John Hiatt Album

What I feel is like an old freight train
Five miles long in the pouring rain
Rolling out of Detroit loaded up with shiny cars
And I'm sitting in a Cadillac smoking on a big cigar
What I feel's like an engine room
Open it up and smell the perfume
I love that diesel burning up the atmosphere
When you hear me blow well honey baby know I'm here

CHORUS:
Well I'm going down to Lincoln town
Turn your pretty little head around
Take the next train outward bound
Carry you out of Lincoln town

Well babe you know my home is with you
There ain't no town or city will do
I need a rolling partner carrying me down the line
and I'm a-comin' into Lincoln town baby right on time
Well love is like an automobile
or maybe a freight train dependin' on how you feel
Well rubber or steel honey baby I don't mind

CHORUS

When you see that old black smoke
You know it's time to pack you a coat
Meet me at the station about a quarter to nine
You can ride in my Cadillac honey you can ride the blinds

CHORUS TWICE

My baby's gone and I don't know why
she let out this morning
Like a rusty shot in a hollow sky
left me without warning
Sooner than the dogs could bark
and faster than the sun rose
Down to the banks in an old mule car
she took a flatboat across the shallow

CHORUS:
Left me in my tears to drown
she left a baby daughter
Now the water's wide and deep and brown
she's crossing muddy waters

Tobacco standing in the fields
be rotten come November
And a bitter heart will not reveal
A spring that love remembers
When that sweet brown girl of mine
her black eyes are ravens
From a jug that she'd been saving

CHORUS

Baby's crying and the daylight's gone
that big oak tree is groaning
In rush of wind and river of song
I can hear my sweetheart moaning
Crying for her baby child
or crying for her husband
Crying for that river's wild
to take her from her loved ones

CHORUS TWICE

CHORUS:
What do we do now
What do we do now
What do we do now
What do we do now

When it's lying there with a busted heart
Like a piece of glass where do you start
Do we pick it up or say goodbye
Is there one tear left for us to cry

CHORUS

What if I can't stay
What if you can't stay
What if I can't leave
What if you can't leave

What if I believed
Every word you say
What if you believed

Do we call the kids
Or call the cops
Can you hold me 'till
This howling stops

CHORUS

Gimme back my steel,
Gimme back my nerve
Gimme back my youth
For the dead man's curve
For that icy feel when
You start to swerve
Give us back the love
We don't deserve

'cause we rode it long,
We drove it hard
And we wrecked it
In our own backyard

CHORUS

I woke her up twice in the middle of the night
To ask what her name is and where she might live
To ask how many fingers she saw in this light
To ask if she might know what gives

She said we rolled that Camaro like a cowboy cigarette
Out on the highway in a puddle of beer
That's just about how close to death you're gonna get
Till the only thing standing is fear

CHORUS:
Singing, oh darling, faces were changed
The names of the innocent, the story at five
Oh darling, faces get strange
But only the song survives

She said, now don't you remember they put a patch on your eye
Like Dread Pirate Roberts, you looked so unplanned
They cut off my wedding ring and you started to cry
A one-eyed Niagara Falls man


I said, but I never married - I said with surprise
And is this the diamond you said that you lost
It was under my eyelids when they flushed out my eyes
Hell and I don't know what the thing cost

CHORUS TWICE

But I woke up sweating to breakfast in bed
And there were my children, and there was my wife
Post-traumatic stress, of just a bump on the head
Or maybe the ride of my life

CHORUS TWICE

CHORUS:
You gotta lift up every stone now sister
Gotta lift up every stone now sister
Gotta lift up every stone now sister
Gotta clear this field and build that wall

He was the prince of the county to the manor born
The sheets were bloody and dirty and torn
Nobody saw nothing, not out this way
And they probably won't until the judgement day

CHORUS

There was a mighty whispering down at the church
About the son of the father of a woman got hurt
They were looking all over for somebody to pay
And that's you and me sister now every day

CHORUS

Now the sun is bloody red
Don't you cry a tear for me
Because I did what I could just to be free yeah
You gotta lift up every stone now sister
'cause one is the truth and the other's a lie
You gotta lift up every stone now sister
'till they tear down the wall to make you cry

CHORUS TWICE

We gotta clear this field and build that wall
We gotta...

