John Prine

[fox69]

"Beautiful World"

"Beautiful World"


Some of us spend hours
In front of a Friday night mirror
Trying to understand the kinda world
Where the beautiful prosper
Slicking up the kinda hair
That the magazine's say's a lost cause
Picking out the kinda girl in your mind
To go walking with you

Yesterday I met a girl
She made Marilyn Monroe look like... me
All she had to do was walk in the room
And my problems were starting
Then she'd at me and she'd smile
And I feel feel such a pain in my heart
Wanting her to come and whisper to me
"You're the man of my dreams"

[Chorus:]
Beautiful world, beautiful world
Sending me dreams, touching my hair
Making me cry... So I feel alive
Beautiful world, why do I hide?

I dunno why
I should spend so much time feeling so bad
I got everything a sinner could hope to get
This side of Eden
Maybe some day I'll wake up
And I'll do what I should
Write a song to make Heaven and Earth
Go waltzing in time

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Big Fat Love"

"Big Fat Love"



It started out when she was small
She was premature
She wasn't nothing at all
Two pounds six ounces
A little pumpkin seed
But she got more love
Than you ever gonna need
She got big fat love
She got big fat love

She don't eat enough
To keep her alive
When she bends over
She's a quarter to five
Skinny little thing
But she ain't afraid
To dance the Watusi
On a razorblade
She got big fat love
She got big fat love

Tiny little hands
Tiny little nose
Tiny little footsteps
Wherever she goes
Little bit don't leave
No bathtub ring
You pull the plug
She's down the drain
She got big fat love
She got big fat love
She got big fat love

Bigger than me
Bigger than you
Bigger than the hippo
Down at the zoo
Thin is in
Stout is out
Big fat love
Is what I'm talking about
She got big fat love
She got big fat love
She got big fat love
She got big fat love

 

[fox69]

"Billy The Bum"

"Billy The Bum"


Billy the bum lived by the thumb
And sang of the hobo's delight
He'd prove he could run
Twice as fast as the sun
By losing his shadow at night
Now he loved every girl
In this curly headed world
But no one will know it seems
For two twisted legs and a childhood disease
Left Billy just a bum in his dreams

[Chorus:]
And he was just a gentle boy
A real florescent light
Cried pennies on Sunday morning
Laughs nickels on Saturday night
And your bullets they can't harm him
Nor your knives tear him apart
Humiliation killed him
God bless his little heart

Now he lived all alone
In a run down home
Near the side of the old railroad track
Where the trains used to run
Carrying freight by the ton
And blow the whistle as Billy'd wave back
But the children around Billy's home town
Seemed to have nothin' better to do
Then run around his house
With their tongues from their mouth
And make fun of that crippled old fool

[Chorus]

Now some folks they wait
And some folks they pray
For Jesus to rise up again
But none of these folks
In their holy cloaks
Ever took Billy on as a friend
For pity's a crime
And it ain't worth a dime
To a person who's really in need
Just treat 'em the same
As you would your own name
Next time that your heart starts to bleed

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Blue Eyed Elaine"

"Blue Eyed Elaine"


Side by side we'll roll along, sweetheart you and I
And to you I'll sing this song as the years go passing by
I may be good or I may be bad but you never frown
I couldn't find a sweeter pal if I'd searched the whole world around

Blue eyed Elaine you're the sweetest thing and I love you so
And you'll always be the same no matter where we go
We'll travel here we'll travel there and we'll never part
You'll always be my blue eyed Elaine and I'll be your sweetheart

[Guitar instrumental]

When skies are grey and things go wrong we'll never fret nor sigh
But we'll just keep traveling on with our heads held up high
And when I gaze into your eyes your heart and soul are plain
And you know the reason why I love you blue eyed Elaine

Blue eyed Elaine you're the sweetest thing and I love you so
And you'll always be the same no matter where we go
We'll travel here we'll travel there and we'll never part
You'll always be my blue eyed Elaine and I'll be your sweetheart

 

[fox69]

"Blue Umbrella"

"Blue Umbrella"


Feelings are strange
Especially when they come true
And I had a feeling
You'd be leaving soon
So I tried to rearrange
All my emotions
But it seems the same
No matter what I do.

[Chorus:]
Blue umbrella
Rest upon my shoulder
Hide the pain
While the rain
Makes up my mind
Well, my feet are wet
From thinking this thing over
And it's been so long
Since I felt the warm sunshine
Just give me one good reason
And I promise I won't ask you any more
Just give me one extra season
So I can figure out the other four.

Day time
Makes me wonder why you left me
Night time
Makes me wonder what I said
Next time
Are the words I'd like to plan on
But, last time
Was the only thing you said.

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Bruised Orange (Chain Of Sorrow)"

"Bruised Orange (Chain Of Sorrow)"



My heart's in the ice house come hill or come valley
Like a long ago Sunday when I walked through the alley
On a cold winter's morning to a church house
Just to shovel some snow.

