The Band Album

High and lonesome out on Times Square
Haven't got a dime, ain't got a prayer
Deliver us, Lord, from this golden calf
People only want what they cannot have

Forbidden fruit
That's the fruit that you'd better not taste
Forbidden fruit
You've got one life that you'd better not waste

How can I walk with this ball and chain?
How can I land in this hurricane?
Or is this part of man's evolution
To be torn between truth and illusion?

Forbidden fruit
That's the route that you'd better not take
Forbidden fruit
Just watch out for the sign of the snake

Little brother got caught in the web
He ran off to join the living dead
Been through the mill, seen the cross on the hill
He sold his soul just for a thrill

Forbidden fruit
In hot pursuit out on a limb
Forbidden fruit
Your whole world is closing in

You got the picture but missed the drift
You got me workin' the graveyard shift
I never went in for no burglary
But there's a stranger inside of me

Forbidden fruit
Don't you shoot the whole works away
Forbidden fruit
It's too high of a price to pay

How can you hear with a bad connection?
You can't see when there's no reception
Keep your distance, don't fool with taboo
'Cause it'll overtake and undertake you

Forbidden fruit
That's the fruit that you'd better not taste
Forbidden fruit
You've got one life that you'd better not waste

There was a chill that night in the hobo jungle
Over the train yard lay a smooth coat of frost
And although nobody here really knows where they're goin'
At the very same time nobody's lost

Then the fire went out and the night grew still
This old man lay frozen on the cold, cold ground
He was a stray bird and the road was his callin'
Ridin' the rods
Sleepin' under the stars
Playin' the harp from a rollin' box car

She attended the fun'ral in the hobo jungle
Long were they lovers though never could they wed
Drifters and rounders, oooh, and distant friends
Here I lie without anger or regret
I'm in no one's debt

Man goes nowhere
Ev'rything comes like tomorrow
But she took that last ride there by his side
He spent his whole life pursuing the horizon
Ridin' the rods
Sleepin' under the stars
Playin' the harp from a rollin' box car

Boards on the window, mail by the door
What would anybody leave so quickly for?
Ophelia - Where have you gone?

The old neighborhood just ain't the same
Nobody knows just what became of
Ophelia - tell me, what went wrong?

Was it somethin' that somebody said?
Mama, I know we broke the rules
Was somebody up against the law?
Honey, you know I'd die for you

Ashes of laughter, the coast is clear
Why do the best things always disappear
Like Ophelia - please darken my door

Was it somethin' that somebody said?
Honey, you know we broke the rules
Was somebody up against the law?
Honey, you know I'd die for you

They got your number, scared and runnin'
But I'm still waitin' for the second comin'
Of Ophelia - come back home

The war was over and the spirit was broken
The hills were smokin' as the men withdrew
We stood on the cliffs
Oh, and watched the ships
Slowly sinking to their rendezvous
They signed a treaty and our homes were taken
Loved ones forsaken
They didn't give a damn
Try'n' to raise a family
End up the enemy
Over what went down on the plains of Abraham

Acadian driftwood
Gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow
Canadian cold front movin' in
What a way to ride
Oh, what a way to go

Then some returned to the motherland
The high command had them cast away
And some stayed on to finish what they started
They never parted
They're just built that way
We had kin livin' south of the border
They're a little older and they've been around
They wrote a letter life is a whole lot better
So pull up your stakes, children and come on down

Fifteen under zero when the day became a threat
My clothes were wet and I was drenched to the bone
Been out ice fishing, too much repetition
Make a man wanna leave the only home he's known
Sailed out of the gulf headin' for Saint Pierre
Nothin' to declare
All we had was gone
Broke down along the coast
But what hurt the most
When the people there said
"You better keep movin' on"

Everlasting summer filled with ill-content
This government had us walkin' in chains
This isn't my turf
This ain't my season
Can't think of one good reason to remain
We worked in the sugar fields up from New Orleans
It was ever green up until the floods
You could call it an omen
Points ya where you're goin'
Set my compass north
I got winter in my blood

Acadian driftwood
Gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow
Canadian cold front movin' in
What a way to ride
Ah, what a way to go

