Changing Channels

Girl of a thousand faces
From a long line of basket cases
Daughter of a fortune teller
Oh the lovely Isabella

She's changing channels
Stayin' on her toes
She's just changin' channels
As she goes

This place is full of beachhead sailors
Fisherman and old retailers
Simple lives are so deep seated
and history always gets repeated
Some folks see a birds eye view
Others haven't got a clue
Some will go and some will stay
It doesn't matter anyway

They are changin' channels
Crazy girls and boys
They'll be changin' channels
Changin' toys

Survivors of tidal waves
children of former slaves
don't it that they behave
Like it's another world?

There's an island in the ocean
Where the people stay in motion
Somewhere on the old gulf stream
Do they live or did I dream?

They were changin' channels
Waitin' for their sails to fill
They were changin' channels
Always will

They'll be changin' channels
Waitin' for their sails to fill
They'll be changing channels
Always will
 

Come to the Moon

Full earth tonight
And Mars is big and bright
All our friends are flying in
It's such a lovely sight
Gravity never could hold me
That is what you always told me
You know me

So come to the moon
I hope to see you soon
Half a million miles isn't far to go
You know I need you so
I hope you still need me
So come to the Moon
The starship's leaving soon
Until then I'm wishing on every star
That you will be here soon
Come to the Moon

Those crazy martian days
When we went separate ways
Through time and space we'd find a place
To bring our lives in phase
We're lost amid the galaxies revolving
And we're all just a part of what's evolving

So come to the Moon
I hope to see you soon
Half a million miles isn't far to go
You know I need you so
I hope you still need me
So come to the Moon
The starship's leaving soon
Until then I'm wishing on every star
Wondering where you are

Come to the Moon...

I am the Dutchman

The Dutchman's not the kind of man
Who keeps his thumb jammed in the dam
That holds his dreams in,
But that's a secret that only Margaret knows.

When Amsterdam is golden in the summer,
Margaret brings him breakfast,
She believes him.
He thinks the tulips bloom beneath the snow.

He's mad as he can be, but Margaret only sees that sometimes,
Sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes.

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee.
Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me.

The Dutchman still wears wooden shoes,
His cap and coat are patched with the love
That Margaret sewed there.
Sometimes he thinks he's still in Rotterdam.

And he watches the tug-boats down canals
An' calls out to them when he thinks he knows the Captain.
Till Margaret comes
To take him home again

Through unforgiving streets that trip him, though she holds his arm,
Sometimes he thinks he's alone and he calls her name.

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee.
Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me.

The winters whirl the windmills 'round
She winds his muffler tighter
And they sit in the kitchen.
Some tea with whiskey keeps away the dew.

And he sees her for a moment, calls her name,
She makes the bed up singing some old love song,
A song Margaret learned
When it was very new.

He hums a line or two, they sing together in the dark.
The Dutchman falls asleep and Margaret blows the candle out.

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuider Zee.
Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me.

College Daze- After the Breakup

Since the day you left me,
Nothing has really been the same.
Oh, how I need that loving now,
How I wish you'd call my name.

And in turn I cry away the night,
I lay dreamless everyday.
If only I had understood
The reason why you went away...

And I see what this has done to me,
I can feel the pain and misery.
If only you had made it clear to me,
Then your dreams would have meant
much more to me...

And as I think of all the days,
When feeling great meant
one embrace...
I long to have you here.
I need your love.

No, I don't need your fame and fortune,
I don't need that now.
I need your love, I need your love...
No, I don't need your glory,
I don't need your famous bow.
I need your love...

She's Goin' Out of My Mind

I talk to her pictures
And stare at the walls
And my friends come and offer their help
To my back they're afraid that I'm losing it all
To my face they say I'm not myself
And they name all the doctors they think I should see
But they don't understand it's not me 

She's goin' out of my mind
And I'm showin' all of the signs
I thought that our love was one of a kind
Now she's goin' out of my mind

The place that I kept her
Has suited her well
Though it's not where she wanted to be
And from up on that pedestal I couldn't tell
That she'd rather be down here with me
Now she just tells me how we can't relate
But she leaves out the part I can't take 

She's goin' out of my mind
And I'm showin' all of the signs
I thought that our love was one of a kind
Now she's goin' out of my mind

There's a tear in her eyes as they drive me away
And I turn to the doctors and say 

She's goin' out of my mind
And I'm showin' all of the signs
I thought that our love was one of a kind
Now she's goin' out of my mind

Yeah she's goin' out of my mind

40 Years Ago- 1967

In Nineteen Sixty Seven the draft caught up with me,
me and my pal Joe went off to war. 
We might find hero's heaven, but we'd keep the country free.
We would surely win just like before.
Roy Rogers he was on his horse, and Buck Jones drew his gun.
We would surely win of course when the battle was all done.

