Bridegroom Blues - John Wesley Harding

The streets are doing a war dance

As their sight is restored to the blind

And I’m sifting trash on the offchance

That there might be something to find

And Mary lets her fingers do the walking

Her baby’s nearly due

She’s listening but no-one's talking

At the citizen’s advice bureau

And Joe is down on the dole-queue

He should have signed on yesterday

Even if he was a carpenter and she was his lady

He still wouldn’t be able to make it pay

No

And he don’t believe in angels

She’s been seeing another man

Infidelity runs in the family

But that wasn’t a part of the plan

And shepherds watch the flicks by night

At the King’s Cross all night show

Something’s trying to catch their eyes

But they’re too grossed out to know

And the three kings travel like three ships a-sailing

They’ve got some gifts he’ll need

Cocaine for sniffing, money for corruption, and a whole load of videos of I

Love Lucy

But the king of the country he’s getting frightened

He doesn’t want to be another man’s pawn

And he crushes the beer can between his hands

He sees his fate, the clown yells Checkmate

And another star is born

But the baby is killed in an instant

As though his whole life were a dream

Though his book sells well and he pulls out the stops

Everyone knows he’s a hyped-up hasbeen

And the t-shirts just embarrass

And thought become memories after a while

He’s looking so much older now

It’s hard to belive that that was style

And he throws his cloak out to his fan

It’s his last chance sacrifice

The girls are crawling a cut-glass sea

No-one even wants to look twice

Cos the circle’s all but full now

But the stalls are empty for the latest son

Who just smiles and says

Give my regards to Fleet Street, I’ve gotta run

The streets are doing a war dance

As their sight is restored to the blind

And I’m sifting trash on the offchance

That there might be something to find…