Ramblin' Jack Elliott - Bleeker Street Blues lyrics

Bob, I'm up early Praying for you I'd give my Martin For you to play on Thinkin' you'd like that Hang it up in your barn Take it down off the nail On the tack room wall Strum it sweet in the straw In the broodmare's box stall Or I'll play rhythm as you blow mouth harp With the smell of alfalfa, wafting through the dark Memories of Woody In the graystone hospital memorial cell Back when you were a kid and I rang the bell And Syd Gleason was there with chili and cornbread And Peter LaFarge, and Dave Van Ronk My Chevy ran cool though it smelled like a skunk Ian and Sylvia, Johnny Cash and June Carter All loved you well Though none was the smarter Pete Seeger, a leader Deferred to your style Of even hand strumming And winked a wry smile And I peeked and I winked When you done it for me They accused you of stealing But I said, "No way!" Then your triumph collapsed And your neck was injured I was not allowed to see you In your hospital tincture Right then we were severed from being together Eight years later we were traveling together On Rolling Thunder we bashed though the weather In Northern New England and Quebec's narrow streets Joni Mitchell hung out Ronnie Hawkins came by Gordon Lightfoot took us in one night on the fly The Maple Leaf Gardens played host to our show Allen Ginsberg said a poem, Rolling Thunder waved a feather T-Bone and Roger, Wyeth and Stoner Bearded Bob drove the semi And clean Bob drove the bus Seventy five people made one hell of an us! One tour led to another like drinks lead to smoke You've been touring forever Not much of a home life Take time out to relax and see where you've been You've enlighten the world with your songs Sink or swim I pray you'll stay with the earth for sometime You've stummed your song And you've done earned your dime Prance lightly, fly careful But Bob, please take it easy There's a tent for you in my camp Beside the calm waters The world's best doctors can't cure what's been ailing you Not Freud, not Pasteur, not Eddie Van Halen You've had it forever and you'll never get rid of it I've got it too though I tried to hide from it Sometimes I ride it for better or worse Time to unsaddle and take a good rest Later on we'll join Woody and Jerry and Townes But right now we all need you, so please stick around