The Mercy Beat

There's a high wind blowin, & the stars are shining bright,

Oh what a night, this is gonna be--

I think i'll let the world sleep without me.

I got one eye open, one eye closed.

& my thin body's trembling beneath the bedclothes,

My hearts beatin' against the roof of my mouth

,it's almost time to get out of this house.

I got one hand on the radio, one hand on the wheel,

I got my right foot on the floorboard,--

& i'm preparing to kill or be killed.

There's a high wind blowin', & the stars are shining bright.

& the rain upon the tarmac,

,helps me sail through the traffic lights,

I'm heading down to the dock of the bay,

,to feel the power of the waves,

I'm gonna move up close to that wind,

& wrestle with the thoughts solitude always brings.

Y'see i'm stuck between hell & the deep blue sea,

& i know that water's sucked under better man than me,

I was just another western guy,

,with desires that couldn't be satisfied,

So one day, i asked the angels for inspiration,

,but the devil bought me a drink,

& he's been buying them ever since,

He's had the liquor on my tongue

,feel like the sea upon the sand,

He's had me signing confessions

,from this shaking hand,

He's had me struggling to hang onto hope--

Like a drunken sailor in a tugboat

With a bottle of vodka in my overcoat,

& my dog eared bible lost--overboard

Y'see he tricked me into temptation,

So i've tricked him into this confrontation,

I never said i was the man i appeared to be

Not the flesh wrapped around the bones of necessity.

Or the soul on fire--scribbling thoughts for posterity.

I'm gonna have little lucifer, runnin' off to purgatory,

,with his tail between his legs,

I'm gonna teach him a lesson

,he ain't ever gonna forget.

All the vultures & crows are fixin up some tombstones

But they won't be chewing the meat off my bones.

There's a high wind blowin' & the stars are shining bright.

Me & him are gonna have a little knife fight,

,in the bowels of the big city skyline,

Oh this feelin' inside runs dark & deep

,tonight my hearts not thumping

,a mercy beat

I was just another western guy,

With desires that couldn't be--satisfied.