(Years went by with me on the road, never noticin' just how fast time could pass. Ridin' empty cabooses with other men in the same place as me, with nothin' and goin' nowhere. I've seen more things in those years I ever thought possible, never knew how pretty this country could be. I'd sit and watch the landscape out the open rail car door, the untouched fields and trees, the cows in their pastures. It was all so beautiful to me. And then it was back to jumpin' off one set of tracks and hopin' the next, stoppin' off in some small town for a week lookin' for work. Always the same, spit shinin' rich men's shoes while they wait for a bus or trolly car to work. And not one of them ever knew the man kneelin' in front of them fought to keep him safe in his easy life. So I'd get my things together with the money I made and move on. Years and years like this can beat a man into the ground, but I kept movin' on. I think it was '59 when I had run into that guitar pickin' man from Birminham in one of those train yeards. He told me he had gotten out like me to see the world, but he hadn't gotten too far just yet. we decided to keep travelin' north, til we got to one of them big cities, where no one would care what we looked like, or where we been, and we could just sit and play that guitar all day. Because in a big place like that, some other men got to have the blues too. After a few more years, we found our way to New York. Buildings goin' up to the sky, men like us goin' under ground.)
My savior, this city,
My comfort, her pity
Or so I hoped.
My heartache, my hard luck,
My war time, my struggle
That no one knows.
In the allys where I sleep
I beg and beg for the food I eat
All the pain and the hurt
In your gut where it burns
Every man here is just like me.
The wind blowing round the snow
Makes a man freeze straight to the bone
So I drink and drink and I try not to think
Of the people I lost at home
These six strings I'm playing
These songs I'm singing
Keep me alive.
These strangers
That curse me
The hero
They don't see
Just waiting to die
I ain't the man that I used to be
I feel the city as it's crushing me
I am losing ground on these empty streets
New York town has got the best of me
The southern ground where my mamma sleeps
She found death and she found peace
There's an empty grave next to where she lay
That's where I'm supposed to be.
I beg and I plead
For her god to hear me
He's just a coward
Just a thief
I pray and I pray
For him to answer me
I hear nothing
I hear nothing
I beg and I plead
For her god to hear me
I hear nothing
Nothing
My savior, this city,
My comfort, her pity
Or so I hoped.
My heartache, my hard luck,
My war time, my struggle
That no one knows.
In the allys where I sleep
I beg and beg for the food I eat
All the pain and the hurt
In your gut where it burns
Every man here is just like me.
The wind blowing round the snow
Makes a man freeze straight to the bone
So I drink and drink and I try not to think
Of the people I lost at home
These six strings I'm playing
These songs I'm singing
Keep me alive.
These strangers
That curse me
The hero
They don't see
Just waiting to die
I ain't the man that I used to be
I feel the city as it's crushing me
I am losing ground on these empty streets
New York town has got the best of me
The southern ground where my mamma sleeps
She found death and she found peace
There's an empty grave next to where she lay
That's where I'm supposed to be.
I beg and I plead
For her god to hear me
He's just a coward
Just a thief
I pray and I pray
For him to answer me
I hear nothing
I hear nothing
I beg and I plead
For her god to hear me
I hear nothing
Nothing