Let’s go back to yesterday
When a phone call cost a dime
In New Orleans, just a nickel
Turn back the hands of time
Turn back the hands of time

Picture a room
With a window
A sofa and some chairs
A television turned on for the night
Picture a woman, two children seated
A man lying there
Their faces softly glowing in the light

This is my country
These are my people
This is the world I understand
This is my country
These are my people
And I know ’em like the back of my own hand

If we had something to say
We’d bounce it off the screen
We were watching and we couldn’t look away
We all know what we look like
You know what I mean
We wouldn’t have had it any other way

We got comedy, tragedy
Everything from A to B
Watching other people living
Seeing other people play
Having other people’s voices fill our minds
Thank you Jesus

Feelings might go unexpressed
I think that’s probably for the best
Dig too deep who knows what you will find

This is my country
Those were my people
Theirs was a world I understand

Picture a room, no window
A door that leads outside
A man lying on a carpet on the floor
Picture his three grown boys behind him
Bouncing words off of a screen
Of a television big as all outdoors

Now your children are your children
Even when they’re grown
When they speak to you
You got to listen to what they have to say
But they all live alone now
They have TVs of their own
But they keep on coming over anyway
And much as I love them
I’m always kind of glad when they go away

This is my country
These are my people
This is the world I understand
This is my country
These are my people
And I know ’em like the back of my own hand
I know ’em like the back of my own hand

Pretty little baby
How come you never come around?
Pretty little baby
How come you never come around?
I sent you all them pretty flowers
Now you’re nowhere to be found

I call you up at midnight sometimes I must admit
And when I find you’re not at home
My head heats up like a furnace
My heart grows colder than a stone
So what’s the good of all this money I got
If every night I’m left here all alone?
It’s a gun that I need

Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame
I ain’t ashamed of nothing
Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame
I don’t know what you’re talking about

All right let’s talk a little business
You know what I’m saying
A man of my experience of life
Don’t expect a beautiful young woman like yourself
To come on over here every day
And have some old dude banging on her like a gypsy on a tambourineThat’s not what we’re talking about
That’s not what we’re talking about
That’s not what we’re talking about

But I will say this
I’ve been all over the world
I’ve seen some wonderful things
I haven’t been well lately
I have no one to share my plans, my dreams
My hopes and my schemes, my…

Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame
You could be right
I’ve sunk pretty low this time
Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame
These are truly desperate times

Saw your little sandals baby
Out behind the wishing well
Down here in the cool depths of the Quarter
Where the rich folk dwell
And I pictured you in diamonds, satins and pearls
Come on back to Daddy
Daddy miss his little baby girl

Father, he was an angry man
You cross him he made you pay
I myself, am no longer an angry man
But don’t make me beg you
Don’t make me beg

Do you know what if feels like
To wake up in the morning
Have every joint in your body aching, God damn it?
You know what it feels like
To have to get up in the middle of the night and sit down to take a piss?
You do know?
So you say
I have my doubts, Missy
Do you know what it feels like
To have to beg a little bum like you for love?
God damn it you little bitch, I’d kill you if I didn’t love you so much

Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame
Shut up

Forgive me
My unfocused words
I was flying blind
I lost my mind (Shame Shame Shame)

If you could find it in your heart, if you got one
To forgive me
I’d be ever so grateful (Shame Shame Shame)
Will you stop that please (Shame Shame Shame)
Will you stop that please I’m trying to talk to someone (Shame)
Thank you

You know, I have a Lexus now
I don’t get out much
You know what I’m saying
Come on home

I have nothing left to say
But I’m gonna say it anyway
Thirty years upon a stage
And I hear the people say
Why won’t he go away?

I pass the houses of the dead
They’re calling me to join their group
But I stagger on instead
Dear God, sweet God
Protect me from the truth, hey

I’m dead but I don’t know it
He’s dead, he’s dead
I’m dead but I don’t know
He’s dead, he’s dead
I’m dead but I don’t know it
He’s dead, he’s dead
Please don’t tell me so
Let me, let me, let me go

I have a family to support
But surely, that is no excuse
I’ve nothing further to report
Time you spend with me
Is time you lose

I always thought that I would know
When it was time to quit
That when I lost a step or two or three or four or five
I’d notice it
Now that I’ve arrived here safely
I find my talent has gone
Why do I go on and on and on and on and on
And on and on and on and on and on

He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead
I don’t know it
He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead
I didn’t know
He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead
I didn’t know it
Who would be so cruel to tell me so?
You’re dead!

