THE FIRSTBORN IS DEAD
Tupelo
Looka yonder!
Looka yonder!
Looka yonder!
A big black cloud come!
O comes to Tupleo. Comes to Tupleo
Yonder on the horizon
Stopped at the mighty river and
Sucked the damn thing dry
Tupleo-o-o, O Tupleo.
In a valley hides a town called Tupelo.
Distant thunder rumble
Rumble hungry like the Beast
The Beast it cometh, cometh down
Wo wo wo-o-o, Tupelo bound
Tupleo-o-o, yeah Tueplo
The Beast it cometh, Tupelo bound.
Why the hen won't lay no egg
Can't get that crock to crow
The nag is spooked and crazy
O God help Tueplo, O God help Tupelo!
Ya can say these streets are rivers
Ya can call these rivers streets
Ya can tell yaself ya dreaming buddy
But no sleep runs this deep.
Women at their windows,
Rain crashing on the pane
Writing in the frost Tupelo's shame
Tueplo's shame
O God help Tupleo! O God help Tupelo!
O go to sleep lil children,
The sandman's on his way
O go to sleep lil children,
The sandman's on his way.
But the lil children know,
They listen to the beating of their blood
They listen to the beating of their blood
The sandman's mud!
The sandman's mud!
And the black rain come down.
Water water everywhere
Where no bird can fly no fish can swim
No fish can swim
Until the King is born!
Until the King is born!
In Tupelo! Tupleo-o-o!
Till the King is born in Tupelo!
In a clap-board shack with a roof of tin
Where the rain came down and leaked within
A young mother frozen on a concrete floor
With a bottle and a box and a cradle of straw
Tupelo-o-o! O Tueplo!
With a bundle and a box and a cradle of straw.
Well Saturday gives what Sunday steals
And a child is born on his brother's heels
Come Sunday morn the first-born's dead
In a shoe-box tied with a ribbon of red
Tupleo-o-o! Hey Tupleo!
In a shoe-box tied with a ribbon of red.
O mama rock your lil one slow,
O ma-ma rock your baby.
O ma-ma rock your lil one slow
O God help Tueplo! O God help Tupelo!
Mama rock your lil one slow
The lil one will walk on Tupleo
Tupleo-o-o! Yeah Tupelo!
And carry the burden of Tupelo
Tueplo-o-o! O Tupleo!
Yeah! The King will walk on Tupelo
Tueplo-o-o! Tueplo!
He carried the burden outta Tupelo!
Tupelo-o-o! Hey Tupelo!
You will reap just what you sow.
Say Goodbye to the Little Girl Tree
O say goodbye to the little girl tree
O you know that I must say goodbye
To the little girl tree.
This wall I built around you
Is made out of stone lies.
O little girl the truth would be
An axe in thee.
O father look to your daughter
Brick of grief and stricken mortar.
With this ring, this silver hoop of wire
I bind you maiden mainstem
Just to keep you as a child.
O say good bye to the little girl tree
O you know that I must say goodbye
To my little girl tree.
How fast your candy bones
Reached out for me.
I must say goodbye to your brittle bones
Crying out for me.
O you know that I must say goodbye
O goodbye
Even though you will betray me
The very minute that I leave.
O say goodbye to the little girl tree
O Lord you know that I must say goodbye
To that little girl tree.
I rise up her girl-child lumps and slipping knots
Into her laden boughs,
And amongst her roping limbs
Like a swollen neck-vein branching
Into smaller lesser veins
That must all just sing and say goodbye,
And let her blossom veils fly
Her velvet gown
Down down down
Down down down
Down down down - and goodbye
For you know that I must say goodbye
To a rhythm softly tortured
Of a motion back and forth,
That's a rhythm sweetly tortured
O that's the rhythms of the orchard
And you know that I must say goodbye
To that little girl tree.
O goodbye. Yes goodbye.
For you know that I must die.
Down down down
Down down down
Down down down and goodbye.
For you know that I must die
Yes you know that I must die
O-o you know that I must die.
Train Long Suffering
Woo-wooooooooooo Woo!
In the name of pain!
(In the name of pain and suffering)
In the name of pain!
(In the name of pain and suffering)
There comes a train
(There comes a train)
Yeah! A long black train
(There comes a train)
Lord, a long black train.
Woo-woo! woo-woo!
Punched from the tunnel
(The tunnel of love is long and lonely)
Engines steaming like a fist
(A fistful of memories)
Into the jolly jaw of morning
(Yeah! O yeah!)
O baby it gets smashed!
(You know that it gets smashed)
O baby it gets smashed
(You know that it gets smashed).
I kick every goddamn splinter
Into all the looking eyes in the world,
Into all the laughing eyes
Of all the girls in the world
Ooooooo-woooooooh
She ain't never coming back
She ain't never coming back
She ain't never coming back
And the name of the pain is...
The name of the pain is...
The name of the pain is
A train long-suffering.
On rails of pain
(On rails of pain and suffering)
There comes a train
(There comes a train long-suffering)
On rails of pain
(On rails of pain and suffering)
O baby blow its whistle in the rain.
Woo-oo Woo! Woo-woo Woo!
Who's the engine-driver?
(The engine-driver's over yonder)
His name is Memory
(Memory is his name)
O Memory is his name
(Wooooooo-oo!)
Destination... Misery
(Pain and misery)
O pain and misery
(Pain and misery)
O pain and misery! Hey! Hey!
