Joan Baez Album

This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace, for lands afar & mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Heare are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine

Coldest night of the winter
working up my farewell
In the middle of everything
under no particular spell

Dreaming of the mountains
where the children learn the stars
Clouds roll in from Nebraska
dark chords on a big guitar

My restlessness is long gone
standing like an old jack pine
I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
She's a friend of a friend of mine

Can't believe your hands and mouth
did all that to me
And they are so daily naked
for all the world to see

That thunderstorm in Michigan
I never will forget
We shook right with the thunder
& with the pounding rain got wet

Where did you turn when you turned from me
with your arms across your chest
Ya,I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
saw her in the great northwest

Would she have said it was the wrong time
if I had found her then
I don't ask very much
a field across the road and a few good friends

She used to come & see me
she was always there & gone
Even the very longest love
do'nt last very long

She'd stood there in my doorway
smoothing out her dress
saying 'life is a thump-ripe melon-
-so sweet and such a mess'

(I wanted to get to know you
but you said you were shy
I would have followed you anywhere
but hello rolled into goodbye

I just stood there watching
as you walked along the fence
Beware of them that look at you
as an experience

You're back out on the highway
with your poems of city heat
I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
here on my own side street)


Well,The murderer who lived next door
seemed such a normal guy--
You try to swallow what they shove at us
you run out of tears to cry

I heard a man speak quietly
I listened for a while
He spoke from his heart to my woe
& then he bowed & smiled

What is real but compassion
as we move from birth to death
Ya,I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
& I'm running out of breath

Spring will come back I know it will
& it'll do its best
so useful, so endangered
like a lion or a breast

I think about my children
when I look at any child's face
pray that we will find a way
to get with all this amazing grace

It's so cold out there tonight
stormy I can hardly see
I'm looking for Rexroth's daughter
& I guess I always will be.

The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges are packed in the creosote dumps
They're flying you back to the Mexico border
To pay all your money to wade back again

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees

My father's own father, he waded that river
They took all the money he made in his life
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees
They rode the big trucks till they lay down and die

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees

The skyplane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon
A fireball of lightning, and it shook all the hills
Who are these comrades that died like the dry leaves
The radio tells me they're just deportees

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees

We died in your hills and we died in your deserts
We died in your valleys we died on your plains
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes
Both sides of the river we died just the same

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees

Some of us are illegal, and others not wanted
Our work contract's out and we have to move on
But it's six hundred miles to that Mexican border
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit
To fall like dry leaves and rot on the top soil
And be called by no name except "deportee"

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won't have a name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

"The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
They shot you Joe" says I.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
Says Joe "I didn't die"

And standing there as big as life
And smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe "What they can never kill
Went on to organize,
Went on to organize"

From San Diego up to Maine,
In every mine and mill,
Where working-men defend their rights,
It's there you find Joe Hill,
It's there you find Joe Hill!

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

It's Christmastime in Washington
The Democrats rehearsed
Gettin' into gear for four more years
Things not gettin' worse
The Republicans drink whiskey neat
And thanked their lucky stars
They said, 'He cannot seek another term
They'll be no more FDRs'
I sat home in Tennessee
Staring at the screen
With an uneasy feeling in my chest
And I'm wonderin' what it means

So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

I followed in your footsteps once
Back in my travelin' days
Somewhere I failed to find your trail
Now I'm stumblin' through the haze
But there's killers on the highway now
And a man can't get around
So I sold my soul for wheels that roll
Now I'm stuck here in this town

So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

There's foxes in the hen house
Cows out in the corn
The unions have been busted
Their proud red banners torn
To listen to the radio
You'd think that all was well
But you and me and Cisco know
It's going straight to hell

So come back, Emma Goldman
Rise up, old Joe Hill
The barracades are goin' up
They cannot break our will
Come back to us, Malcolm X
And Martin Luther King
We're marching into Selma
As the bells of freedom ring

So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now

Farewell, Angelina
The bells of the crown
Are being stolen by bandits
I must follow the sound.
The triangle tingles
and the trumpets play slow.
Farewell, Angelina
the sky is on fire
and I must go.

