Wilco Album

Last night or night before that (I won't say which night)
A seaman friend of mine (I'll not say which seaman)
Walked up to a big old building (I won't say which building)
And would not have walked up the stairs (not to say which stairs)
If there had not have been two girls (leaving out the names of those two girls)

And I recall a door, a big long room (I'll not tell which room)
I remember a deep blue rug (but I can't say which rug)
A girl took down a book of poems (not to say which book of poems)
And as she read I laid my head (and I can't tell which head)
Down in her lap (and I can mention which lap)

Well, my seaman buddy and his girl moved off after a couple of pages
And there I was, all night long
Laying and listening and forgetting the poems

And as well as I could recall
Or my seaman buddy could recollect
The girl had told us that she was a niece of Walt Whitman
But not which niece

And it takes a night and a girl
And a book of this kind
A long long time to find its way back

Last night or night before that (I won't say which night)
A seaman friend of mine (I'll not say which seaman)
Walked up to a big old building (and I won't say which building)
And would not have walked the stairs (not to say which stairs)
If there had not been two girls (leaving out the names of those two girls)

And I recall a door, a big long room (I'll not tell which room)
I remember a deep blue rug (but I can't say which rug)
A girl took down a book of poems (not to say which book of poems)
And as she read I laid my head (but I can't tell which head)

I'd like to rest my heavy head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I'd like to lay my weary bones tonight
On a bed of California stars

I'd love to feel
Your hand touching mine
And tell me why
I must keep working on

Yes I'd give my life
To lay my head tonight on a bed
of California stars

I'd like to dream
My troubles all away
On a bed of California stars

Jump up from my starbed
Make another day
Underneath my California stars

They hang like grapes
On vines that shine
And warm the lovers' glass
Like friendly wine

So I'd give this world
Just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars

I'd like to rest my heavy head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I'd like to lay my weary bones tonight
On a bed of California stars

I'd love to feel
Your hand touching mine
And tell me why
I must keep working on

Yes I'd give my life
To lay my head tonight on a bed
of California stars

I'd like to dream
My troubles all away
On a bed of California stars

Jump up from my starbed
Make another day
Underneath my California stars

They hang like grapes
On vines that shine
And warm the lovers' glass
Like friendly wine

So I'd give this world
Just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars

So I'd give this world
Just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars

I lived in a place called Okfuskee
And I had a little girl in a holler tree
I said, little girl, it's plain to see
Ain't nobody that can sing like me
Ain't nobody that can sing like me

She said it's hard for me to see
How one little boy got so ugly
Yes my little girly that might be
But there ain't nobody that can sing like me
Ain't nobody that can sing like me

Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
There ain't nobody that can sing like me

We walked down by the Buckeye Creek
To see the frog eat the goggle-eye bee
To hear the west wind whistle to the east
There ain't nobody that can sing like me
Ain't nobody that can sing like me

Oh my little girly will you let me see
Way over yonder where the wind blows free
Nobody can see in our holler tree

And there ain't nobody that can sing like me
Ain't nobody that can sing like me

Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
Ain't nobody that can sing like me

Her mama cut a switch from a cherry tree
And laid it on the she and me
It stung lots worse than a hive of bees
But there ain't nobody that can sing like me
Ain't nobody that can sing like me

Now I have walked a long long ways
And I still look back to my Tanglewood days
I've led lots of girls since then to stray
Saying ain't nobody that can sing like me
Ain't nobody that can sing like me

Way over yonder in the minor key
Way over yonder in the minor key
Ain't nobody that can sing like me

The birds are singing
In your eyes today
Sweet flowers blossom in your smile

The wind and sun
Are in the words you say
Where might your lonesome lover be?