Take everything that we have
Take it and burn it to the ground
Some things were never meant to last

CHORUS:
Take it down, down, down
Take it down
Take it down, down, down
Take it down

I'm still married to it all
That ain't no place to hang around
My love is 50 feet tall

CHORUS

I've grown accustomed to the way
You hurled us into space
I'll never make that trip

Tears all rusted on my face
And I'm just an empty place
Where your love used to fit

South carolina where are you
We were once lost and now we're found
The war is over, the battle's through

CHORUS TWICE

Gone like my last paycheck gone, gone away
Gone like the car I wrecked gone, gone away
Gone like a fifth of gin gone, gone away
Gone like the shape I'm in gone, gone away
My baby's gone away

Gone like a Nixon file gone, gone away
Gone like my landlord's smile gone, gone away
Gone like the furniture gone, gone away
Gone like the rest of her gone, gone away
My baby's gone away

Gone like the silhouette there by the bed where she undressed
Gone like the candlelight where we made love so sweet and bright
Gone like the one last turn she took before Atlanta burned
Gone like everything I learned gone, gone away
.
Gone like my last paycheck gone, gone away
Gone like the car I wrecked gone, gone away
Gone like a fifth of gin gone, gone away
Gone like the shape I'm in gone, gone away
My baby's gone away

Repeat

Take back all those kisses that you stole from me
Take back mister and misses to your family
Can't take broken dishes when we fight all day, hey
Take back all best wishes, did I hear you say

We were shooting for the sun
I guess the darkness finally won

Take it back, take it back
All that love has done

Take back the sweetest memories I have ever known
Take back the blood you let me get out of this stone
I can't take another minute of this misery, no
Take back what we got in it, lord it's killing me

We were shooting for the sun
I guess the darkness finally won

Take it back, take it back
All that love has done
We were shooting for the sun
I guess the darkness finally won

Take back, take it back
All that love has done

Take it back, take it back
All that love has done
Take it back, take it back
Take it back baby
Well...
We were shooting for the sun

Mr. Stanley loved me just like a son
Mr. Stanley loved me just like a son

Now he's gone I ain't got no one

Daddy died when I wasn't half a man
Oh my daddy died when I wasn't half a man

Mr. Stanley took me in raised me the best he can

Mr. Stanley loved me just like a son
Mr. Stanley loved me just like a son

Now he's gone I ain't got no one

Six white horses coming down to Tennessee
Six white horses coming down to Tennessee

In the middle of the night to take Mr. Stanley away from me

We came through the forrest
Of jealousy and greed
All our loved ones before us
Gave us everything we need

To cross that great river
Of every tear was ever cried
'till we find ourselves staring in God's golden eyes

In the desert love waited
Licking salt water from her skin
We could have been sedated
For all that we put in

We thought it was some devil
Who put the crying in goodbye
Till we found ourselves staring in
God's golden eyes
We found ourselves staring in God's golden eyes

And we did all we could do
We did the best we could
No matter how hard we tried

Like babes we come whining
For some forgotten sin
Surprised to be shining
Just like diamonds in the wind

Every facet so perfect
And every cut the proper size
When we find ourselves staring in God's golden eyes
We find ourselves staring in God's golden eyes

I've been sleeping for some hours
Just woke up and you were there
Like the morning, like the flowers
Sunlight whispering in my ears
Red tail hawk shooting down the canyon
Put me on that wind he rides
I will be your true companion
When we reach the other side
.
I will try, I will stumble
But I will fly, he told me so
Proud and high or low and humble
Many miles before I go
Many miles before I go
.
Can't decide which way to travel
On the ground or in the sky
All my schemes have come unraveled
All that's left is you and I
.
And I will try, but I will stumble
Proud and high or low and humble
Many miles before I go
Many miles before I go
Here I go
.
Ghosts on the trees, there's
Ghosts on the wires
Asking questions and showing signs
Shivering with truth, they're lighting fires
Lighting fires all down the line
.
And I will try, and I will stumble
But I will fly, he told me so
Proud and high or low and humble
Many miles before I go
Many miles before I go
.
Proud and high or low and humble
Many miles before I go
Many miles before I go