Townes Van Zandt - I'll Be Here In The Morning

There's no stronger wind than the one that blows
Down a lonesome railroad line
No prettier sight than looking back
On a town you left behind
There is nothin' that's as real
As a love that's in my mind

Close your eyes
I'll be here in the morning
Close your eyes
I'll be here for a while

There's lots of things along the road
I'd surely like to see
I'd like to lean into the wind
And tell myself I'm free
But your softest whisper's louder
Than the highways call to me

All the mountains and the rivers
And the valleys can't compare
To your blue lit dancin' eyes
And yellow shining hair
I could never hit the open road
And leave you layin' there

Lay your head back easy, love,
Close your cryin' eyes
I'll be layin' here beside you
When the sun comes on the rise
I'll stay as long as the cuckoo wails
And the lonesome bluejay cries.

It's plain to see, the sun won't shine today

But I ain't in the mood for sunshine anyway
Maybe I'll go insane
I got to stop the pain
Or maybe I'll go down to see Kathleen.

A swallow comes and tells me of her dreams
She says she'd like to know just what they mean
I feel like I could die
As I watch her flying by
Ride the north wind down to see Kathleen.

Stars hang high above, the oceans roar
The moon is come to lead me to her door
There's crystal across the sand
And the waves, they take my hand.
Soon I'm gonna see my sweet Kathleen.

Soon I'm gonna see my sweet Kathleen.

Townes Van Zandt - You Are Not Needed Now

Well, the birds were talking all at once
and the old man mowing down his lawn
he didn't look like much too bad a guy
And I was thinkin' Hang on, man, something's wrong
your blues seems to be gone
heaven ain't bad but you don't get nothing done.


Lay down your head a while
you are not needed now
you are not needed now


Well, Allison laid a hex on me
and every time I turn around
it's swimming through the air above my bed
I told Miss Higgs and she said fine
as long as you're back in your room on time
I keep you clean and the girls will keep you fed


Lay down your head with mine
you are not needed now
and we got things to do


Between the blankets made of wool
the trains roll by every half an hour
and the body can get no restin' done, that's true
so I do my best, as best I can
thinkin' big and making plans
and wondering where them trains are rolling to


Lay down your head poor boy
and feel how the ground does move
and hear how them drivers sing


Well, goodbye friends, it's time to close
everybody knows that's the way it goes
where was it you lived in case I'm ever there
Well, three doors down and two behind
and it gets a little bit out of hand sometimes
don't let it fool you into thinkin you down care


Lay down your head and fly
I'll quietly pass you by
you won't even see me go


If I thought about it long enough
I just might make some kind of move
watchful lies are too hard on the soul
With the smoke house just across the way
and it's fog upon the light of day
that would be hard comin' up with where to go


Lay down your head poor boy
feel how the ground does move
hear how them drivers sing
What now, my darling one
go find a little fun
you are not needed now

Townes Van Zandt - Flyin' Shoes

Days full of rain
skys comin' down again
I get so tired
of these same old blues
same old song
Baby, it won't be long
'fore I be tyin' on
my flyin' shoes
flyin' shoes
till I be tyin' on
my flyin' shoes


Spring only sighed
summer had to be satisfied
fall is a feelin' that I just can't lose.
I'd like to stay
maybe watch a winter day
turn the green water
to white and blue
flyin' shoes
flyin' shoes
till I be tyin' on
my flyin' shoes


The mountain moon
forever sets too soon
bein' alone is all the hills can do
alone and then
her silver sails again
and they will follow
in their flyin' shoes
flyin' shoes
they will follow in their
flyin' shoes


Days full of rain
skys comin' down again
I get so tired
of the same old blues
same old song
Baby, it won't be long
till I be tyin' on
my flyin' shoes
flyin' shoes
till I be tyin' on
my flyin' shoes

Townes Van Zandt - (Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria

Well, the diamonds fades quickly when matched to the face of Maria
All the harps they sound empty when she lifts her lips to the sky
the brown of her skin makes her hair seem a soft golden rainfall
that spills from the mountains to the bottomless depths of her eyes

Well, she stands all around me her hands slowly sifting the sunshine
all the laughter that linger down deep 'neath her smilin' is free
Well, it spins and it twirls like a hummingbird lost in the morning
and caresses the south wind and silently sails to the sea

