My mistress Josephine
Sends me a letter
She loves Napoleon
But wants something better
She don’t dig his petty wars
His talk of days on the Jersey Shore
Pays more attention to his horse
Of course

She loves her modern-day expression
Gladiator games his obsession
She wants sonnets and legs of lamb
Settles for tracts of Italian Land
There’s a voice inside her she don’t understand

Is it me
Is it me baby
Is it me
Josephine

Napoleon and me we go drinking
He says her love for him is shrinking
I doubt my every single move
She’s gonna be my Waterloo
I got everything I want girl
But I ain’t got you

Chorus

If I had one wish
That wish would be
To lose all I hope for
And all that I dream
I’d sit and hold a smile for sure
Write in exile on Elba’s shore
Lose what I want
Get what I need
Find myself walking down that beach
Maybe sip some drinks down by the sea
With Napoleon, Josephine & me

Well the pillars they tower
Lions cower
Behind maidens without any clothes
The people they flourish
Souls are nourished
Seeing life through the gardening hose
Caesar’s just a salad
The poets sing their ballads
The sun sets
The cock it crows
And you ask anybody where this happiness lies
They’ll tell you
Somewhere west of Rome

The people worship their idols
Cadillacs and rifles
Fight their battles on talk TV shows
All the answers are there if you happen to care
In the Bible and the lawn you mow
So  let’s run to them hills it’ll cure all our ills
Leave this mess before it explodes
Ah they tell me there’s a place where happiness lies
I know it’s somewhere west of Rome

We can leave this world behind
Turn our heads away
I hear life out there’s divine
These ain’t our problems anyway
We’ll build us a wall ten feet tall
So high that the wind won’t blow
And we won’t have to see all them peasants bleed
We might love it babe ya just never know
And if we can’t find it there we’ll find it somewhere
We’ll just follow that yellow brick road
That leads our eyes from the things we despise
And rolls out
Somewhere west of Rome

It's a town like any other 
This city’s gone mad
I think I had about enough of this shit I can stand
It’s amazing dear Molly
You can even feel the force
As it whispers from a higher ground
And laps a distant shore

But it whistles in the alleyway
Catch me if you can
Kneels at the feet
Of the motorcycle man
I know it’s out my window
Blowing through the shades of disbelief
Cause I can see it in the faces of the
Lovers in the street
With them Botticelli eyes
She asks me where I’ve gone
Has the coughing of these old heat pipes
Drowned out the magic in your song
All the truth ya paint seems to tumble with time
Like a self-indulgent acrobat
That can only land on a dime

Then my reflection in her pools so dark
Reminds me who I am
And I kneel at the feet of the motorcycle man
I sing goodbye Joe DiMaggio
And quietly take my seat
With all the sad-eyed dreamers
And the lovers in the street

Well them mission bells they’re calling
Reminding me that love is blind
How many miles must a man go crawling
Before he sees the ground where he lies

So I let it fall to a pen and drum
Hammer hand in hand
Kneel at the feet of the motorcycle man
Bury inhibitions in waves of rabid conceit
And roll through the alley like a lover in the street

The churches are all full of sinnin’ souls dreamin’
Of fried chicken steamin’
And big potatoes creamin’
In their minds
The ghost of Saturday night we’ll be leavin’
With one fell blow of believin’
A few ‘I’m sorry’ smiles, hot coffee and a sigh.

‘Cause
Sunday’s forgivin’
Saturday night for livin’
Friday night for leaving the world behind
The only way I seem to handle
Monday morning’s scramble
Is to burn another candle
And pray Sunday’s forgivin’ 
In my mind

Now the Spanish moss is swingin’
To that charcoal choir that’s singing’
The whole neighborhood is clinging
To them ancient voices ringing out
We still got time
They just might have a solution
For all my soul pollution
I got four more hours for absolution
The gaslight don’t serve drinks till after five

Chorus

Now the preacher’s eyes they’re beaming
Heart bent on redeemin’
What he calls my scheming
He says he’ll send us down if we don’t pray
But I tell him I do my kneelin’
When I see a sunset reelin’
Like  a giant orange peelin’
And a little bit of hell’s good for a change

Chorus

Look at me and I’ll be counting
All my chickens while I pound and kick and scratch
Staring on with great expectations
A privilege of where this boy was hatched
Cause heaven waits and quiets desperation
And it’s a wonder there’s a smile upon my face
‘Cause all I ever look toward is a happier place
In this promised land

Look at me I’m your patron saint
Hey watch all the wind roll off my back
The dirt don’t stick when the engine clicks
And my dreams keep me from slipping through the cracks
I’m a fool for love believing and the thunder
They crack my heels and visions of the dead
Yeah I’m bound to wake up number one and broken but fed
In this promised land

So let’s drink a toast to all them salty angels
Who walk on water and weather with belief
Let’s drink us down another tall round
And stumble in their footsteps on the street
‘Cause heaven waits and quiets desperation
And the only way I can see my face 
Is to hope like hell there’s a happier place
Than this promised land

He flew in from Chicago on the 48
She picked him up like litter
For the children’s sake
No she never let them know
Oh the line she toed
Or the rust she chromed 
For their happy home
Till one day her son passed his reflection by
And said ya know ma you been living a lie
You shoulda put the hammer down

His buzz word turned to back yards
And a face of clay
Oh for the salad days
No time to lose his way
When dreams he came true
He didn’t see nothing else to find
‘Cept killing time inside the border lines
So instead of packing it down the interstate
He settled for a needle and an alleyway
He shoulda put the hammer down

On the other side of the coin
A face lurks of a wanna be
Who is afraid to speak
For fear of being seen
If only he would have just flipped it once
That was me ya know
Not too long ago
Meanwhile a cloud lurks strong out on the horizon there
Where I’m going babe I really don’t care
As long as them wheels roll and there’s wind in hair
Might be going round in circles but hey I’m going somewhere
Every time I put the hammer down

Only an immigrant
He heard his name being called
From the city ‘cross the river his streak of luck would crawl
Bound in expectation
Of a promised land
The streets of gold and dreams of old
Had slipped his hands

Only an immigrant
He made his plans
A practical solution
For a desperate man
He packed his dago pride
And a six gun head
The one he’d seen in movies
Down at the five and ten
In which they said it’d be different
If you played your luck
A little blood sweat and tears
Is all it took

Only an immigrant
It didn’t work that way
So he took that long low ride
To the pay off place
Underneath the river
To the upper side
The car sped through the heat
Of a vision tied
In the tears and dissolution
Of an immigrant’s pride
Blind in love and sorrow
For a broken dream
That died and was reborn
In this perfect scheme

Only an immigrant
The bullets flew
The women screamed
And the cops they beamed
As the guns blazed blue
And as the smoke it cleared
A puddle grew
Red as roses round a man
That no one knew
“Where’s he from?” someone said
No one had a clue
All they knew
Was he was only an immigrant

Joey say come here I’m your silver desperado
It’s about time girl we make our do
I hear it’s nice out in the hills of Colorado
If Jesse James can do it we can too
All I ever want to do girl is blow this town
So give me a little kiss babe and sink that beer
I gotta little money hey let’s go downtown
Put it on forty-four and blow outa here

Come on Annie get your Gun
Lay your head upon my shoulder
Put our love out on the run
We can’t start till this pain is over

Shalalalala

That place you slave down on Eldorado
I know you got the key to the loot
If ya let me in there I promise I’ll be gentle
I give my word honey I won’t shoot
‘Cause all I ever want to do is blow this town
And ride our love in a greener field
So put my finger right upon your trigger
And show me baby that your love is real

Chorus

There’s a road it’s said
That’s claimed ten thousand dead
Marked in blood and bones
And crosses in the snow
The hills up there
No they haven’t a care
Whether you live or die
Or how fast you go
Idaho

Well the people and their plans
Were built in fryin’ pans
Filled with taters and ham
And big sky gold
They say above the clouds
That you can scream out loud
And it never makes a sound
If you’re falling all alone
Idaho

There was nothing I could do for you
‘Cept crossing our love from my past
And as that border draws near
I can almost see through 
The tears
As I make my way over the pass

Papa Hemingway died there
Blow-drying his hair
And the earth never blinked while he froze
So if you think you make a damn
To the grand in the plan
You better take another look at the show
They got in Idaho

Pulled out from Eden
And left it behind
Till the weight of the world
Came screaming in behind
Cut my wrist to insist
On a thousand bad dreams
Till the sound of my trumpet 
Was the sound of a scream
Removed what they told me
Was right and sublime
To drink in fifths and
Drive in shifts
Through the alleys at night
Moved my mind over
Till my heart was the high beam
And if you ask me why I do it
I’ll say it’s for the life in me

You see my eyes were blinded
With the rules of the thumb
The thieves they owned the village
The Saints were all bums
They said I’d have to come in their colors
Or I’d never see the sun
Couldn’t call it as it was
So to the highway I’d become

It’s a wonder all them pilgrims
Crossed the plains and seven seas
To stand in awe and wonder
And die up in the trees
You’ll never wonder why 
When you suck the air the breathe
You’ll sing in toothless wonder
Man it’s for the life in me

So if you’re busy dying warm
In the silk sheets of your bed
And you forget that being born
Is a daily piece of bread
There’s a place that you can drift
If you turn an open eye
In from all the madness
For a glance at your insides
For a star lays at the end of every
Nerve that you paint
It’s everything you are and all that you ain’t
What waits there in the distance
Somehow sets me free
So don’t stand and wonder why I’m gone
It’s probably for the life in me