There's no need for anger
There's no need for blame.
There's nothing to prove
Everything's still the same.
Just a table standing empty
by the edge of the sea means
Farewell, Angelina
the sky is trembling
and I must leave.

The jack and the queen
have forsake the courtyard.
Fifty-two gypsies
now file past the guards
In the space where the deuce
and the ace once ran wild
Farewell, Angelina
the sky is falling
I'll see you in a while.

See the cross-eyed pirates sitting
perched in the sun
shooting tin cans
with a sawed-off shotgun.
And the neighobrs they clap
and they cheer with each blast.
Farewell, Angelina
the sky's changing color
and I must leave fast

King Kong, little elves
on the rooftops they dance
Valentino-type tangos
while the makeup man's hands
shut the eyes of the dead
not to embarrass anyone.
But Farewell, Angelina
the sky's embarrassed
and I must be gone.

The machine guns are roaring
the puppets heave rocks
and fiends nail time bombs
to the hands of the clocks.
Call me any name you like
I will never deny it,
But Farewell, Angelina
the sky is erupting
I must go where it's quiet.

Where in the hell can you go far from the things that you know
Far from the sprawl of concrete that keeps crawling its way about 1,000 miles a day?
Take one last look behind, commit this to memory and mind.
Don't miss this wasteland, this terrible place.
When you leave keep your heart off your sleeve.

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep.
Keep me safe, lie with me, stay beside me don't go.
Don't you go.
Oh, my five & dime queen tell me what have you seen?
The lust and the avarice, the bottomless, cavernous greed, is that what you see?

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep.
Keep me safe, lie with me, stay beside me don't go.

It's your happiness I want most of all and for that I'd do anything at all, oh mercy me!
If you want the best of it or the most of all, if there's anything I can do at all.

Now come on shot gun bride what makes me envy your life?
Faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless and free, what's that like to be?

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep.
Keep me safe, lie with me, stay beside me don't go.
Don't go.

I wish I was in Carrickfergus
Only for nights in Ballygrand
I would swim over the deepest ocean
The deepest ocean to be by your side

But the sea is wide and I cannot swim over
Neither have I wings to fly
I wish I could find me a handy boatsman
To ferry me over to my love and die

These childhood places bring back sad reflections
Of happy times spent so long ago
My girlhood friends and my own relations
Have all passed on like the melting snow

And I'll spend my days in endless roaming
Soft is the grass, and my bed is free
Ah, to be home now in Carrickfergus
On that long road down to the salty sea

And at kill kinny it is reported
On marble stone as black as ink
With gold and silver he did support me
But I'll sing no more now 'til I've had a drink

And I'm drunk today and I'm rarely sober
'Cause I run from town to town
Oh, but I'm sick now, and my days are numbered
No more young nights, and lay me down
No more young nights, and lay me down

Jack-A-Roe (Traditional)


There was a wealthy merchant,
In London he did dwell
He had a lovely daughter,
The truth to you I'll tell
Oh the truth to you I'll tell

She had sweethearts a-plenty
And men of high degree
There was none but Jack the sailor,
Her true love e'er could be
Oh her true love e'er could be

Now Jackie's gone a-sailing
With trouble on his mind
To leave his native country
And his darling girl behind
Oh, his darling girl behind.

She went into a tailor shop
And dressed in men's array
And stepped on board a vessel
To convey herself away
Oh, to convey herself away.

"Before you step on board, sir,
Your name I'd like to know"
She smiled all in her countenance,
"They call me Jackaroe"
Oh, they call me Jackaroe.

"Your waist is light and slender,
Your fingers are neat and small
Your cheeks too red and rosy
To face the cannonball"
Oh, to face the cannon-ball.