Ah, the sculpter stands stricken and the artist he throws away his brushes
when her image comes dancin' the sun she turns sullen with shame
And the birds they go silent the wind stops his sad mournful singing
when the trees of the forest start gently to whisper'in her name

So as softly she wanders I'll desperately follow her footsteps
and I'll chase after shadows that offer a trace of her sight
Ah, they promise eternally that she lays hidden within them
but I find they've deceived me and sadly I bid them goodbye

So the serpent slide softly away with these moments of laughter
and the the old washy woman has finish her cleanin' and gone
but the bamboo hang heavy in the bondage of quicksilver daydreams
and a lonely child longingly looks for a place to belong

Townes Van Zandt - Pancho And Lefty

Living on the road my friend
Was gonna keep you free and clean
Now you wear your skin like iron
Your breath's as hard as kerosene
You weren't your mama's only boy
But her favorite one it seems
She began to cry when you said goodbye
And sank into your dreams

Pancho was a bandit boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
That's the way it goes

All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him hang around
Out of kindness I suppose

Lefty he can't sing the blues
All night long like he used to
The dust that Pancho bit down south
Ended up in Lefty's mouth
The day they laid poor Pancho low
Lefty split for Ohio
Where he got the bread to go
There ain't nobody knows

All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him slip away
Out of kindness I suppose

The poets tell how Pancho fell
Lefty's livin' in a cheap hotel
The desert's quiet and Cleveland's cold
So the story ends we're told
Pancho needs your prayers it's true,
But save a few for Lefty too
He just did what he had to do
Now he's growing old

A few gray federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him go so wrong
Out of kindness I suppose

Townes Van Zandt - Sad Cinderella

When the bandits have stolen your jewelry and gone
and your crippled young gypsy, he's grown tall and strong
and your dead misconceptions have proven you wrong
well then, princess, where you plannin' to turn to?
when your magazine memory has spun you around
and you realize your lovers were just painted clowns
and outside your window you start hearing sounds
where they're building a cross for to burn you


when all your bright scarlet turn slowly to blue
will you stop and decide that it's over?


When your teardrops go sour and no longer fall
the splash cross the virgin that lives down your hall
and spends all her nights with an ear to your wall
well then, what will you have you can offer?
When the firedancers finish and leave you alone
with nothing but embers and sacks full of stone
that hang round your neck, slicing through to the bone
will there still be place for your laughter?


As your shattered illusions come a-tumblin' home
and all of the butchers you've nourished have grown
and they are suddenly able to leave you alone
and they run like slaves that are set free
when your questions are answered and your pleading is done
and your mind starts to screaming that you ain't the one
that once dwelled within you, will you turn, will you run
Then princess, will you come home and get me?

Townes Van Zandt - High, Low And In-Between

I come from a long line
High and low and in between
Same as you
Hills of golden
Hails of poison
Time's thrown me through
And I believe I've come to learn
That turnin' round
Is to become confusion
And the gold's no good for spending
And the poison's hungry waiting


What can you leave behind
When you're flyin' lightning fast
And all alone?
Only a trace, my friend,
Spirit of motion born
And direction grown.
A trace that will not fade
In frozen skies
Your journey will be
And if her shadow doesn't seem much company
Who said it would be?

There is the highway
And the homemade lovin' kind
The highway's mine
And us ramblers are getting the travelling down
You fathers build with stones
That stand and shine
Heaven's where you find it
And you can't
Take too much with you
But daddy, don't you listen
It's just this highway talkin'


All things at our life
Are brothers in the soil
And in the sky
And I believe it
With my blood
If not my eyes
I don't know why we can't
Be brothers here
I know we should be
Answers don't seem easy
And I'm wonderin'
If they could be

Townes Van Zandt - Highway Kind

My days, they are the highway kind
they only come to leave
but the leavin' I don't mind
it's the comin' that I crave.
Pour the sun upon the ground
stand to throw a shadow
watch it grow into a night
and fill the spinnin' sky.


Time among the pine trees
it felt like breath of air
usually I just walk these streets
and tell myself to care.
Sometimes I believe me
and sometimes I don't hear.
Sometimes the shape I'm in
won't let me go.


