that problem!"
"I am preachin' love, I am!"

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

Try another, try another, try another, try another
Empty, empty try another

Try another, try another, try another, try another
Empty, empty try another

Try another, try another, try another, try another
Empty, empty try another

Smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke
Smoke, smoke, smoke

Try another, try another, try another, try another
Empty, empty try another

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

It's dog eat dog--I'm just waking up
The dove is in the dungeon
And the white-washed hawks pedal hate and call it love
Dog Eat Dog
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers

DOG EAT DOG
On prime time crime the victim begs
Money is the road to justice
And power walks it on crooked legs
Prime--Time--Crime
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers

Where the wealth's displayed
Thieves and sycophants parade
And where it's made--
the slaves will be taken
Some are treated well
In these games of buy and sell
And some like poor beast
Are burdened down to breaking

DOG EAT DOG
It's dog eat dog, ain't it Flim Flam man
Dog eat dog, you can lie, cheat, skim, scam
Beat'em any way you can
Dog eat Dog
You'll do well in this land of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
You could get to be
A big wig financier

Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
In every culture in decline
The watchful ones among the slaves
Know all that is genuine will be
Scorned and conned and cast away

Dog eat dog
People looking, seeing nothing
Dog eat dog
People listening, hearing nothing
Dog eat dog
People lusting, loving nothing
Dog eat dog
People stroking, touching nothing
Dog eat dog
Knowing nothing
Dog eat dog

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

Shiny toys--right on time
Shiny toys--right on time
Shiny toys
I'm reading people rags in the checkout lane
Look, here's a hunk--here's a honey
Celebrated people and their claims to fame
Here's a boy and his money
And pictures of the winners in the latest
Ratepoll games
Whatever makes you "Yahoo"
Whatever makes your time feel satisfyin'
Whatever makes you
"Oh I'm so excited"
Whatever makes you feel like you're right on time
Party night
Good bands all over town
(good, good, good)
Mega lights and supersonic sounds
(good, good, good)
Flashy boys and girls that really play
(good, good, good)
Shiny toys, when it's over don't you
hate to have to put your toys away
Shiny toys--"I love my Porsche"
Shiny toys
Shiny toys--"I love my Porsche"
Shiny toys
Simple joys
Walking on the beach at the end of the day
Between the sand and the seagulls
Watching the glorious sun setting on the bay
Here comes a boy and his beagle
Walking with a man in a toupee
And a man with his head shaved
Whatever makes you "Mmmm, mmmm"
Whatever makes your time feel satisfyin'
Whatever makes you "Mmmmm, mmmm"
Whatever makes you feel like you're right on time
Party night
Super bands all over town
(good, good, good)
Super lights and supersonic sounds
(good, good, good)
Flashy boys and girls that really play
(good, good, good)
Shiny toys, when it's over
Don't you hate to have to put your toys away
Shiny toys--right on time
Shiny toys--right on time
Shiny toys--right on time

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

Hot winds and hunger cries--Ethiopia
Flies in your babies' eyes--Ethiopia
Walking sticks on burning plains
Betrayed by politics
Abandoned by the rains
On and on--the human need
On and on--the human greed profanes
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
Your top soil flies away--Ethiopia
We pump ours full of poison spray--Ethiopia
Between the brown skies and sprinkling lawns
I hear the whine of chain saws
Hacking rain forests down
On and on--insanities
On and on--Short sighted greed abounds
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
Little garden planet-oasis in space
Some hearts hurt--they can hardly stand it
Famine phantoms at the garden gates
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
Every Sunday on T.V.--Ethiopia
You suffer with such dignity--Ethiopia
A T.V. star with a P.R. smile
Calls your baby "it" while strolling
Through your tragic trials
On and on--stupidity
On and on--the basic needs are defiled
Good air--good water--good earth
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
Little garden planet--oasis in space
Some hearts hurt--they can hardly stand the waste
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

The street was loud
From an angry crowd and
I thought of you, I thought of you
Dreamer
Land of the free
No hungry bellies
Impossible
Impossible dreamer

In the darkest part of the night
Blue shadows conjure you
And in the brightest height of the daylight
Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you
Dreaming like you do

The moon was bright
Like day for night
And I thought of you
I thought of you
Dreamer
No acid rain
Love without pain
Impossible
Impossible Dreamer

