Hey Valerie, Baby what's the matter with you?
I did all of the things that you wanted me to
I went downtown with my picket knife, cut your other man,
Cut your other man, but I spared his life
Valerie won't you be good to me?Hey Valerie, Baby what's the matter with you?
Come on, come Baby, and tell me true
Hey now Baby, what did I do? I shot my dog 'cause he growled at you
Valerie won't you be good to me?Valerie what's the matter with me? I never ever done you no wrong
I sing the blues nearly all night long.
Valerie what the matter with me? You know I'd do anything that you'd say
I can't understand why you tell me "Please go away"I ain't afraid of the cold. cruel world outside
No chicken little running from a falling sky
The only thing trouble's me is you. If you leave me what will I do?
Valerie won't you be good to me?You got me down on the knees of my shaking feet
Can't play the blues 'cause for you I drop the beat
Valerie what your complaint? I try to be everything I ain't
Valerie won't you be good to me?
10/22/90 Valley Road 12/30/90
(B.R.Hornsby, John Hornsby)
Sometimes I lead sometimes I follow
This time I'll go where she wants me to go
She said maybe today maybe tomorrow
Go deep in the woods down the low valley roadWhile no one was looking on the old plantation
He took her all the way down the long valley road
They sent her away not too much later
And left him walking down the old valley road
Walk on, walk on alone
Walk on, walk on, walk on aloneOut in the hall they were talking in a whisper
Everybody noticed she was gone a while
Somebody said she's gone to her sister's
But everybody knew what they were talking aboutStanding like a stone on the old plantation
The rich old man would have never let him in
Good enough to hire not good enough to marry
When all happens nobody winsWalk on, walk on alone
Walk on, walk on, walk on alone
6/17/88 Victim or the Crime 7/2/95
(Bob Weir, John Graham)
Patience runs out on the junkie,
The dark side hires another soul.
Did he steal his fate or earn it?
Was he force fed?
Did he learn it?Whatever happened to his precious self control?
Like him I'm tired of trying to heal
This tomcat heart with which I'm blessed.
Is destruction loving's twin?
Must I choose to lose or win?
Maybe when my turn comes I will have guessed.These are the homes of the dilemma.
What truth is proof against all lies?
When sacred fails before profane,
The wisest man is deemed insane.
Even the purest of romantics compromise.What fixation feeds this fever?
As the full moon pales and climbs.
Am I living truth or a deciever?
Am I the victim or the crime?
Am I the victim or the crime?
Or The Crime.(JAM)
And So I wrestle with the angel,
To see who'll reap the seeds I sew.
Am I the driver or the driven?
Will I be damned to be forgiven?
Is there anybody here but me who needs to know?What it is that feeds this fever
As the full moon pales and climbs....
Am I living truth or a deciever?
Am I the victim or the crime?
Am I the victim or the crime?
Am I the victim or the crime?
Am I the victim or the crime?
Or the crime?
2/23/66 Viola Lee Blues 10/31/70
(Noah Lewis)
The judge decreed it, the clerk he wrote it.
Clerk he wrote it down indeed-e
Judge decreed it, clerk he wrote it down
Give you this jail sentence you'll be Nashville boundSome got six month some got one solid.
Some got one solid year indeed-e
Some got six month some got one solid.
But me and my buddies all got lifetime hereI wrote a letter I mailed in the air, Mailed it on the air indeed-e
I wrote a letter I mailed in the air.
You may know by that I've got a friend somewhere
3/19/86 Visions of Johanna 4/7/95
(Bob Dylan)
Ain't it just like the night to play tricks
when you're tryin' to be so quiet?
We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it.
And Louise holds a handful of rain temptin' you to defy it.
Lights flicker from the opposite left.
In this room the heat pipes just cough.
The country music station plays soft,
But there's nothing, really nothing, to turn off.
Just Louise and her lovers so entwined
And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind.In the empty lot where the ladies play
blindman's bluff with a key chain,
And all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train.
We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight,
ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane.
But Louise she's alright, she's just near,
She's delicate and she seems like the mirror,
But she just makes it all too concise and too clear,
That Johanna's not here.
The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face.
Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place.Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously.
He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously,
And when bringing her name up he speaks of her farewell kiss to me.He's sure got alot of gall, to be so useless and all,
Muttering small talk at the wall, while I'm in the hall.
Oh, how can I explain? It's so hard to get on
And these visions of Johanna they kept me up past the dawn.Inside the museums Infinity goes up on trial
Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while.
But even Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues,
you can tell by the way she smiles
See the primative wallflower freeze.
When the jelly-faced women all sneeze,
Hear the one with the mustache say "Jeeze, I can't find my knees."
Jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule,
But the visions of Johanna they make it all seem so cruel.The peddlar now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him.
Saying "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out
and say a prayer for him."
But like Louise always says "Ya can't look at much can ya man?"
As she, herself prepares for him
And Madonna she still has not showed,
We see this empty cage now corrode,
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed,
The fiddler, he now steps to the road,
He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads,
While my conscience explodes.
The harmonicas play the skeleton key and the rain
And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain.