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Joan Baez
Joan Baez





Music World  →  Lyrics  →  J  →  Joan Baez  →  Albums  →  Blowin' Away

Joan Baez Album


Blowin' Away (1977)
1977
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I am sailing, I am sailing,
Home again 'cross the sea.
I am sailing stormy waters,
To be near you to be free.

I am flying, I am flying,
Like a bird 'cross the sky.
I am flying passing high clouds,
To be with you to be free.

Can you hear me, can you hear me,
Thro' the dark night far away.
I am dying forever trying,
To be with you who can say.

We are sailing, we are sailing,
Home again 'cross the sea.
We are sailing, stormy waters,
To be near you to be free

. . .


Many a mile to freedom, many a smile to tell
Ask my bluebird to sing you, from the heart of a wishing well
Call all my reindeer to graze here, call all my grain to grow
Then together we flow like the river
Then together we melt like the snow

Many a thought unanswered, many a tale to tell
Ask my bluebird to sing you, from the heart of a wishing well
If you should ask me to give you the reason for life that we know
Then together we flow like the river
And together we melt like the snow

Many a mile to freedom, many a smile to tell
Ask my bluebird to sing you, from the heart of a wishing well
If you should ask me to give you the reason for life that we know
Then together we flow like the river
Then together we melt like the snow

A few more miles to go
Miles to freedom

. . .


Miracles keep happening
The sun rose in the east today
I sat up and sighed for the millionth time
As the dawn was phasing a night away
The blues can last for just so long
And from the depth
There will arise another song
And I'll sit here in the sea and the sun
Waiting for that other song to come
That other song to come

You don't have to be black to sing the blues
From what I gather all you got to be is blue
Self-indulgence is universal
Adolescence was merely a rehearsal
Look around you and you will see
Everyone has a small franchise on misery
On misery

And I will sing you a song
Just as soon as I get my voice
When you're up, you're up
And when you're down
You really got no choice

No rain this winter
The manzanita reminded me
We've been living in a drought
And the ocean looks good to me
Haven't been in love for a year or so
Because I get fussy
And hard to live with as I grow
Ask the hungry manzanita
You cannot cross a cypress and a cedar
And a cedar

My moods are changing like the sea
There are a hundred things
That I'd like to be
Meanwhile I'll sit in the sun
Waiting for that other song to come
That other song to come

And I will sing it to you
Just as soon as I get my voice
When you're up, you're really up
And when you're down
You really got no choice

. . .


It's a long time since I saw you last
So tell me how you've been
Did you ever get to buy that yellow coat?
Do the flowers in you window box
Still smile when you walk in?
Did you read the letters that I wrote?
And I've been on the road since Christmas
But it don't seem so long
Outside of that there isn't much to say.
I cut down on my drinkin' some
And wrote another song
I wish you wouldn't look at me that way
Remember all the mornings
We'd walk around the park
The nights we babysat for Billy's kids
And all the times we used to talk
Of having one ourselves
I don't remember why we never did
Do the neighbors still complain a bit
When the music gets too loud?
Does your old cat still sleep up on the bed?
And do you still walk around
With your head up in the clouds?
Have you heard a single thing I've said?
It's a two day drive to New York
Guess I'd better go
Have you noticed the weather's gettin' cold?
And it's a long time since I saw you last
Tell me how you've been
Did you ever get to buy that yellow coat?
Did you ever get to buy that yellow coat?

. . .


Ripping along towards middle age
And my music career kind of missed a page
Record sales began to drop
The management all began to hop
Not worry, they said, you'll see
What you need is some fresh publicity
Just give us a nod and we'll all leap
Towards putting you back at the top of the heap
I said, Fine, I'll give it a whack
I hung up the phone and I turned my back
Began daydreaming I was somebody else
When the phone jumped over from the wall to the shelf
We just had a break, this is really fine
We can make the January issue of TIME
If you'll give us Monday, a week from today
From two to four, now what do you say?