When will I end this bitter game?
When will I end this cruel charade?
Everything I write all sounds the same
Each record that I’m making
Is like a record that I’ve made
Just not as good

I’m dead but I don’t know it
He’s dead, he’s dead
I’m dead but I don’t know
He’s dead, he’s dead
I’m dead but I don’t know it
He’s dead, he’s dead
Please don’t tell me so
Please don’t tell me so
You’re dead!

Every time it rains
I sit at home and wonder why
Ever since you said goodbye
I felt so all alone
Every time it rains
And summer showers soak the ground
I watch the rain come pouring down
And I call out your name

Every time it rains
I hang my head and want to die
And I don’t seem to care that
I’m just not making it on my own
Every time it rains

Sometimes late at night
I close my eyes
And pretend that you’re here with me
But every time it rains
I realize just how lonely my life is going to be

Every time it rains
Every time I hear the raindrops fall
I may say that I don’t mind it at all
But I do
Every time it rains

Every time I try to tell myself
That in time I’ll find somebody else
But it won’t be you
Every time it rains
Every time it rains

The Great Nations of Europe
Had gathered on the shore
They’d conquered what was behind them
And now they wanted more
So they looked to the mighty ocean
And took to the western sea
The great nations of Europe in the sixteenth century
Hide your wives and daughters
Hide the groceries too
Great nations of Europe coming through

The Grand Canary Islands
First land to which they came
They slaughtered all the canaries
Which gave the land its name
There were natives there called Guanches
Guanches by the score
Bullets, disease, the Portuguese, and they weren’t there anymore

Now they’re gone, they’re gone, they’re really gone
You’ve never seen anyone so gone
They’re a picture in a museum
Some lines written in a book
But you won’t find a live one no matter where you look

Hide your wives and daughters
Hide the groceries too
Great nations of Europe coming through

Columbus sailed for India
Found Salvador instead
He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead
They got TB and typhoid and athlete’s foot
Diphtheria and the flu
Excuse me – Great nations coming through

Balboa found the Pacific
And on the trail one day
He met some friendly Indians
Whom he was told were gay
So he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say
The great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way

Now they’re gone, they’re gone, they’re really gone
You’ve never seen anyone so gone
Some bones hidden in the canyon
Some paintings in a cave
There’s no use trying to save them
There’s nothing left to save

Hide your wives and daughters
Hide your sons as well
With the great nations of Europe you never can tell

From where you and I are standing
At the end of a century
Europes have sprung up everyone as even I can see
But there on the horizon as a possibility
Some bug from out of Africa might come for you and me
Destroying everything in its path
From sea to shining sea
Like the great nations of Europe
In the sixteenth century

You’ve got to learn to get to know the one you love
To anticipate her every move
You got to know exactly what she’s thinking of
She may be hungry
She won’t say
You better get a burger or something in her right away
If you don’t you’re gonna pay
At the hand of the one you love
The one you love
The one you love

Young man
You’re running free
You’re running wild
You fall in love
You become nothing but a little baby child
She can hurt you
With the sound of her voice
You can leave her
But you got no choice
You can’t leave her man
You’re just a prisoner of the one you love
The one you love
The one you love

True love never runs smooth you know
Sometimes there’ll be sunny days
Sometimes there’ll be sleet and snow
When true love calls you
Man you gotta go
And when you gotta go, you gotta go
You got to know the one you love
You got to know the one you love
The one you love
The one you love
The one you love
The one you love

Once a great man’s heart was captured by a lovely chest
He told himself it was her mind he loved
But he was blind like all the rest
Twenty hard years went by
Till another chest will catch his eye
He just hung his head and cried
And said, “Sorry dear you’re too late
I’ve already ruined my life”
You’ve got to know the one you love
You’ve got to know the one you love

She may be gentle
She may be kind
She may not know exactly what’s on her mind
But you better know
Or you’re gonna find
You lose the one you love
The one you love
The one you love

When Karl Marx was a boy
He took a hard look around
He saw people were starving all over the place
While others were painting the town (buh, buh, buh)
The public-spirited boy
Became a public-spirited man
So he worked very hard and he read everything
Until he came up with a plan

There’ll be no exploitation
Of the worker or his kin
No discrimination ’cause the color of your skin
No more private property
It would not be allowed
No one could rise too high
No one could sink too low
Or go under completely like some we all know

If Marx were living today
He’d be rolling around in his grave
And if I had him here in my mansion on the hill
I’d tell him a story t’would give his old heart a chill
It’s something that happened to me

I’d say, Karl I recently stumbled
Into a new family
With two little children in school
Where all little children should be
I went to the orientation
All the young mommies were there
Karl, you never have seen such a glorious sight
As these beautiful women arrayed for the night
Just like countesses, empresses, movie stars and queens
And they’d come there with men much like me
Froggish men, unpleasant to see
Were you to kiss one, Karl
Nary a prince would there be