In the darkest part of the night
Blue shadows conjure you
And at the brightest height of the daylight
Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you
Dreaming like you do

The room was dark
And full of sharks
and I thought of you
I thought of you
Dreamer
Give peace a chance
Don't think just dance
Impossible
Impossible dreamer

In the darkest part of the night
Blue shadows conjure you
And at the brightest height of the daylight
Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you
Dreaming like you do

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Dog Eat Dog

I'm a lucky girl
I found my friend
I've been all around the world
Mission Impossible
Chasing the rainbow's end
Wise guys
Shy guys
And sly lover boys
With big bad bedroom eyes ...
I never loved a man I trusted
As far as I could pitch my shoe
'Til I loved you
You're my lucky star
You're my magician
You make the night prowling disappear
Vanished from the star-war-bars
Empty repetition
I get my heart full here
Playboys
Stray boys
And "Say, hey, hey" boys'll treat you like a toy
I never loved a man I trusted
As far as I could pitch my shoe
'Til I loved you
Cheaters
Woman beaters
And Huck Finn shucksters hopping parking meters
I never loved a man
I trusted
As far as I could pitch my shoe
'til I loved you
I'm a lucky girl
I found my friend
I been all around the world
Mission Impossible
Chasing the rainbow's end
Wise guys
Booby-prize guys
And sly lover boys
With big bad bedroom eyes ...
I never loved a man I trusted
As far as I could throw my shoe
'Til I loved you

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm

I'm going to take you to
My special place
It's a place that you
Like no one else I know
Might appreciate
I don't go there with anyone--but
You're a special case
For my special place
For my secret place

People talk to tell you something
Or to take up space
Guess I'm only talking
To be talking to
Your pretty face
I don't talk much to anyone--but
You're a special case
For my special place
My secret place

I was born and raised
In New York City
I'm just getting used to Colorado--
Oh street bravado
Carry me
Why did you bring me to
A place so wild and pretty?
Are there pigeons in this park--
Muggers after dark--
In these golden trees--
In the secret place?

I'm going to take you to
My special place
It's a place no amount of hurt and anger
Can deface
I put things back together there
It all falls right in place--
In my special space
My special place

Once I saw a film
In New York City
That was shot in Colorado--
Girl meets desperado
In the trembling mountain trees
Out of all of the girls that you see
In bleachers and cafe windows
Sitting--flirting with someone
Looking to have some fun
Why did you pick me?
For the secret place

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm

Got to be a winner--trophy winner
Get to hold your head up high up!
Number one!

Got to be a winner--trophy winner
Get to hold your head up high up!
Number one!

Number one
Number one
Honey tell me--
When your working day is done--
Were you reaching for the high rung--
Reaching to be number one?

You get a car
You want a boat
You want an eenie-meenie-miney miney-moe
Oh there must be more to living
Than a mortgage and a lawn to mow

Sweaty work
And lucky breaks
And blood and tears is all it takes
To be a winner!
People cheer
And people gasp
People want your autograph
When you're a winner!

Run, run, run, run
Let's see you run
We'll be betting by the starting gun!
Shall we shower you with flowers
Or shall we shun ya
When your race is run?
Will we shower you with flowers
Or will we shun ya
When your race is run?
Will they shower you with flowers
Or will they shun ya
When your race is run?

Got to be a winner--trophy winner
Get to hold your head up high up!
Number one!

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm

I am Lakota!
Lakota!
Looking at money man--
Diggin' the deadly quotas--
Out of balance--
Out of hand
We want the land!
Lay down the reeking ore!
Don't you hear the shrieking in the trees?
Everywhere you touch the earth--she's sore
Every time you skin her all things weep
Your money mocks us--
Restitution--what good can it do?--
Kennelled in metered boxes
Red dogs in debt to you

I am Lakota!
Lakota!
Fighting among ourselves
All we can say with one whole heart
Is we won't sell--
No we'll never sell
We want the land!
The lonely coyote calls
In the woodlands--footprints of the deer
In the barrooms--poor drunk bastard falls
In the courtrooms--deaf ears--sixty years
You think we're sleeping--but
Quietly like rattlesnakes and stars
We have seen the trampled rainbows
In the smoke of cars

