There's A Light Beyond These Woods

• I Remember Joe
• Alabama Soft Spoken Blues
• Michael's Song
• Song For Remembered Heroes
• West Texas Sun
• There's A Light Beyond These Woods(Mary Margaret)
• Dollar Matinee
• Montana Backroads
• John Philip Griffith

I Remember Joe

Oh, your golden lights of America,
Joseph sought your prairies and your buffalo.
And the humming of the rails down through Kansas,
They brought Joseph in from Baltimore.
The Cavalry, the Indians, and an old dan were his only friends.
Then the old dan died and the Indians' plight
made the Cavalry young Joe's enemy.

Oh, the outlaws spilled the blood across the
Kansas plains back in the '70s.
Joseph took a badge for America
to defend you from your fantasies.
Joseph wore that badge across the Kansas
prairies to save the railroads.
But the heroes that we made, well, they were
ruthless soldiers who'd kill for gold.

With a broken heart for the frontier plains,
Joseph sat a-rocking in his front-porch swing.
That old tin badge is tarnished now,
you know it was just a young man's dream.
And old man's tales are hard to reach when you
don't believe in your American Dream.
The Indians, the buffalo and old Joe Mason,
they died from memory.

Oh, your golden lights of America,
Joseph sought your prairies and your buffalo.
And the humming of the rails down through
Kansas, they brought Joseph in from Baltimore.
The Cavalry, the Indians, and an old dan . . .
forsaken old man.

Oh, your golden lights of America.

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Alabama Soft Spoken Blues

Southern man, you sure are pretty,
got a smile to still the city,
And Lord, you know, you got those sleepy eyes.
Alabama sweet-talking baby,
calmed the heart of a lonely lady,
You kept me flying high,
and the leaving easy.
And it's Dallas in the rain,
and I was dreaming.

October winds still blowing, Lord,
you know the song were flowing
From a broken-hearted lady
by the wayside.
Listen to my song, you
kept it ringing clean and strong,
You held me like an angel
to confide in.
And I tried to make you home,
But I was dreaming.

Lord, I guess you just ain't home,
that damned old telephone
Is trying hard to help me find
the lines here.
Wish that you could understand
why I love the other man,
He gives me truth and reason,
I believe in.

Alabama soft-spoken blues again,
Alabama soft-spoken blues again.
Early morning fog is rolling in,
time for leaving.

Alabama soft-spoken blues.

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Michael's Song

There's a light out on the freeway
says it's time to go
I'm wasting my time counting
stains on a barroom floor
Thinking 'bout my hometown
and the friends I'll leave behind
Mostly 'bout the man who writes
his songs with smiling rhymes
And I'm holding on to a smokey view
of his dreams in the midnight light

Michael counts his songs
in the years of wasted miles
I used to think he was really part
of that fantasy in rhyme
But looking back on all his tunes
of butterflies and sunshine
There was only one about the
man he kept inside
About the time he crossed the line
and let a tear come to his eye

I used to hide out
in his pretty smile
And hope it would shine me
through the morrow
Until I learned the way
it feels to be the man
Who sings the world a smile
without a soul to share his sorrow

The light here at the freeway
well, it's turning green to gold
The stains on that barroom floor
ten miles back down the road
Thinking 'bout how that old bar
brought Michael back to mind
And how I can sing his blues
and be smiling here inside . . .
I guess a weary soul will always

I used to hide out
in his pretty smile
And hope it would shine me
through the morrow
Until I learned the way
it feels to be the man
Who sings the world a smile
without a soul to share his sorrow

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Song For Remembered Heroes

Well, it's that old time story
of a new face to glory
Someone wanted my soul for their pride
What about the system
of fools arranged for missing
Well, I can't lie, they all pass with time

Why do my people come and go?
I keep on leaving them behind
and Lord, I miss them so
I've watched my heroes change from
silver into gold
As the time goes, only memories grow

It's your smiles that I remember
the dreams of the young and tender
Coming real, but now it seems
That highways are for foolish travelers
always bonded, always shackled
By the prayer that they're remembered
in our dreams

Why do my people come and go?
I keep on leaving them behind
Lord, I miss them so
I've watched my heroes change from
silver into gold
As the time goes, only memories grow

I am just a barroom child
tried so damn hard to learn the style
Of your drunken tears, the way they smile
I guess I'll never learn the rules
I still play the simple fool
Who loves without the chains of lies

Why do my people come and go?
I keep on leaving them behind
and Lord, I miss them so
I've watched my heroes change from
silver into gold
As the time goes, only memories grow
As the time goes, only memories grow

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West Texas Sun

Wash away the tears
all the angry times we shared
All the feelings and the
sorrows come and gone
We have let them slip away
because I'm standing here today
And I'm smiling at your old
west Texas sun

I remember times
when you'd weathered out my mind
But you always had a peaceful
word to say
And you could always bring a smile
with the mischief in your eyes
Still, I'm glad the miles
keep me separate from your games

You know you're still as wild
as those old west Texas plains
Standing by the highway
do you still call my name?
Lord, I can't believe
it's been such a long, long time
Since I've seen that Texas boy smile

Well, I'll be heading out of town
I may stop by next time around
Hell, it's raining, but at least
that's something real
I came shackled down with fears
about our dreams and wasted years
And now I know exactly how to feel

Wash away the tears
all the angry times we shared
All the feelings and the
sorrows come and gone
We have let them slip away
because I'm standing here today
Smiling at your old west Texas sun

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There's A Light Beyond These Woods

There's a light beyond these woods, Mary Margaret.
Do you think that we will go there,
and see what makes it shine, Mary Margaret?
It's almost morning, and we've talked all night,
You know we've made big plans for ten-year-olds,
you and I.

