The Singing Brakemen

I’m out here a thousand miles from my home
Walkin’ a road other men have gone down
I’m seein’ your world of people and things
Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings

—Bob Dylan, Song to Woody

When everything is lonely I can be my own best friend
I get a coffee and the paper; have my own conversations
With the sidewalk and the pigeons and my window reflection
The mask I polish in the evening, by the morning looks like shit.

And I know you have a heavy heart; I can feel it when we kiss
So many men stronger than me have thrown their backs out trying to lift it
But me I’m not a gamble you can count on me to split
The love I sell you in the evening, by the morning won’t exist.

—Bright Eyes, Lua

Just around the corner there’s heartaches
Down the street that losers use
If you can wade in through the teardrop
You’ll find me at the home of the blues

I walk and cry while my heart beat
Keeps time with the drag of my shoes
The sun never shines through this window of mine
It’s dark at the home of the blues

—Johnny Cash, The Home of the Blues

Nothing is crueler than children who come from good homes
God’ll forgive them I guess but whose side are you on
Driving around the old town I remember it all
Dropping my lunchbox and tampax all over the hall

(And they said) you are a socialist cokehead we know from your clothes
You are a Satanist worshipper of things evil
Think you’re a poet a folksinger poseur nah-oh
A volleyball player you’ve got to be kidding us all

So we hide from the guns on our night reconnaissance
Steal flamingos and gnomes from the dark side of the lawn

—Dresden Dolls, Night Reconnaissance

Where are you going I don’t mind
I’ve killed my world and I’ve killed my time
So where do I go what do I see
I see many people coming after me
So where are you going to I don’t mind
If I live too long I’m afraid I’ll die
So I will follow you wherever you go
If your offered hand is still open to me

Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two we are one

So you’ve been where I’ve just come
From the land that brings losers on
So we will share this road we walk
And mind our mouths and beware our talk
‘Till peace we find tell you what I’ll do
All the things I own I will share with you
If I feel tomorrow like I feel today
We’ll take what we want and give the rest away

Strangers on this road we are on
We are not two we are one

—The Kinks, Strangers

Whether I’m right,
Or whether I’m wrong,
Time will go by, life it will go on
When the light is on your side
Love reveals itself to thee
Then you can, yes you can,
You can be set free

Every garden can grow
Every mouth can form a smile,
Let yourself go, ease your mind for a while
When you’re tired, and you’re torn
And humankind seems filled with misery
Then you can, yes you can
You can be set free

—Langhorne Slim, Be Set Free

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

—Johnny Cash, Man in Black

Images melt into microphones
And smash their opposite mirrors
Madonnas caress their charcoal
In the future mystery marshes
Begging for lover and lunatics
To count their degenerate numbers
And the passionate plastic surgeon
Frantically restructures the island
As he sinks in the starlit nightmare
With all the exiles of his quicksand

And who will refrain from praying
In the corner coffee shop churches
After the pencils are broken
And the line moves only in circles

—Phil Ochs, Cobbwebs

Leave the secret talks on the trundle bed
Leave the garden tools in that rusted shed
Leave those bad ideas in your troubled head today

Just leave the restless ghost in his old hotel
Leave the homeless man in that cardboard cell
Let the painted horse on the carousel remain

‘Cause everything it must belong somewhere
Just like the gold around her finger or the silver in his hair
Yeah, everything it must belong somewhere
I know that now, that’s why I’m staying here
Oh I know that now, that’s why I’m staying here

In truth the forest hears each sound
Each blade of grass as it lies down
The world requires no audience
No witnesses, no witnesses

—Bright Eyes, I Must Belong Somewhere

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you anymore
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But goodbye’s too good a word, gal
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

—Bob Dylan, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right