Nineteen Sixty Seven I came back alone,
they brought Joe back in plastic on the plane.
Nineteen Sixty Seven seems so long ago,
but I can't forget my friend or ease my pain.
His family may forget him, his children may regret him,
his wife may find another and go on.
His picture may grow faded and the world he knew gone jaded
but as long as I shall live I surely know,
I never will forget my buddy Joe.

In Nineteen Sixty Seven, the war was raging on,
our country was divided and reborn.
Though I was back at home, I had never left Saigon,
'cause all I got was ridicule and scorn.
This was no place for hero's now, they all seemed to resent me,
They said "Why did you ever go?" I said "Because they sent me."

Nineteen Sixty Seven they buried my friend Joe,
and I was flashing back while people wept.
I thought of how he saved us and I watched the land-mine blow,
and I looked down at his dog-tag that I kept.
You'll always be a young man, you always will be smiling,
you always will be confident and true.
Your picture may grow faded and the world you knew gone jaded,
but as long as I shall live I surely know,
I never will forget my buddy Joe.
Long as I shall live I surely know,
I never will forget you buddy Joe.

Lone Palm

My garden is filled with papayas and mangos
My life is a mixture of reggaes and tangos
Taste for the good life, I can live it no other way

While out on the beach there are two empty chairs
That say more than the people who ever sit there
From under my lone palm I can look out on the day

Where no bird flies by my window
No ship is tied to my tree
Love is a wave building to a crescendo
Ride if you will, ride it with me

I knew this girl made of memories and phrases
Who lived her whole life in both chapters and stages
Danced til the dawn, wished all her worries away

Well she wasn't crazy no she wasn't mad
She just wanted the father that she never had
From under my lone palm I think about her today

Where no bird flies by my window
No ship is tied to my tree
Love is a wave building to a crescendo
Ride if you will, ride it with me

We sailed from the port of indecision
Young and wild with oh so much to learn
Days turn into years as we tried to fool our fears
But to the port of indecision I returned

My gardens are filled with papayas and mangos
My life is a mixture of jingles and jangles
Come Christmas winds and blow all my worries away

Where no bird flies by my window
No ship is tied to my tree
Love is a wave building to a crescendo
Ride if you will, ride it with me

Sing if you will and we'll sing to the sea

She Sings Songs Without Words

I was thrown on the cobblestones, tossed at her feet
My fool's mouth was filled with the dust from the street
An out of work court jester with nowhere to go
And no need to speak, for she seemed to know

She sings the songs without words
Songs that sailors, and blind men, and beggars have heard
She knows more of love than the poets can say
And her eyes are for something that won't go away

This mad mocking town, and its dishonored guest
Disappeared in the colors that danced on her dress
She led me to safety in a forest of green
And showed my stale eyes some sights never seen

She sings the songs without words
Songs that sailors, and blind men, and beggars have heard
She knows more of love than the poets can say
And her eyes are for something that won't go away

She spins magic and moonlight in her meadows and streams
And seeks deep inside me and touches my dreams
The morning comes smiling and I laugh with no sound
And snuggle in silence and the sweet peace I've found

And she sings the songs without words
Songs that sailors, and blind men, and beggars have heard
She knows more of love than the poets can say
And her eyes are for something that won't go away

No they won't go away
Go away

Paint a Picture of Yourself

Well, I hear you are a painter now
Though you're almost halfway through
You pulled a pallet knife, you cut away a wife
And you started something new

But it was not the strife of married life
That ordained what you would do
A quick look back through your history
Shows the same things goading you

It's just like you to try painting
Because you're color blind
Each time you conquer something
That's the time you change you're mind

And now your new preoccupations
Give you your handicap to start
Yes you're happiest when you're chasing clouds
With a halfway broken heart

Paint a picture of yourself
Let the images flash past
Don't weep on watercolors, Michael
Make this moment last
Paint the kid with restless eyes
Yeah, the way you looked back then
'Cause the man keeps getting frightened
When the boy's not born again

I remember how you led us
Back when we all were kids
And that fact that you were older
Made us copy what you did

The day you bought that cheap guitar
We all fell into line
We got hooked on music
But you drifted off in time

So, I can see you at your easel
Splay legged there you stand
And your eyes are darting back and forth
Brush flashing in your hand
You're reaching always for that dream
You need to make you real
Leaning in a heavy wind
That no one else can feel