I said, TIME, TIME mag, mag
You got me on the rag, rag
Take your insults about the queen
And shove them up your royal Timese machine

But I scribbled it down on the wall calendar
And wondered about my interviewer
Maybe he'd be just a real nice guy
Bright and sympathetic with a roving eye
We'd forget all about the assignment due
Formalities, photos, and the interview
We'd hop on into his big rent-a-car
Go for a lovely drive, not far....maybe France
As the big day approached it slipped my mind
Till my secretary showed up at the house to remind
Me to switch into gear for the big coup de gras
The meeting with the man from the media
I swept the driveway and polished the phone
Put on a Kenzo knit in two-tone
Fluffed the pillows in the burgundy chair
Made up my eyes and brushed my hair...all in that order
When he called to say he was three hours late
My cheerful facade began to disintegrate
The photographer'd be even later still
She was hopelessly lost in the nearby hills
He arrived not exactly the man of my dreams
Not bad for a rep from the Timese machine
Asked me a wandering question or three
And I thought he was actually listening to me

And I said, TIME, TIME mag, mag
You got me on the rag, rag
Take your insults about the queen
And shove them up your royal Timese machine

Curious about his interest
I babbled my way through the worldwide list
Ireland, Chile and the African states
Poetry, politics and how they relate
Motherhood, music and Moog synthesizers
Political prisoners and Commie sympathizers
Hetero, homo and bisexuality
Where they all stand in the nineteen-seventies
Then suddenly it stopped and he started to lobby
Said, Tell me some inside stuff about Bobby
Bobby who? I smiled and said
And the TIME man's face was laced with red
I know you guys used to know each other
I know you refer to him as being your brother
And I know that you know where he's coming from
I said, You know alot for being so Goddamned dumb

And I said, TIME, TIME mag, mag
You got me on the rag, rag
Take your insults about the queen
And shove them up your royal Timese machine

Well I never gave him quite what he came for
The inside story and it's really a shame
For I never made the January issue of TIME
And just before I run out of words that rhyme
I really should tell you that deep in my heart
I don't give a damn where I stand on the charts
Not as long as the sun sinks into the west
And that's going to be a pretty serious test.....of time

. . .


A HEARTFELT LINE OR TWO
(Words and Music by Joan Baez)

Though the songwriters of the industry
Write most of the songs I do
And it's clear that no one will ever
Sing them quite the way I do
I think tonight I'll sit down and write
A heartfelt line or two
And if they turn out good enough
I owe every word to you

To the kid I thought was a little too young
To know what sadness was
Who took me out when I was down
And set out to find the cause
Of why the lady had the blues
And seemed on the verge of tears
I tell you that kid must have been around
For a hundred and fifty years

And to the tough guy blonde with the front tooth gone
And ships all over his chest
Who approached me out on the promenade
Of the beach heading into the west
His friends lay around on the muscleman lawn
Like a drunken pirate band
But he turned into a gentleman
Called me a lady and kissed my hand

Though the songwriters of the industry
Write most of the songs I do
And it's clear that no one will ever
Sing them quite the way I do
I think tonight I'll sit down and write
A heartfelt line or two
And if they turn out good enough
I owe every word to you

To the man and the woman who threw me a glance
As they picnicked by the sea
And returned their gaze to the kid and the food
So as not to bother me
They got up to leave and the woman looked on
As the man leaned down to say
"You've always meant so much to us
Don't want to bother you and have a nice day"

And to the band of gypsies I call friends
Who speak so carefully
To their friend with a life unlike their own
In its strange complexities
Who have the patience of the saints
When I've been down for a spell
I wish it were a whole lot easier
To find the words to wish them well

Though the songwriters of the industry
Write most of the songs I do
And it's clear that no one will ever
Sing them quite the way I do
I think tonight I'll sit down and write
A heartfelt line or two
And if they turn out good enough
I owe every word to you

. . .


I've been romanced dined and danced
Crazy nights and wild times
But my life has lost its mystery
Love is blind and it cannot find me

I'm blowing away
Shadows take my love and leave
I'm blowing away
Shadows keep taking my love and leaving me

And I have cast aside my foolish pride
And I'm going down for the last time
And I have searched this earth
And I've sailed these seas
Love is blind and it cannot find me

I'm blowing away
Shadows take my love and leave
I'm blowing away
Shadows keep taking my love and leaving me
You keep taking my love and leaving me

. . .