I heard sirens on the train track howl naked gettin' nuder,
An altar boy's been hit by a local commuter
Just from walking with his back turned
To the train that was coming so slow.

You can gaze out the window get mad and get madder,
Throw your hands in the air, say "What does it matter?"
But it don't do no good to get angry,
So help me I know

For a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter.
You become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there
Wrapped up in a trap of your very own
Chain of sorrow.

I been brought down to zero, pulled out and put back there.
I sat on a park bench, kissed the girl with the black hair
And my head shouted down to my heart
"You better look out below!"

Hey, it ain't such a long drop don't stammer don't stutter
From the diamonds in the sidewalk to the dirt in the gutter
And you carry those bruises
To remind you wherever you go.

 

[fox69]

"Chinatown"

"Chinatown"



Well, the moon is yellow and the people are too
They roll eggs on a bar-b-que
I was feeling kinda cocky with a head full of sake
Down in Chinatown

There was dragons flyin' kites high above the stores
Dead fish heads laying on the floor
I got a sideways hickey from a slant-eyed chickie
Down in Chinatown

And it was suddenly, was suddenly, whoa whoa
Yeah, suddenly Yeah, Suddenly whoa whoa

They smelled fish
We smelled like a meat
Sucking on a soda pop oh so sweet
Got a sugar rush that'd would make a nigger blush
Down in Chinatown

Won ton two ton three ton four
Smoke a cigarette throw it on the floor
I killed the pie-faced mothey with a shoeshine clothy
Down in Chinatown

It was suddenly, was suddenly, whoa whoa
Yeah, suddenly, Yeah, suddenly whoa whoa

The moonie is yellowie and the people are too
They roll eggs on a bar-b-que
I was feeling kinda cocky with head full of Saki
Down in Chinatown

I got a sideways hickey from a slant-eyed chickie
Down in Chinatown
Hey, down in Chinatown
Hey, down in Chinatown

 

[fox69]

"Christmas In Prison"

"Christmas In Prison"


It was Christmas in prison
And the food was real good
We had turkey and pistols
Carved out of wood
And I dream of her always
Even when I don't dream
Her name's on my tongue
And her blood's in my stream.

[Chorus:]
Wait awhile eternity
Old mother nature's got nothing on me
Come to me
Run to me
Come to me, now
We're rolling
My sweetheart
We're flowing
By God!

She reminds me of a chess game
With someone I admire
Or a picnic in the rain
After a prairie fire
Her heart is as big
As this whole goddamn jail
And she's sweeter than saccharine
At a drug store sale.

[Chorus]

The search light in the big yard
Swings round with the gun
And spotlights the snowflakes
Like the dust in the sun
It's Christmas in prison
There'll be music tonight
I'll probably get homesick
I love you. Goodnight.

[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Clay Pigeons"

"Clay Pigeons"



I'm goin' down to the Greyhound Station, gonna get a ticket to ride
Gonna find that lady with two or three kids and sit down by her side
Ride 'til the sun comes up and down around me 'bout two or three times
Smokin' cigarettes in the last seat
Tryin' to hide my sorrow from the people I meet

And get along with it all
Go down where the people say "y'all"
Sing a song with a friend
Change the shape that I'm in,
And get back in the game,
And start playin' again

I'd like to stay but I might have to go to start over again
Might go back down to Texas, might go to somewhere that I've never been
And get up in the mornin' and go out at night
And I won't have to go home
Get used to bein' alone
Change the words to this song
Start singin' again

I'm tired of runnin' 'round lookin' for answers to questions that I already know
I could build me a castle of memories just to have somewhere to go
Count the days and the nights that it takes to get back in the saddle again
Feed the pigeons some clay
Turn the night into day
Start talkin' again, when I know what to say

I'm goin' down to the Greyhound Station, gonna get a ticket to ride
Gonna find that lady with two or three kids and sit down by her side
Ride 'til the sun comes up and down around me 'bout two or three times
Smokin' cigarettes in the last seat
Tryin' to hide my sorrow from the people I meet
And get along with it all

Go down where the people say "y'all"
Feed the pigeons some clay
Turn the night into day
Start talkin' again
When I know what to say

 

[fox69]

"Clocks And Spoons"

"Clocks And Spoons"



Clocks and spoons and empty rooms
It's raining out tonight
What a way to end a day
By turnin' out the light
Shoot the moon right between the eyes
I'm sending most of me to sunny country side

Runnin' through sky of blue rollin' in the sun
Every day has a way of overflowing one
Shoot the moon right between the eyes
I'm keeping most of me in sunny country side

Don't know how I did that now wonder where it's gone
Must have spent the way I went waitin' for the dawn
Shoot the moon right between the eyes
I'm screaming
Take me back to sunny country side