Walking Man

1. Walking Man

   Walking Man

   X

   ---

   Moving in silent desperation
   Keeping an eye on the Holy Land
   A hypothetical destination
   Say, who is this walking man?

   Well, the leaves have come to turning
   And the goose has gone to fly
   And bridges are for burning
   So don’t you let that yearning
   Pass you by
   Walking man, walking man walks
   Well, any other man stops and talks
   But the walking man walks

   Well the frost is on the pumpkin
   And the hay is in the barn
   And Pappy’s come to rambling on
   Stumbling around drunk
   Down on the farm

   And the walking man walks
   Doesn’t know nothing at all
   Any other man stops and talks
   But the walking man walks on by
   Walk on by

   Most everybody’s got seed to sow
   It ain’t always easy for a weed to grow, oh no
   So he don’t hoe the row for no one
   Oh for sure he’s always missing
   And something is never quite right
   Ah, but who would want to listen to you
   Kissing his existence good night

   Walking man walk on by my door
   Well, any other man stops and talks
   But not the walking man
   He’s the walking man
   Born to walk
   Walk on walking man
   Well now, would he have wings to fly
   Would he be free
   Golden wings against the sky
   Walking man, walk on by
   So long, walking man, so long

2. Rock ‘N’ Roll Is Music Now

   Rock ‘N’ Roll Is Music Now

   X

   ---

   (with Paul and Linda McCartney, Carly Simon, and Rick Marotta)

   Mama knows and papa knows
   That rock ‘n roll is music now
   Baby’s been cutting his teeth on
   Bo Diddley’s, I’m a man, man
   Listen to the wolf-man howl

   See the white man sailing his ship up on the sea
   Watch the white man shackle
   The black man to a tree
   To the invader go the fruits of war
   He misses home and his boots are sore
   He has not got no roots no more
   He comes for your gold
   Watch out for your soul

   Cause tennis shoes, and rhythm and blues

   Are second generation
   All across the nation, now
   And mama knows, papa too
   Rock ‘n roll is music
   Rock ‘n roll is music, now

   To the invader go the fruits of war
   He misses home and his boots are sore
   He has not got no roots no more
   He comes for your gold
   But watch out for your soul

   Mama knows and papa knows
   That rock ‘n roll is music
   Rock ‘n roll is music, now

3. Let It All Fall Down

   Let It All Fall Down

   X

   ---

   (with McCartneys and Simon)

   Sing a song for the Wrong
   And the Wicked and the Strong
   And the Sick, as thick as thieves
   For the faceless fear that was never so near
   Too clear to misbelieve

   Well the sea is jumping salty
   And the porpoise has the blues
   My recollection’s faulty
   And I cannot find my shoes
   And my wiring is misfiring
   Due to cigarettes and booze
   I’m behind in my dues
   I just now got the news
   He seems to tell us lies
   And still we will believe him
   Then together he will lead us
   Into darkness, my friends

   REFRAIN:
   Let it fall down, let it fall down
   Let it all fall down
   Let it fall down, let it fall down
   Let it all fall down

   The man says stand to one side, son
   We got to keep this big ball rolling
   It’s just a question of controlling
   For whom the bell is tolling

   REFRAIN

   There’ll be suffering and starvation
   In the streets young man
   Just where have you been, old man
   Just look out of your window, man

   REFRAIN

   Well, it ain’t nobody’s fault but our own
   Still, at least we might could show the good sense
   To know when we’ve been wrong
   And it’s already taken too long
   So we bring it to a stop
   Then we take it from the top
   We let it settle on down softly
   Like your gently falling snow
   Or let it tumble down and topple
   Like the temple long ago

   REFRAIN

4. Me And My Guitar

   Me And My Guitar

   X

   ---

   (with Peter Asher and Simon)

   Me and my guitar
   Always in the same mood
   I am mostly flesh and bones
   And he is mostly wood
   Never does grow impatient
   For the changes I don’t know
   If he can’t go to heaven
   Maybe, I don’t want to go, no

   Picture me in the key of E
   Call me Uncle John
   Any fool can easily see
   That we go back a long time
   Feel something like fine to me
   There’s no such thing as the wrong time
   He hops up on my knee
   Singing, get down pops it’s song time

   Every now and then I’m a lonely man
   It’s nice to know that I’ve got a friend, yeah
   Puts his power right in my hand
   All l’ve got to do is the best I can
   If I can
   Uh!

   Got a dog named David
   Got a bird named Dinah
   Got a birthmark on my thigh
   In the shape of Mainland China
   Got a somewhat southern accent
   ‘Cause I come from Carolina
   And if you want to find us
   We’ll be walking right behind you

   I hear horns
   I hear voices
   I hear strings
   Seems I was born
   With too many choices
   Now what am I going to do
   With all these extra things
   As they serve to confuse me, really

   It’s me and my guitar
   Essentially me and my guitar
   Maybe one or two friends fall by for tea
   A little bit of who do you love (Who do you love)
   But pay no attention
   To the man behind the curtain
   It’s me and my guitar
   Having fun, boogie, woogie, uh-huh
   Me and my guitar

5. Daddy’s Baby

   Daddy’s Baby

   X

   ---

   (with Carly Simon)

   Daddy’s baby, what’s got you thinking,
   What’s got you sinking so low?
   Is there something I should know,
   Something new to you?

   Daddy’s baby, fussing and fretting,
   Keeping on getting it wrong.
   She can only last so long,
   She’s going for a song,

   So sing her a lullaby … by,
   Baby, don’t like to cry.
   So sing her a lullaby … by,
   Swaddle and swing her,
   Sing her a lullaby.