Ring your bell
Change your number
Run like hell
You can't hide from thunder

Oh, no
Ring your bell
Get in the wind
You and me gonna make some medicine

Run that rebel across the tracks
With the Mounties on his trail
He was taught
Don't get caught at the mercy of the man
Land in jail
Meet me, madam, on the high road
We gonna blow the man down
I've been totin' a heavy load
And I'm rarin' to clown
Mess around

Ring your bell
Shake your tower
Pump your well
Turn on your power
I'm gonna ring your bell
Glide on in
You and me gonna make some medicine

Smoky bars and souped-up cars
Where we drowned all sorrow
Renegade woman
Love me like there's no tomorrow
Left to borrow
Bloodhounds comb the back streets
With the ramrod close behind
Ask for justice, you gonna find
My ass across
That border line

Ring your bell
Sound the chime
Open up your shell
Get on the line
Come on, ring your bell
Gimme some skin
You and me gonna make some medicine

It makes no difference where I turn
I can't get over you and the flame still burns
It makes no difference, night or day
The shadow never seems to fade away

And the sun don't shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Now there's no love
As true as the love
That dies untold
But the clouds never hung so low before

It makes no difference how far I go
Like a scar, the hurt will always show
And it makes no difference who I meet
They're just a face in the crowd on a dead-end street

And the sun don't shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

These old love letters
Well, I just can't keep
Just like the gambler says:
"Read 'em and weep"
And the dawn don't rescue me no more

Without your love, I'm nothing at all
Like an empty hall, it's a lonely fall
Since you've gone it's a losing battle
Stampeding cattle, they rattle the walls

And the sun don't shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Well, I love you so much
That it's all I can do
Just to keep myself from telling you
That I never felt so alone before

Jupiter Hollow
Northern Lights
Cast a glow through the window late last night
I went to follow through the sycamore
When I found myself in a place
I'd never been before
There was a unicorn and a dragon queen
Beneath the burgundy sky
I saw an old soldier singin' a love song
He had the distance in his eye

Livin' in another world
Livin' in another time
Like a comet I was hurled
Oh, livin' in another world

Jupiter Hollow
So far, so near
Like a time machine take you out to a different year
Phoebus Apollo played on his lyre
While we danced to the music of the sphere
And as the moon went down and the sun came up
With the mercury risin' too
'Twas then the prophet said the secret of the dead
I'll whisper it to you

Livin' in another world
Livin' in another time
Like a comet I was hurled
Oh, livin' in another world

Jupiter Hollow
In the midnight sun
Well, no man of dreams was ever more outdone
Where the swallows circle over head
And muses gather by the river of the tears we shed
Just like a pioneer in the new frontier
I don't know where to begin
Because nobody cares when a man goes mad
And tries to free the ghost within

Livin' in another world
Livin' in another time
Like a comet I was hurled
Oh, livin' in another world

Catch a taxi to the fountainhead

Blinking neon penny arcade
A young Caruso on the fire escape
Painted face ladies on parade
The newsboy on the corner
Singing out headlines
And a fiddler selling pencils
The sign reads: Help the blind

Comin' up the lane callin'
Workin' while the rain's fallin'
Ragman, your song of the street
Keeps haunting my memory

Music in the air
I hear it ev'rywhere
Rags, bones and old city songs
Hear them, how they talk to me

Trolley car rings out the morning
Whistle blows at noon
A cat fight breaks open the night
While watch dogs bay at the moon
A preacher on an orange crate
With a Salvation Army Band
And clicking along the cobbled stones
That's the sound of the ice-cream man

Comin' up the lane callin'
Workin' while the rain's fallin'
Ragman, your song of the street
Keeps haunting my memory
Music in the air
I hear it ev'rywhere
Rags, bones and old city songs
Hear them, how they talk to me

The organ grinder and his monkey
Still walkin' the same old beat
The shoe-shine boy slappin' leather
He puts the rhythm in your feet
Strollin' by the churchyard
List'nin' to the Sunday choir
With voices rising to the heavens
Like sirens screaming to a fire

Comin' up to the lane callin'
Workin' while the rain's fallin'
Ragman, your song of the street
Keeps haunting my memory
Music in the air
I hear it ev'rywhere
Rags, bones and old city songs
Play them one more time for me