Luba, it was only the finest wine
Means or no means
Only the finest place to dine
Paris in the sixties
You had three sons
Handsome husband by your side
I flirted with everyone

Your husband, aging but vain
With the ladies was quite renowned
Author of books made famous
On his years in the French Underground
But you, Luba, the Baroness
It was really your blue blood
No one could touch you with kid gloves
And no one ever should

And the hands of little Julian
Will guide you well
Et le pere du petit Sebastian
Vous attend dans le ceil

The youngest son Jerome
Brighter than he could be
Preferred the darkened corners
And was even a little too young for me
Tall and shy and crafty
He was oh so scholarly then
Got married later on
Had a child by the name of Julian

The eldest Jean Francoise
What a mixture of sweetness and snobbery
Milkfed by his mother
On Russian aristocracy
With wits like sabre through silk
He was the wisest one
Married and remarried
Had a child by the name of Sebastian

And the hands of little Julian
Will guide you well
Et le pere du petit Sebastian
Vous attend dans le ceil

Ah my sweet Christophe
You were only seventeen
First family dinners with the gypsies
Finger chimes and tambourines
With candlelit eyes of experience
Oh how you laughed at me
As I became rapidly foolish
Under your gaze and on red burgundy

In sixty-nine your father died
I saw you in the years between
Handsome, impetuous son of the rich
Taking care of your mother, the queen
And you are married now as well
It was inevitable
Three day wedding in the south of France
To an angel named Annabelle

Recently I was in France
I called you on the phone
Caught racing back through memories
Luba was at home
Her voice sounded quite the same
As we touched on the amenities
Suddenly it fell and shattered
Like a thousand broken tiffanies

In November Jean Francoise died
We were all there by his side
Sorry, darling, that I cried
It's hard to keep these things inside
Where are you staying and how's your son?
No, we hardly told anyone
How long are you here, are you with someone?
Hold it, I'll put Christophe on the phone

Ah my sweet Christophe
Same damn voice
Hell of a way to become the eldest son
It's true you had no choice
And you and Annabelle
You must take care of her
Yes, I'll be over later on
And I'll bring my guitar

While going through things afterward
A letter she wrote and never sent
A single phrase stood out to you
These are the words and how it went...

And the hands of little Julian
Will guide you well
Et le pere du petit Sebastian
Nous attend dans le ceil

. . .


At night in the safety of shadows and numbers
Seeking some turf on which nothing encumbers
The buying and selling of casual looks
Stuff that gets printed in x-rated books
Your mother might have tried to understand
When you were hardly your daddy's little man
And you gave up saluting the chief
To find yourself some relief

Finely plucked eyebrows and skin of satin
Smiling seductive and endlessly Latin
Olympic body on dancing feet
Perfume thickening the air like heat
A transient star of gay bar fame
You quit your job and changed your name
And you're nearly beyond belief
As you hunt down a little relief

The seven foot black with the emerald ring
Broke up a fight without saying a thing
As the cops cruised by wanting one more chance
To send Jimmy Baldwin back over to France
And a trucker with kids and a wife
Prefers to spend half of his life
In early Bohemian motif
Playing pool and getting relief

My favorite couple was looking so fine
Dancing in rhythm and laughing in rhyme
In the light of the jukebox all yellow and blue
Holding each other as young lovers do
To me they will always remain
Unshamed, untamed, and unblamed
The altar boy and the thief
Grabbing themselves some relief

The altar boy and the thief
Catching a little relief

. . .


Now you say you're lonely
You cried the long night through
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried a river over you

Now you say you're sorry
For being so untrue
Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river
I cried, cried, cried a river over you

You drove me, nearly drove me, out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, I remember, all that you said
You told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me and

Now you say, you say you love me
Well, just to prove that you do
Come on and cry me a river, cry me a river
'Cause I cried a river over you

You drove me, nearly drove me, out of my head
While you never shed a tear
Remember, remember, all that you said
Told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me and

Now, now you say you love me
Well, just to prove you do
Come on and cry, cry, cry me a river, cry me a river
'Cause I cried a river over you

If my pillow talk, imagine what it would have said
Could it be a river of tears I cried in bed?
So you can cry me a river
Daddy, go ahead and cry that river
'Cause I cried, how I cried a river over you
How I cried a river over you

. . .


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