   She makes her feelings known to me,
   Her ev’ry side is shown to me.
   And in our time alone
   My love has surely grown of its own,
   Solid as a stepping stone,
   As silently as the dawn was breaking,
   Soft and clear,
   And my tears were dry
   And my fears had flown,
   So I called my love my home.

6. Ain’t No Song

   Ain’t No Song

   X

   ---

   (with Carly Simon and Asher)

   There ain’t no melody
   And I can’t find a harmony
   If there were a way to say it
   You know I would have played it

   Well, I’m a man of few words
   Trying to find a rhyme
   And finally it occurred to me
   That I’m wasting my time
   There ain’t no rhyme or reason
   Ain’t no time or season
   Ain’t no way around it
   I know I would have found it

   There ain’t no song in the whole wide world
   Could hardly sing without you
   There ain’t no song in the whole wide world
   To tell you the way that I feel

   Painters use their eyes
   To show us what they see
   But when that canvas dries
   We all see it differently

   There ain’t black or white
   There ain’t no day or night
   There ain’t no way around it
   You know I would have found it

   CHORUS

   No, No, No, I might as well pack it on up
   Not even this song’s gonna tell you the way that I feel

7. Hello Old Friend

   Hello Old Friend

   X

   ---

   Paris’ rooftops were lovely to see
   Switzerland’s vertical landscape
   Crossed my mind’s eye just now
   Canada’s shoreline has been calling out to me
   But it’s been too long a time
   Since last I crossed
   That vast Nantucket sound

   REFRAIN
   Hello old friend
   Welcome me home again
   Well, I’ve been away
   But that’s all over now
   Say I can stay for October, now
   Stay a while and play

   Little dog David
   I must look like a fool
   I should’ve remembered
   You’d be forgetting my smell, well
   Give me a week or two to recapture my cool
   I’ve got stories to tell
   About how I snatched the devil’s catch
   And out ran the hounds of hell

   REFRAIN

8. Migration

   Migration

   X

   ---

   Distant hands in foreign lands
   Are turning hidden wheels
   Causing things to come about
   Which no one seems to feel
   All invisible from where we stand
   The connections come to pass
   And though too strange to comprehend
   They affect us nonetheless, yes

   Once again a time of change
   O the change makes music
   And the children will dance

   See the pieces of the picture rearrange themselves
   It feels just like a symphony to me,
   With nothing left to chance

   Just look over your shoulder
   It’s out of you hands
   It’s over for now
   Leave behind what you can
   You can always return

   The rhythm remains unbroken
   Unspoken but loud and clear
   It’s a slow vibration. Migration

   Mystery muse, how I hunger for an answer
   Unsung song, how I long to play the changes
   Hidden rhythm, haven’t I always been your dancer
   Sacred secrets of the meaning to my dreaming. Migration

9. The Promised Land

   The Promised Land

   X

   ---

   Left my home in Norfolk, Virginia
   California on my mind
   Straddled that Greyhound
   And rode it into Raleigh
   And on across Caroline
   We stopped in Charlotte
   But we bypassed Rockhill
   We never was a minute late
   We were ninety miles out of Atlanta by sundown
   Rolling out of Georgia state

   Had some motor trouble
   That turned into a struggle
   Half way ‘cross Alabam
   That hound broke and left us
   All stranded in downtown Birmingham

   So right away I bought me a through train ticket
   Right across Mississippi clean
   And I was on that Special Flyer
   Out of Birmingham
   Smoking into New Orleans

   Someone’s got to help me get out of Louisiana
   Just to help me get to Houston town
   There’s an uncle there who cares a little about me
   And he won’t let the poor boy down

   Sure as you’re born
   He bought me a silk suit
   Put some luggage in my hand
   And I woke up high over Albuquerque
   On a jet to the Promised Land

   Working on a T-Bone steak
   A la carte
   Flying over to the Golden State
   When the pilot told us that in thirteen minutes
   He would have us at the terminal gate

   Swing down chariot
   Come down easy
   Taxi to the terminal dome
   Cut your engines
   And cool your wings
   And let me make it to the telephone

   Los Angeles give me Norfolk, Virginia
   Tidewater four-ten-O-nine
   Tell the folks back home
   This is the Promised Land calling
   And the poor boy is on the line

10. Fading Away

    Fading Away

    X

    ---

    When I’ve got something to say
    Well, don’t I always let you know
    So that you and I can go my way together
    And if I get carried away
    Well, I could be sailing on a song
    And maybe we could carry on forever

    But lately this old dog
    Has been chasing his tail
    Round and round and round
    And the circles in my mind
    They have been winding slowly down
    Everybody’s breezing up
    But I’m seizing up
    I’m freezing up
    And I’m fading away

    I’ve got a hold on a night in June
    I’ve got room for you and me
    I’ve got moonlight up in the trees
    I’ve got sixty-eight degrees
    I’ve got nothing on my mind
    But I’ve got loving in my heart
    And I’ve got something out in the garden
    I want to show you

    Well, it really doesn’t matter after all
    If we quit this round about
    And no one will really notice
    If we can just sit this next one out
    You can strike up the band without me
    You may have your doubts about me
    But I’m just fading away
    You can hardly even see me
    Because I’m fading away

    Well, it’s hard to find a label
    For this feeling in my bones
    That this is all a make-believe
    But my cards are on the table
    And there ain’t nothing up my sleeve
    And here I thought I was a thinking man
    But I’m a shrinking man, I’m sinking man
    I’m fading, fading away

    Well, it’s really not so bad to be fading away
    Come on along with me and we’ll go fading away
    You can hardly even hear me because
    I’m fading away