Have you met my new boy friend, Margaret?
His name is John, and he rides my bus to school,
and he holds my hand.
He's fourteen, he's my older man.
But we'll still be the best of friends,
the three of us, Margaret, John, and I.

Let's go to New York City, Margaret!
We'll hide out in the subways
and drink the poets' wine, oh,
But I had John, so you went and I stayed behind.
But you were home in time for the senior prom,
when we lost John.

The fantasies we plan, I'm living them now.
All the dreams we sang when we knew how,
well, they haven't changed.
There's never been two friends like you and me,
Mary Margaret.

It's nice to see you family growing, Margaret.
Your daughter and your husband there,
they really treat you right . . .
but we've talked all night
And what about the light, that glowed beyond
our woods when we were ten?
You were the rambler then.

The fantasies we planned, well, Maggie,
I'm living them now.
All the dreams we sang, oh, we damn sure knew
how . . . but I haven't changed.
There'll never be two friends like you and me,
Maggie, can't you see?

There's a light beyond your woods, Mary Margaret.

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Dollar Matinee

Ronnie stood beneath the movie marquee
His memories all curled up inside
He was trying to remember
was it August or September
He'd seen her for the last time

He'd heard that she'd become an actress
Lord, she always had the prettiest face
And he stood with his hands
in his pockets and waited
For the dollar matinee

Lord, she's bigger than life on the screen
There's a laugh from the balcony, good Lord
And the sun will burn you and blind you
When you step back into the street

The theater, she smelled so familiar
She was a smokey old velvet delight
Yes, and he sat down front
just like he'd always done
With his feet hanging out in the aisles

And he watched her with eyes disbelieving
Felt something like time on his brain
And he told himself
don't you remember it's only
Just a part that she's playing

Lord, she's bigger than life on the screen
There's a laugh from the balcony, good Lord
And the sun will burn you and blind you
When you step back into the street

She stood by some window in Paris
While the captions translated the scene
Oh, and Ronnie stared back
at her body and breathed
"Christ, that's the first time I've seen it!"

Behind him the people were leaving
Well, the busses, they were humming outside
But old Ronnie never went
to the movies unless
He could stay and see it twice

Lord, she's bigger than life on the screen
There's a laugh from the balcony, good Lord
And the sun will burn you and blind you
When you step back into the street

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Montana Backroads

In an old pickup truck, with his hat pulled down
He drives them old Montana backroads
Remembering half-forgotten times, and wondering where it's gone
And if he can still carry the load

Now, the summer sun is setting, and the moon is on the rise
As he pulls that old pickup into town
And he parks beside the place where the feed store used to be
And he heads for an old familiar sound

Those honky-tonk bands still play old-time songs
Remembering how things used to be
Sitting at the bar with his head down in his hands
So alone with his memories
Lord, he's so alone with his memories

He remembers back in '33, or was it '34
The year that he won the rodeo
The buckle that they gave him, well, he still wears today
For that Brahma bull that he rode

But his riding days are over now, his back is getting weak
And his eyesight, it just ain't as good
As the days he'd spot a deer at a hundred yards or more
And bring back a month's supply of food

Those honky-tonk bands still play old-time songs
Remembering how things used to be
Sitting at the bar with his head down in his hands
So alone with his memories
Lord, he's so alone with his memories

Now the bar is getting set to close, they say he's got to leave
But it feels like, Lord, he just arrived
So he downs his last shot as he's heading for the door
Getting ready for that long and lonely drive

In an old pickup truck, with his hat pulled down
He drives them old Montana backroads
Remembering half-forgotten times, and wondering where it's gone
And if he can still carry the load

Those honky-tonk bands still play old-time songs
Remembering how things used to be
And he tumbles through the door, and he falls down on his bed
Still alone with his memories
Lord, he's still alone with his memories

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John Philip Griffith

He was a simple man only to a stranger.
And the kindness in his eyes
I still remember.
Now that he is old,
they say he's angry and he's cold,
That his soul is dying.

He's a wealthy man's dream,
and he's a working man's dime.
He has stood in both men's shoes
in his own damn time.
The hard times of the thirties
still linger in his mind
When he is lonely.
He's out there in the cold,
twenty years away from home.
Does he dream about his old home
in San Antone?
He's often watched the highways,
but he's a man of sixty-five.
Where ain't a soul in El Paso
who would give an old drunk a ride.

Now, he traded in his draftsman's pen
for a fishing pole.
And his mansion on the hill
is an alley in El Paso.
The anchors of the fifties
still hold to broken dreams
When his sorrows grow.

He's out there in the cold,
twenty years away from home.
Does he dream about his old home
in San Antone?
He's often watched the highways,
but he's a man of sixty-five.
There ain't a soul in El Paso
who would give an old drunk a ride.

Now, they tell me that John Philip
loved to gamble in his day.
And he burned his bridges well
when he walked away.
He closed those corporate doors,
left his children and his home . . .
Now no one owns him.

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