Blues from long ago, folk tales from the past
Dad don't understand he's from a different land
Hey the next time you lift your hands to me you can be sure
There'll be ONE LESS SET OF FOOTSTEPS on your dam floor

Mama's in the kitchen, cooking up her meals
Flower never says it but you know the way she feels
You don't make it feel like home

Ingrid my love, won't you please forgive me
I Tried to stay away, I didn't answer the phone
I'm never gonna leave you be my student be my teacher
I'LL HAVE TO SAY I LOVE YOU IN A SONG

Everybody's telling me I'm DREAMING AGAIN
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY I knew you'd understand
Ingrid you're my home

I've studied painting and language and cooking too
Photography psychology I've even written Haiku
Hung with bikers and truckers, me and SPEEDBALL TUCKER
But I've never met anyone who moves me like you

Come with me to big old New York City, 
Old friend Tommy West is gonna get us signed
Ingrid looks like she's watching me die but I don't pay her no mind

NEW YORK'S NOT MY HOME it's the strangest place I've been to
These folks are colder than a Pennsylvania winter
Now we're playing our music and that would be fine
But we're out here on the road and we haven't seen one dime

So I talk to the men who build the cities
And I learn from the stories that the blues men tell
There's a soldier crying “OPERATOR, have a little pity”
His girl wouldn't wait but it's just as well

And I sing with Hauser before the Transfer
Jammed with quiet JT he was just here in town
And Don McLean, yeah, I taught him how to sing
That time I told Woody Allen you gotta calm down

So I wrote a bunch of new songs, sent 'em off to Tommy West
PHOTOGRAPHS AND MEMORIES some pain and tenderness
Tommy says, “You've got a lot of stories to tell
Let's make another record and see if it sells”

Now it's ten months later and no one's messin' round
With BIG JIMMY WALKER and BAD BAD LEROY BROWN
What's good for the sick is better for the well
But the man in the mirror is looking like hell

Well they're keeping me runnin' but they don't give a dam
I'm playing for these people and I don't know where I am
I GOT A NAME but I got a wife
I gotta get back home and make this right

One more night Maury, one more show
I'm calling Tommy right now just to let him know
We're heading home Maury gonna have a big party
Next week my Little Man AJ is turning two.

One more concert and then I'm through
One last encore then into the sky
Lindell, Pennsylvania, I'm flying home to you…

© 2023 JOEPIKETMUSIC (ASCAP)