(Pain and misery)
Hey! that's a sad looking sack!
Oooh that's a sad looking sack!
And the name of the pain is...
And the name of the pain is...
Oooh the name of the pain is...
A train long-suffering.
There is a train!
(It's got a name)
Yeah! It's a train long-suffering
O Lord a train
(A long black train)
Lord! Of pain and suffering
Each night so black
(O yeah! So black)
And in the darkness of my sack
I'm missing you baby
(I'm missing you)
And I just don't know what to do
(Don't know what to do)
(Train long-suffering, Train long-suffering).
Train long-suffering. Train long suffering.
O she ain't never coming back
O she ain't never coming back
O she ain't never coming back
O she ain't never coming back
And the name of the pain is...
The name of the pain is...
The name of the train is...
The name of the train is
Pain and suffering.
Black Crow King
Mmmmm Mmmmmm Mmmmm
I am the black crow king
Mmmmmmm Mmmmm Mmmmmmm
I am the black crow king
Keeper of the nodding corn
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
All the hammers are a-talking
All the nails are a-singing
So sweet and low.
You can hear it in the valley
Where live the lame and the blind
They climb the hill out of its belly
They leave with mean black boots on.
'I just made a simple gesture
They jumped up and nailed it to my shadow
My gesture was a hooker
You know, my shadow's made of timber.'
And this storm is a-rolling
And this storm is a-rolling
All down on me.
And I'm still here rolling after everybody's gone
And I'm still here rolling after everybody's gone
I'm still here rolling and I'm left on my own
The black birds have all flown!
Everyone's rolled on!
I am the black crow king
Keeper of the trodden corn
I am the black crow king
I won't say it again.
And the rain it raineth daily, Lord
And wash away my clothes
I surrender up my arms
To a company of crows.
I am the black crow king
I won't say it again
And all the thorns are a-crowning king,
Ruby on each spine,
And the spears are a-sailing
O my o my.
And the storm is a-rolling
The storm is a-rolling
All down on me.
And I'm still here rolling after everybody's gone
I'm still here rolling after everybody's gone
I'm still here rolling and left on my own
Those blackbirds they have flown and I am on my own.
I am the black crow king
Keeper of the forgotten corn
The King! The King!
I'm the king of nothing at all.
The hammers are a-talking
The nails are a-singing
The thorns are a-crowning him
The spears are a-sailing
The crows are a-mocking
The corn is a-rolling
The storm is a-rolling
The storm is a-rolling
The storm is a-rolling down
The storm is a-rolling down
The storm is a-rolling
Down on me
Rolling down on me
Rolling down on me.
Knockin' On Joe
These chains of sorrow, they are heavy, it is true
And these locks cannot be broken, no, not with one thousand keys
O Jailor, you wear a ball-and-chain you cannot see
You can lay your burden on me
You can lay your burden down on me
You can lay your burden down upon me
But you cannot lay down those memories.
Woooo wooo wooo
Woooo wooo wooo
Here I go!
Knockin' on Joe!
This square foot of sky will be mine till I die
Knockin' on Joe.
Woooo wooo wooo
All down the row
Knockin' on Joe.
O Warden I surrender to you
Your fists can't hurt me anymore
You know, these hands will never wash
These dirty Death Row floors.
O Preacher, come closer, you don't scare me anymore
Just tell Nancy not to come here
Just tell her not to come here anymore
Tell Nancy not to come
And let me die in the memory of her arms.
O Wooo wooo wooo
Wooo wooo woooo
All down the row
Knockin' on Joe.
O you kings of halls and ends of halls
You will die within these walls
And I'll go, all down the row
Knockin' on Joe.
O Nancy's body is a coffin, she wears my tombstone at her head
O Nancy's body is a coffin, she wears my tombstone at her head
She wears her body like a coffin
She wears a dress of gold and red
She wears a dress of gold and red
She wears a dress of red and gold
Grave-looters at my coffin before my body's even cold.
It's a door for when I go
Knockin' on Joe.
These hands will ever mop your dirty Death Row floors
O but your trial is yet to come
O you can run! You can hide!
But you have yet to be tried!
You can lay your burden down here
You can lay your burden down here
Knockin' on Joe
You can lay your burden upon me
You can lay your burden down upon me
Knockin' on Joe
You can't hurt me anymore
Knockin' on Joe.
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Blind Lemon Jefferson is a-comin
Tap tap tappin with his cane
Blind Lemon Jefferson is a-comin
Tap tap tappin with his cane
His last ditch lies down the road of trials
Half filled with rain.
O sycamore, sycamore!
Stretch your arms across the storm
Down fly two greasy brother crows
They hop n bop n hop n bop hop on bop
Like the tax-man to come to call
They go knock knock! knock knock!
Hop n bop hop n bop
They slap a death-writ on his door.
Here come the Judgment train
Git on board!
And turn that big black engine home.
O let's roll! Let's roll!
Down the tunnel
The terrible tunnel of his world
Waiting at his final station
Like a bigger blacker third bird
O let's roll! Let's roll!
O his road is dark and lonely
He don't drive no Cadillac
O his road is dark and holy
He don't drive no Cadillac
If that sky serves as his eyes
Then that moon is a cataract.
Let's roll! Yeah let's roll!
The Moon is in The Gutter
Go to the From Her To Eternity Page for lyrics...
The Six Strings That Drew Blood
Lyrics not available as of yet...
