Frank Tovey - Cities Of The Plain lyrics

Well I'm a weary traveller A puppeteer by trade I count my profit in miles clocked up An' the friends that i have made My home i carry on my back The map tattooed in veins But i lost everything i had In the cities of the plain Well i came into town With my head held down My hands in my pockets too Looking for a place to sleep And maybe some decent food Pretty soon i'd found a room Gave the receptionist my name But i didn't know i'd signed my life away In the cities or the plain It seems that every place i go People think they know me well They come to laugh at the clothes i wear And the stories that i tell And in wood and paint i carve their souls In their emptiness and pain But people don't like to see themselves In the cities of the plain Well i was asleep one afternoon I was suddenly dragged from my bed The mob had come in With their clubs and their chains And started beating me 'round the head And a goon in a suit cried "string up the freak!" Foaming from the mouth so insane Then they dragged me out On the cold soulless streets Of the cities of the plain Well it wasn't me that let the boy escape From the prison cell in town And it wasn't me who k**ed the guard And burned the whole place down But a bigot pointed his finger at me Said "i bet that stranger was to blame!" And now I'm being tried for my life In the cities of the plain The trial was a farce and fixed of course And the witnesses had learnt their lines The lawyers all spoke in jargonese And the jury were all phillistines And as far as i can see all i was guilty of Was going up against the grain But thars enough to lose your life In the cities of the plain So now I'm hanging from a tree And here i must close my act No one here can seem to distinguish Between fiction and fact Because the crowd crave blood I can't let them down Is someone pulling my leg again? Now i twitch as i dangle like a puppet In the cities of the plain