For The Sake Of The Song: First Album

By townes van zandt

When the bandits have stolen your jewelry and gone
And your crippled young gypsy, he's grown tall and strong
And your dead misconceptions have proven you wrong
Well then, princess, where you plannin' to turn to?
When your magazine memory has spun you around
And you realize your lovers were just painted clowns
And outside your window you start hearing sounds
Where they're building a cross for to burn you


When all your bright scarlet turn slowly to blue
Will you stop and decide that it's over?


When your teardrops go sour and no longer fall
The splash cross the virgin that lives down your hall
And spends all her nights with an ear to your wall
Well then, what will you have you can offer?
When the firedancers finish and leave you alone
With nothing but embers and sacks full of stone
That hang round your neck, slicing through to the bone
Will there still be place for your laughter?


As your shattered illusions come a-tumblin' home
And all of the butchers you've nourished have grown
And they are suddenly able to leave you alone
And they run like slaves that are set free
When your questions are answered and your pleading is done
And your mind starts to screaming that you ain't the one
That once dwelled within you, will you turn, will you run
Then princess, will you come home and get me?

By townes van zandt

Let me tell you a story 'bout a girl i knew
Fairest skin with eyes of blue
I swear to the lord that i loved her true
It's a year now she's been gone


Her spirit was as bright as the soft sunshine
Lips the color of strawberry wine
I wish to god she still was mine
The chance won't come again


After first we lay in love's sweet bed
With one look at her eyes i might have read
All the pain that was flying through her head
Through my guilt i could not see


I turned to her when the morning came
Hungry thoughts racing through my brain
But the knife in her heart screamed herself she'd slain
And a note whispered love too soon


Her old man screamed and her mother cried
All i could do was to wonder why
A girl in her youth was forced to die
Is loving such a crime?


She died [few in the years] with breasts still small
Seeing sixteens summers and fifteen falls
Me and my blindness never realized all
The fear she kept inside


Let me tell you a story 'bout a girl i knew
Fairest skin with eyes of blue
I swear to the lord that i loved her true

By townes van zandt

Well, the diamonds fades quickly when matched to the face of maria
All the harps they sound empty when she lifts her lips to the sky
The brown of her skin makes her hair seem a soft golden rainfall
That spills from the mountains to the bottomless depths of her eyes


Well, she stands all around me her hands slowly sifting the sunshine
All the laughter that linger down deep 'neath her smilin' is free
Well, it spins and it twirls like a hummingbird lost in the morning
And caresses the south wind and silently sails to the sea


Ah, the sculpter stands stricken and the artist he throws away his brushes
When her image comes dancin' the sun she turns sullen with shame
And the birds they go silent the wind stops his sad mournful singing
When the trees of the forest start gently to whisper'in her name


So as softly she wanders i'll desperately follow her footsteps
And i'll chase after shadows that offer a trace of her sight
Ah, they promise eternally that she lays hidden within them
But i find they've decieved me and sadly i bid them goodbye


So the serpent slide softly away with these moments of laughter
And the the old washy woman has finish her cleanin' and gone
But the bamboo hang heavy in the bondage of quicksilver daydreams
And a lonely child longingly looks for a place to belong

By townes van zandt

There's no stronger wind than the one that blows
Down a lonesome railroad line
No prettier sight than looking back
On a town you left behind
There is nothin' that's as real
As a love that's in my mind


Close your eyes
I'll be here in the morning
Close your eyes
I'll be here for a while


There's lots of things along the road
I'd surely like to see
I'd like to lean into the wind
And tell myself i'm free
But your softest whisper's louder
Than the highways call to me


All the mountains and the rivers
And the valleys can't compare
To your blue lit dancin' eyes
And yellow shining hair
I could never hit the open road
And leave you layin' there


Lay your head back easy, love,
Close your cryin' eyes
I'll be layin' here beside you
When the sun comes on the rise
I'll stay as long as the cuckoo wails
And the lonesome bluejay cries.

By townes van zandt

Why does she sing
Her sad songs for me,
I'm not the one
To tenderly bring
Her soft sympathy
I've just begun
To see my way clear
And it's plain,
If i stop i will fall
I can lay down a tear
For her pain,
Just a tear and that's all.


What does she want me to do?
She says that she knows
That moments are rare
I suppose that it's true
Then on she goes
To say i don't care,
And she knows
That i do


Maybe she just has to sing, for the sake of the song
And who do i think that i am to decide that she's wrong.


She'd like to think that i'm cruel,
But she knows that's a lie
For i would be
No more than a tool
If i allowed her to cry
All over me.


Oh my sorrow is real
Even though
I can't change my plan
If she could see how i feel
Then i know
That she'd understand


Oh does she actually think i'm to blame?
Does she really believe
That some word of mine
Can relieve
All her pain?
Can't she see that she grieves
Just because she's been blindly deceived
By her shame?


Nothin's what it seems,
Maybe she'll start someday
To realize
If she abandons her dreams,
Then all the words she can say
Are only lies
When will she see
That to gain
Is only to lose?
All that she offers me
Are her chains,
I got to refuse


Oh but it's only to herself that she's lied
She likes to pretend
It's something that she must defend,
With her pride
And i don't intend
To stand her and be the friend
From whom she must hide

By townes van zandt

Well, i ain't very big for twentyone
And it seems i never could have any good clean fun
Cause every time i'd go outside some great big bully'd come along
He'd hit me in the face and he'd knock to the ground
And he'd start kickin' me all around
And that ain't exactly fair, friends, that's wrong.


So i got me a paper the other night
And i crawled up on the sofa and i turned on the light
And flipped through the pages till i found the classified ads.
Said, "take karate from lee hung chow;
Man, make your first appointment now
This course is guaranteed to make you bad."


Well, the next day i drove to the address
By japanese design i was really impressed
It looked like a regular house of the rising sun.
I walked inside, i was all alone
I had a nervous feeling down in my bones
I was kind of sorry i'd ever even come.


Then a giant jap came through the door
He must have been about seven foot four
And he looked like he's prone to easy aggrevation.
He said, "lee hung chow, ah kee dung"
That's japanese for fee fie foo fum
I tried to explain my entire situation.


He said, "number one course, yankee, self defence,
Twohundred dollars and twentyfive cents";
I said "what's the twentyfive cents for?" and he said, "repairs."
I said, "repairs to what?", and he said "to you"
And i thought to myself "man, that won't do"
Felt about a half inch tall under that ol' slender stare


Ah, you think he was yellow...


I said, "i believe i better go check another place"
He said, "ha so, yankee don't like my race"
I said, "now, there's a mistake, man, and that's true;
I've been for you you japanese all along
You japanese just can't do no wrong
And i thought you got mighty dirty deal in world war ii."


Well, he grabbed me by the hand and gave a heave
I figured there's a pretty good time to leave
Before he had a chance to do me any definite harm.
But my plan worked out in the end, you see,
Now no bully is gonna pick on me
Who's gonna hit a fellow with just one arm?