Oh Karl the world isn’t fair
It isn’t and never will be
They tried out your plan
It brought misery instead
If you’d seen how they worked it
You’d be glad you were dead
Just like I’m glad I’m living in the land of the free
Where the rich just get richer
And the poor you don’t ever have to see
It would depress us, Karl
Because we care
That the world still isn’t fair

Since I was a child
I’ve tried to be what I am not
I’ve lied and I’ve enjoyed it all my life
I lied to my dear mother
To my sisters and my brother
And now I’m lying to my children and my wife

Big Hat, no cattle
Big head, no brain
Big snake, no rattle
I forever remain
Big hat, no cattle
I knew from the start
Big boat, no paddle
Big belly, no heart

Can’t remember why I do it
Oh, maybe I can
An honest man these days is hard to find
I only know we’re living in an unforgiving land
And a little lie can buy some real big peace of mind
Oftimes I have wondered what might I have become
Had I but buckled down and really tried
But when it came down to the wire
I called my family to my side
Stood up straight, threw my head back, and I lied, lied, lied

Big hat, no cattle
Big shoes, well you know
Big horse, no saddle
He goes wherever I go
Big hat, no cattle
I knew right from the start
Big guns, no battle
Big belly, no heart
When it came down to the wire
I called my little family to my side
Stood up straight, threw my head back, and I lied, lied, lied
Lied, lied, lied

Big hat, no cattle
Big head, no brain
Big snake, no rattle
I forever remain
Big hat, no cattle
I knew from the start
Big boat, no paddle
Big belly, no heart
Big boat, no paddle
Big belly, no heart

When you fall in love with someone
Who doesn’t love you
Someone who treats you so badly
It ramifies your head
Someone who doesn’t want you
But won’t let you go
Someone who thinks you’re crazy
And tells you so
Over and over and over
If this happens to you
You’d be better off dead

You might be surprised to learn how often it can happen
In a love affair
(And boy does it hurt)
You fall in love with someone for whom you really care
And they treat you just like dirt
They make you feel all fat and fumbly
Make you feel kind of dirty and flirty
Hey I’m talking to you
Didn’t you hear what I said?

Better off dead
Than living with someone
Whose every word’s like a knife that cuts through you
Better off dead
Than living with someone
Who just doesn’t give a shit what happens to you
You know that it’s wrong
But you go on and on and on
Better off dead
Better off dead
Better off dead

When you fall in love with someone
Who doesn’t love you
You better run for daylight
Just as fast as you can (Little man)
Forget your foolish dreams and schemes that things will work out in the end
Put some real mileage between yourself and the object of your love my friend
Or become what you see
Yes, a loser like me
Someone who’d be
Better off dead
Better off dead
Better off

Still in my heart
After all these years
Separated by time
And now by distance
I couldn’t allow myself to feel
The loss that I feel right now
As I put this song down

You’re far away
And happy I know
And it’s a little bit late
Twenty years or so
And it’s a little bit cold
For all those concerned
But I’d sell my soul and your souls for a song
So I’ll pour my heart out

I miss you
I miss you
I miss you
I’m sorry but I do
I miss you
I miss you
I miss you
I’m sorry but it’s true

I want to thank you for the good years
And apologize for the rough ones
You must be laughing yourself sick
Up there in Idaho
But I wanted to write you one
Before I quit
And this one’s it

I miss you
I miss you
And I wanted you to know
I miss you
I miss you
I miss you
And I still love you so

Going home
Going home
Oh the dark night is over now
I’m going home

To the land I love
To the land I love
And the one girl who waits for me
I’m going home

I will cross the sea
I will cross the sea
I am going home forever
I’m going home

Going home
Going home
Going home

I want everyone to like me
I want everyone to like me real bad
I want everyone to approve of me
‘Cause when they disapprove of me it makes me feel so sad

I want to earn the respect of my peers
If it takes a hundred years
I’d like to find out where they are, by the way,
For I would run to embrace them
I’m only kidding
I’m really very modest once you get to know me

A house, a little land
Maybe someone to lend a helping hand
A little money set aside
Ah, then I would be satisfied

I want someone to tell me one time
“Honey, you don’t look well.
Why don’t you lie down for a couple of years
I’ll look after things.” Yeah.
A grown-up woman would be nice
I’d like to flip her over once or twice
Find out what makes her tick

Some friends to call my own, God knows,
A family and a home
A couple kiddies at my side
To keep me fat and satisfied

I want everyone to like me
That’s one thing
I know for sure
I want everyone to like me
‘Cause I’m a little insecure