Headin' up to San Francisco
for the Labor Day weekend show,
I've got my hush-puppies on,
I guess I never was meant for
glitter rock and roll.
And honey I didn't know
that I'd be missin' so.

(Chorus)
Come Monday It'll be all right,
Come Monday I'll be holding you tight.
I spent four lonely days in a brown L.A. haze
and I just want you back by my side.

Yes it's been quite a summer,
rent-a-cars and west bound trains.
And now your off on vacation,
somethin' you tried to explain.
And darlin' I love you so that's
the reason I just let you go.

Chorus

I can't help it honey,
your that much a part of me now.
Remember the night in Montana when
we said there'd be no room for doubt.

I hope your enjoyin' the scen'ry,
I know that it's pretty up there.
We can go hikin on Tuesday,
with you I'd walk anywhere.
California has worn me quite thin,
I just can't wait to see you again.

End Chorus

I want to go back to the island,
Where the shrimp boats tie up to the pilin'.
Give me oysters and beer for dinner ev'ry day of the year,
And I'll feel fine, I'll feel fine.

Chorus:
'Cause I want to be there,
I want to go back down and lie beside the sea there.
With a tin cup for a chalice
Fill it up with good red wine,
And I'm-a chewin' on a honeysuckle vine.

Yeah, now the sun goes slidin' 'cross the water;
Sailboats, they go searchin' for the breeze.
Salt air it ain't thin,
It can stick right to your skin,
And make you feel fine.
It makes you feel fine.

Repeat Chorus.

Yes, and now you heard my strange proposal;
Get that Packard up and let's move.
I want to be there before the day
Tries to steal away and leave us behind;
I've made up my mind;

Repeat Chorus

I rounded first never thought of the worst
As I studied the shortstop's position
Then crack went my leg like the shell of an egg
Someone call a decent physician
I'm no Pete Rose, I can't pretend
While my mind is quite flexible
these brittle bones don't bend

Chorus
I'm growing older but not up
My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck
So let the winds of change blow over my head
I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead

Sometimes I see me as an old manatee
Heading south as the waters grow colder
He tries to steer clear of the hum drum so near
It cuts prop scars deep in his shoulders
That's how it flows right to the end
His body's still flexible but that
Barnacle brain don't bend

Chorus
So now don't get me wrong
This is not a sad song
Just events that I have happened to witness
And time takes it's toll as we head for the poll
As the days grow more complicated the night life still wins

Chorus

Let the winds of change blow over my head
I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead

Little roadside restaurant we artfully complain
Groovy tells the waitress that his chicken died in vain
Most every day goes by according to design
I live this dream but still it seems I have you on my mind

From the bottom of my heart
Off the coast of Carolina
After one or two false starts
I believe we found our stride
And the walls that won’t come down
We can decorate or climb or find some way to get around
Cause I’m still on your side
From the bottom of my heart

I can’t see the future but I know it’s comin’ fast
It’s not that hard to wind up knee deep in the past
It’s come a lot of Mondays
Since the phone booth that first night
Through years and miles and tears and smiles
I want to get it right

CHORUS

From the bottom of my heart
Off the coast of Carolina
After one or two false starts
I believe we found our stride
And the walls that won’t come down
We can decorate or climb or find some way to get around
Cause I’m still on your side
From the bottom of my heart

INSTRUMENTAL BRIDGE

These days I’m up about the time I used to go to bed
Living large was once the deal, now I watch the stars instead
They are timeless and predictable unlike most things that I do
But I tell the wind and my old friend I’m headed home to you

CHORUS

From the bottom of my heart
Off the coast of Carolina
After one or two false starts
I believe we found our stride
And the walls that won’t come down
Hell we can decorate or climb or find some way to get around
Cause I’m still on your side
From the bottom of my heart
From the bottom of my heart

© 2004 Coral Reefer Music (BMI) & Wordfarmer Music (ASCAP)

Down to the Banana Republics
Down to the tropical sun
Go the expatriated American
Hopin' to find some fun

Some of them go for the sailing
Brought by the lure of the sea
Tryin' to find what is ailing
Living in the land of the free
Some of them are running to lovers
Leaving no forward address
Some of them are running tons of ganja
Some are running from the IRS

Late at night you will find them
In the cheap hotels and bars
Hustling the senoritas
While they dance beneath the stars
Spending those renegade pesos
on a bottle of rum and a lime
Singin' give me some words I can dance to
Or a melody that rhymes

First you learn the native custom
Soon a word of Spanish or two
You know that you cannot trust them
Cause they know they can't trust you

Expatriated American feelin' so all alone
Telling themselves the same lies
that they told themselves back home

Down to the Banana Republics
Things aren't as warm as they seem
None of the natives are buying
any second hand American dreams

Late at night you will find them
In the cheap hotels and bars
Hustling the senoritas
while they dance beneath the stars
Spending those renegade pesos
On a bottle of rum and a lime
Singing give me some words I can dance to
Or a melody that rhymes

Down to the Banana Republics
Down to the tropical sun
Go the expatriated Americans
Hopin' to find some fun

He went to Paris looking for answers
To questions that bothered him so
He was impressive, young and aggressive
Saving the world on his own.
But the warm Summer breezes
The French wines and cheeses
Put his ambition at bay
And Summers and Winters
Scattered like splinters
And four or five years slipped away.

Then he went to England, played the piano
And married an actress named Kim
They had a good life, she was a good wife
Bore him a young son named Jim.
And all of the answers and all of the questions
He locked in his attic one day
'Cause he liked the quiet clean country living
And twenty more years slipped away.

Well the war took his baby, the bombs killed his lady
And left him with only on eye
His body was battered, his world was shattered
And all he could do was just cry.
While the tears were falling, he was recalling
The answers he never found
So he hopped on a freighter, skidded the ocean
And left England without a sound.

Now he lives in the islands, fishes the pilin's
And drinks his green label each day
He's writing his memoirs and losing his hearing
But he don't care what most people say.
Through eighty-six years of perpetual motion
If he likes you he'll smile then he'll say
Jimmy, some of it's magic, some of it's tragic
But I had a good life all the way.

And he went to Paris looking for answers
To questions that bother him so.

1973 American Broadcasting Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
All Rights Reserved

I went down to Captain Tony's to get out of the heat
When I heard a voice call out to me, "Son, come have a seat"
I had to search my memory as I looked into those eyes
Our lives change like the weather but a legend never dies

He said, "I ate the last mango in Paris
Took the last plane out of Saigon
Took the first fast boat to China
And "Jimmy, there's still so much to be done."

I had a third world girl in Buzios
With a pistol on each hand
She always kept me covered
As we moved from land to land
I had a damn good run on wall street
With my high fashion model wife
Til I woke up dry beneath the African sky
Just me and my Swiss Army knife

I ate the last mango in Paris
Took the last plane out of Saigon
Took the first fast boat to China
And Jimmy there's still so much to be done

We shot the breeze for hours
As the sun fell from the skies
And like the sun hw disappeared before my very eyes
It was somewhere past dark-thirty
When I went back to the head
I read upon the dingy wall
The words the old man said

I ate the last mango in Paris...
....so much to be done.
Why don't we wander and follow la vie dansante.

I live on a big round ball
I never do dream I may fall
And even one day if I do
Well I'll jump up and smile back at you
I don't even know where we are
They tell me were circling a star
Well I'll take their word, I don't know
But I'm dizzy so it may be so

I'm riding a big round ball
I never do dream I may fall
And even the high must lay low
But when I do fall I will be glad to go
Yes when I do fall I will be glad to go

Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call,
Wanted to sail upon your waters
since I was three feet tall.
You've seen it all, you've seen it all.

Watch the men who rode you,
Switch from sails to steam.
And in your belly you hold the treasure
that few have ever seen, most of them dreams,
Most of them dreams.

Yes, I am a pirate two hundred years too late.
The cannons don't thunder there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late.

I've done a bit of smugglin'
I've run my share of grass.
I made enough money to buy Miami,
But I pissed it away so fast,
Never meant to last, never meant to last.

I have been drunk now for over two weeks,
I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks,
But I've got to stop wishin',
Got to go fishin', I'm down to rock bottom again.
Just a few friends, just a few friends.

Instrumental

I go for younger women, lived with several awhile
And though I ran away, they'll come back one day.
And still could manage a smile
It just takes awhile, just takes awhile.

Mother, mother ocean, after all these years I've found
My occupational hazard being my occupations
just not around.
I feel like I've drowned,
Gonna head uptown.