The rocks are bleak, the trees are bare, iron clouds go floating by .......

Tell Ol' Joe

The river whispers in my ear

I've hardly a penny to my name.

The heavens never seemed so near.

All of my body glows with flame.

The tempest struggles in the air.

and to myself alone I sing.

It could sink me then and there,

I can hear the echoes ring.

I try to find one smilin' face

to drive the shadows from my head.

I'm stranded in this nameless place,

lyin' restless in a heavy bed

Tell me straight out if you will,

Why must you torture me within?

Why must you come down from your high hill?

Throw my fate to the clouds and wind

 

Far away in a silent land

Secret thoughts are hard to bear.

Remember me, you'll understand:

Emotions we can never share.

 

You trampled on me as you passed,

Left the coldest kiss upon my brow.

All my doubts and fears are gone at last,

I've nothing more to tell you now.

I walk by tranquil lakes and streams

As each new season's dawn awaits

I lay awake at night with troubled dreams

The enemy is at the gates

 

Beneath the thunder-blasted trees

the words are ringing off your tongue

the ground is hard in times like these

the stars are cold, the night is young,

 

the rocks are bleak, the trees are bare,

iron clouds go floating by.

Snowflakes falling in my hair

beneath the gray and stony sky.

The evening sun is sinking low,

the woods are dark, the town is too.

They'll drag you down, they run the show.

Ain't no tellin' what they'll do.

 

Tell ol' Bill when he comes home:

Anything is worth a try.

Tell him that I'm not alone,

that the hour has come to do or die.

All the world I would defy,

Let me make it plane as day.

I look at you now and I sigh,

how could it be any other way?