Well, I used to drive a cab, you know; [then] I heard a siren scream: pulled over to the corner, and I fell into a dream. There were two men eating pennies, and three young girls who cried, “The West coast is falling – I see rocks in the sky!”

‘Cause you’re the kind of man, you know, who likes what he says. (I wonder what’s it’s like to be so far over my head?)

The preacher took his bible and laid it on the stool. He said, “with the congregation running, why should I play the fool?”

I was chopping down a palm tree, when a friend dropped by to ask if I would feel less lonely if he helped me swing the axe. I said “No, it’s not a case of being lonely we have here – I’ve been working on this palm tree for eighty-seven years!”

He said “Go get lost!” – and walked towards his Cadillac; I chopped down the palm tree, and it landed on his back.

It’s hard enough losing, without the confusion of knowing I tried. But you’ve made your mind up; that I’ll be alone now, there’s nothing to hide.

When we were living together, I thought that I knew you would stay. Still, when you left me, I tried to pretend we could make it some way.

There’s a fever on the freeway; blacks out the night. There’s a slipping on the stairway – just don’t feel right. And there’s a rumbling in the bedroom and a flashing of light; [then] there’s the old laughing lady, [and] everything is all right.

They say the old laughing lady dropped by to call, and when she leaves, she leaves nothing at all.

See the drunkard of the village falling on the street: [he] can’t tell his ankles from the rest of his feet. He loves his old laughing lady ’cause her taste is so sweet, but his laughing lady’s loving ain’t the kind he can keep.

I’ve been looking for a woman to save my life, not to beg or to borrow.  A woman with the feeling of losing once or twice – who knows how could it be tomorrow?