"I know my waist is slender,
My fingers neat and small
But it would not make me tremble
To see ten thousand fall"
Oh, to see ten thousand fall.

The war soon being over,
They hunted all around
And among the dead and dying
Her darling boy she found
Oh, her darling boy she found.

She picked him up all in her arms
And carried him to the town
And sent for a physician who
Quickly healed his wounds
Oh, who quickly healed his wounds.

This couple they got married
And well they did agree
This couple they got married,
So why not you and me
Oh, so why not you and me.

Old Reilly stole a stallion
But they caught him and they brought him back
And they laid him down on the jailhouse ground
With an iron chain around his neck.

Old Reilly's daughter got a message
That her father was goin' to hang.
She rode by night and came by morning
With gold and silver in her hand.

When the judge he saw Reilly's daughter
His old eyes deepened in his head,
Sayin', "Gold will never free your father,
The price, my dear, is you instead."

"Oh I'm as good as dead," cried Reilly,
"It's only you that he does crave
And my skin will surely crawl if he touches you at all.
Get on your horse and ride away."

"Oh father you will surely die
If I don't take the chance to try
And pay the price and not take your advice.
For that reason I will have to stay."

The gallows shadows shook the evening,
In the night a hound dog bayed,
In the night the grounds were groanin',
In the night the price was paid.

The next mornin' she had awoken
To know that the judge had never spoken.
She saw that hangin' branch a-bendin',
She saw her father's body broken.

These be seven curses on a judge so cruel:
That one doctor will not save him,
That two healers will not heal him,
That three eyes will not see him.

That four ears will not hear him,
That five walls will not hide him,
That six diggers will not bury him
And that seven deaths shall never kill him

If I had wings like Noah's dove
I'd fly the river to the one I love
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well.
I had a man, who was long and tall,
Moved his body like a cannon ball.
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well.

'Member one evening, it was drizzling rain
And in my heart I felt an aching pain.
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well.

Once I wore my apron low,
Been a-keep' you away from my door.
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well.

Now my apron is up to my chin,
You pass my door but you never come in.
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well.

Muddy river runs muddy 'n' wild,
You can't care the bloody for my unborn child.
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well.

Number nine train ain' done no harm,
Number nine train take my poor baby home.
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well.

Fastest man I ever saw
Skid Missouri on the way to Arkansas.
Fare thee well, my honey, fare thee well

(traditional)

Don't sing love songs, you'll wake my mother
She's sleeping here right by my side
And in her right hand a silver dagger,
She says that I can't be your bride.

All men are false, says my mother,
They'll tell you wicked, lovin' lies.
The very next evening, they'll court another,
Leave you alone to pine and sigh.

My daddy is a handsome devil
He's got a chain five miles long,
And on every link a heart does dangle
Of another maid he's loved and wronged.

Go court another tender maiden,
And hope that she will be your wife,
For I've been warned, and I've decided
To sleep alone all of my life.

You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last.
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast.
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun,
Crying like a fire in the sun.
Look out the saints are comin' through
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense.
Take what you have gathered from coincidence.
The empty-handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets.
This sky, too, is folding under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home.
All your reindeer armies, are all going home.
The lover who just walked out your door
Has taken all his blankets from the floor.
The carpet, too, is moving under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.

Leave your stepping stones behind you, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue
Oh, it's all over now, Baby Blue.

I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say

And I almost listened to him
Yeah, I almost lost my mind
Then I regained my senses again
And looked into my heart to find

That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem

Well maybe I'm only dreamin' and maybe I'm just a fool
But I don't remember learnin' how to hate in Sunday school
But somewhere along the way I strayed and I never looked back again
But I still find some comfort now and then

Then the storm comes rumblin' in
And I can't lay me down
And the drums are drummin' again
And I can't stand the sound

But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb
Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem

And there'll be no barricades then
There'll be no wire or walls
And we can wash all this blood from our hands
And all this hatred from our souls

And I believe that on that day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem