Joan Baez Album

You don't have to play me backwards
To get the meaning of my verse
You don't have to die and go to hell
To feel the devil's curse

Well I thought my life was a photograph
On the family Christmas card
Kids all dressed in buttons and bows
And lined up in the yard
Were the golden days of childhood
So lyrical and warm
Or did the picture start to fade
On the day that I was born

I've seen them light the candles
I've heard them bang the drum
And I've cried Mama, I'm cold as ice!
And I got no place to run

Let the night begin there's a pop of skin
And the sudden rush of scarlet
There's a little boy riding on a goat's head
And a little girl playing the harlot
There's a sacrifice in an empty church
Of sweet li'l baby Rose
And a man in a mask from Mexico
Is peeling off my clothes

I've seen them light the candles
I've heard them bang the drum
And I've cried Mama, I'm cold as ice!
And I got no place to run

So I'm paying for protection
Smoking out the truth
Chasing recollections
Nailing down the proof

You don't have to play me backwards
To get the meaning of my verse
You don't have to die and go to hell
To feel the devil's curse
I'll stand before your altar
And tell everything I know
I've come to claim my childhood
At the chapel of baby Rose

I've seen them light the candles
I've heard them bang the drum
I've seen them light the candles
I've heard them bang the drum

(written by Janis Ian and Buddy Mondlock)
Just the pattern of sunlight on a building
Just a flash in a window I was passing
Just a frame in a movie I remembered
Amsterdam
Just the sound of a wheel in the gravel
Just the click of a heel on the pavement
Just a moment like any other moment
Amsterdam
I remember your lips, I remember your eyes
And the taste of the kiss and your graceful goodbye
You lied
Goodbye
Just the scent of perfume on the linen
Just the print of a palm on the pillow
Just the hint of the moon through the window
Amsterdam
Just a ghost in the steam on the mirror
Just a shadow of motion in the water
Just a need to look over my shoulder
Amsterdam
I remember your lips, I remember your eyes
And the taste of the kiss and your graceful goodbye
You lied
Goodbye
Just two lovers asleep in the silence as I watched from the door
Just the weight of a heart as it's falling, nothing more
I remember your lips, I remember your eyes
And the taste of the kiss and your graceful goodbye
You lied
Goodbye

Hard times, hard times in Canaan land
Trouble in the mind of a man
A voice came whispering softly to him
Go offer, offer up the lamb

Abraham took his only son
High up on a hill
His test of faith had finally come
As the wind, the wind begin to chill

Cold steel, cold steel in the father's hand
Tears falling from the sky
The angels, the angels did not understand
Why the righteous, the righteous boy should die

Then Abraham most mysteriously
Laid down that deadly knife
Said "My darlin' son, I wish I was the one
Who spared you, spared your precious life"

Oh Isaac
The light of all your days
Will shine upon this mountain high
And never, never fade away
And never fade away

When we were young, we pledged allegiance every morning of our lives

The classroom rang with children's voices under teacher's watchful eye

We learned about the world around us at our desks and at dinnertime

Reminded of the starving children, we cleaned our plates with guilty minds

And the stones in the road we played like marbles in the dust

Until a voice called for us to make our way back home

When I was ten, my father held me on his shoulders above the crowd

To see a train draped in mourning pass slowly through our town

His widow kneeled with all her children at the sacred burial ground

The TV glowed that long hot summer with all the cities burning down

And the stones in the road flew out from our bicycle tires

Worlds removed from all those fires as we raced each other home

And now we drink our coffee on the run and climb that ladder rung by rung

We are the daughters and the sons and here's the line that's missing...

The starving children have been replaced by souls out on the street

We give a dollar when we pass and hope our eyes don't meet

We pencil in, we cancel out, we crave the corner suite

We kiss your ass, we make you hold, we doctor the receipt

And the stones in the road leave a mark from whence they came

A thousand points of light or shame, baby, I don't know

Stones in the road

Kneeling in the moonlight, gazing on the shore, the girl with the blue bouquet
What if you got it, what you're praying for? Careful what you pray

You turn around, the old way is gone, you wonder how you will carry on
All my pride I will lay aside, I will steal across the border for you

Lying in the dusty shadows of your bed, dreaming on a clear blue sky
Paying for something that you never even did, victim of a time gone by

You turn around, everything has changed, familiar scenes have been rearranged
All my life I will work and strive, I will steal across the border for you
All my pride I will lay aside, I will steal across the border for you

So it's time to set you free
Watch you sail away from me
Though I'll miss you when you do
I'm with you

Turn your face into the wind
Let your greatest dreams begin
Take the high road, win or lose
I'm with you

I was there in the morning light
With a love that would last
And I'll be there on your darkest night
When the sun's long gone and your heart is sinking fast

When you stumble, when you fall
When they back you to the wall
After all the rest are through
I'm with you

So it's time to set you free
Let you sail away from me
I've done all that I can do
I'm with you

Take the high road, win or lose
I'm with you

So it's time to set you free
Watch you sail away from me
Though I'll miss you when you do
I'm with you

Turn your face into the wind
Let your greatest dreams begin
Take the high road, win or lose
I'm with you

I was there in the morning light
With a love that would last
And I'll be there on your darkest night
When the sun's long gone and your heart is sinking fast

When you stumble, when you fall
When they back you to the wall
After all the rest are through
I'm with you

So it's time to set you free
Let you sail away from me
I've done all that I can do
I'm with you

Take the high road, win or lose
I'm with you

There are voices in the mirror, faces at the door
That open on the rivers we've never seen before
Are there choices for the sparrow, or does he only fly
High above the rivers that are pulling you and I

Oh, there are strange rivers, rivers that we cannot see
There are strange rivers who know our destiny
There are strange rivers who brought your love to me

He could have been a builder, he could have been the one
Who turned his dreams to steel cathedrals in the sun
He could have been a builder, until he bought the gun
There are forces in that river that keep him on the run

Oh, there are strange rivers, rivers that we cannot see
There are strange rivers who know our destiny
There are strange rivers who brought your love to me

Have you ever turned the corner and wondered why you did?
You haven't been that way since you were just a kid
Nothing really happens and then you have to say
You wonder what would happen had you gone the other way

Oh, there are strange rivers, rivers that we cannot see
There are strange rivers who know our destiny
There are strange rivers who brought your love to me

You were dreaming on a park bench
'Bout a broad highway somewhere
When the music from the carillon
Seemed to hurl your heart out there
Past the scientific darkness
Past the fireflies that float
To an angel bending down
To wrap you in her warmest coat

And you ask, "What am I not doing?"
She says "Your voice cannot command.
In time, you will move mountains,
And it will come through your hands."

Still you argue for an option
Still you angle for your case
Like you wouldn't know a burning bush
If it blew up in your face
Yeah, we scheme about the future
And we dream about the past
When just a simple reaching out
Might build a bridge that lasts

And you ask, "What am I not doing?"
She says "Your voice cannot command.
In time, you will move mountains,
And it will come through your hands."

So whatever your hands find to do
You must do with all your heart
There are thoughts enough
To blow men's minds and tear great worlds apart

There's a healing touch to find you
On that broad highway somewhere
To lift you high
As music flying
Through the angel's hair.

Don't ask what you are not doing
Because your voice cannot command
In time we will move mountains
And it will come through your hands

I had a dream I was following a barefoot girl
Beside a stream that flowed around the world
And we spoke of many things though her mouth never moved
As the most peculiar scenes were disappearing into view

Oh what a dream beyond the realm of why
Pretty little beings beneath the yawning sky
Speaking of God as though they could define
Music to the deaf and color to the blind or God to man

And then the leaves became a thousand tears
And I was on my knees in a crazy house of mirrors
I couldn't find my face but a voice was drawing nearer
Hush baby, sweet baby, hush don't you cry

And I thought I woke and my mother was standing there
And my heart broke as the ribbons in her hair
Turned into highways surrounded and swirled
Like a crown come down around a not so perfect world

In the corner of the dream was the man with the blue guitar
It had no strings but the music touched the stars
And his long dark curls turned to gold before my eyes
And the barefoot girl smiled off to the side and it was real

Then a thousand birds took flight with a joyful noise
And I heard the angels up on high rejoice
I could see my face and I recognized the voice
Hush baby, sweet baby, hush baby hush

It's just a dream, one of those that goes on and on
Scene after scene with the rhythm of a gypsy song
When I really woke I was frozen in between
I didn't know who I was, it was a dream inside a dream

It's all a dream
Oh what a dream
I had a dream

My house stands at the edge of glory
Steady as the seasons change
Dreams of grace arise before me
And they call me home again

I went forth with no protection
Through a fierce and blinding rain
Seeking truth but not perfection
Saw my father's face again

Father, father can you hear me
Through this swirl of thoughts unsaid
All you wanted I did not know
All you asked I tried to give

My house stands at the edge of glory
Steady as the seasons change
Dreams of grace arise before me
And they call me home again

Take this hand that I hold out
Meant to bridge the years apart
Come in, come in from the howling wind
To the clearing of my heart

Still and lovely came the morning
Gone was my father's face
In my house a bright reflection
New among my dreams of grace

My house stands at the edge of glory
Steady as the seasons change
Dreams of grace arise before me
And they call me home again