I am Lakota
Brave
Sun pity me
I am Lakota
Broken
Moon pity me
I am Lakota
Grave
Shadows stretching
Lakota
Oh pity me
I am Lakota
Weak
Grass pity me
I am Lakota
Faithful
Rocks pity me
I am Lakota
Meek
Standing water
Lakota
Oh pity me

I am Lakota!
Lakota!
Standing on sacred land
We never sold these Black Hills
To the missile-heads--
To the power plants
We want the land!
The bullet and the fence--broke Lakota
The black coats and the booze--broke Lakota
Courts that circumvent--choke Lakota
Nothing left to lose
Tell me grandfather
You spoke the fur and feather tongues--
Do you hear the whimpering waters
When the tractors come?

[Repeat Chorus]

Sun pity me
Mother earth
Mother
Moon pity me
Father sky
Father
Shadows
Stretching on the forest floor
Mother earth
Oh pity me
Father sky
Father
Grass pity me
Mother earth
Mother
Rocks pity me
Father sky
Father
Water
Standing in a wakan manner
Mother earth
Oh pity me

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm

Study war no more
Lay down your arms
Study war no more
Lay 'em down lay 'em down now
Study war no more
Lay down your arms
Study war no more

Newsreels rattle the Nazi dread
The able-bodied have shipped away
Molly McGee gets her tea-leaves read
You'll be married in a month they say
"These leaves are crazy!
Look at this town there's no men left!
Just frail old boys and babies
Talking to teacher in the treble clef"

She plants her garden in the spring
She does the winter shovelling
Tokyo Rose on the radio
She says she's leavin' but she don't go

Out of the blue just passin' thru
A young flight sergeant
On two weeks leave
Says "Molly McGee no one else will do!"
And seals the tea-leaf prophecy
Oh these nights are strong and soft
Private passions and secret storms
Nothin' about him ticks her off
And he looks so cute in his uniform

She plants her garden in the spring
He does the winter shovelling
But summer's just a sneeze
In a long long bad winter cold
She says "I'm leavin' here" but she don't go

"Sleep little darlin'!
This is your happy home
Hiroshima cannot be pardoned!
Don't have kids when you get grown
Because this world is shattered
The wise are mourning
The fools are joking
Oh what does it matter?
The wash needs ironing
And the fire needs stoking"

She plants her garden in the spring
He does the winter shovelling
The three of 'em laughing 'round the radio
She says "I'm leavin' here" but she don't go

She plants her garden in the spring
They do the winter shovelling
They sit up late and watch the
Johnny Carson show
She says "I'm leavin' here but she don't go".

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm

No, you couldn't call Jesse a babe in the woods
He's just weak in self-defense
'Cause he's so thin skinned
He can't take a joke at his expense
"You're a push button window," says Rowdy Yates
"I can run you up and down
Anytime I want
I can make you my dancin'--
My dancin' clown!"
You're my dancin' clown
Dancin' dancin'
My dancin' clown
Dancin'
You're my dancin' clown
Dancin' dancin' dancin'
My dancin' clown

Rowdy Yates is as bold as Jove--
He's all chide and snide and bluff--
Stuck in the romantic tradition
Of acting rough and tough
"You're always charging thru," says Jesse
Nervous, lookin' all around--
To see who's seein' him bein' a dancin'
A dancin' clown
He's a dancin' clown
Dancin' dancin'
A dancin' clown
Dancin'
He's a dancin' clown
Dancin' dancin' dancin'
A dancin' clown

Cherchez la femme
Whenever love comes around
Someone's a dancin' clown
Cherchez la femme
Whenever hearts start to pound
Someone's a dancin' clown

Down the street comes last-word Suzie--
She's high yellow--lookin' top nice
You hear the swoosh of jungle blades
And the crackle of northern ice
"Hot damn!" says Rowdy--lookin' up
"Yum!" says Jesse lookin' down
"How would you like to be her dancin'
Her dancin' clown?"
Be her dancin' clown
Dancin' dancin'
Her dancin' clown
Dancin'
Be her dancin' clown
Dancin' dancin' dancin'
Her dancin' clown

Cherchez la femme
Whenever love comes to town
Someone's a dancin' clown
Cherchez la femme
Wherever hearts start to pound
Someone's a dancin' clown