Well, I don't know too much for true
but my heart knows how to pound
my legs know how to love someone
my voice knows how to sound.
Shame that it's not enough
shame that it is a shame.
Follow the circle down
where would you be?


You're the only one I want now
I never heard your name.
Let's hope we meet some day
if we don't it's all the same.
I'll meet the ones between us,
and be thinkin' 'bout you
and all the places I have seen
and why you where not there.

Townes Van Zandt - Nothin'

Hey mama, when you leave
don't leave a thing behind
I don't want nothin'
I can't use nothin'

Take care into the hall
and if you see my friends
tell them I'm fine
not using nothin'

Almost burned out my eyes
threw my ears down to the floor
I didn't see nothin'
I didn't hear nothin'

I stood there like a block of stone
knowin' all I had to know
and nothin' more
man, that's nothin'

As brothers our troubles are
locked in each others arms
and you better pray
they never find you

Your back ain't strong enough
for burdens doublefold
they'd crush you down
down into nothin'

Being born is going blind
and buying down a thousand times
to echoes strung
on pure temptation

Sorrow and solitude
these are the precious things
and the only words
that are worth rememberin'

Townes Van Zandt - Tower Song

So close and yet so far away
and all the things I'd hoped to say
will have to go unsaid today
perhaps until tomorrow
your fear has built a wall between
our lives and all what lovin' means
will have to go unfelt it seems
and that leaves only sorrow


You built your tower strong and tall
can't you see it's got to fall some day


You close your eyes and speak to me
of faith and love and destiny
as distant as eternity,
truth and understanding
The wind blows cold outside your door
it whispers words I've tried before
but you don't hear me anymore
your pride's just too demanding


The end is coming soon, it's plain
a warm bed just ain't worth the pain
and I will go and you'll remain
with the bitterness we tasted
A mother's breast, a newborn child
a poet's tear, and drunken smile
can't help thinkin' all the while
their meaning won't be wasted

Townes Van Zandt - For The Sake Of The Song

Why does she sing
her sad songs for me,
I'm not the one
to tenderly bring
her soft sympathy
I've just begun
to see my way clear
and it's plain,
if I stop I will fall
I can lay down a tear
for her pain,
just a tear and that's all.


What does she want me to do?
she says that she knows
that moments are rare
I suppose that it's true
then on she goes
to say I don't care,
and she knows
that I do


Maybe she just has to sing, for the sake of the song
and who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong.


She'd like to think that I'm cruel,
but she knows that's a lie
for I would be
no more than a tool
if I allowed her to cry
all over me.


Oh my sorrow is real
even though
I can't change my plan
If she could see how I feel
then I know
that she'd understand


Oh does she actually think I'm to blame?
Does she really believe
that some word of mine
can relieve
all her pain?
Can't she see that she grieves
just because she's been blindly deceived
by her shame?


Nothin's what it seems,
maybe she'll start someday
to realize
If she abandons her dreams,
then all the words she can say
are only lies
when will she see
that to gain
is only to lose?
All that she offers me
are her chains,
I got to refuse


Oh but it's only to herself that she's lied
she likes to pretend
it's something that she must defend,
with her pride
and I don't intend
to stand her and be the friend
from whom she must hide

Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song
Who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong.

Townes Van Zandt - St. John The Gambler

When she had twenty years she turned to her mother
saying Mother, I know that you'll grieve
but I've given my soul to St John the gambler
tomorrow comes time to leave
for the hills cannot hold back my sorrow forever
and dead men lay deep 'round the door
the only salvation thats mine for the asking
so mother, think on me no more


Winter held high round the mountains breast
and the cold of a thousand snows
lay heaped upon the forests leaf
but she dressed in calico
for a gambler likes his women fancy
fancy she would be
and the fire of her longing would keep way the cold
and her dress was a sight to see


But the road was long beneath the feet
she followed her frozen breath
in search of a certain St John the gambler
stumbling to her death
she heard his laughter right down from the mountains
and danced with her mothers tears
to a funeral drawn a calico
'neath the cross of twenty years


To a funeral drawn a calico
'neath the cross of twenty years