Aside from the citrus like sound of this album with its orange and brown tones, broad and full, accentuated with the tart and twang of a whining electric guitar and the sparkling and sparse acoustic guitar served cold with bright harmonica blue notes, there are the stupendously wonderful lyrics that meander and welcome and tease in this classic rock album from the early 1970s that sounds best when listened to as a complete album rather than as individual tracts.
Here are some of my favorite lyrics from this album. I'm listing them by song instead of line by line.
a. Think I'll pack it in. Buy a pickup. Take it down to LA. Find a place to call my own and try to fix up. Start a brand new day. See the lonely boy out on the weekend trying to make it pay. Can't relate to joy. He tries to speak ... and ... can't begin to say.
b. Did you wake you up to tell you THAT it was only a change in plan? As the days fly past will we lose our grasp or fuse it in the sun? Dream up. Dream up. Let me fill your cup ... with the promise of a man.
c. My life is changing in so many ways. I don't know who to trust anymore. There's a shadow running through my days like a beggar going from door to door. To give a love you've gotta live a love. To live a love you gotta be part of. A maid. A man needs a maid. When will I see you again?
d. It's these expressions I never give that keep me searching for a heart of gold ... and I'm gettin' old. I've been to Hollywood. I've been to Redwood. I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold. I've been in my mind. It's such a fine line. That keeps me searching for a heart of gold. An' I'm gettin' old.
e. Slippin' and a slidin' and playin' dominoes. Leftin' and a rightin' it's not a crime you know. You've gotta tell your story boy before it's time to go. Are you ready for the country? Because it's time to go.I was talkin' to the preacher said God was on my side. Then I ran into the hangman. He said it's time to die. You gotta' tell your story, boy, you know the reason why.
f. Old man look at my life. I'm a lot like you were. Old man look at my life. I'm a lot like you were. I've been first and last. Love lost such a cost. Give me things that won't get lost. Like a coin that won't get tossed rollin' home to you. Lullabies look in your eyes. Run around the same old town. Doesn't mean that much to me to mean that much to you. I''ve been first and last. Look at how the time goes past. But I'm all alone at last. Rolling home to you.
g. Look around it. Have you found it? Walking down the avenue. See what it brings. Could be good things in the air for you. In the mountains, in the cities, you can see the dream. Look around you. Has it found you? It is what it seems? There's a world you're living in. No one else has your part. All God's children in the wind. Take it in and blow hard.
h. Alabama, you've got a weight on your shoulders that's breaking you back. Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch and a wheel on the track. Alabama, you've got the rest of the union to help you along. What going wrong?
i. I caught you knocking at my cellar door. I love ya baby can I have some more? Oooh the damage done. I hit the city and I lost my band. I watched the needle take another man. Gone. Gone. The damage done. I sing this song because I loved the man. I know some of you don't understand. Milk blood to keep from running out. I've seen the needle and damage done, a little part of it in everyone, but every junkie's like a setting sun.
j. Words. Words. Between the lines of age.
Which is your favorite? Or perhaps yours is not listed here and you may write it down in the comments below.
And here, for your listening pleasure, is said album, at least until such lanky link may be removed.
