What I Sang To Myself At The Top Of My Lungs In The Car On My Rainy Drive Home

I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises.
All lies and jest till the man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.  mmmmmmmhmmmm....

When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers, in the quiet of the railway station, running scared.
Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know.

(Join in, everyone!) Lie la lie, li la la li lie lie, Lie la lie.

Seeking only workman's wages I go looking for a job but I get no offers
Just a come on from the whores on Seventh Avenue.
I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome I took some comfort there, la la la la la.

Now I'm laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone, going home
Where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me.....bleeding me, going home.

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries a reminder of every glove that laid him down
Or cut him till he cried out, in his anger and his shame
I am leaving I am leaving but the fighter still remains mnnmmmm...

Comments

This sounds so happy! I'm curious to know what your observations are on the group that reads this blog, since you asked people to check in...

[Tillerman]

There is a missing verse to that song that wasn't in the original recorded version but has been included in S&G live concerts and in versions by other artists.

"Now the years are rolling by me/They are rocking evenly/I am older than I once was/Younger than I'll be, that's not unusual./No, it isn't strange;/After changes upon changes/We are more or less the same;/After changes we are more or less the same."

[ms]

I ALWAYS choke up when I'm singing this song and I get to the second and third lines of that last stanza. Always--it just gets me somehow.

[TP]

Every time I go to a self-defense class and get my butt kicked, which, being 5'7 and 150 lbs, happens all too frequently, I come home and put this song on, and promise myself that I will keep fighting, literally and figuratively.

[terrilynn]

What a great song. Emmylou has a good cover of it on her excellent Roses in the Snow.