Birds may be singing
In my eyes this day
Sweet flowers blossom when I smile

But my soul is stormy
And my heart blows wild
My sweetheart rides a ship on the sea

Though my soul is stormy
And my heart blows wild

Hoodoo voodoo, seven twenty one two
Haystacka hostacka, ABC
High poker, low joker, ninety-nine-a-zero
Sidewalk, streetcar, dance a goofy dance

Blackbirdy, bluejay, one, two, three, four
Trash sack, jump back, EFG
Biggy hat, little hat, fatty man, skinny man
Grasshopper greensnake, hold my hand

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka-chooky-choo-choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Momma cat, Tommy cat, diapers on my clothes line
Two, four, six, eight, I run and hide
Pretty girl, pretty boy, pony on a tin can
I'll be yours, you'll be mine

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka-chooky-choo-choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Jinga jangler, tinga lingle, picture on a bricky wall
Hot and scamper, foamy lather, huggle me close
Hot breeze, old cheese, slicky slacky fishy tails
Brush my hair, kissle me some more

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka chooky choo choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now

Hoodoo voodoo, chooka chooky choo choo
True blue, how true, kissle me now
Kissle me now

Brush my hair
And kissle me some more

Kissle me some more

Ten hundred books could I write you about her
Cause I felt if I could know her
I would know all women

And they've not been any too well known
For brains and planning and organized thinking
But I'm sure the women are equal
And they may be ahead of the men

Yet I wouldn't spread such a rumor around
Cause one organizes the other
And sometimes the most lost and wasted
Attract the most balanced and sane

And the wild and the reckless take up
With the clocked and the timed
And the mixture is all of us
And we're still mixing

But never never never
Never could have it been done
If the women hadn't entered into the deal
Like she came along to me

And all creeds and kinds and colors
Of us are blending
Till I suppose ten million years from now
We'll all be just alike

Same color, same size, working together
And maybe we'll have all of the fascists
Out of the way by then
Maybe so

But never never never
Never could have it been done
If the women hadn't entered into the deal

At my window, sad and lonely
Oft times do I think of thee
Sad and lonely and I wonder
Do you ever think of me

Every day is sad and lonely
And every night is sad and blue
Do you ever think of me my darling
As you sail that ocean blue

At my window, sad and lonely
I stand and look across the sea
And I sad and lonely wonder
Do you ever think of me

Will you find another sweetheart
In some far and distant land
Sad and lonely now I wonder
If our boat will ever land

Ships may ply the stormy ocean
And planes may fly the stormy sky
I'm sad and lonely but remember

Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman
Let's go make a picture
On the island of Stromboli
Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman, you're so perty
You'd make any mountain quiver
You'd make fire fly from the crater
Ingrid Bergman

This old mountain it's been waiting
All its life for you to work it
For your hand to touch its hard rock
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman

If you'll walk across my camera,
I will flash the world your story,
I will pay you more than money
Ingrid Bergman

Not by pennies dimes nor quarters
But with happy sons and daughters
And they'll sing around Stromboli
Ingrid Bergman

This old mountain it's been waiting
All its life for you to work it
For your hand to touch its hard rock
Ingrid Bergman

Let's have Christ our President
Let us have him for our king
Cast your vote for the Carpenter
That they call the Nazarene

The only way
We could ever beat
These crooked politician men

Is to cast the moneychangers
Out of the temple
Put the Carpenter in

Oh it's Jesus Christ our President
God above our king
With a job and pension for young and old
We will make hallelujah ring

Every year we waste enough
To feed the ones who starve
We build our civilization up
And we shoot it down with wars

But with the Carpenter
On the seat
Way up in the capitol town

The USA
Be on the way

I guess I planted some long lonesome seed of a song
Way down inside me long ago
And now I can't remember when it was
But it joined up with the rest of them and grows

It's such a little song it don't compare
With all your big ones you hear everywhere
But when it dawns way in the back of your mind
The big ones are made up of the little kind

Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now
Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now

I can't even start to look around me here
Without hearing this song
And seeing all of us first separated
Hurt apart and afraid

Hungry for the union
And so we kept on
Singing and working, fighting till we got it
And this is the big union song I guess I hear

Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now
Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now

We fought there at your place
We fought there on your ship
And I guess if you missed out on
The fight for our union

You missed out on one awful big step
Us people took

Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now
Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now

Union song, union battled
All added up won us all what we got now
Union song, union battled

One by one the teardrops fall as I write you
One by one my words come falling on the page
One by one my dreams are fading in the twilight
One by one my schemes are fading fast away

One by one the flowers fading in my garden
One by one the leaves are falling from the trees
One by one my hopes are vanished in the clouds clear
One by one like snowflakes melting in the breeze

One by one my hair is turning gray
One by one my dreams are fading fast away
One by one I read your letters over
One by one I lay them all away