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm

All day I face the barren waste
Without a taste of water
Cool water
Old Dan and I
Our throats slate dry
Our spirits cry out for water
Cool clear water
Keep on movin' Dan
Some devils had a plan
Buried poison in the sand
Don't drink it man
It's in the water
Cool clear water
In my mind I see
A big green tree
And a river flowin' free
Waitin' up ahead
For you and me
Cool clear water

The nights are cool and I'm a fool
Each star is a pool of water
Cool water
But come the dawn
We carry on
We won't last long without water
Cool clear water
Keep on movin' Dan
We're still in no-man's land
Dry bones and sand
People never planned here for water
Cool clear water
In my mind I see
A big green tree
And a river flowin' free
Waiting up ahead for you and me
Cool clear water

The shadows sway
They seem to say
Tonight we pray for water
Cool water
And way up there
If you care
Please show us where
There's good water
Cool clear water

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm

I met a young soldier
He said his name was Killer Kyle
He was shakin' all over
Like a night-frightened child
This is his story
It's a tough one for me to sing
Hard as the squawk and the flap
And the beat of--the beat of black wings

"They gave me a gun," he said
"They gave me a mission
For the power and the glory--
Propaganda--piss on 'em
There's a war zone inside me--
I can feel things exploding--
I can't even hear the fucking music playing
For the beat of--the beat of black wings."

He said, "I never had nothin'--
Nothin' I could believe in
My girl killed our unborn child
Without even grievin'!
I put my hands on her belly
To feel the kid kickin'--damn!
She'd been to some clinic
Oh--the beat of black wings."

"They want you--they need you--
They train you to kill--
To be a pin on some map--
Some vicarious thrill--
The old hate the young
That's the whole heartless thing
The old pick the wars
We die in 'em
To the beat of--the beat of black wings."

There's a man drawing pictures
On the sidewalk with chalk
Just as fast as he draws 'em
Rain come down and wash 'em off
"Keep the drinks comin' girl
'Til I can't feel anything
I'm just a chalk mark in a rainstorm
I'm just the beat of black wings."

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Artist : JONI MITCHELL
Album : Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm

He
In a shopping mall
Finally met the perfect girl
She is all that matters
The only one in all the world
Like a Barbie doll
Oh love is snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders

She
Just to have and hold
Is the perfect air-brushed angel
Makes you hot just looking at her
Stapled into all his braincells
Like a centerfold
Oh love is snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders

Get to the top and slide back down
Get to the bottom climb back up
Buy the townhouse
Call the preacher
Get to the bottom climb back up
Get to the top and slide back down
Get to the bottom climb back up
Set up credit for the lovely creature
The lovely creature

He
On a corporate climb
Set his sights on power for her
On a silver platter
He gave up happy hour for her
Perrier and lime
Oh love is snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders
She
In a handsome world
Put her mind to social graces
All the privileged chatter
Setting pretty table places
For the girls in pearls
Oh love is snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders

Get to the top and slide back down
Get to the bottom climb back up
Buy the carphone
Call the broker
Get to the bottom climb back up
Get to the top and slide back down
Get to the bottom climb back up
Buy the wife a diamond choker
A diamond choker

True love true love true love
He's so nervous
New love new love new love
When he's with her
Oh he's wasting away
True love true love true love
It's so curious
New love new love new love
Just to kiss her
To kiss her to kiss her to kiss her
To kiss her to kiss her to kiss her
To kiss her he has to shave

She
In the gilded mirrors
In the swing of fancy places
Where the black ties flatter
Started seeing other faces
Young fogie financiers
Oh love is snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders

See
In the crimes of time
How the seasons steal away
How the rungs are shattered
First you're green then you're grey
Still the snakes unwind
Still playin' snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders

Get to the top and slide back down
Get to the bottom climb back up
Sell the vineyard
Call the lawyer
Get to the bottom climb back up
Get to the top and slide back down
Get to the bottom climb back up
Gather garbage to destroy her
To destroy her

Ladders ladders ladders
The perfect girl
Ladders ladders ladders
The paper chase Love is snakes and ladders
Ladders ladders ladders
The social whirl
Ladders ladders
The rat race
Barbie doll

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