Crickets are chirping the water is high There's a soft cotton dress on the line hanging dry Windows wide open African trees Bent over backward from a hurricane breeze Not a word of goodbye not even a note She gone with the man in the long black coat Somebody seen him hanging around At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town He looked into her eyes when she stopped him to ask If she wanted to dance he had a face like a mask Somebody said from The Bible he quote There was dust on the man in the long black coat Preacher was a talking there's a sermon he gave He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When its you who must keep it satisfied It ain't easy to swallow it sticks in the throat To give her heart to the man in the long black coat There are no mistakes in life some people say And its true sometimes you can see it that way Well people don't live or die people just float She went with the man in the long black coat There's smoke on the water it's been there since June Tree trunks uprooted neath the high crescent moon With a pulse and vibration and the rumbling force Someone is out there beating on a dead horse She never said nothing there was nothing she wrote She gone with the man in the long black coat