One by one the days are slipping up behind you
One by one the sweetest days of life go by
One by one the moments stealing out behind you
One by one she'll come and find not you or I

One by one I hear the soft words that you whispered
One by one I feel your kisses soft and sweet
One by one I hope you'll say the words to marry

Eisler on the go
Eisler on the move
Brother is on the vinegar truck
And I don't know what I'll do

Don't know what I'll do
I don't know what I'll do
Eisler's on the come and go
And I don't know what I'll do

Eisler on the farm
Eisler on the town
Sister in the tickly bush
And I don't know what I'll do

Don't know what I'll do
I don't know what I'll do
Eisler's on the come and go
And I don't know what I'll do

Eisler on the boat
Eisler on the ship
Daddy on the henhouse roof
And I don't know what I'll do

I don't know what I'll do
I don't know what I'll do
Eisler's on the come and go
And I don't know what I'll do

Eisler in the jailoe
Eisler back at home
Rankin scratch his head and cry
And I don't know what I'll do

I don't know what I'll do
I don't know what I'll do
Eisler's on the come and go
And I don't know what I'll do

Eisler him write music
Eisler him teach school
Truman him don't play so good
And I don't know what I'll do

I don't know what I'll do
I don't know what I'll do
Eisler's on the come and go
And I don't know what I'll do

Don't know what I'll do

For your sparkling cocky smile I've walked a million miles
Begging you to come and wed me in the spring
Why do you my dear delay
What makes you laugh and turn away
You're a hesitating beauty, Nora Lee

Well I know that you are itching to get married, Nora Lee
And I know how I'm twitching for the same thing, Nora Lee
By the stars and clouds above we could spend our lives in love
You're a hesitating beauty, Nora Lee

We can build a house and home where the flowers come to bloom
Around our yard I'll nail a fence so high
That the boys with peeping eyes cannot see that angel face
My hesitating beauty Nora Lee

Well I know that you are itching to get married Nora Lee
And I know how I'm twitching for the same thing Nora Lee
By the stars and clouds above we can spend our lives in love
If you quit your hesitating, Nora Lee

We can ramble hand in hand across the grasses of our land
I'll kiss you for each leaf on every tree
We can bring our kids to play where the dry leaves blow today
If you quit your hesitating, Nora Lee

Well I know that you are itching to get married, Nora Lee
And I know how I'm twitching for the same thing, Nora Lee
By the stars and clouds above we could spend our lives in love

Sometimes I think I'm gonna lose my mind
But it don't look like I ever do
I've loved so many people everywhere I went
Some too much, and others not enough

Well I don't know
I may go
Down or up or anywhere
But I feel
Like this scribbling might stay

Maybe if I hadn't seen so much hard feelings
I might not could've felt other people's
So when you think of me, if and when you do
Just say, "Well, another man's done gone"

To the rich man's bright lodges
I ride in this wind
On my good horse, I call you
My shiny black Bess

To the playhouse of fortune
To take the bright silver
And gold you have taken
From somebody else

And as we go riding
In the damp foggy midnight
You snort, my good pony
And you give me your best

For you know and I know
Good horse 'mongst the rich ones
How oftimes we go there
An unwelcome guest

I never took food
From the widows and orphans
And never a hardworking man I oppressed

So take your pace easy
For home soon like lightning
We soon will be riding
My shiny black Bess

No fat rich man's pony
Can ever overtake you
And there's not a rider
From the east to the west

Could hold you a light
In this dark mist and midnight
When the potbellied thieves
Chase the unwelcome guest

I don't know, good horse
As we trot in this dark here
That robbing the rich
Is for worse or for best

They take it by stealing
And lying and gambling
And I take it my way
My shiny Black Bess

I treat horses good
And I'm friendly to strangers
I ride and your running
Makes my guns talk the best

And the rangers and deputies
Are hired by the rich man
To catch me and hang me
My shining black Bess

Yes, they'll catch me napping one day
And they'll kill me
And then I'll be gone
But that won't be my end

For my guns and my saddle
Will always be filled
By unwelcome travelers
And other brave men

And they'll take the money
And spread it out equal
Just like the Bible
And the prophets suggest

But men that go riding
To help these poor workers
The rich will cut down