Guy Clark Album

It's like when you're making conversation
And you're trying not to scream
And you're trying not to tell 'em
You don't care what they mean
And you're really feeling fragile
And you really can't get home
And you really feel abandoned
But you want to be alone

Chorus
Old Friends they shine like diamonds
Old Friends you can always call
Old Friends Lord you can't buy 'em
You know it's Old Friends after all

And when the house is empty
And the lights begin to fade
And there's nothing to protect you
Except the window shade
And it's hard to put your finger
On the thing that scares you most
And you can't tell the difference
Between an angel and a ghost

Chorus

A hand is just another kind of hammer made of steel
Beating blindly on the anvil a hammer cannot feel
But a hand is for reaching out and touching all you can
Holding on and hoping that you'll come to understand

Chorus
So always try to keep you heart connected to your wrist
Cause everybody knows that you can't shake hands with a fist

A fist is just another kind of tower made of stone
Without a window anywhere you know a tower stands alone
But a hand can open windows that have never seen the light
Lead you through the darkness and guide you through the night

Chorus

Oh a time there was I was feelin' so hopeless
It's a wonder I didn't cave in
I kept throwing love at all the wrong people
Never to see it again.

Chorus

Oh Lord won't you look what I've found
Starin' me right in the face
I'm through bein lonely I'm through bein sad
I'm all through throwin' good love after bad.

When I think of all the time I have wasted
Wearin' my hear on my sleeve
Entrusting my love to the kindness of strangers
Oh I was so naive

Chorus

Oh Ellis Island was swarming
Like a scene from a costume hall
Decked out in the colors in Europe
And on fire with the hope of it all
There stood my father's own father stood huddled
With the tired and hungry and scared
Turn of the century pilgrims
Bound by the dream that they shared
They were standing in lines just like cattle
Poked and prodded and shoved
Some were one desk away from sweet freedom
Som were were torn from someone they love
Through this sprawling tower of babel
Came a young man confused and alone
Determined and bound for America
And carryin' everything that he owned

Chorus
Sometimes when I look in my grandfather's Immigrant Eyes
I see that day refelcted and I can't hold my feelings inside
I see starting with nothing and working hard all of his life
So don't take it for granted say grandfather's Immigrant Eyes

Now he rocks and stares out the window
But his eyes are still just as clear
As the day he sailed through the harbor
And come ashore on the island of tears
My grandfather's days are numbered
But I won' t let his memory die
'Cause he gave me the gift of this country
And the look in his Immigrant Eyes

Somedays I think this old machine is out to get me
Somedays she does what I tell her
It's like dancing with a widow-maker forty hours a week
You know I'm talkin' 'bout a big ol' D-10 caterpiller

Chorus
I don't know why I like to drive 'em like I do
It ain't nothin' but a hundred seventy-five thousand pounds of steel
Could be the money babe could be the power
Could be I love the way it feels
Could be I love the way it feels

But you know she's mighty unforgivin' so you got to pay attention
You know the D-10 can be the death of you
But I get her all fired up and I can feel it in my soul
And it's hard to tell who's drivin' who

I can move Alaska all the way to Beirut
I can bulldoze a beeline from here to Peru
I can push the Rocky Mountains into the sea
You know Heavy metal don't mean rock and roll to me

You know I'm a modern day mule skinner drivin' ten thousand mules
So I got to say a little prayer every day
Lord just let me get her turned around
Without fallin' off this mountain
You know the boss don't like me treatin' his D-10 that way

Chorus

When I was a young man my daddy told me
A lesson he learned, it was a long time ago
If you want to have someone to hold onto
You're gonna have to learn to let go

Chorus
You got to sing like you don't need the money
Love like you'll never get hurt
You got to dance like nobody's watchin'
It's gotta come from the heart if you want it to work

Now here is the one thing that I keep forgetting
When everything is falling apart
In life as in love, what I need to remember
There's such a thing as trying too hard

Chorus

If you ever go out to the circus
Where the Wallendas walk on the wire
I'll tell you a tale to remember
When the white horses leap rings of fire

It was a cold night in Oklahoma
The show was about to begin
The animals they were all restless
When the star horse she broke from her pen

She was a mare of high spirit
Just like a whore on Saturday night
She's kickin' and buckin' past the men who were brushin'
The elephants lyin' on their sides
Next to the tent sat some lanterns
They were dangerously close to the hay
That mare headed straight for those lanterns
Some fool had put there by mistake

Then up stepped some Indian Cowboy
His lasso went whirlin' throught the air
In the full dead middle of danger
He roped that runaway mare

Then the elephants raised up their trumpets
Two of them broke from their chains
Stampeded that Indian Cowboy
Who had saved the big top from flames
So if you ever go out to the circus
Where the Wallendas walk on the wire
You just remember that Indian Cowboy
When the white horses leap rings of fire

Won't say I love you babe
Won't say I need you babe
But, I'm gonna get you babe
And I will not do you wrong
Livin's mostly wastin' time
I waste my share of mine
But it never feels too good
So let's don't take too long
You're soft as glass
And I'm a gentle man
We got the sky to talk about
And the world to lie upon.

Days up and down they come
Like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some
But don't turn none away
Everything is not enough
Nothin' is to much to bear
Where you been is good and gone
All you keep is the gettin' there
To live is to fly
Low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes

It's goodbye to all my friends
It's time to go again
Think on all the poetry
And the pickin' down the line
I'll miss the system here
The bottom's low and the treble's clear
But it don't pay to think to much
On things you leave behind
I may be gone
But it won't be long
I will be a-bringin' back the melody
And the rhythm that I find

We all got holes to fill
Them holes are all that's real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own
But choice is yours to make
And time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone
To live is to fly
Low and high,
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eyes

The sun was hot and the dust rose up like smoke
So we hid beneath the elm tree and watched the watermelons float
There in a big 'ol tub of ice
And we'd split em open with a kitchen knife
And everybody had a sliece it was a watermelon dream

Chorus

Ain't nothin' sweeter than a watermelon dream
'Cept sittin on the front porch eatin' that peach ice cream
When life is really sweeter than it seems
That's what you've got to call a watermelon dream

With sticky hands and and faces we fought the yellow-jackets to a draw
Then we used the rind for second base and played a little hard ball
I don't know how much we ate
But we all got the belly-ache
And everybody stayed up wat too late
It was a watermelon dream

Chorus

Then a little after sundown we'd be runnin out of steam
So we'd light a roman candle and try to hold on tho the dream
Maybe slip out behind a car
Take a little tastes from a jar
Then just lay back and count the stars
That's called a watermelon dream

I was feelin' depressed I was feelin real low down
I felt so bad I could not get my butt up off the grounds
I was mopin' around the house I was bumpin' into walls
I was cryin' at the Andy Griffith show and I was snappin' and the dog
I was startin' to fear for my sanity
I could not find my ego with both hands

So I decided professional help was the only hope for me
So I called up this number which I'd gotten of T.V.
They said "Are you havin' marital problems Are you emotionally impaired
Are you sure you're bein' followed or Are you just scared of bein' scared?
Well if so you better come on in have a little talk with the doc"

So I did

I said doctor good doctor I got trouble on my mind
Listen to me doc I don't have too much time
I got a feelin' down inside me and it will not go away
You know it hangs on and bangs on my soul every day
Doctor good doctor I'm grabbin' at loose ends
And I haven't felt like I used to since I don't know when
Yesterday go past me today is all the same
And tomorrow really scares me I just can't play the game

He said quit whinin'
He said straighten up and fly right
He said life is not a piece of cake
He wanted to know if my insurance was paid up
Well I'm O.K. You're O.K. if the check's O.K.
Second best hundred dollars I ever spent